Patent Grant
11335686
Embedded memory is important to the performance of modern system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology. Static random-access memory (SRAM) is one example of embedded memory, particularly suitable for modern SoC due to its compatibility with fabrication processes used to manufacture computing logic, e.g., front end of line (FEOL) processes. However, for some applications demanding large on-die cache, such as tens of megabytes (MBs) for handling memory bandwidth, the area and standby power of a SRAM-based cache may pose significant challenges to SoC design.
Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.
Overview
Some memory devices may be considered “standalone” devices in that they are included in a chip that does not also include compute logic (where, as used herein, the term “compute logic devices” or simply “compute logic” or “logic devices,” refers to devices, e.g., transistors, for performing computing/processing operations). Other memory devices may be included in a chip along with compute logic and may be referred to as “embedded” memory devices. Using embedded memory to support compute logic may improve performance by bringing the memory and the compute logic closer together and eliminating interfaces that increase latency. Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to embedded memory arrays, as well as corresponding methods and devices.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure may refer to dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and in particular, embedded DRAM (eDRAM), because this type of memory has been introduced in the past to address the limitation in density and standby power of large SRAM-based caches. However, embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to memory cells implemented other technologies. Thus, in general, memory cells described herein may be implemented as eDRAM cells, spin-transfer torque random access memory (STTRAM) cells, resistive random-access memory (RRAM) cells, or any other non-volatile memory cells.
A memory cell, e.g., an eDRAM cell, may include a capacitor for storing a bit value, or a memory state (e.g., logical “1” or “0”) of the cell, and an access transistor controlling access to the cell (e.g., access to write information to the cell or access to read information from the cell). Such a memory cell may be referred to as a “1T-1C memory cell,” highlighting the fact that it uses one transistor (i.e., “1T” in the term “1T-1C memory cell”) and one capacitor (i.e., “1C” in the term “1T-1C memory cell”). The capacitor of a 1T-1C memory cell may be coupled to one source/drain (S/D) terminal of the access transistor (e.g., to the source terminal of the access transistor), while the other S/D terminal of the access transistor may be coupled to a bit-line (BL), and a gate terminal of the transistor may be coupled to a word-line (WL). Since such a memory cell can be fabricated with as little as a single access transistor, it can provide higher density and lower standby power versus SRAM in the same process technology.
Various 1T-1C memory cells have, conventionally, been implemented with access transistors being FEOL, logic-process based, transistors implemented in an upper-most layer of a semiconductor substrate. Inventors of the present disclosure realized that using conventional logic transistors creates several challenges if such transistors are to be used to create three dimensional memory and logic devices.
One challenge relates to the location of the capacitors such memory cells. Namely, it may be desirable to provide capacitors in metal layers close to their corresponding access transistors. Since logic transistors are implemented as FEOL transistors provided directly on the semiconductor substrate, the corresponding capacitors of 1T-1C memory cells then have to be embedded in lower metal layers in order to be close enough to the logic access transistors. As the pitches of lower metal layers aggressively scale in advanced technology nodes, embedding the capacitors in the lower metal layers poses significant challenges to the scaling of 1T-1C based memory and to creation of three dimensional memory devices.
Another challenge resides in that, given a usable surface area of a substrate, there are only so many FEOL transistors that can be formed in that area, placing a significant limitation on the density of memory cells or logic devices incorporating such transistors.
Embodiments of the present disclosure may improve on at least some of the challenges and issues described above. Conventional FEOL transistors have both S/D contacts on one side of the transistor, usually on the side facing away from the substrate. In contrast to the approaches of building logic and memory devices with such conventional FEOL transistors, various embodiments of the present disclosure provide transistors, various IC devices incorporating such transistors (e.g., logic devices, memory cells and arrays, etc.), as well as associated methods and larger devices, in which a transistor has one S/D contact on one side and another S/D contact on the other side. One side of a transistor may be referred to as a “front side” while the other side may be referred to as a “back side.” Thus, transistors described herein have one of the S/D contacts on the front side (such contacts referred to as “front-side contacts”) and the other one of their S/D contacts on the back side (such contacts referred to as “back-side contacts”). In the following, transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts may be simply referred to as “transistors with back-side contacts.”
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an example IC device includes a support structure (e.g., a substrate) on which one or more transistors with back-side contacts may be implemented. The IC device further includes a transistor that includes a channel material, a first S/D region, and a second S/D region. The IC device further includes a contact (i.e., an electrical contact) to the first S/D region and a contact to the second S/D region, where the contact to the first S/D region is in a first layer over the support structure, the contact to the second S/D region is in a second layer over the support structure, a portion of the channel material between the first S/D region and the second S/D region is in a third layer over the support structure, and the third layer is between the first layer and the second layer. In general, in the context of the present disclosure, a “side” of a transistor refers to a region or a layer either above or below a layer of the channel material of the transistor. Thus, in such an example IC device, one of the two S/D regions has a contact on the front side of the transistor, i.e., a contact to that S/D region is on one side with respect to the layer of the channel material of the transistor (e.g., above the channel material), and such a contact is a front-side contact. On the other hand, the other one of the two S/D regions has a contact on the back side of the transistor, i.e., a contact to that S/D region is on the other side with respect to the layer of the channel material of the transistor (e.g., below the channel material), and such a contact is a back-side contact. In the context of the present disclosure, the term “above” may refer to being further away from the support structure or the FEOL of an IC device, while the term “below” refers to being closer towards the support structure or the FEOL of the IC device.
In the following, some descriptions may refer to a particular side of the transistor being referred to as a front side and the other side being referred to as a back side to illustrate the general concept of transistors having their S/D contacts on different sides. However, unless specified otherwise, which side of a transistor is considered to be a front side and which side is considered to be a back side is not important. Therefore, descriptions of some illustrative embodiments of the front and back sides provided herein are applicable to embodiments where the designation of front and back sides may be reversed, as long as one of the S/D contacts for a transistor is provided on one side and another one—on the other, with respect to the channel layer. Furthermore, some descriptions may refer to a particular S/D region or contact being either a source region/contact or a drain region/contact. However, unless specified otherwise, which region/contact of a transistor is considered to be a source region/contact and which region/contact is considered to be a drain region/contact is not important because, as is common in the field of field-effect transistors (FETs), designations of source and drain are often interchangeable. Therefore, descriptions of some illustrative embodiments of the source and drain regions/contacts provided herein are applicable to embodiments where the designation of source and drain regions/contacts may be reversed.
While some descriptions provided herein may refer to transistors being top-gated transistors, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to only this design and include transistors of various other architectures, or a mixture of different architectures. For example, in various embodiments, transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts, described herein, may include bottom-gated transistors, top-gated transistors, FinFETs, nanowire transistors, planar transistors, etc., all of which being within the scope of the present disclosure. Furthermore, although descriptions of the present disclosure may refer to logic devices or memory cells provided in a given layer, each layer of the IC devices described herein may also include other types of devices besides logic or memory devices described herein. For example, in some embodiments, IC devices with memory cells incorporating transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts may also include SRAM memory cells in any of the layers.
