The present disclosure provides a static random access memory (SRAM) cell. The SRAM cell includes a plurality of fin active regions foamed on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the plurality of fin active regions include a pair adjacent fin active regions having a first spacing and a fin active region having a second spacing from adjacent fin active regions, the second spacing being greater than the first spacing; a plurality of fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) formed on the plurality of fin active regions, wherein the plurality of FinFETs are configured to a first and second inverters cross-coupled for data storage and at least one port for data access; a first contact disposed between the first and second the fin active regions, electrically contacting both of the first and second the fin active regions; and a second contact disposed on and electrically contacting the third fin active region.
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0. 29. A method comprising:
forming a first fin and a second fin separated by a first spacing;
forming a third fin, a fourth fin, and a fifth fin separated by a second spacing, wherein the fourth fin is disposed between the third fin and the fifth fin, and further wherein the second spacing is greater than the first spacing;
forming a first contact over the first fin and the second fin, wherein the first contact spans the first spacing, a width of the first fin, and a width of the second fin, such that the first contact extends beyond outermost sidewalls of the first fin and the second fin;
forming a second contact disposed over the third fin, the fourth fin, and the fifth fin, wherein the second contact spans the second spacing between the third fin and the fourth fin, the second spacing between the fourth fin and the fifth fin, and a width of the fourth fin, such that the second contact does not extend beyond outermost sidewalls of the third fin and the fifth fin; and
forming a single gate structure that traverses the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth fins.
0. 21. A method comprising:
forming a first fin of a first fin field effect transistor (FinFET), a second fin of a second FinFET, a third fin of a third FinFET, and a fourth fin of a fourth FinFET, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth fins are oriented substantially parallel to one another, the first fin and the second fin are separated by a first distance, the third fin and the fourth fin are separated by a second distance that is greater than the first distance, the first FinFET and the second FinFET are first type FinFETs, the third FinFETs and the fourth FinFETs are second type FinFETs, and the first type is opposite the second type;
forming a single gate structure that traverses the first fin, the second fin, the third fin, and the fourth fin, such that the gate structure wraps a first portion respectively of the first fin, the second fin, the third fin, and the fourth fin;
forming a first epitaxy feature disposed on a second portion of the first fin, a second epitaxy feature disposed on a second portion of the second fin, a third epitaxy feature disposed on a second portion of the third fin, and a fourth epitaxy feature disposed on a second portion of the fourth fin, wherein the first epitaxy feature is merged with the second epitaxy feature and the third epitaxy feature is not merged with the fourth epitaxy feature;
forming a first contact disposed on the first epitaxy feature and the second epitaxy feature, wherein the first contact spans the first distance between the first fin and the second fin; and
forming a second contact disposed on the third epitaxy feature and the fourth epitaxy feature, wherein the second contact spans the second distance between the third fin and the fourth fin.
0. 14. A method comprising:
forming a first fin, a second fin, and a third fin extending from a substrate, wherein the first fin is spaced away from the second fin by a first distance and the second fin is spaced away from the third fin by a second distance, wherein the second distance is different than the first distance, wherein the first fin includes a first source region and a first drain region, the second fin includes a second source region and a second drain region, and the third fin includes a third source region and a third drain region;
forming a first isolation feature disposed between the first fin and the second fin and a second isolation feature disposed between the second fin and the third fin;
recessing the first fin, the second fin, and the third fin, such that a top surface of the first fin, a top surface of the second fin, and a top surface of the third fin are lower than top surfaces of the first isolation feature and the second isolation feature;
forming a gate structure wrapping the first fin, the second fin, and the third fin, such that the gate structure traverses the first source region and the first drain region of the first fin, the second source region and the second drain region of the second fin, and the third source region and the third drain region of the third fin;
forming first epitaxy features disposed on the first source region and the first drain region of the first fin, second epitaxy features disposed on the second source region and the second drain region of the second fin, and third epitaxy features disposed on the third source region and the third drain region of the third fin, wherein:
the second epitaxy feature disposed on the second source region is merged with the first epitaxy feature disposed on the first source region,
the second epitaxy feature disposed on the second source region is not merged with the third epitaxy feature disposed on the third source region, and
the first epitaxy feature, the second epitaxy feature, and the third epitaxy feature are disposed respectively over the top surfaces of the first fin, the second fin, and the third fin, such that a portion of the second epitaxy features is disposed between the first isolation feature and the second isolation feature;
forming a first contact disposed on a portion of the first epitaxy feature and a portion of the second epitaxy feature disposed respectively on the first source region of the first fin and the second source region of the second fin, such that the first contact couples the first source region of the first fin and the second source region of the second fin to a first voltage line; and
forming a second contact disposed on a portion of the third epitaxy feature disposed on the third source region of the third fin, such that the second contact couples the third source region of the third fin to a second voltage line.
0. 1. A device comprising:
a first fin active region, a second fin active region, and a third fin active region extending from a semiconductor substrate, wherein the first and second fin active regions are spaced apart from each other a first distance and the second and third fin active regions are spaced apart from each other a second distance, wherein the second distance is different than the first distance;
a plurality of fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) formed on at least one of the first, second, and third fin active regions;
a first contact disposed on the first and second fin active regions; and
a second contact disposed on the third fin active region.
0. 2. The device of
0. 3. The device of
0. 4. The device of
0. 5. The device of
0. 6. The device of
0. 7. The device of
a first inverter including a first pull-up transistor (PU-1) and a first and second pull-down transistors (PD-1 and PD-2); and
a second inverter including a second pull-up transistor (PU-2) and a third and fourth pull-down transistors (PD-3 and PD-4), the second inverter being cross-coupled with the first inverter for data storage, and
wherein the PD-1 and PD-2 are formed on the first and second fin active regions, respectively.
0. 8. A device comprising:
a first fin active region, a second fin active region, and a third fin active region extending from a semiconductor substrate;
a first isolation element extending a first distance from the first fin active region to the second fin active region;
a second isolation element extending a second distance from the second fin active region to the third fin active region, wherein the second distance is different than the first distance;
a plurality of fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) formed on at least one of the first, second, and third fin active regions;
a first contact disposed on the first and second fin active regions; and
a second contact disposed on the third fin active region.
0. 9. The device of
0. 10. The device of
0. 11. The device of
a third isolation element extending the second distance from the third fin active region to the fourth fin active region.
0. 12. The device of
0. 13. The device of
a first pull-up device and a second pull-up device;
a first pull-down device configured with the first pull-up device to form a first inverter;
a second pull-down device configured with the second pull-up device to form a second inverter; and
a first and second pass-gate devices configured with the first and second inverters as a first port.
0. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the forming the first fin, the second fin, and the third fin and the forming the first isolation feature and the second isolation feature includes:
etching trenches in the substrate;
filling the trenches with a dielectric material; and
etching back the dielectric material.
0. 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the forming the first epitaxy features, the second epitaxy features, and the third epitaxy features is performed before a replacement process implemented for the forming the gate structure.
0. 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the forming the first epitaxy features and the second epitaxy features includes growing a first semiconductor material and the forming the third epitaxy features includes growing a second semiconductor material that is different than the first semiconductor material.
0. 18. The method of claim 14, further comprising forming a first metal line and a second metal line, wherein the first contact is connected to the first metal line and the second contact is connected to the second metal line, and further wherein the first metal line and the second metal line are complementary power lines.
0. 19. The method of claim 14, wherein the forming the first contact and the forming the second contact includes: performing a lithography and etching process to form a first contact hole in a dielectric layer that exposes the portion of the first epitaxy feature and the portion of the second epitaxy feature and a second contact hole that exposes the portion of the third epitaxy feature; and
depositing a conductive material in the first contact hole and the second contact hole.
0. 20. The method of claim 14, further comprising configuring the first fin, the second fin, the third fin, the first epitaxy feature, the second epitaxy features, the third epitaxy features, the first contact, and the second contact to form a portion of a static random access memory (SRAM).
0. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein:
the forming the first epitaxy feature and the second epitaxy feature includes epitaxially growing a first semiconductor material from the second portion of the first fin and the second portion of the second fin; and
the forming the third epitaxy feature and the fourth epitaxy feature includes epitaxially growing a second semiconductor material from the second portion of the third fin and the second portion of the fourth fin, wherein the second semiconductor material is different than the first semiconductor material.
0. 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising forming silicide features on the first semiconductor material and the second semiconductor material before forming the first contact and the second contact.
0. 24. The method of claim 22, further comprising etching the first fin and the second fin before epitaxially growing the first semiconductor material and the third fin and the fourth fin before epitaxially growing the second semiconductor material.
