DUAL SILICIDE FORMATION METHOD TO EMBED SPLIT GATE FLASHMEMORY IN HIGH-K METAL GATE (HKMG) TECHNOLOGY
First Claim
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1. An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate including a periphery region and a memory cell region;
a high-k metal gate (HKMG) gate electrode disposed on the periphery region;
a first memory cell disposed on the memory cell region, comprising a select gate (SG) and a memory gate (MG);
a silicide layer disposed on a SG top surface or a MG top surface of the first memory cell;
a hard mask layer in contact with an upper surface of the HKMG gate electrode; and
metal contacts extending into the silicide layer on the SG top surface or the MG top surface.
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a structure and method for embedding a non-volatile memory (NVM) in a high-K metal gate (HKMG) integrated circuit that utilizes a replacement gate technology with low poly resistance and high program/erase speed. A silicide layer formed over top surfaces of the NVM device, after replacement gate process of the HKMG circuit prevents poly damage during contact formation and provides low gate resistance, thereby improving program/erase speed of the NVM device.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
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a semiconductor substrate including a periphery region and a memory cell region; a high-k metal gate (HKMG) gate electrode disposed on the periphery region; a first memory cell disposed on the memory cell region, comprising a select gate (SG) and a memory gate (MG); a silicide layer disposed on a SG top surface or a MG top surface of the first memory cell; a hard mask layer in contact with an upper surface of the HKMG gate electrode; and metal contacts extending into the silicide layer on the SG top surface or the MG top surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 21)
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10. An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
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a semiconductor substrate including a periphery region and a memory cell region; a HKMG (high-k metal gate) circuit disposed on the periphery region; two neighboring split gate flash memory cells arranged on the memory cell region, each memory cell including a select gate (SG) and a memory gate (MG), wherein top surfaces of the HKMG circuit and the split gate flash memory cells are co-planar; a silicide layer disposed on a SG top surface or a MG top surface of both split gate flash memory cells; a hard mask layer disposed over upper surfaces of gate electrodes within the HKMG circuit; and a CESL (contact etch stop layer) disposed between the semiconductor substrate the hard mask layer; and a metal contact vertically extending to the HKMG gate electrode through the hard mask layer and a dielectric layer overlying the hard mask layer. - View Dependent Claims (11, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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12. (canceled)
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17. A method of forming an integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
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forming a pair of memory cells over a first region on a semiconductor substrate, each memory cell comprising a select gate (SG) and a memory gate (MG); forming a high-k metal gate (HKMG) circuit over a second region on the semiconductor substrate; performing chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to make top surfaces of the memory cells and the HKMG circuit co-planar; forming a hard mask layer over the top surfaces of the memory cells and the HKMG circuit; selectively removing the hard mask layer to expose top surfaces of the SG or MG of the memory cells partially or completely; forming a self-aligned silicide (salicide) layer over the exposed top surfaces of the memory cells; forming a first inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer over top surfaces of the pair of memory cells and the HKMG circuit; and forming metal contacts extending to the silicide layer. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification