U.S. patent application number 11/185646 was filed with the patent office on 2007-01-25 for sea-of-fins structure on a semiconductor substrate and method of fabrication.
This patent application is currently assigned to International Business Machines Corporation. Invention is credited to Howard H. Chen, Louis C. Hsu, Jack A. Mandelman, Chun-Yung Sung.
Application Number | 20070018239 11/185646 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37678285 |
Filed Date | 2007-01-25 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070018239 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chen; Howard H. ; et
al. |
January 25, 2007 |
Sea-of-fins structure on a semiconductor substrate and method of
fabrication
Abstract
A semiconductor device and a method of fabricating a
semiconductor device, wherein the method comprises forming, on a
substrate, a plurality of planarized fin bodies to be used for
customized fin field effect transistor (FinFET) device formation;
forming a nitride spacer around each of the plurality of fin
bodies; forming an isolation region in between each of the fin
bodies; and coating the plurality of fin bodies, the nitride
spacers, and the isolation regions with a protective film. The
fabricated semiconductor device is adapted to be used in customized
applications as a customized semiconductor device.
Inventors: |
Chen; Howard H.; (Yorktown
Heights, NY) ; Hsu; Louis C.; (Fishkill, NY) ;
Mandelman; Jack A.; (Flat Rock, NC) ; Sung;
Chun-Yung; (Poughkeepsie, NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FREDERICK W. GIBB, III;GIBB INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW FIRM, LLC
2568-A RIVA ROAD
SUITE 304
ANNAPOLIS
MD
21401
US
|
Assignee: |
International Business Machines
Corporation
Armonk
NY
|
Family ID: |
37678285 |
Appl. No.: |
11/185646 |
Filed: |
July 20, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
257/329 ;
257/E21.618; 257/E21.621; 257/E27.112 |
Current CPC
Class: |
Y10S 977/749 20130101;
Y10S 977/955 20130101; H01L 29/66795 20130101; H01L 29/785
20130101; H01L 21/823437 20130101; H01L 27/1211 20130101; Y10S
977/734 20130101; H01L 21/823431 20130101; Y10S 977/815 20130101;
H01L 21/823412 20130101; Y10S 977/742 20130101; H01L 29/66803
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
257/329 |
International
Class: |
H01L 29/76 20060101
H01L029/76 |
Claims
1. A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, said method
comprising: forming, on a substrate, a plurality of planarized fin
bodies to be used for customized fin field effect transistor
(FinFET) device formation; forming a nitride spacer around each of
said plurality of fin bodies; forming an isolation region in
between each of said fin bodies; and coating said plurality of fin
bodies, said nitride spacers, and the isolation regions with a
protective film.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: removing said
protective film; forming FinFET devices from a first type of said
fin bodies; forming fin capacitors from a second type of fin
bodies; and forming metal interconnects on said FinFET devices and
said fin capacitors.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein formation of each of said FinFET
devices comprises: forming a gate conductor over said first type of
fin bodies; forming a channel region below said gate conductor; and
configuring source/drain regions adjacent to said channel
region.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: exposing said first
type of fin bodies by removing said gate conductor from said first
type of fin bodies; and forming a region of semiconductor
resistance in the exposed first type of fin bodies.
5. The method of claim 3, further comprising doping a selective
portion of said gate conductor to produce a region of semiconductor
resistance in said gate conductor.
6. The method of claim 2, further comprising connecting a plurality
of said fin capacitors in parallel using a first level of said
metal interconnects.
7. The method of claim 2, further comprising: forming a plurality
of diodes in said fin bodies; and connecting said diodes in
series.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: selectively removing
said nitride spacer in selected areas of said semiconductor device
adapted to be formed into source/drain regions of said FinFET; and
forming an epitaxial material in said selected areas.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the fabricated semiconductor
device is adapted to be used in customized applications as a
customized semiconductor device.
10. A method of forming a semiconductor device to be used in very
large scale integrated circuit (VLSI) applications, said method
comprising: forming, on a substrate, an array of fin bodies
comprising silicon and adapted to be used in customized fin field
effect transistor (FinFET) construction; forming nitride spacers
around each fin body in said array of fin bodies; separating each
said fin body from one another; and applying a protective film over
the array of separated fin bodies.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: removing said
protective film; forming FinFET devices from a first type of fin
body; forming fin capacitors from a second type of fin body; and
forming metal interconnects on said FinFET devices and said fin
capacitors.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein formation of each of said
FinFET devices comprises: forming a gate conductor over said first
type of fin body; forming a channel region below said gate
conductor; and configuring source/drain regions adjacent to said
channel region.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising: exposing said first
type of fin body by removing said gate conductor from said first
type of fin body; and forming a region of semiconductor resistance
in the exposed first type of fin body.