0. 25. The method of claim 21, wherein the second fin is separated from the third fin by the second distance.
0. 26. The method of claim 21, wherein:
the first FinFET and the second FinFET are pull-up devices;
the third FinFET and the fourth FinFET are pull-down devices; and
wherein the pull-down devices and the pull-up devices are configured to form a first inverter and a second inverter.
0. 27. The method of claim 21, wherein the forming the single gate structure includes:
forming a polysilicon gate stack over the first portion respectively of the first fin, the second fin, the third fin, and the fourth fin; and
replacing the polysilicon gate stack with a gate stack that includes a high-k gate dielectric and a metal gate electrode.
0. 28. The method of claim 21, further comprising forming an interlayer dielectric layer over the first fin, the second fin, the third fin, and the fourth fin, wherein the first contact and the second contact are formed in the interlayer dielectric layer.
0. 30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:
forming a first isolation feature separating the first fin and the second fin;
forming a second isolation feature separating the third fin and the fourth fin; and
forming a third isolation feature separating the fourth fin and the fifth fin.
0. 31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:
forming a first epitaxy feature disposed on a portion the first fin, a second epitaxy feature disposed on a portion of the second fin, a third epitaxy feature disposed on a portion of the third fin, a fourth epitaxy feature disposed on a portion of the fourth fin, and a fifth epitaxy feature disposed on a portion of the fifth fin;
wherein the first contact is disposed on the first and the second epitaxy features; and
wherein the second contact is disposed on the third, fourth, and fifth epitaxy features.
0. 32. The method of claim 31, wherein:
the forming the first epitaxy feature disposed on the portion on the first fin includes etching back the first fin, such that a top surface of the portion of the first fin is lower than a top surface of the first isolation feature;
the forming the second epitaxy feature disposed on the portion on the second fin includes etching back the second fin, such that a top surface of the portion of the second fin is lower than a top surface of the first isolation feature;
the forming the third epitaxy feature disposed on the portion on the third fin includes etching back the third fin, such that a top surface of the portion of the third fin is lower than a top surface of the second isolation feature;
the forming the fourth epitaxy feature disposed on the portion on the fourth fin includes etching back the fourth fin, such that a top surface of the portion of the fourth fin is lower than a top surface of the second isolation feature; and
the forming the fifth epitaxy feature disposed on the portion on the fifth fin includes etching back the fifth fin, such that a top surface of the portion of the fifth fin is lower than a top surface of the third isolation feature.
0. 33. The method of claim 31, wherein the first epitaxy feature merges with the second epitaxy feature over the first isolation feature, the third epitaxy feature does not merge with the fourth epitaxy feature, and the fourth epitaxy feature does not merge with the fifth epitaxy feature.
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Notice: More than one reissue application has been filed for U.S. Pat. No. 8,653,630. The reissue applications are U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/041,843, filed Feb. 11, 2016, and the present application, filed May 24, 2019, which is a divisional reissue of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/041,843.
The present application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/827,690, filed Jun. 30, 2010, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
This application is a divisional reissue of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/041,843, filed Feb. 11, 2016, which is an application for reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 8,653,630, now U.S. Pat. No. RE 47,409. U.S. Pat. No. 8,653,630 claims priority to and is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/827,690, filed Jun. 30, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,399,931. The entire disclosures of each of the foregoing identified patents and their corresponding originally-filed applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure is related to the following commonly-assigned U.S. patent applications, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Ser. No. 12/721,476 filed Mar. 10, 2010 by the same inventor Jhon Jhy Liaw for “FULLY BALANCED DUAL-PORT MEMORY CELL”; and U.S. Ser. No. 12/823,860 filed Jun. 25, 2010 by the same inventor Jhon Jhy Liaw for “STRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR SRAM CELL CIRCUIT”.
In deep sub-micron integrated circuit technology, an embedded static random access memory (SRAM) device has become a popular storage unit of high speed communication, image processing and system-on-chip (SOC) products. The amount of embedded SRAM in micro-processors and SOCs increases to meet the performance requirement in each new technology generation. As silicon technology continues to scale from one generation to the next, the impact of intrinsic threshold voltage (Vt) variations in minimum geometry size bulk planar transistors reduces the complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) SRAM cell static noise margin (SNM). This reduction in SNM caused by increasingly smaller transistor geometries is undesirable. SNM is further reduced when Vcc is scaled to a lower voltage.
