METHODS FOR FORMING SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURES
First Claim
1. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:
- providing a semiconductor substrate;
forming a first material and a second material over the substrate, the first and second materials being selectively etchable relative to one another, the first material being formed to be a lattice and the second material being formed to be repeating regions spaced from one another by segments of the lattice, the repeating regions forming an array, the array having a defined first pitch along a first axis and a defined second pitch along a second axis substantially orthogonal to the first axis;
the second pitch being about twice as big as the first pitch;
replacing at least some of the first material of the lattice with one or more conductive materials of a gateline; and
replacing at least some of the second material with doped semiconductor material to form elevationally-elongated source/drain regions over the substrate.
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Abstract
The invention includes a semiconductor structure having a gateline lattice surrounding vertical source/drain regions. In some aspects, the source/drain regions can be provided in pairs, with one of the source/drain regions of each pair extending to a digit line and the other extending to a memory storage device, such as a capacitor. The source/drain regions extending to the digit line can have the same composition as the source/drain regions extending to the memory storage devices, or can have different compositions from the source/drain regions extending to the memory storage devices. The invention also includes methods of forming semiconductor structures. In exemplary methods, a lattice comprising a first material is provided to surround repeating regions of a second material. At least some of the first material is then replaced with a gateline structure, and at least some of the second material is replaced with vertical source/drain regions.
85 Citations
54 Claims
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1. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:
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providing a semiconductor substrate;
forming a first material and a second material over the substrate, the first and second materials being selectively etchable relative to one another, the first material being formed to be a lattice and the second material being formed to be repeating regions spaced from one another by segments of the lattice, the repeating regions forming an array, the array having a defined first pitch along a first axis and a defined second pitch along a second axis substantially orthogonal to the first axis;
the second pitch being about twice as big as the first pitch;
replacing at least some of the first material of the lattice with one or more conductive materials of a gateline; and
replacing at least some of the second material with doped semiconductor material to form elevationally-elongated source/drain regions over the substrate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:
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providing a semiconductor substrate;
forming a nitride-containing material lattice over the substrate;
the lattice defining an array of non-nitride regions spaced from one another by segments of the lattice;
replacing nitride-containing material of the lattice with one or more conductive materials of a gateline; and
replacing non-nitride regions with doped semiconductor material to form elevationally-elongated source/drain regions. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:
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providing a first semiconductor material;
forming an oxide-containing material over the first semiconductor material;
forming openings extending through the oxide-containing material;
forming nitride-containing spacers within the openings to narrow the openings;
extending the narrowed openings into the first semiconductor material, the narrowed openings having a first portion extending within the first semiconductor material and a second portion over the first portion;
providing a dielectric material to fill the first portion of the openings and leave the second portion not filled;
providing a nitride-containing material over the dielectric material to fill the second portion of the openings;
replacing the oxide-containing material with a doped second semiconductor material to form elevationally-elongated source/drain regions; and
replacing the nitride-containing material and nitride-containing spacers with one or more conductive materials of a gateline. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:
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providing a first semiconductor material;
forming an oxide-containing material over the first semiconductor material;
forming a hard mask layer over the oxide-containing material;
patterning the hard mask layer into a plurality of spaced lines extending along a defined horizontal direction, the spaced lines being separated by first gaps;
forming nitride-containing spacers along the hard mask to narrow the first gaps;
extending the narrowed first gaps through the oxide-containing material;
removing the hard mask layer while leaving the nitride-containing spacers;
the spacers forming sets of paired lines extending along the narrowed first gaps;
filling the narrowed first gaps with a first nitride-containing material, the first nitride-containing material extending upwardly between the sets of paired lines to form nitride-containing pillars over the oxide-containing material, the first nitride-containing material and nitride-containing spacers together being incorporated into spaced horizontally-extending pillars over the oxide-containing material, the spaced horizontally-extending pillars being separated by second gaps;
extending the second gaps through the oxide-containing material; and
filling the second gaps with a second nitride-containing material. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54-102. -102. (canceled)
Specification