14. The method of claim 12, further comprising doping a selective
portion of said gate conductor to produce a region of semiconductor
resistance in said gate conductor.
15. The method of claim 11, further comprising connecting a
plurality of said fin capacitors in parallel using a first level of
said metal interconnects.
16. The method of claim 11, further comprising: forming a plurality
of diodes in said fin body; and connecting said diodes in
series.
17. The method of claim 10, further comprising: selectively
removing said nitride spacers in selected areas of said
semiconductor device adapted to be formed into source/drain regions
of said FinFET; and forming an epitaxial material in said selected
areas.
18. The method of claim 10, wherein the formed semiconductor device
is adapted to be used in customized applications as a customized
semiconductor device.
19. A semiconductor device adapted to be used in customized
applications as a customized semiconductor device comprising: a
substrate; a plurality of planarized fin bodies on said substrate,
wherein the fin bodies are adapted to be used for customized fin
field effect transistor (FinFET) device formation; a nitride spacer
around each of said plurality of fin bodies; an isolation region in
between each of said fin bodies; and a protective film on said
plurality of fin bodies, said nitride spacers, and the isolation
regions.
20. The semiconductor device of claim 19, wherein said plurality of
planarized fin bodies are adapted to be used for any of customized
fin resistor, customized fin capacitor, and customized diode device
formation.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The embodiments of the invention generally relate to
integrated circuit technology, and, more particularly, to methods
to form a customized field effect transistor (FET).
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] Motivation to form FinFET devices on very thin silicon rail
as the body of a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor
(MOSFET) is driven by the need for shorter gate lengths, lower
leakage currents, and a higher level of device integration. The
lack of a reliable high-k gate stack to limit the leakage current
makes the three-dimensional structure of thin body, known as a
"fin" in U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,284, the complete disclosure of which
is herein incorporated by reference, very attractive in
90-nanometer process node and beyond. The fin body is normally
gated on three sides to gain better control of the channel
potential, thus resulting in better short channel effect and
scalability. Methods for forming such FinFET devices face
significant challenges such as sub-lithographic dimension control
of the fin width in a manufacturing environment, and surface
planarity to facilitate back-end-of-line metallization. Although
the fin dimensions in the conventional devices may be defined by
any conventional lithographic methods, it is desirable to further
reduce the fin dimension to less than 30 nm, which is beyond the
capability of existing lithographic technology.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] In view of the foregoing, an embodiment of the invention
provides a method of fabricating a semiconductor device, wherein
the method comprises forming, on a substrate, a plurality of
planarized fin bodies to be used for customized fin field effect
transistor (FinFET) device formation; forming a nitride spacer
around each of the plurality of fin bodies; forming an isolation
region in between each of the fin bodies; and coating the plurality
of fin bodies, the nitride spacers, and the isolation regions with
a protective film. The method may further comprise removing the
protective film; forming FinFET devices from a first type of the
fin bodies; forming fin capacitors from a second type of fin
bodies; and forming metal interconnects on the FinFET devices and
the fin capacitors, wherein formation of each of the FinFET devices
preferably comprises forming a gate conductor over the first type
of fin bodies; forming a channel region below the gate conductor;
and configuring source/drain regions adjacent to the channel
region.
[0006] The method may further comprise exposing the first type of
fin bodies by removing the gate conductor from the first type of
fin bodies; and forming a region of semiconductor resistance in the
exposed first type of fin bodies. Additionally, the method may
further comprise doping a selective portion of the gate conductor
to produce a region of semiconductor resistance in the gate
conductor. Furthermore, the method may further comprise connecting
a plurality of the fin capacitors in parallel using a first level
of the metal interconnects. Moreover, the method may further
comprise forming a plurality of diodes in the fin bodies; and
connecting the diodes in series. Also, the method may further
comprise selectively removing the nitride spacer in selected areas
of the semiconductor device adapted to be formed into source/drain
regions of the FinFET; and forming an epitaxial material in the
selected areas. Preferably, the fabricated semiconductor device is
adapted to be used in customized applications as a customized
semiconductor device.