To solve SRAM issues and continue to improve cell shrink capability, the fin field effect transistor (FinFET) devices are often considered for some applications. The FinFET provides both speed and device stability. The FinFET has a channel (referred to as a fin channel) associated with a top surface and opposite sidewalls. Benefits can be provided from the additional sidewall device width (Ion performance) as well as better short channel control (sub-threshold leakage). In FinFet cell devices, the setting of single fin cell device faces cell ratio problems like beta ratio (Ipd/Ipg) or alpha ratio (Ipu/Ipg). One important parameter of cell stability is referred to as “beta ratio” and is defined as the ratio between pull-down transistor drive current and pass-gate transistor drive current. A high beta ratio greater than 1 is desired in order to improve the stability of the SRAM cell. SRAM cell voltage Vcc_min is a factor related to the write capability. The corresponding parameter is the ratio between pull-up transistor drive current and pass-gate transistor drive current, referred to as “alpha ratio.” Hence, in order to increase electrical current in a given cell area, the pitch between the fins has to be minimized. Unfortunately, it is difficult to achieve further reductions in pitch in FinFET devices, due to fundamental limitations in existing lithography techniques (like tight pitch fin nodes connection and contact to contact space rule).
Therefore, there is a need of new structure and method for SRAM cells to address these concerns for high-end cell application and improved multiple fins cell size.
The present disclosure provides a static random access memory (SRAM) cell. The SRAM cell includes a plurality of fin active regions formed on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the plurality of fin active regions include a pair adjacent fin active regions having a first spacing and a fin active region having a second spacing front adjacent fin active regions, the second spacing being greater than the first spacing; a plurality of fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) formed on the plurality of fin active regions, wherein the plurality of FinFETs are configured to a first and second inverters cross-coupled for data storage and at least one port for data access; a first contact disposed between the first and second the fin active regions, electrically contacting both of the first and second the fin active regions; and a second contact disposed on and electrically contacting, the third fin active region.
The present disclosure also provides one embodiment of a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a first and second fin active regions extended from a semiconductor substrate and spaced away from each other with a first distance; a third and fourth fin active regions extended front the semiconductor substrate and spaced away from each other with a second distance greater than the first distance; a first and second epitaxy features formed on the first and second fin active regions, respectively, wherein the first and second epitaxy features are laterally merged together; a third and fourth epitaxy features formed on the third and fourth fin active regions, respectively, wherein the third and fourth epitaxy features are separated from each other; a first contact disposed on the first and second epitaxy features merged together; and a second contact disposed on the third epitaxy feature, wherein the second contact is spaced away from the fourth epitaxy feature and is not electrically connected to the fourth fin active region.
The present disclosure provides yet another embodiment of a static random access memory (SRAM) cell. The SRAM cell includes a first inverter including a first pull-up transistor (PU-1) and a first and second pull-down transistors (PD-1 and PU-2); a second inverter including a second pull-up transistor (PU-2) and a third and fourth pull-down transistors (PD-3 and PD-4), the second inverter being cross-coupled with the first inverter for data storage; a port including, a first pass-gate transistor (PG-1) and a second pass-gate transistor (PG-2), the port being coupled with the first and second inverters for data access, wherein each of PD-1, PD-2, PD-3, PD-4, PG-1 and PG-2 includes a n-type fin field-effect transistor (nFinFET) and each of PU-1 and PU-2 includes a p-type fin field-effect transistor (pFinFET); a first and second fin active regions having a first and second silicon epitaxy features, respectively, wherein the first and second silicon epitaxy features are merged together, and the PD-1 and PD-2 are formed on the first and second fin active regions, respectively; and a silicide feature is formed on the first and second silicon epitaxy features merged together, electrically connecting source regions of PD-1 and PD-2 together.
Aspects of the present disclosure are best understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It is emphasized that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion.
It is to be understood that the following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of various embodiments. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to be limiting. In addition, the present disclosure may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.
Various gates are further formed on the fin active regions. A gate feature includes a gate dielectric layer 60 (such as silicon oxide) and a gate electrode 62 (such as doped polysilicon) disposed on the gate dielectric layer 60. In another embodiment, the gate feature alternatively or additionally includes other proper materials for circuit performance and manufacturing integration. For example, the gate dielectric layer includes high-k dielectric material layer. The gate electrode includes metal, such as aluminum, copper, tungsten or other proper conductive material. In yet another embodiment, the gate electrode includes a metal having proper work function to the associated FinFET. For a gate stack including high-k dielectric material and metal, the gate can be formed by a gate-last process or a high-k-last process (a complete gate-last process). In the present embodiment for illustration, the semiconductor structure 50 includes a first region 64 for one or more FinFETs and a second region 66 for one or more FinFETs.