Using transistors with one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts provides several advantages and enables unique architectures that were not possible with conventional, FEOL logic transistors with both S/D contacts being on one side. One advantage is that such transistors may be moved to the back end of line (BEOL) layers of an advanced complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. Moving access transistors of memory cells to the BEOL layers means that their corresponding capacitors can be implemented in the upper metal layers with correspondingly thicker interlayer dielectric (ILD) and larger metal pitch to achieve higher capacitance, which may ease the integration challenge introduced by embedding the capacitors. Another advantage is that implementing at least some of the transistors with their S/D contacts on different sides allows substantial flexibility to making electrical connections to these transistors. Consequently, at least portions of logic devices and memory cells incorporating such transistors may be provided in different layers above the support structure, thus enabling three dimensional memory and logic devices and, in particular, enabling a stacked architecture with many layers of memory and/or logic devices. Providing three dimensional memory and/or logic devices as described herein allows significantly increasing density of these devices (e.g., density of memory cells in a memory array) having a given footprint area (the footprint area being defined as an area in a plane of the substrate, or a plane parallel to the plane of the substrate, i.e., the x-y plane of an example coordinate system shown in the drawings of the present disclosure), or, conversely, allows significantly reducing the footprint area of a structure with a given density of memory and/logic devices. Furthermore, by embedding at least some, but preferably all, of the access transistors and the corresponding capacitors in the upper metal layers (i.e., in layers away from the support structure) according to at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the peripheral circuits that control the memory operation can be hidden below the memory area to substantially reduce the memory macro array (i.e., the footprint area in the x-y plane of an example coordinate system shown in the drawings of the present disclosure). Transistors with back-side contacts as described herein may be used, for example, to address the scaling challenge of logic transistor (e.g., FEOL) based 1T-1C memory technology and enable high density embedded memory compatible with an advanced CMOS process. Other technical effects will be evident from various embodiments described here.
As used herein, the term “metal layer” refers to a layer above a support structure that includes electrically conductive interconnect structures for providing electrical connectivity between different IC components. Metal layers described herein may also be referred to as “interconnect layers” to clearly indicate that these layers include electrically conductive interconnect structures which may but does not have to be metal.
The systems, methods and devices of this disclosure each have several innovative aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for the all of the desirable attributes disclosed herein. Details of one or more implementations of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the description below and the accompanying drawings.
In the following detailed description, various aspects of the illustrative implementations may be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. For example, the term “connected” means a direct electrical or magnetic connection between the things that are connected, without any intermediary devices, while the term “coupled” means either a direct electrical or magnetic connection between the things that are connected, or an indirect connection through one or more passive or active intermediary devices. The term “circuit” means one or more passive and/or active components that are arranged to cooperate with one another to provide a desired function. As used herein, a “logic state” (or, alternatively, a “state” or a “bit” value) of a memory cell may refer to one of a finite number of states that the cell can have, e.g., logic states “1” and “0,” each state represented by a different voltage of the capacitor of the cell, while “READ” and “WRITE” memory access or operations refer to, respectively, determining/sensing a logic state of a memory cell and programming/setting a logic state of a memory cell. If used, the terms “oxide,” “carbide,” “nitride,” etc. refer to compounds containing, respectively, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, etc., the term “high-k dielectric” refers to a material having a higher dielectric constant (k) than silicon oxide, while the term “low-k dielectric” refers to a material having a lower k than silicon oxide. The terms “substantially,” “close,” “approximately,” “near,” and “about,” generally refer to being within +/−20% of a target value based on the context of a particular value as described herein or as known in the art. Similarly, terms indicating orientation of various elements, e.g., “coplanar,” “perpendicular,” “orthogonal,” “parallel,” or any other angle between the elements, generally refer to being within +/−5-20% of a target value based on the context of a particular value as described herein or as known in the art.
The terms “over,” “under,” “between,” and “on” as used herein refer to a relative position of one material layer or component with respect to other layers or components. For example, one layer disposed over or under another layer may be directly in contact with the other layer or may have one or more intervening layers. Moreover, one layer disposed between two layers may be directly in contact with the two layers or may have one or more intervening layers. In contrast, a first layer “on” a second layer is in direct contact with that second layer. Similarly, unless explicitly stated otherwise, one feature disposed between two features may be in direct contact with the adjacent features or may have one or more intervening layers.
For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A and/or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A, B, and/or C” means (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C). The term “between,” when used with reference to measurement ranges, is inclusive of the ends of the measurement ranges. As used herein, the notation “A/B/C” means (A), (B), and/or (C).
The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment” or “in embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous. The disclosure may use perspective-based descriptions such as “above,” “below,” “top,” “bottom,” and “side”; such descriptions are used to facilitate the discussion and are not intended to restrict the application of disclosed embodiments. The accompanying drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any other manner.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense. For convenience, if a collection of drawings designated with different letters are present, e.g.,
In the drawings, some schematic illustrations of example structures of various devices and assemblies described herein may be shown with precise right angles and straight lines, but it is to be understood that such schematic illustrations may not reflect real-life process limitations which may cause the features to not look so “ideal” when any of the structures described herein are examined using e.g., scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images or transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. In such images of real structures, possible processing defects could also be visible, e.g., not-perfectly straight edges of materials, tapered vias or other openings, inadvertent rounding of corners or variations in thicknesses of different material layers, occasional screw, edge, or combination dislocations within the crystalline region, and/or occasional dislocation defects of single atoms or clusters of atoms. There may be other defects not listed here but that are common within the field of device fabrication.
Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions or operations in turn in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in a different order from the described embodiment. Various additional operations may be performed, and/or described operations may be omitted in additional embodiments.
Various IC devices with transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts as described herein may be implemented in, or associated with, one or more components associated with an IC or/and may be implemented between various such components. In various embodiments, components associated with an IC include, for example, transistors, diodes, power sources, resistors, capacitors, inductors, sensors, transceivers, receivers, antennas, etc. Components associated with an IC may include those that are mounted on IC or those connected to an IC. The IC may be either analog or digital and may be used in a number of applications, such as microprocessors, optoelectronics, logic blocks, audio amplifiers, etc., depending on the components associated with the IC. The IC may be employed as part of a chipset for executing one or more related functions in a computer.