[0007] Another aspect of the invention provides a method of forming
a semiconductor device to be used in very large scale integrated
circuit (VLSI) applications, wherein the method comprises forming,
on a substrate, an array of fin bodies comprising silicon and
adapted to be used in customized fin field effect transistor
(FinFET) construction; forming nitride spacers around each fin body
in the array of fin bodies; separating each the fin body from one
another; and applying a protective film over the array of separated
fin bodies. The method may further comprise removing the protective
film; forming FinFET devices from a first type of fin body; forming
fin capacitors from a second type of fin body; and forming metal
interconnects on the FinFET devices and the fin capacitors, wherein
formation of each of the FinFET devices preferably comprises
forming a gate conductor over the first type of fin body; forming a
channel region below the gate conductor; and configuring
source/drain regions adjacent to the channel region.
[0008] The method may further comprise exposing the first type of
fin body by removing the gate conductor from the first type of fin
body; and forming a region of semiconductor resistance in the
exposed first type of fin body. Moreover, the method may further
comprise doping a selective portion of the gate conductor to
produce a region of semiconductor resistance in the gate conductor.
Additionally, the method may further comprise connecting a
plurality of the fin capacitors in parallel using a first level of
the metal interconnects. Also, the method may further comprise
forming a plurality of diodes in the fin body; and connecting the
diodes in series. Furthermore, the method may further comprise
selectively removing the nitride spacers in selected areas of the
semiconductor device adapted to be formed into source/drain regions
of the FinFET; and forming an epitaxial material in the selected
areas. Preferably, the formed semiconductor device is adapted to be
used in customized applications as a customized semiconductor
device.
[0009] Another embodiment of the invention provides a semiconductor
device adapted to be used in customized applications as a
customized semiconductor device comprising a substrate; a plurality
of planarized fin bodies on the substrate, wherein the fin bodies
are adapted to be used for customized fin field effect transistor
(FinFET) device formation; a nitride spacer around each of the
plurality of fin bodies; an isolation region in between each of the
fin bodies; and a protective film on the plurality of fin bodies,
the nitride spacers, and the isolation regions, wherein the
plurality of planarized fin bodies are preferably adapted to be
used for any of customized fin resistor, customized fin capacitor,
and customized diode device formation.
[0010] These and other aspects of embodiments of the invention will
be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction
with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It
should be understood, however, that the following description,
while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention and
numerous specific details thereof, is given by way of illustration
and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made
within the scope of the embodiments of the invention without
departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments of the
invention include all such modifications.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The embodiments of the invention will be better understood
from the following detailed description with reference to the
drawings, in which:
[0012] FIGS. 1(A) through 3(B) illustrate schematic diagrams of
successive steps of forming a sea-of-fins (SOF) substrate according
to an embodiment of the invention;
[0013] FIGS. 4(A) through 17(B) illustrate schematic diagrams of
successive steps of forming a FinFET device using the SOF substrate
of FIG. 3(B) according to an embodiment of the invention;
[0014] FIGS. 18(A) through 19(B) illustrate schematic diagrams of
successive steps of forming a FinFET device according to an
alternate embodiment of the invention; and
[0015] FIG. 20 is a flow diagram illustrating a preferred method
according to an embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
[0016] The embodiments of the invention and the various features
and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with
reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in
the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following
description. It should be noted that the features illustrated in
the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Descriptions of
well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as
to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the invention. The
examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an
understanding of ways in which the embodiments of the invention may
be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to
practice the embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the
examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the
embodiments of the invention.
[0017] As mentioned, it is desirable to further reduce the fin
dimension to less than 30 nm, which is beyond the capability of
existing lithographic technology. The embodiments of the invention
achieve this by providing a technique of forming a semiconductor
substrate with a prefabricated sea-of-fins (SOF) structure and a
technique to customize each SOF substrate and form a variety of
microelectronic devices and integrated circuit chips using such a
SOF substrate. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly
to FIGS. 1(A) through 20, where similar reference characters denote
corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there
are shown preferred embodiments of the invention.