The semiconductor layer 86 is patterned to form fin active regions 88 and 90. The fin active regions 88 and 90 are configured and oriented in parallel. The fin active regions 88 & 90 and the STI features can be formed in a processing sequence including forming a patterned mask layer on the semiconductor layer and etching the semiconductor layer through the openings of the patterned mask layer. The patterned mask layer can be a patterned photoresist layer or a patterned hard mask layer, such as a patterned silicon nitride layer.
Various gates are further formed on the fin active regions. A gate feature includes a gate dielectric layer 92 (such as silicon oxide) and a gate electrode 94 (such as doped polysilicon) disposed on the gate dielectric layer 92. In one embodiment, the gate dielectric layer 92 includes high-k dielectric material layer. The gate electrode 94 includes metal, such as aluminum, copper, tungsten, or other proper conductive material. In the present embodiment for illustration, the semiconductor structure 80 includes a first region 96 for one or more FinFETs and a second region 98 for one or more FinFETs.
In one embodiment, the processing flow to form a SRAM cell, including, the pass-gate and pull-down devices, have the following steps: formation of fin active regions; well formation; gate formation; epitaxy growth; light doped drain (LDD) formation; pocket implant (pocket junction) formation; gate spacer formation; source/drain (S/D) dopant formation; interlayer dielectric (ILD) formation; gate replacement; forming contact holes; silicide formation and forming contacts.
The semiconductor structure 100 further includes various contact formed in the ILD 112 and configured to provide electrical routing. The contacts are vertical conductive features designed to electrically connect sources, drains and gate electrodes to metal lines. The contacts are a portion of the multilayer interconnect for wiring. In the present embodiment, the various contacts and other interconnect features are configured to form a SRAM cell. The first contact 114 is designed with a proper geometry and is disposed to electrically contact both fin active regions 104 and 106. In one embodiment, the contact 114 is configured to electrically contact both sources of a first FinFET on the fin active region 104 and a second FinFET on the fin active region 106. In furtherance of the present embodiment, the first and second FinFETs are both pull-down devices configured in parallel; the sources are connected to the power line Vss and the drains are connected together (further coupled to the drain of an associated pull-up device as one inverter of the SRAM cell). Since the sources of the both FinFETs are designed to be applicable of a same electrical voltage (and the drains of the both FinFETs are designed to couple together), the fin active regions 104 and 106 are designed with a smaller spacing D1 to reduce the cell size. The semiconductor structure 100 also includes a second contact 116 designed and configured to land on and electrically connect only the fin active region 108. In one embodiment, the second contact 116 is configured to electrically contact source of a third FinFET on the fin active region 108. In order to avoid any electrical malfunctions caused by misalignment the adjacent fin active regions 106 and 110 are designed to have a larger spacing D2 with enough margin according to the manufacturing capability. Due to the manufacturing capability including lithography patterning, the reduction on the spacing between the adjacent fin active regions is limited by the manufacturing capability.
The formation of various contacts (such as contacts 114 and 116) includes forming contact holes in the ILD 112 and filling the contact hole with a conductive material. The contact holes can be formed by a lithography process and an etch process, such as plasma dry etch. In the lithography process, a patterned photoresist layer is formed on the ILD 112 with various openings defining regions for the contact holes. The etch process is applied to the ILD 112 to form the contact holes using the patterned photoresist layer as an etch mask layer. Alternatively, a hard mask is formed using the patterned photoresist layer and the etch process is applied to the ILD 112 through the openings of the patterned hard mask layer. The filling in the contact holes includes a deposition process to form one or more conductive materials in the contact holes. The deposition process may include CVD, sputtering, plating, or combinations thereof. A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process may be subsequently applied to remove the excessive conductive materials and planarize the surface. In one embodiment, the formation of the various contacts includes forming a patterned photoresist layer by a lithography process; etching the ILD 112 to form contact holes; forming a conductive material in the contact holes; and performing a CMP to the ILD.
