Semiconductor Isolation Structure for Dense Active Region Layouts
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for high-performance, high-speed, and multifunctional semiconductor devices requires finer patterns and tighter spacing in device integration, which poses challenges in maintaining electrical isolation and preventing electrical shorts between active regions.
Innovation Solution
The semiconductor device design incorporates a unique structure with device isolation layers and insulating structures that include an external and internal insulating layer, where the insulating structures overlap active regions and device isolation layers, forming acute angles and recessed surfaces to enhance electrical isolation and prevent shorts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If device isolation layers are formed with finer patterns and tighter spacing to increase integration density, then integration density is improved, but electrical isolation between active regions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The device isolation structure is segmented into multiple components: device isolation layers extending in the first horizontal direction, and insulating structures positioned between adjacent active regions. This segmentation allows each component to contribute to electrical isolation independently, maintaining isolation effectiveness even as overall spacing is reduced to increase integration density.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating structures extend in the second horizontal direction (vertical direction in cross-section) to overlap the active regions in the first horizontal direction. This dimensional approach creates a three-dimensional isolation architecture where insulating material is positioned both between and over the active regions, providing enhanced electrical isolation without requiring larger lateral spacing between devices.
2Reliability
If insulating structures are positioned to overlap active regions to enhance electrical isolation, then electrical isolation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The insulating structures serve multiple functions simultaneously: they provide electrical isolation between adjacent active regions, acts as spacers during fabrication processes, and define the boundaries of active regions. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated isolation structures, thereby managing complexity while maintaining effective electrical isolation.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating structures are nested within the overall device architecture, positioned between device isolation layers and overlapping active regions. The external insulating layer contains internal insulating layers, creating a nested configuration that provides enhanced isolation functionality within a compact structure, managing complexity through hierarchical organization.
3Reliability
If active regions are enlarged to reduce contact resistance, then contact resistance is reduced, but spacing between active regions decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The insulating structures extend in the vertical direction (second horizontal direction) to overlap the active regions horizontally. This allows active regions to be enlarged in the horizontal plane to reduce contact resistance, while the vertically extending insulating structures maintain electrical isolation and prevent shorts, effectively decoupling the trade-off between active region size and spacing.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor device includes device isolation layers extending in a first horizontal direction and spaced apart from each other in a second horizontal direction intersecting the first horizontal direction, active regions between the device isolation layers and spaced apart from each other in the first horizontal direction, insulating structures between the active regions, and a gate structure extending in a third horizontal direction between the first horizontal direction and the second horizontal direction and intersecting the active regions, wherein two side surfaces of each active region adjacent to each other define an acute angle, and wherein at least a portion of at least one of the insulating structures is between a corresponding pair of the active regions and between a corresponding pair of the device isolation layers and overlaps the corresponding pair of the active regions in the first horizontal direction.