Example Transistor Architectures
A number of elements labeled in
In general, a FET, e.g., a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) FET (MOSFET), is a three-terminal device that includes source, drain, and gate terminals and uses electric field to control current flowing through the device. A FET typically includes a channel material, a source region and a drain regions provided in the channel material, and a gate stack that includes a gate electrode material, alternatively referred to as a “work function” (WF) material, provided over a portion of the channel material between the source and the drain regions, and, optionally, also includes a gate dielectric material between the gate electrode material and the channel material. This general structure is shown in
Implementations of the present disclosure may be formed or carried out on a support structure, which may be, e.g., a substrate, a die, a wafer or a chip. The substrate may, e.g., be the wafer 2000 of
In some embodiments, the channel material 102 may be composed of semiconductor material systems including, for example, N-type or P-type materials systems. In some embodiments, the channel material 102 may include a high mobility oxide semiconductor material, such as tin oxide, antimony oxide, indium oxide, indium tin oxide, titanium oxide, zinc oxide, indium zinc oxide, gallium oxide, titanium oxynitride, ruthenium oxide, or tungsten oxide. In some embodiments, the channel material 102 may include a combination of semiconductor materials where one semiconductor material may be used for the channel portion (e.g., a portion 114 shown in
For some example N-type transistor embodiments (i.e., for the embodiments where the transistor 100 is an NMOS), the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102 may advantageously include a III-V material having a high electron mobility, such as, but not limited to InGaAs, InP, InSb, and InAs. For some such embodiments, the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102 may be a ternary III-V alloy, such as InGaAs, GaAsSb, InAsP, or InPSb. For some InxGa1-xAs fin embodiments, In content (x) may be between 0.6 and 0.9, and may advantageously be at least 0.7 (e.g., In0.7Ga0.3As). In some embodiments with highest mobility, the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102 may be an intrinsic III-V material, i.e., a III-V semiconductor material not intentionally doped with any electrically active impurity. In alternate embodiments, a nominal impurity dopant level may be present within the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102, for example to further fine-tune a threshold voltage Vt, or to provide HALO pocket implants, etc. Even for impurity-doped embodiments however, impurity dopant level within the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102 may be relatively low, for example below 1015 dopant atoms per cubic centimeter (cm−3), and advantageously below 1013 cm−3.
For some example P-type transistor embodiments (i.e., for the embodiments where the transistor 100 is a PMOS), the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102 may advantageously be a group IV material having a high hole mobility, such as, but not limited to Ge or a Ge-rich SiGe alloy. For some example embodiments, the channel portion 114 of the channel material 102 may have a Ge content between 0.6 and 0.9, and advantageously may be at least 0.7. In some embodiments with highest mobility, the channel portion 114 may be intrinsic III-V (or IV for P-type devices) material and not intentionally doped with any electrically active impurity. In alternate embodiments, one or more a nominal impurity dopant level may be present within the channel portion 114, for example to further set a threshold voltage (Vt), or to provide HALO pocket implants, etc. Even for impurity-doped embodiments however, impurity dopant level within the channel portion is relatively low, for example below 1015 cm−3, and advantageously below 1013 cm−3.
In some embodiments, the transistor 100 may be a thin film transistor (TFT). A TFT is a special kind of a field-effect transistor made by depositing a thin film of an active semiconductor material, as well as a dielectric layer and metallic contacts, over a supporting layer that may be a non-conducting layer. At least a portion of the active semiconductor material forms a channel of the TFT. If the transistor 100 is a TFT, the channel material 102 may include a high mobility oxide semiconductor material, such as tin oxide, antimony oxide, indium oxide, indium tin oxide, titanium oxide, zinc oxide, indium zinc oxide, indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), gallium oxide, titanium oxynitride, ruthenium oxide, or tungsten oxide. In general, if the transistor 100 is a TFT, the channel material 102 may include one or more of tin oxide, cobalt oxide, copper oxide, antimony oxide, ruthenium oxide, tungsten oxide, zinc oxide, gallium oxide, titanium oxide, indium oxide, titanium oxynitride, indium tin oxide, indium zinc oxide, nickel oxide, niobium oxide, copper peroxide, IGZO, indium telluride, molybdenite, molybdenum diselenide, tungsten diselenide, tungsten disulfide, N- or P-type amorphous or polycrystalline silicon, germanium, indium gallium arsenide, silicon germanium, gallium nitride, aluminum gallium nitride, indium phosphite, and black phosphorus, each of which may possibly be doped with one or more of gallium, indium, aluminum, fluorine, boron, phosphorus, arsenic, nitrogen, tantalum, tungsten, and magnesium, etc. In some embodiments, the channel material 102 may have a thickness between about 5 and 75 nanometers, including all values and ranges therein. In some embodiments, a thin film channel material 102 may be deposited at relatively low temperatures, which allows depositing the channel material 102 within the thermal budgets imposed on back end fabrication to avoid damaging other components, e.g., front end components such as the logic devices.
As shown in
As further shown in
Turning to the gate stack 108, the gate electrode 110 may include at least one P-type work function metal or N-type work function metal, depending on whether the transistor 100 is a P-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor or an N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor. For a PMOS transistor, metals that may be used for the gate electrode 110 may include, but are not limited to, ruthenium, palladium, platinum, cobalt, nickel, and conductive metal oxides (e.g., ruthenium oxide). For an NMOS transistor, metals that may be used for the gate electrode 110 include, but are not limited to, hafnium, zirconium, titanium, tantalum, aluminum, alloys of these metals, and carbides of these metals (e.g., hafnium carbide, zirconium carbide, titanium carbide, tantalum carbide, and aluminum carbide). In some embodiments, the gate electrode 110 may include a stack of two or more metal layers, where one or more metal layers are WF metal layers and at least one metal layer is a fill metal layer. Further metal layers may be included for other purposes, such as to act as a diffusion barrier layer, described below.
If used, the gate dielectric 112 may at least laterally surround the channel portion 114, and the gate electrode 110 may laterally surround the gate dielectric 112 such that the gate dielectric 112 is disposed between the gate electrode 110 and the channel material 104. In various embodiments, the gate dielectric 112 may include one or more high-k dielectric materials and may include elements such as hafnium, silicon, oxygen, titanium, tantalum, lanthanum, aluminum, zirconium, barium, strontium, yttrium, lead, scandium, niobium, and zinc. Examples of high-k materials that may be used in the gate dielectric 112 may include, but are not limited to, hafnium oxide, hafnium silicon oxide, lanthanum oxide, lanthanum aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, zirconium silicon oxide, tantalum oxide, titanium oxide, barium strontium titanium oxide, barium titanium oxide, strontium titanium oxide, yttrium oxide, aluminum oxide, tantalum oxide, tantalum silicon oxide, lead scandium tantalum oxide, and lead zinc niobate. In some embodiments, an annealing process may be carried out on the gate dielectric 112 during manufacture of the transistor 100 to improve the quality of the gate dielectric 112. In some embodiments, the gate dielectric 112 may have a thickness between about 0.5 nanometers and 3 nanometers, including all values and ranges therein, e.g., between about 1 and 3 nanometers, or between about 1 and 2 nanometers.
In some embodiments, the gate dielectric 112 may be a multilayer gate dielectric, e.g., it may include any of the high-k dielectric materials in one layer and a layer of indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). In some embodiments, the gate stack 108 may be arranged so that the IGZO is disposed between the high-k dielectric and the channel material 104. In such embodiments, the IGZO may be in contact with the channel material 104, and may provide the interface between the channel material 104 and the remainder of the multilayer gate dielectric 112. The IGZO may have a gallium to indium ratio of 1:1, a gallium to indium ratio greater than 1 (e.g., 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 7:1, 8:1, 9:1, or 10:1), and/or a gallium to indium ratio less than 1 (e.g., 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7, 1:8, 1:9, or 1:10).
