Vertical transistor with horizontal gate layers
First Claim
1. A floating gate transistor comprising:
- a pillar of semiconductor material that extends outwardly from a working surface of a substrate to form a source region, a body region and a drain region of a floating gate transistor;
a floating gate along one side of the pillar; and
a control gate overlaying the floating gate.
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Abstract
Vertical body transistors with adjacent horizontal gate layers are used to form a memory array in a high density flash electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EEPROM) or a logic array in a high density field programmable logic array (FPLA). The transistor is a field-effect transistor (FET) having an electrically isolated (floating) gate that controls electrical conduction between source regions and drain regions. If a particular floating gate is charged with stored electrons, then the transistor will not turn on and will provide an indication of the stored data at this location in the memory array within the EEPROM or will act as the absence of a transistor at this location in the logic array within the FPLA. The memory array or the logic array includes densely packed cells, each cell having a semiconductor pillar providing shared source and drain regions for two vertical body transistors that have control gates overlaying floating gates distributed on opposing sides of the semiconductor pillar. Both bulk semiconductor and silicon-on-insulator embodiments are provided. If a floating gate transistor is used to store a single bit of data or to represent a logic function, an area of only 2F2 is needed per respective bit of data or bit of logic, where F is the minimum lithographic feature size.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A floating gate transistor comprising:
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a pillar of semiconductor material that extends outwardly from a working surface of a substrate to form a source region, a body region and a drain region of a floating gate transistor;
a floating gate along one side of the pillar; and
a control gate overlaying the floating gate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An array of floating gate transistors comprising:
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a plurality of semiconductor stacks arranged in rows and in columns, wherein each stack forms source, body, and drain regions of a respective floating gate transistor;
a plurality of floating gates in trenches between the columns of semiconductor stacks, wherein the floating gates are separated from respective sides of the semiconductor stacks by a gate dielectric; and
a plurality of control gates overlaying the respective floating gates and separated from the respective floating gates by an intergate dielectric. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A floating gate transistor that is fabricated upon a substrate, the floating gate transistor comprising:
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a first conductivity type semiconductor pillar formed upon the substrate, wherein the pillar has top and side surfaces;
a first source/drain region of a second conductivity type formed in a portion of the pillar that is proximal to an interface between the pillar and the substrate;
a second source/drain region of a second conductivity type formed in a portion of the pillar that is distal to the substrate and separated from the first source/drain region;
a gate dielectric formed on at least a portion of one side surface of the pillar;
a floating gate substantially adjacent to a portion of the side surface of the pillar and separated therefrom by the gate dielectric;
an intergate dielectric formed on a top surface of the floating gate; and
a control gate substantially overlaying the floating gate and insulated therefrom by the intergate dielectric. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. A method for forming an array of vertical transistors with horizontal gate layers, said method comprising:
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forming source, body and drain layers on top of one another on a substrate;
etching the source, body and drain layers to form substantially parallel first troughs in a first dimension and substantially parallel second troughs in a second dimension which is substantially orthogonal to the first dimension;
forming floating gates along sidewalls of the second troughs; and
forming control gates on top of the respective floating gates.
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24. A method for forming a vertical transistor with horizontal gate layers, said method comprising:
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forming source, body and drain layers on top of one another on a substrate;
etching the source, body and drain layers to form substantially parallel first troughs in a first dimension and substantially parallel second troughs in a second dimension which is substantially orthogonal to the first dimension;
depositing dopant layers and a sacrificial gate layer in the second troughs;
heating the partially formed array to form lightly doped source/drain regions in the body layer;
removing at least one of the dopant layers;
replacing the sacrificial gate layer with a floating gate; and
forming a control gate above the floating gate.
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Specification