Flyover Trench Connectors Using DSA for Shrinking Transistor Cells
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for high-density transistors and high-quality interconnects in semiconductor manufacturing poses challenges in shrinking transistor cell sizes while maintaining effective metal track connections, as existing technologies struggle to efficiently form trench connectors that can accommodate smaller cell sizes and ensure reliable electrical interconnects between epitaxial structures.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a directed self-assembly (DSA) process to create flyover trench connectors, where a first portion is electrically coupled with an epitaxial structure and a second portion extends above another epitaxial structure, allowing for increased contact points for metal tracks and maintaining connectivity despite shrinking cell sizes, by forming a dielectric layer with a width greater than the gate and using DSA techniques to pattern and isolate gate cuts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If transistor cell sizes are shrunk to increase density, then the number of transistors per chip increases, but maintaining effective metal track connections and trench connector reliability becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a vertical dimension to the trench connector design by extending the connector above the epitaxial structure surface. This flyover configuration allows metal tracks to connect to multiple contact points along the trench connector's length, effectively adding a third dimension (height) to the interconnect architecture. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining connection reliability through vertical extension while accommodating smaller cell sizes in the horizontal plane.
Solution Approach 2:
The trench connector is segmented into multiple contact points along its length rather than having a single contact point. This segmentation allows multiple metal tracks to connect at different positions, providing redundancy and maintaining connection reliability even as cell sizes shrink. The segmented structure enables flexible routing and maintains interconnect quality despite reduced horizontal space.
2Reliability
If trench connectors are extended vertically to increase contact points, then metal track connectivity is improved, but the complexity of forming precise trench connectors increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs directed self-assembly (DSA) techniques where block copolymer materials automatically organize into periodic patterns that define the trench connector locations and dimensions. This self-service approach allows the material system to self-organize into the required vertical structures with precise dimensions, reducing the complexity of top-down lithographic patterning while maintaining manufacturing precision for the extended trench connectors.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical and chemical parameters of the materials used in trench connector formation, specifically utilizing block copolymer materials with specific block lengths and compositions that self-assemble into desired vertical patterns. By adjusting material parameters such as block ratio, molecular weight, and composition, the trench connector dimensions and spacing can be controlled, simplifying the formation process while maintaining precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the preservation of metal track connectivity and contact points as transistor cell sizes shrink, ensuring reliable electrical interconnects and increased density without reducing the number of metal tracks, thereby addressing the need for high-density and high-quality interconnects in semiconductor manufacturing.
Implementation Method 1
DSA techniques may be used to form a material that includes one or more polymers on top of a gate structure
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments described herein may be related to apparatuses, processes, systems, and/or techniques for creating flyover trench connectors within a transistor structure, where a first portion of the trench connector is electrically coupled with a first epitaxial structure and where a second portion of the trench connector extends above but is not electrically coupled with a second epitaxial structure. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.