In some embodiments, the gate stack 108 may be surrounded by a dielectric spacer, not specifically shown in
In stark contrast to conventional implementations where both S/D contacts are typically provided on a single side of a transistor, typically on the front side, e.g., where the gate stack 108 is provided, the two S/D contacts 106 are provided on different sides. Namely, as shown in
Transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts as described herein, such as the transistor 100, may be implemented using any suitable transistor architecture, e.g. planar or non-planar architectures. One example structure is shown in
FinFETs refer to transistors having a non-planar architecture where a fin, formed of one or more semiconductor materials, extends away from a base (where the term “base” refers to any suitable support structure on which a transistor may be built, e.g., a substrate). A portion of the fin that is closest to the base may be enclosed by an insulator material. Such an insulator material, typically an oxide, is commonly referred to as a “shallow trench isolation” (STI), and the portion of the fin enclosed by the STI is typically referred to as a “subfin portion” or simply a “subfin.” A gate stack that includes at least a layer of a gate electrode material and, optionally, a layer of a gate dielectric may be provided over the top and sides of the remaining upper portion of the fin (i.e. the portion above and not enclosed by the STI), thus wrapping around the upper-most portion of the fin. The portion of the fin over which the gate stack wraps around is typically referred to as a “channel portion” of the fin because this is where, during operation of the transistor, a conductive channel forms, and is a part of an active region of the fin. A source region and a drain region are provided on the opposite sides of the gate stack, forming, respectively, a source and a drain terminal of a transistor. FinFETs may be implemented as “tri-gate transistors,” where the name “tri-gate” originates from the fact that, in use, such transistors may form conducting channels on three “sides” of the fin. FinFETs potentially improve performance relative to single-gate transistors and double-gate transistors.
As shown in
The subfin of the fin 204 may be a binary, ternary, or quaternary III-V compound semiconductor that is an alloy of two, three, or even four elements from groups III and V of the periodic table, including boron, aluminum, indium, gallium, nitrogen, arsenic, phosphorus, antimony, and bismuth. For some example N-type transistor embodiments, the subfin portion of the fin 204 may be a III-V material having a band offset (e.g., conduction band offset for N-type devices) from the channel portion. Example materials, include, but are not limited to, GaAs, GaSb, GaAsSb, GaP, InAlAs, GaAsSb, AlAs, AlP, AlSb, and AlGaAs. In some N-type transistor embodiments of the FinFET 200 where the channel portion of the fin 204 (e.g., the channel portion 114) is InGaAs, the subfin may be GaAs, and at least a portion of the subfin may also be doped with impurities (e.g., P-type) to a greater impurity level than the channel portion. In an alternate heterojunction embodiment, the subfin and the channel portion of the fin 204 are each, or include, group IV semiconductors (e.g., Si, Ge, SiGe). The subfin of the fin 204 may be a first elemental semiconductor (e.g., Si or Ge) or a first SiGe alloy (e.g., having a wide bandgap). For some example P-type transistor embodiments, the subfin of the fin 204 may be a group IV material having a band offset (e.g., valance band offset for P-type devices) from the channel portion. Example materials, include, but are not limited to, Si or Si-rich SiGe. In some P-type transistor embodiments, the subfin of the fin 204 is Si and at least a portion of the subfin may also be doped with impurities (e.g., N-type) to a higher impurity level than the channel portion.
As further shown in
The gate stack 108 may wrap around the upper portion of the fin 204 (the portion above the STI 206), as shown in
In some embodiments, the FinFET 200 may have a gate length, GL, (i.e. a distance between the first S/D region 104-1 and the second S/D region 104-2), a dimension measured along the fin 204 in the direction of the x-axis of the example reference coordinate system x-y-z shown in
Although the fin 204 illustrated in
While not specifically shown in
While
Example Memory Cell
Although not specifically shown in
Example Layering
The support structure 410 may, e.g., be a substrate, a die, a wafer or a chip, and may include any of the materials, or combinations of materials, described above with reference to
The first and second memory layers 430, 440 may, together, be seen as forming a memory array 490. As such, the memory array 490 may include access transistors (e.g., the transistor 100), capacitors, as well as wordlines (e.g., row selectors) and bitlines (e.g., column selectors), making up memory cells. On the other hand, the compute logic layer 420 may include various logic layers, circuits, and devices (e.g., logic transistors) to drive and control a logic IC. For example, the logic devices of the compute logic layer 420 may form a memory peripheral circuit 480 to control (e.g., access (read/write), store, refresh) the memory cells of the memory array 490.
In some embodiments, the compute logic layer 420 may be provided in a FEOL with respect to the support structure 410. In some embodiments, the compute logic layer 420 may be provided in a FEOL and in one or more lowest BEOL layers (i.e., in one or more BEOL layers which are closest to the support structure 410), while the first memory layer 430 and the second memory layer 440 may be seen as provided in respective BEOL layers. Various BEOL layers may be, or include, metal layers. Various metal layers of the BEOL may be used to interconnect the various inputs and outputs of the logic devices in the compute logic layer 420 and/or of the memory cells in the memory layers 430, 440. Generally speaking, each of the metal layers of the BEOL may include a via portion and a trench/interconnect portion. The trench portion of a metal layer is configured for transferring signals and power along electrically conductive (e.g., metal) lines (also sometimes referred to as “trenches”) extending in the x-y plane (e.g., in the x or y directions), while the via portion of a metal layer is configured for transferring signals and power through electrically conductive vias extending in the z-direction, e.g., to any of the adjacent metal layers above or below. Accordingly, vias connect metal structures (e.g., metal lines or vias) from one metal layer to metal structures of an adjacent metal layer. While referred to as “metal” layers, various layers of the BEOL may include only certain patterns of conductive metals, e.g., copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), Tungsten (W), or Cobalt (Co), or metal alloys, or more generally, patterns of an electrically conductive material, formed in an insulating medium such as an interlayer dielectric (ILD). The insulating medium may include any suitable ILD materials such as silicon oxide, carbon-doped silicon oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, and/or silicon oxynitride.
In other embodiments of the IC device 400, the compute logic layer 420 may be provided above the memory layers 430, 440, in between memory layers 430, 440, or combined with the memory layers 430, 440.
Transistors with one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts as described herein, either as a stand-alone transistors (e.g., the transistor 100) or included as a part of a memory cell (e.g., the memory cell 300), may be included in various regions/locations in the IC device 400. For example, the transistor 100 may be used as, e.g., a logic transistor in the compute logic layer 420. In another example, the transistor 100 may be used as, e.g., an access transistor in the first or second memory layers 430, 440. Providing the S/D contacts on different faces of a transistor may be particularly advantageous for incorporating such a transistor in a BEOL layer of the IC device 400, which may ease the integration challenge introduced by embedding the capacitors of memory cells, and make building of three dimensional memory and logic devices with a stacked architecture with many layers of memory and/or compute logic feasible.
The illustration of
Example Fabrication Method
IC devices with transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts, as described herein, may be fabricated using any suitable techniques, e.g., subtractive, additive, damascene, dual damascene, etc. Some of such technique may include suitable deposition and patterning techniques. As used herein, “patterning” may refer to forming a pattern in one or more materials using any suitable techniques (e.g., applying a resist, patterning the resist using lithography, and then etching the one or more material using dry etching, wet etching, or any appropriate technique).