The contacts and other interconnect features include vias and metal lines to form an interconnect to electrically configure the FinFETs to functional circuits, such as a SARM cell or SRAM array. In one embodiment, tungsten is used to form tungsten plug in the contact holes. In another embodiment, the conductive material filled in the contact holes includes tungsten, aluminum, copper, other proper metals, or combinations thereof. In yet another embodiment, the contacts further include a barrier layer formed on the sidewalls of the contact holes before filling the contact holes with conductive material. For example, a titanium nitride may be deposited on the sidewalk of the contact holes by sputtering.
In another embodiment, a silicide feature is formed between the contact and fin active region to reduce the contact resistance. Specifically, a silicide material is formed on the bottom of the contact holes and is disposed directly on the fin active regions within the contact holes. In one example, the silicide feature is formed by a process known in the art as self-aligned silicide (salicide). In one embodiment of salicide technique, a metal layer is first deposited on the semiconductor structure 100. The metal layer directly contacts silicon of the fin active regions within the contact holes. Then an annealing process with a proper temperature is applied to the semiconductor structure 100 such that the metal layer and the silicon of the fin active regions react to form silicide. The unreacted metal after the annealing process can be removed front the contact holes. The metal material used to form silicide includes titanium, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium tungsten, tantalum or erbium in various embodiment. In yet another embodiment, the method of knurling contacts includes forming a patterned photoresist layer by a lithography process; etching the ILD 112 to form contact holes; forming silicide on fin active regions within the contact holes; forming a conductive material in the contact holes; and performing a CMP process to the ILD. In yet another embodiment, the silicide includes titanium (Ti), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), molybdenum (Mo), platinum (Pt), or combinations thereof.
Other processing steps may be implemented before, during and/or after the formation of the contacts. For example, the multilayer interconnection is further formed after the formation of the various contacts. The multilayer interconnection includes vertical interconnects, such as conventional vias addition to the contacts and horizontal interconnect including metal lines. The various interconnection features may implement various conductive materials including copper, aluminum, tungsten and silicide. In one example, a damascene process is used to form copper related multilayer interconnection structure.
In the semiconductor structure 100, a SRAM cell includes multiple fin active regions with varying spacing or pitch. The pitch of multiple fin active regions is defined as a dimension from one fin active region to an adjacent fin active region. Furthermore, the semiconductor structure 100 includes two types of contacts, the first type of contacts is designed to electrically contact two adjacent fin active regions having a smaller spacing, such as the first spacing D1. The second type of contacts is designed to electrically contact only one fin active region having a larger spacing (such as D2) from the adjacent fin active regions. By implementing the above multiple fin active regions with varying spacing and two types of contacts configured with the fin active regions according to the respective spacing, the SRAM cell is further reduced in the cell area and improved on the cell quality such that the is various issues discussed in the background are addressed.
The fin active regions 104, 106, 108 and 110 are configured with different spacing between adjacent fin active regions. In the present embodiment, the fin active regions 104 and 106 are configured to have a first spacing D1. The fin active region 108 is configured to have a second spacing D2 from adjacent fin active regions 106 and 110. The second spacing D2 is greater than the first spacing D1.