[0018] The embodiments of the invention utilize sub-lithographic
patterning techniques including sidewall spacer image transfer or
phase shift technology. According to the embodiments of the
invention, one method to form fin patterns in the 30 nm range is to
use the sidewall spacers. Since sidewall spacers are formed by
depositing and etching a layer of dielectric material of uniform
thickness, the dimension of the spacers can be controlled in the
range of interest. Consequently, the dimensions of fins and
isolation space can be precisely controlled as well. Formation of
fin devices using sidewall spacer image transfer techniques include
techniques taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,794,718, the complete
disclosure of which, in its entirety, is herein incorporated by
reference, where fins with at least two crystalline orientations
are formed.
[0019] The following diagrams illustrate the processing steps to
fabricate the sea-of-fins substrate. FIGS. 1(A) through 3(B)
illustrate schematic diagrams of successive steps of forming a SOF
substrate 1 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown
in FIG. 1(A), a layer of dielectric (oxide) material 10 on a
silicon substrate 5 and an etching process is performed to form a
line-space pattern `s` of the dielectric material 10. It is
preferable to include a thin nitride etch stop barrier 15 under the
mandrel oxide 10 to facilitate the safe removal of certain regions
11 of mandrel oxide 10 later in the process in order to gain access
to the substrate 5. The line spacing `s` can be set to 120 nm,
which is approximately equal to three times the dimension of the
fin body. The thickness of the oxide material 10 is preferably in
the range of 50 to 100 nm. Next, a thin layer of low-k dielectric
material 20 is deposited on the surface of the etched oxide pattern
12 to lower the parasitic capacitance as indicated in FIG. 1(B).
The thickness of low-k liner 20 is approximately 5 to 10 nm. As
shown in FIG. 1(C), dielectric (nitride) spacers 30 are formed on
the sidewalls of the isolation patterns 12 by first depositing the
material with a thickness of `d` (approximately 40 nm) followed by
directional reactive ion etching. The resulting gap 40 between the
two spacers 30 is equal to (s-2d), which is preferably in the range
of 40 nm for the fin body structure.
[0020] Next, the low-k film 20 is etched in the gap areas 40 to
expose the silicon substrate 5 underneath as depicted in FIG. 2(A).
Then, as indicated in FIG. 2(B), epitaxy 50 is selectively grown
from the silicon 5 at the bottom of the gaps 40, until the epitaxy
50 fills the gaps 40 and covers the entire top surface of the
structure 1. The epitaxial material 50 inside the gap 40 comprises
single crystalline material. A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)
process is performed to remove the silicon on the top of the
structure 1 until the oxide 10 of the isolation pattern 12 is
exposed. A slight over-etch may be performed to ensure that the
silicon layer 50 is completely removed from the top surface of
oxide 10, while single crystalline silicon 60 remains inside the
gap areas as provided in FIG. 2(C).
[0021] Then, the fin-body silicon 60 is recessed to a predetermined
depth by a timed etching process such that silicon pillars (what
shall eventually constitute the fin bodies) 70 formed inside the
gaps 40 have identical heights after etching as illustrated in FIG.
3(A). Thereafter, the wafer 1 is cleaned and coated with a
protective film 80 as depicted in FIG. 3(B). Accordingly, the
preparation of a SOF wafer 1 comprising a plurality of fins 70 and
isolations 12 is complete and ready for device fabrication.
[0022] FIGS. 4(A) through 17(B) illustrate schematic diagrams of
successive steps of forming a FinFET device using the SOF substrate
1 of FIG. 3(B). As indicated in the cross-sectional view of FIG.
4(A) and the top view of FIG. 4(B), the protective film 80 (of FIG.
3(B)) is removed. Next, the nitride spacers 30 on the sidewalls of
the isolation regions 95 are removed as shown in FIGS. 5(A) through
5(C). A mask 90 is used to define the fin body region 105, 106. The
X-X' cross-sectional view is shown in FIG. 5(C) and the Y-Y'
cross-sectional view is shown in FIG. 5(B). The length of each
stripe of fin body 105, 106 is determined after silicon etching by
Cl.sub.2 plasma. The oxide isolation region 12 between adjacent
body units 105 is used to isolate the devices and support the metal
interconnects, which are formed in subsequent processing steps. The
body regions 105 in FIGS. 5(A) through 5(C) are used to form
FinFETs and the body region 106 in FIGS. 5(A) and 5(C) is used to
form fin capacitors. A second mask 91 is then used to define the
well regions of the device as indicated in FIGS. 6(A) through 6(C).
After an ion implant process occurs (as depicted by the downward
arrows in FIG. 6(C)), the well junction 130 is formed.