The example IC device shown in
In addition, although the operations of the method 500 are illustrated in
Furthermore, the method 500 may also include operations not specifically shown in
In
Turning to
The support structure 622 may be a support structure as described above with reference to
The dielectric material 630 may include any of the ILD materials described above, e.g., silicon oxide, carbon-doped silicon oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, and/or silicon oxynitride. If etch-stop layers as shown in
In some embodiments, the IC device 602 may be formed in the process 502 as follows.
First, the dielectric material 630 of the bottom metal layer may be deposited over the support structure 622. Deposition of the dielectric material 630 may, e.g., include spin-coating, dip-coating, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), or any combination of these techniques. The dielectric material 630 may then be patterned to form an opening (e.g., using an etch process, e.g. in combination with using a mask, photolithography or another lithographic technique) into which the electrically conductive material of the bottom portion of the interconnect structure 624 may be deposited, e.g., to form the portion in a first metal layer 634, shown in
The electrically conductive material 626 of the interconnect structure 624 may include any of the electrically conductive materials described above with reference to the materials of the S/D contacts 106 (that is why the same pattern is used in
The process 502 may further include forming a layer of the etch-stop material 632 over the first metal layer 634 and then depositing the dielectric material 630 of a second metal layer 636. The second portion of the interconnect structure 624 may then be formed by patterning the etch-stop material 632 provided over the first metal layer 634 and by patterning the dielectric material 630 of the second metal layer 636. Next, the capacitor 628 may be formed in the second metal layer 636.
The capacitor 628 will later serve as the capacitor 302 of a memory cell of the IC device shown in
Once the capacitor 628 has been formed, the process 502 may include forming a layer of the etch-stop material 632 over the metal layer in which the capacitor 628 has been provided, e.g., over the second metal layer 636, as shown in
The method 500 may then proceed with a process 504 that includes providing, over the IC device formed in the process 502, a material that may serve as a channel material of the future transistor of the memory cell. An IC device 604, depicted in
In some embodiments, the channel material 642 may be provided in the process 504 using a layer transfer technique. In general, layer transfer includes depositing (e.g., using epitaxial deposition/growth) a suitable semiconductor material that will become the channel material 642 on a support structure different from that of the IC device 602, and then transferring a layer of said semiconductor material layer to the IC device 602 using, e.g., oxide-to-oxide (or, more generally, insulator-to-insulator) bonding. In some embodiments, suitable heating and/or pressure may be applied, as known in the art, to bond channel material 642 to the IC device 602. As a result of this bonding, the intermediate layer 640 may be formed which may be a bonding interface.
The intermediate layer 640 may include any material or a combination of materials resulting from bonding of the IC structure formed in the process 502 with the channel material 642 grown on a different support structure (e.g., a different substrate), and then flipped over and bonded to the IC structure formed in the process 502. As such, the intermediate layer 640 may be recognizable as a seam or a thin layer in the IC structure 604, using, e.g., selective area diffraction (SED).
The method 500 may then proceed with a process 506 that includes patterning of the channel material provided in the process 504 to be suitable for a transistor, and forming S/D regions and a gate stack over the patterned channel material. An IC device 606, depicted in
The method 500 may then proceed with a process 508 that includes forming an electrical contact to one of the S/D regions provided in the process 506 and forming a deep via to provide an electrical contact between the other one of the S/D regions provided in the process 506 and the storage capacitor provided in the process 502. An IC device 608, depicted in
In some embodiments, the process 508 may include forming suitable openings and then filling the openings with one or more electrically conductive materials to provide electrically conductive vias 650. In some embodiments, the openings for forming the vias 650 may be formed using any suitable anisotropic etching technique (i.e., etching uniformly in a vertical direction) such as dry etch. In some embodiments, at least the deep via 650-1 may be a high aspect ratio structure in that its' aspect ratio (i.e., height divided by width) may be larger than about 3, e.g., larger than about 10, larger than about 60. The vias 650 may be made electrically conductive by filling the openings with any suitable electrically conductive material, alloy, or a combination of multiple electrically conductive materials, e.g., the electrically conductive material 626, described above. In some embodiments, the vias 650 may be made electrically conductive by only lining the openings in the metal layer 638 with an electrically conductive material, with the center of the lined openings being filled with a suitable insulating material. In such embodiments, the insulating materials may be deposited in the center of the lined openings using spin-coating, dip-coating, CVD, ALD, or any combination of these techniques. In some embodiments, any of the electrically conductive materials 626 deposited in the process 502, e.g., to form the interconnect structure 624, may be covered by diffusion barriers or diffusion barrier layers in the vias 650 to prevent or help preventing the diffusion or migration of the electrically conductive materials from their target locations to the rest of the IC device.
As a result of providing the deep via 650-1, a portion of the deep via 650-1 illustrated in
Next, the method 500 may proceed with a process 510 that includes forming electrical connections to the bottom metal layer, the gate stack, and the front-side S/D contact. An IC device 610, depicted in
As shown in
In some embodiments, the method 500 may, optionally include processes 512 and 514, shown in
The IC device 614 also illustrates that, in some embodiments, the first capacitor electrodes 702 of both of the capacitors 628 may be coupled to one another and to a single interconnect, e.g., to the electrical connection 658, described above. In other embodiments, the first capacitor electrodes 702 of the capacitors 628 may not be coupled to one another and may be coupled to respective different interconnects.
Although not specifically shown in
Variations and Implementations
Various device assemblies illustrated in
Further,
Inspection of layout and mask data and reverse engineering of parts of a device to reconstruct the circuit using e.g., optical microscopy, TEM, or SEM, and/or inspection of a cross-section of a device to detect the shape and the location of various device elements described herein using e.g., Physical Failure Analysis (PFA) would allow determination of presence of the transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts as described herein.
Example Electronic Devices
Arrangements with IC devices with transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts as disclosed herein may be included in any suitable electronic device.
As shown in
The IC device 2100 may include one or more device layers 2104 disposed on the substrate 2102. The device layer 2104 provides one example of the compute logic layer 410, described above. The device layer 2104 may include features of one or more transistors 2140 (e.g., metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs)) formed on the substrate 2102. The transistors 2140 provide one example of any of the logic devices that may be included in the compute logic layer 410. As shown in
Each transistor 2140 may include a gate 2122 formed of at least two layers, a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode layer. Generally, the gate dielectric layer of a transistor 2140 may include one layer or a stack of layers, and may include any of the materials described above with reference to the gate dielectric 112. In some embodiments, an annealing process may be carried out on the gate dielectric of the gate 2122 to improve its quality when a high-k material is used.
The gate electrode may be formed on the gate dielectric and may include at least one P-type work function metal or N-type work function metal, depending on whether the transistor 2140 is to be a PMOS or an NMOS transistor. In some implementations, the gate electrode may include a stack of two or more metal layers, where one or more metal layers are work function metal layers and at least one metal layer is a fill metal layer. Further metal layers may be included for other purposes, such as a barrier layer. The gate electrode of the gate 2122 may include any of the materials described above with reference to the gate electrode 110.
