Porous Spacer Semiconductor Structure for Lower RC Delay
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge in semiconductor device fabrication lies in achieving improved quality, yield, and performance while reducing complexity and RC delay, particularly due to scaling issues that affect coupling capacitance and operating current consumption.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a semiconductor device design featuring a gate structure with porous spacers and insulating layers, where the porosity of the spacers is between 25% and 100%, reducing coupling capacitance and facilitating a flat top surface for improved processing, along with stress regions to enhance carrier mobility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional semiconductor device structures are used, then manufacturing processes are simpler, but RC delay increases and performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces porous spacers with controlled porosity (25%-100%) formed through energy treatment of energy-removable material. These porous structures reduce coupling capacitance between gate and source/drain regions, thereby reducing RC delay and improving device performance while maintaining a manageable fabrication process through standardized energy treatment steps
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs energy treatment (thermal, photonic, or e-beam) to transform energy-removable material into porous spacers by changing the physical and chemical parameters of the material. This parameter transformation approach enables precise control over spacer porosity and properties, improving device performance through systematic parameter optimization rather than complex structural design
2Loss of time
If coupling capacitance is reduced through design, then RC delay decreases, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces energy-removable material as an intermediary substance that is deposited on sidewalls and then transformed into porous spacers through energy treatment. This intermediary approach simplifies the fabrication process by using a standard deposition and energy treatment sequence, avoiding complex direct patterning methods while achieving the desired spacer structures for reduced RC delay
Solution Approach 2:
The porous spacers with 25%-100% porosity directly reduce coupling capacitance between gate and source/drain regions, thereby reducing RC delay. The porous structure achieves capacitance reduction through increased effective surface area and reduced dielectric constant, while the formation process remains relatively simple through energy treatment of deposited material
3Reliability
If energy treatment is applied to create porous spacers, then coupling capacitance reduces, but process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The energy treatment step serves multiple functions simultaneously: it removes the energy-removable material, creates the porous structure, and defines the spacer geometry. This multi-functionality approach consolidates what could be multiple separate process steps into a single treatment operation, improving yield through process integration rather than increasing overall process complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The energy treatment process transforms the energy-removable material into porous spacers by changing temperature, energy density, or chemical state parameters. This parameter-based transformation enables precise control over spacer properties and yield while maintaining a relatively simple process workflow, as the same treatment parameters can be optimized for different material systems
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 design reduces RC delay, lowers operating current consumption, and enhances carrier mobility, thereby improving the yield and performance of semiconductor devices.
Implementation Method 1
performing an energy treatment to transform the energy-removable material into a porous spacer
Implementation Method 2
a porosity of the porous spacers is between about 25% and about 100%... a coupling capacitance between the gate structure and the source/drain regions may be reduced
Data Source
AI summary
The present application discloses semiconductor device, including a gate structure arranged on a substrate; a plurality of word lines arranged apart from the gate structure; two porous spacers arranged on two sides of the gate structure; and a first insulating layer arranged on the substrate laterally surrounding the gate structure and the porous spacers; and a second insulating layer arranged over the first insulating layer, wherein a top surface of the gate structure, top surfaces of the plurality of word lines and a top surface of the second insulating layer are level with each other, and wherein a porosity of the porous spacers is between about 25% and about 100%.