[0023] In the next step of the process, a gate dielectric 145 is
formed via thermal oxidation of a high-k film deposition as shown
in FIG. 7(A). Here, a polysilicon layer 140 is deposited via
chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Next, excessive polysilicon
material 140 on the surface of the sea-of-fins structure 1 is
removed with a second CMP process. The reserved spacer areas 150
are now filled with polysilicon as shown in FIG. 7(B). Then, as
illustrated in FIGS. 8(A) through 8(C), the gate is defined with a
third mask 170, where region 170A is used to form the fin gates of
the transistors and region 170B is used for the top electrode of a
capacitor. As shown in FIGS. 9(A) through 9(C), the next steps
involve performing an etch process that removes CVD polysilicon
with Cl.sub.2 plasma to define the gate electrodes 220 and the top
capacitor electrode 230.
[0024] After gate patterning, the process involves selectively
removing the high-k dielectric 145 from the fin sidewalls in
non-gate areas 240 as indicated in FIGS. 10(A) through 10(C). Then,
the exposed sidewalls of the fins 105 are doped with an appropriate
n+ or p+ dopant to form the source and drain junctions on the
exposed body regions 250 as indicated in FIGS. 11(A) through 11(C).
The channels (not shown) of the FinFETs 111 are protected from
being contaminated by the source/drain doping by the overlying gate
conductor 220, and the junction edge is aligned to the gate edge.
It is preferable to use a plasma immersion implant tool for gas
phase doping or a high angle single wafer implanter for angled ion
implantation. Halo doping, if desired, could be introduced by
angled ion implantation, and conformal doping schemes such as solid
phase doping are also acceptable.
[0025] Next, a thin layer of dielectric 210 is deposited and a
reactive ion etching process is used to form the sidewall spacers
210 for the gate, source, drain, and oxide area of the device as
illustrated in FIGS. 12(A) through 12(C). Next, as shown in FIGS.
13(A) through 13(C), metal interconnects 240, 245 are formed via
back-end-of-line processes that include insulating material
deposition, planarization, via formation, and metal deposition. For
example, CVD tungsten studs 230, 235 in FIGS. 13(A) through 13(C)
are used to connect aluminum or copper wires 260 with the gates
220, as well as the bodies in the source/drain areas 233. With the
dimension of the metal interconnects 240, 245 in the range of 40
nm, fin-transistor devices 151 are shown in the left portions of
FIGS. 13(A) and 13(C) and fin capacitor devices 161 are shown on
the right portions of FIGS. 13(A) and 13(C).
[0026] FIGS. 14(A) and 14(B) show the implementation of a two-stage
inverter chain 400, with a first inverter 401, comprising the first
pMOS device p1 and the first nMOS device n1, and a second inverter
403, comprising the second pMOS device p2 and the second NMOS
device n2 according to the embodiments of the invention. The width
of p2 and n2 can be doubled by connecting p2 with p3 in parallel,
and connecting n2 with n3 in parallel. Multiple gates with
different sizes can therefore be easily implemented and customized
on the sea-of-fins substrate 1 provided by the embodiments of the
invention.
[0027] FIGS. 15(A) and 15(B) illustrate two embodiments of fin
resistors according to the embodiments of the invention. A first
resistor 510 is formed by the body of the FinFET 151. During gate
conductor patterning, the gate conductor is removed from the region
where a resistor is desired. Then, appropriate gas phase doping or
ion implantation is introduced into the exposed fin to obtain the
desired resistance. The contacts 509, which are similar to the
source and drain contacts, are made on the opposite ends of the fin
structure. A second resistor 520 is formed from the gate conductor
material such as polysilicon. To achieve the desired resistance,
the area of gate conductor that will contain the resistor 520
should be blocked from gate doping. A separate mask (not shown) and
doping process is then used to introduce the appropriate amount of
dopant into the gate conductor to achieve the desired resistance.
This separate doping step may be done before or after the standard
gating doping process.
[0028] FIGS. 16(A) and 16(B) illustrate the structure of two fin
capacitors 601, 602 connected in parallel by a first level
metallization 603. The fin capacitors 601, 602 generally comprise a
large area of the fin body 161 or multiple fin bodies to provide
sufficient capacitance. For enhanced capacitance, the fin
capacitors 601, 602 may include adjacent source or drain diffusions
to provide carriers for the formation of inversion layers (not
shown). FIGS. 17(A) and 17(B) depict the structure of electrostatic
discharge (ESD) protection devices 610, 620. Two diodes 610 and 620
are formed in the fin bodies and connected in series. The diodes
610, 620 may provide a lateral or a combined lateral/vertical
doping profile, which could be introduced after the removal of gate
conductor from the region where the diodes 610, 620 are to be
formed. To protect a device (not shown) from excessive voltage with
positive or negative polarity, the device (not shown) should be
connected to the junction of the two diodes 610, 620.