In some embodiments, when viewed as a cross-section of the transistor 2140 along the source-channel-drain direction, the gate electrode of the gate 2122 may include a U-shaped structure that includes a bottom portion substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate and two sidewall portions that are substantially perpendicular to the top surface of the substrate. In other embodiments, at least one of the metal layers that form the gate electrode may simply be a planar layer that is substantially parallel to the top surface of the substrate and does not include sidewall portions substantially perpendicular to the top surface of the substrate. In other embodiments, the gate electrode may include a combination of U-shaped structures and planar, non-U-shaped structures. For example, the gate electrode may include one or more U-shaped metal layers formed atop one or more planar, non-U-shaped layers. In some embodiments, the gate electrode may include a V-shaped structure (e.g., when the fin of a FinFET does not have a “flat” upper surface, but instead has a rounded peak).
In some embodiments, a pair of sidewall spacers may be formed on opposing sides of the gate stack to bracket the gate stack. The sidewall spacers may be formed from a material such as silicon nitride, silicon oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride doped with carbon, and silicon oxynitride. Processes for forming sidewall spacers are well known in the art and generally include deposition and etching process steps. In some embodiments, a plurality of spacer pairs may be used; for instance, two pairs, three pairs, or four pairs of sidewall spacers may be formed on opposing sides of the gate stack.
The S/D regions 2120 may be formed within the substrate 2102, e.g., adjacent to the gate of each transistor 2140. The S/D regions 2120 may be formed using an implantation/diffusion process or an etching/deposition process, for example. In the former process, dopants such as boron, aluminum, antimony, phosphorous, or arsenic may be ion-implanted into the substrate 2102 to form the S/D regions 2120. An annealing process that activates the dopants and causes them to diffuse farther into the substrate 2102 may follow the ion-implantation process. In the latter process, the substrate 2102 may first be etched to form recesses at the locations of the S/D regions 2120. An epitaxial deposition process may then be carried out to fill the recesses with material that is used to fabricate the S/D regions 2120. In some implementations, the S/D regions 2120 may be fabricated using a silicon alloy such as silicon germanium or silicon carbide. In some embodiments, the epitaxially deposited silicon alloy may be doped in situ with dopants such as boron, arsenic, or phosphorous. In some embodiments, the S/D regions 2120 may be formed using one or more alternate semiconductor materials such as germanium or a group III-V material or alloy. In further embodiments, one or more layers of metal and/or metal alloys may be used to form the S/D regions 2120.
Various transistors 2140 are not limited to the type and configuration depicted in
Electrical signals, such as power and/or input/output (I/O) signals, may be routed to and/or from the transistors 2140 of the device layer 2104 through one or more interconnect layers disposed on the device layer 2104 (illustrated in
The interconnect structures 2128 may be arranged within the interconnect layers 2106-1210 to route electrical signals according to a wide variety of designs (in particular, the arrangement is not limited to the particular configuration of interconnect structures 2128 depicted in
In some embodiments, the interconnect structures 2128 may include trench structures 2128a (sometimes referred to as “lines”) and/or via structures 2129B (sometimes referred to as “holes”) filled with an electrically conductive material such as a metal. The trench structures 2128a may be arranged to route electrical signals in a direction of a plane that is substantially parallel with a surface of the substrate 2102 upon which the device layer 2104 is formed. For example, the trench structures 2128a may route electrical signals in a direction in and out of the page from the perspective of
The interconnect layers 2106-2110 may include a dielectric material 2126 disposed between the interconnect structures 2128, as shown in
A first interconnect layer 2106 (referred to as Metal 1 or “M1”) may be formed directly on the device layer 2104. In some embodiments, the first interconnect layer 2106 may include trench structures 2128a and/or via structures 2129B, as shown. The trench structures 2128a of the first interconnect layer 2106 may be coupled with contacts (e.g., the S/D contacts 2124) of the device layer 2104.
A second interconnect layer 2108 (referred to as Metal 2 or “M2”) may be formed directly on the first interconnect layer 2106. In some embodiments, the second interconnect layer 2108 may include via structures 2129B to couple the trench structures 2128a of the second interconnect layer 2108 with the trench structures 2128a of the first interconnect layer 2106. Although the trench structures 2128a and the via structures 2129B are structurally delineated with a line within each interconnect layer (e.g., within the second interconnect layer 2108) for the sake of clarity, the trench structures 2128a and the via structures 2129B may be structurally and/or materially contiguous (e.g., simultaneously filled during a dual damascene process) in some embodiments.
A third interconnect layer 2110 (referred to as Metal 3 or “M3”) (and additional interconnect layers, as desired) may be formed in succession on the second interconnect layer 2108 according to similar techniques and configurations described in connection with the second interconnect layer 2108 or the first interconnect layer 2106.
The interconnect layers 2106-2110 may be the metal layers M1-M3, described above. Further metal layers may be present in the IC device 2100, as also described above.
The package substrate 2252 may be formed of a dielectric material (e.g., a ceramic, a buildup film, an epoxy film having filler particles therein, etc.), and may have conductive pathways extending through the dielectric material between the face 2272 and the face 2274, or between different locations on the face 2272, and/or between different locations on the face 2274. These conductive pathways may take the form of any of the interconnect structures 2128 discussed above with reference to
The package substrate 2252 may include conductive contacts 2263 that are coupled to conductive pathways 2262 through the package substrate 2252, allowing circuitry within the dies 2256 and/or the interposer 2257 to electrically couple to various ones of the conductive contacts 2264 (or to other devices included in the package substrate 2252, not shown).
The IC package 2200 may include an interposer 2257 coupled to the package substrate 2252 via conductive contacts 2261 of the interposer 2257, first-level interconnects 2265, and the conductive contacts 2263 of the package substrate 2252. The first-level interconnects 2265 illustrated in
The IC package 2200 may include one or more dies 2256 coupled to the interposer 2257 via conductive contacts 2254 of the dies 2256, first-level interconnects 2258, and conductive contacts 2260 of the interposer 2257. The conductive contacts 2260 may be coupled to conductive pathways (not shown) through the interposer 2257, allowing circuitry within the dies 2256 to electrically couple to various ones of the conductive contacts 2261 (or to other devices included in the interposer 2257, not shown). The first-level interconnects 2258 illustrated in
In some embodiments, an underfill material 2266 may be disposed between the package substrate 2252 and the interposer 2257 around the first-level interconnects 2265, and a mold compound 2268 may be disposed around the dies 2256 and the interposer 2257 and in contact with the package substrate 2252. In some embodiments, the underfill material 2266 may be the same as the mold compound 2268. Example materials that may be used for the underfill material 2266 and the mold compound 2268 are epoxy mold materials, as suitable. Second-level interconnects 2270 may be coupled to the conductive contacts 2264. The second-level interconnects 2270 illustrated in
The dies 2256 may take the form of any of the embodiments of the die 2002 discussed herein (e.g., may include any of the embodiments of the IC device 2100). In embodiments in which the IC package 2200 includes multiple dies 2256, the IC package 2200 may be referred to as a multi-chip package (MCP). The dies 2256 may include circuitry to perform any desired functionality. For example, one or more of the dies 2256 may be logic dies (e.g., silicon-based dies), and one or more of the dies 2256 may be memory dies (e.g., high bandwidth memory), including embedded logic and memory devices as described herein. In some embodiments, any of the dies 2256 may include transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts, e.g., as discussed above; in some embodiments, at least some of the dies 2256 may not include transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts.