When the epitaxy features 122 are formed on the respective fin active regions, lateral epitaxy growth will enlarge the dimension of the fin active regions and narrow the spacing as illustrated in
The semiconductor structure 120 includes an interlayer dielectric (ILD) 112 disposed on the fin active regions and the isolation features. The ILD 112 is similar to that of the semiconductor structure 100 in
The semiconductor structure 120 further includes various contacts formed in the ILD 112 and configured to provide electrical routing. The present embodiment includes contacts 126 and 128. The contact 126 is designed with a proper geometry and is disposed to electrically contact both epitaxy features 122a and 122b. Alternatively, the contact 126 is configured to land on the merged epitaxy features 122a and 122b. In this case, the contact 126 may have a less dimension titan the contact 114 of
The formation of various contacts (such as contacts 126 and 128) is similar to the formation of the contacts 114 and 116 of
A sectional view of the semiconductor structure 130 along the. lung aa′ is shown, in portion, in
Referring back to
In another embodiment illustrated in
In another embodiment illustrated in
In another embodiment illustrated in
Furthermore, the contact 140a contacts a source region of a first FinFET and the contact 140d contacts a drain region of the first FinFET. The contact 140b contacts a source region of a second FinFET and the contact 140e contacts a drain region of the second FinFET. The contact 140c contacts a source region of a third FinFET and the contact 140f contacts a drain region of the third FinFET. The contacts 140a through 140f are similar to the contact 128 of
In one embodiment, the processing flow to form a SRAM cell, including the pass-gate, pull-down and pull-up devices, have the following steps: formation of fin active regions, well formation, channel dopant formation gate formation, epitaxy growth to form epitaxy features, light doped drain (LDD) formation, gate spacer formation, source/drain (S/D) dopant formation, ILD deposition, gate replacement to form gate stacks having high-k dielectric material and metal gate electrode, etching to form contact holes, formation of silicide on source/drain regions and gates, forming contacts, and subsequent steps to form multilayer metal lines and vias. Particularly, the epitaxy features are formed after the gate formation and are only formed on the source and drain regions. The fin active regions include portions underlying the gate stacks are free of the epitaxy semiconductor materials and are not enlarged laterally. The fin active regions are configured with different spacing. A SRAM cell includes two adjacent fin active regions having a small spacing D1 and a fin active region having a larger spacing D2 from the adjacent active regions. The two fin active regions with the smaller spacing D1 include a farther reduced spacing between the corresponding epitaxy features. In one case, the two epitaxy features are merged together. The SRAM cell also includes a first and second type of contacts. The first type of contacts each is formed between the two fin active regions with the smaller spacing D1 and contacts the both two fin active regions. The second type of contacts each is disposed on a fin active region having the larger spacing D2 from the adjacent fin active regions and contacts only the corresponding fin active region.
The SRAM cell 170 further includes a first pass-gate device formed with an n-type fin field-effect transistor (nFinFET), referred to as PG-1, and a second pass-gate device formed with an n-type fin field-effect transistor (nFinFET), referred to as PG-2. The source of the first pass-gate PG-1 is electrically connected to the first data node and the source of the first pass-gate PG-2 is electrically connected to the second data node, forming a port for data access. Furthermore, the drain of PG-1 is electrically connected to a bit line (“BL”), and the gate of PG-1 is electrically connected to a word line (“WL”). Similarly, the drain of PG-2 is electrically connected to a bit line bar (“BLB”), and the gate of PG-2 is electrically connected to the word line WL.
In one embodiment, the various nFinFETs and pFinFETs are formed using high-k/metal gate technology so the gate stacks includes a high-k dielectric material layer for gate dielectric and one or more metals for gate electrode. The SRAM cell 170 may include additional devices, such as additional pull-down devices and pass-gate devices. In one example, each of the first and second inverter includes multiple pull-down devices formed on multiple fin active regions and configured in parallel. The multiple pull-down devices in parallel are configured such that the drains are connected together, the sources are connected together to the complimentary power line Vss, the gates are connected together. In this case, the fin active regions with the smaller spacing D1 are implemented and the first type of contacts are formed on the closed disposed or merged epitaxy features.
In yet another example, the cell 170 include an additional port having two or more pass-gate devices for additional data access, such as data reading or writing. Those pass-gate devices are configured in parallel and can also implement the configuration and design of the fin active regions and the first type of contacts similar to those for the pull-down devices in parallel. In another example, if a pull-up device may implement the fin active region having the larger spacing D2 from the adjacent fin active regions and the second type of contacts. In another embodiments, a contact is designed to land on and contact multiple fin active regions tightly packed (e.g., with the smaller spacing D1). For example with reference to
In various embodiments, the disclosed SRAM device addresses various issues noted in the background. In one example, by implementing first fin active regions with the smaller spacing D1 and a second fin active regions with the larger spacing D2, the first type of contacts to the first fin active regions, and the second type of contacts to the second fin active regions, the SRAM cell area is reduced while the functionality and performance of the SRAM cell are improved or maintained. In another embodiment, an epitaxy feature includes a raised structure having a top surface higher than the gate dielectric layer of the corresponding gate stack. In a particular example, the epitaxy feature with the raised structure is a silicon epitaxy feature. In yet another embodiment, the two merged epitaxy features are two silicon epitaxy features. A silicide is formed on the two merged silicon epitaxy features so that the corresponding sources or drains are electrically connected together.
The foregoing has outlined features of several embodiments. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures for carrying out the same purposes and/or achieving the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and that they may make various changes, substitutions and alterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
Liaw, Jhon Jhy, Shen, Jeng-Jung
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