[0029] FIGS. 18(A) through 18(C) illustrate a process to reduce the
source and drain contact resistance in a FinFET device. According
to FIG. 18(A), the nitride spacers 30 are selectively removed in
the source/drain areas 276 during SOF substrate preparation. Next,
epitaxy 710 is grown to fill the gaps 700 (FIG. 18(B)). Due to the
removal of the sidewall spacers 30, the widened source/drain areas
276 are approximately three times as wide as the fin body area
(which will constitute the gate) 70. Next, the source/drain regions
276 are interconnected by vias 71 and metal interconnects 73 during
a back end-of-the line (BEOL) process thereby providing larger
contact area and lower contact resistance as illustrated in FIG.
18(C). FIGS. 19(A) and 19(B) show the top and cross-sectional
views, respectively, of a modified sea-of-fins structure 2 with
widened source/drain regions 276.
[0030] The sea-of-fins (SOF) substrate 1, 2 provided by the
embodiments of the invention can be prefabricated and mass-produced
by the wafer suppliers. The dimension of fin bodies 105, 106 can
also be custom-designed and produced by the chip manufacturers.
Since many of the SOF processing steps provided by the embodiments
of the invention are self-aligned and the finished FinFET devices
have a coplanar structure for both the gate regions 220 and the
adjacent isolation regions 12, it is possible to achieve further
device scaling beyond the 30 nm range.
[0031] FIG. 20, with reference to FIGS. 1(A) through 19(B),
illustrates a flow diagram of a method of fabricating a
semiconductor device, wherein the method comprises forming (801),
on a substrate 5, a plurality of planarized fin bodies 70 to be
used for customized fin field effect transistor (FinFET) device
formation; forming (803) a nitride spacer 30 around each of the
plurality of fin bodies 70; forming (805) an isolation region 12 in
between each of the fin bodies 70; and coating (807) the plurality
of fin bodies 70, the nitride spacers 30, and the isolation regions
12 with a protective film 80.
[0032] The several embodiments of the invention can be formed into
integrated circuit chips. The resulting integrated circuit chips
can be distributed by the fabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as
a single wafer that has multiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die,
or in a packaged form. In the latter case the chip is mounted in a
single chip package (such as a plastic carrier, with leads that are
affixed to a motherboard or other higher level carrier) or in a
multichip package (such as a ceramic carrier that has either or
both surface interconnections or buried interconnections). In any
case the chip is then integrated with other chips, discrete circuit
elements, and/or other signal processing devices as part of either
(a) an intermediate product, such as a motherboard, or (b) an end
product. The end product can be any product that includes
integrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-end
applications to advanced computer products having a display, a
keyboard or other input device, and a central processor.
[0033] Generally, the embodiments of the invention provide a method
of fabricating SOF substrates consistent with high-volume,
high-yield, and low-cost semiconductor manufacturing. Moreover, the
embodiments of the invention provide a technique of how the SOF
substrates are used to design and fabricate high-performance
integrated circuits.
[0034] Wafer substrates with pre-fabricated fin structures allow
chip manufacturers achieve better control of the fin dimensions in
the 30 nm range. However, an array of fins 105, 106 and isolation
spaces 12 prepared on a semiconductor substrate 5 prior to shipping
to a semiconductor foundry has never heretofore been demonstrated
prior to the techniques provided by the embodiments of the
invention. Due to the economies of scale, substrate providers can
supply such pre-fabricated SOF substrates 1, 2 at a lower cost.
Such prefabricated SOF substrates 1, 2 would also be highly
marketable because chip manufacturers would no longer have to
contend with the technical and economic difficulties of producing
well-controlled sub-lithographic-width fins within their own
processes.
[0035] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will
so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments of the
invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily
modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific
embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and,
therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are
intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of
equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood
that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the
purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the
embodiments of the invention has been described in terms of
preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that
the embodiments of the invention can be practiced with modification
within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
* * * * *