The IC package 2200 illustrated in
In some embodiments, the circuit board 2302 may be a PCB including multiple metal layers separated from one another by layers of dielectric material and interconnected by electrically conductive vias. Any one or more of the metal layers may be formed in a desired circuit pattern to route electrical signals (optionally in conjunction with other metal layers) between the components coupled to the circuit board 2302. In other embodiments, the circuit board 2302 may be a non-PCB substrate.
The IC device assembly 2300 illustrated in
The package-on-interposer structure 2336 may include an IC package 2320 coupled to an interposer 2304 by coupling components 2318. The coupling components 2318 may take any suitable form for the application, such as the forms discussed above with reference to the coupling components 2316. The IC package 2320 may be or include, for example, a die (the die 2002 of
The interposer 2304 may be formed of an epoxy resin, a fiberglass-reinforced epoxy resin, a ceramic material, or a polymer material such as polyimide. In some implementations, the interposer 2304 may be formed of alternate rigid or flexible materials that may include the same materials described above for use in a semiconductor substrate, such as silicon, germanium, and other group III-V and group IV materials. The interposer 2304 may include metal interconnects 2308 and vias 2310, including but not limited to through-silicon vias (TSVs) 2306. The interposer 2304 may further include embedded devices 2314, including both passive and active devices. Such devices may include, but are not limited to, capacitors, decoupling capacitors, resistors, inductors, fuses, diodes, transformers, sensors, electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices, and memory devices. More complex devices such as radio frequency (RF) devices, power amplifiers, power management devices, antennas, arrays, sensors, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices may also be formed on the interposer 2304. The package-on-interposer structure 2336 may take the form of any of the package-on-interposer structures known in the art.
The IC device assembly 2300 may include an IC package 2324 coupled to the first face 2340 of the circuit board 2302 by coupling components 2322. The coupling components 2322 may take the form of any of the embodiments discussed above with reference to the coupling components 2316, and the IC package 2324 may take the form of any of the embodiments discussed above with reference to the IC package 2320.
The IC device assembly 2300 illustrated in
A number of components are illustrated in
Additionally, in various embodiments, the computing device 2400 may not include one or more of the components illustrated in
The computing device 2400 may include a processing device 2402 (e.g., one or more processing devices). As used herein, the term “processing device” or “processor” may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that may be stored in registers and/or memory. The processing device 2402 may include one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific ICs (ASICs), central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), cryptoprocessors (specialized processors that execute cryptographic algorithms within hardware), server processors, or any other suitable processing devices. The computing device 2400 may include a memory 2404, which may itself include one or more memory devices such as volatile memory (e.g., DRAM), nonvolatile memory (e.g., read-only memory (ROM)), flash memory, solid state memory, and/or a hard drive. In some embodiments, the memory 2404 may include memory that shares a die with the processing device 2402. This memory may be used as cache memory and may include one or more IC devices with transistors having one front-side and one back-side S/D contacts as described herein.
In some embodiments, the computing device 2400 may include a communication chip 2412 (e.g., one or more communication chips). For example, the communication chip 2412 may be configured for managing wireless communications for the transfer of data to and from the computing device 2400. The term “wireless” and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a nonsolid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices do not contain any wires, although in some embodiments they might not.
The communication chip 2412 may implement any of a number of wireless standards or protocols, including but not limited to Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standards including Wi-Fi (IEEE 602.11 family), IEEE 602.16 standards (e.g., IEEE 602.16-2005 Amendment), Long-Term Evolution (LTE) project along with any amendments, updates, and/or revisions (e.g., advanced LTE project, ultramobile broadband (UMB) project (also referred to as “3GPP2”), etc.). IEEE 602.16 compatible Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) networks are generally referred to as WiMAX networks, an acronym that stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, which is a certification mark for products that pass conformity and interoperability tests for the IEEE 602.16 standards. The communication chip 2412 may operate in accordance with a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Evolved HSPA (E-HSPA), or LTE network. The communication chip 2412 may operate in accordance with Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), or Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN). The communication chip 2412 may operate in accordance with Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), and derivatives thereof, as well as any other wireless protocols that are designated as 3G, 4G, 5G, and beyond. The communication chip 2412 may operate in accordance with other wireless protocols in other embodiments. The computing device 2400 may include an antenna 2422 to facilitate wireless communications and/or to receive other wireless communications (such as AM or FM radio transmissions).
In some embodiments, the communication chip 2412 may manage wired communications, such as electrical, optical, or any other suitable communication protocols (e.g., the Ethernet). As noted above, the communication chip 2412 may include multiple communication chips. For instance, a first communication chip 2412 may be dedicated to shorter-range wireless communications such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and a second communication chip 2412 may be dedicated to longer-range wireless communications such as global positioning system (GPS), EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, LTE, EV-DO, or others. In some embodiments, a first communication chip 2412 may be dedicated to wireless communications, and a second communication chip 2412 may be dedicated to wired communications.
The computing device 2400 may include battery/power circuitry 2414. The battery/power circuitry 2414 may include one or more energy storage devices (e.g., batteries or capacitors) and/or circuitry for coupling components of the computing device 2400 to an energy source separate from the computing device 2400 (e.g., AC line power).
The computing device 2400 may include a display device 2406 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The display device 2406 may include any visual indicators, such as a heads-up display, a computer monitor, a projector, a touchscreen display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light-emitting diode display, or a flat panel display, for example.
The computing device 2400 may include an audio output device 2408 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The audio output device 2408 may include any device that generates an audible indicator, such as speakers, headsets, or earbuds, for example.
The computing device 2400 may include an audio input device 2418 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The audio input device 2418 may include any device that generates a signal representative of a sound, such as microphones, microphone arrays, or digital instruments (e.g., instruments having a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) output).
The computing device 2400 may include a GPS device 2416 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The GPS device 2416 may be in communication with a satellite-based system and may receive a location of the computing device 2400, as known in the art.
The computing device 2400 may include an other output device 2410 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). Examples of the other output device 2410 may include an audio codec, a video codec, a printer, a wired or wireless transmitter for providing information to other devices, or an additional storage device.
The computing device 2400 may include an other input device 2420 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). Examples of the other input device 2420 may include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, an image capture device, a keyboard, a cursor control device such as a mouse, a stylus, a touchpad, a bar code reader, a Quick Response (QR) code reader, any sensor, or a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader.
The computing device 2400 may have any desired form factor, such as a handheld or mobile computing device (e.g., a cell phone, a smart phone, a mobile internet device, a music player, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook computer, an ultrabook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an ultramobile personal computer, etc.), a desktop computing device, a server or other networked computing component, a printer, a scanner, a monitor, a set-top box, an entertainment control unit, a vehicle control unit, a digital camera, a digital video recorder, or a wearable computing device. In some embodiments, the computing device 2400 may be any other electronic device that processes data.
Select Examples
The following paragraphs provide various examples of the embodiments disclosed herein.
Example 1 provides an IC device that includes a support structure (e.g., a substrate); a transistor that includes a channel material, a first source or drain (S/D) region, and a second S/D region; a contact (i.e., an electrical contact) to the first S/D region; and a contact to the second S/D region. The contact to the first S/D region is in a first layer over the support structure, the contact to the second S/D region is in a second layer over the support structure, a portion of the channel material between the first S/D region and the second S/D region is in a third layer over the support structure, and the third layer is between the first layer and the second layer.
Example 2 provides the IC device according to example 1, where the transistor further includes a gate stack over at least a portion of the channel material between the first S/D region and the second S/D region, and the IC device further includes a contact to the gate stack.
Example 3 provides the IC device according to example 2, where at least a portion of the contact to the gate stack is in the first layer (i.e., in the same layer as the contact to the first S/D region).
Example 4 provides the IC device according to examples 2 or 4, where the gate stack includes a gate electrode material and a gate dielectric material, where the gate dielectric material is between the gate electrode material and the channel material.
Example 5 provides the IC device according to any one of the preceding examples, where the contact to the second S/D region includes a capacitor. Together, the transistor and the capacitor form a 1T-1C memory cell, where the transistor is an access transistor configured to control access for reading to, or writing from, the memory cell.
Example 6 provides the IC device according to example 5, further including a wordline (WL), coupled to or including the contact to the gate stack and configured to supply a gate signal to the transistor, and a bitline (BL), coupled to or including the contact to the first S/D region and configured to transfer the memory state of the memory cell.
Example 7 provides the IC device according to examples 5 or 6, where the capacitor has a first capacitor electrode, a second capacitor electrode, and an insulator between the first capacitor electrode and the second capacitor electrode, and the contact to the second S/D region further includes a first contact to the first capacitor electrode, and a second contact between the second S/D region and the second capacitor electrode.
Example 8 provides the IC device according to example 7, further including a plateline (PL), coupled to or including the first contact to the first capacitor electrode, and further coupled to a plate voltage generator.
Example 9 provides the IC device according to any one of examples 5-8, where the capacitor is a metal-insulator-metal capacitor.
Example 10 provides the IC device according to any one of examples 1-9, where at least a portion of the channel material is shaped as a fin, i.e., the transistor is a FinFET.
Example 11 provides the IC device according to any one of examples 1-9, where at least a portion of the channel material is shaped as a nanowire, i.e., the transistor is a nanowire transistor.
Example 12 provides the IC device according to any one of examples 1-9, where the transistor is a planar transistor.
Example 13 provides a memory device that includes a memory cell that includes a transistor and a capacitor coupled to a portion of the transistor, where the transistor includes a first S/D region, a second S/D region, and a channel region between the first S/D region and the second S/D region. The memory device further includes a bitline coupled to the first S/D region, the capacitor is coupled to the second S/D region, the channel region is in a layer that is between the bitline and the capacitor.
Example 14 provides the memory device according to example 13, where the transistor further includes a gate stack adjacent to at least a portion of the channel region, and the memory device further includes a wordline coupled to the gate stack.
Example 15 provides the memory device according to examples 13 or 14, where the memory cell is one of a plurality of memory cells of a memory array of the memory device.
Example 16 provides the memory device according to example 15, where the memory device further includes a memory peripheral circuit to control (e.g., access (read/write), store, refresh) the memory array, the memory peripheral circuit provided over a support structure (e.g., a substrate), and at least portions of the plurality of memory cells are provided over the memory peripheral circuit.
Example 17 provides the memory device according to example 16, where at least some of the plurality of memory cells are provided in different layers over the memory peripheral circuit.
In various further examples, the memory device according to any one of the preceding examples is, or is included in, the IC device according to any one of the preceding examples, where the transistor of the memory device is the transistor of the IC device according to any one of the preceding examples and the capacitor of the memory device is the capacitor of the IC device according to any one of the preceding examples.
Example 18 provides a method for fabricating a memory device, the method including forming a capacitor having a first capacitor electrode and a second capacitor electrode; forming an electrical contact to the first capacitor electrode; providing a channel material over the capacitor; patterning the channel material to form a channel region from the channel material, a first S/D region, and a second S/D region, so that at least a portion of the channel region is between the first S/D region and the second S/D region; providing an electrical contact to the first S/D region; and electrically coupling the second capacitor electrode and the second S/D region.
Example 19 provides the method according to example 18, where the capacitor is formed over a support structure (e.g., a substrate), the electrical contact to the first S/D region is provided in a first layer over the support structure, the capacitor is formed in a second layer over the support structure, the channel material is between the first layer and the second layer.
Example 20 provides the method according to example 18 or 19, where the method further includes providing one or more intermediate layers between the capacitor and the channel material, and electrically coupling the second capacitor electrode and the second S/D region includes providing an electrically conductive via through the one or more intermediate layers so that one portion of the electrically conductive via is electrically coupled to the second capacitor electrode and another portion of the electrically conductive via is electrically coupled to the second S/D region.
Example 21 provides an IC package that includes an IC die, including one or more of IC devices according to any one of the preceding examples (e.g., each IC device may be an IC device according to any one of examples 1-12, and/or a memory device according to any one of examples 13-17, and/or may be formed according to a method of any one of examples 18-20). The IC package also includes a further component, coupled to the IC die.
Example 22 provides the IC package according to example 21, where the further component is one of a package substrate, a flexible substrate, or an interposer.
Example 23 provides the IC package according to examples 21 or 22, where the further component is coupled to the IC die via one or more first level interconnects.
Example 24 provides the IC package according to example 23, where the one or more first level interconnects include one or more solder bumps, solder posts, or bond wires.
Example 25 provides a computing device that includes a circuit board; and an IC die coupled to the circuit board, where the IC die includes one or more of: one or more IC devices according to any one of the preceding examples (e.g., each IC device may be an IC device according to any one of examples 1-12 and/or may be formed according to a method of any one of examples 18-20), one or more of memory devices according to any one of the preceding examples (e.g., each memory device may be a memory device according to any one of examples 13-17 and/or may be formed according to a method of any one of examples 18-20), and the IC package according to any one of the preceding examples (e.g., the IC package according to any one of examples 21-24).
Example 26 provides the computing device according to example 25, where the computing device is a wearable computing device (e.g., a smart watch) or handheld computing device (e.g., a mobile phone).
Example 27 provides the computing device according to examples 25 or 26, where the computing device is a server processor.
Example 28 provides the computing device according to examples 25 or 26, where the computing device is a motherboard.
Example 29 provides the computing device according to any one of examples 25-28, where the computing device further includes one or more communication chips and an antenna.
The above description of illustrated implementations of the disclosure, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specific implementations of, and examples for, the disclosure are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. These modifications may be made to the disclosure in light of the above detailed description.
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