L-shaped spacer incorporating or patterned using amorphous carbon or CVD organic materials
First Claim
1. A process performed during manufacture of a semiconductor device, comprising:
- providing a substrate having formed thereon a gate structure including a gate insulator formed on the substrate and a gate line formed over the gate insulator;
forming a conformal layer of a spacer material over the substrate and the gate structure, the spacer material being one of amorphous carbon and a CVD organic material;
forming a conformal layer of a protective material over the spacer material;
patterning the protective material using a photoresist mask to define an upper portion of an L-shaped spacer; and
removing the photoresist mask and spacer material unprotected by the upper portion of the L-shaped spacer to form a lower portion of the L-shaped spacer.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A multilayer L-shaped spacer is formed of a lower portion comprising a CVD organic material or amorphous carbon, and an upper portion comprised of a protective material. The upper portion is patterned using a photoresist mask. During that patterning, the underlying substrate is protected by a layer of CVD organic material or amorphous carbon. The CVD organic material or amorphous carbon is then patterned using the patterned protective material as a mask. The chemistry used to pattern the CVD organic material or amorphous carbon is relatively harmless to the underlying substrate. Alternatively, an L-shaped spacer is patterned without using a photoresist mask by forming an amorphous carbon spacer around a gate that is covered with a conformal layer of a conventional spacer material. The conventional spacer material is patterned using the amorphous carbon spacer as an etch mask. The amorphous carbon spacer is easily formed without the need for lithographic patterning, and therefore this method is preferable to methods using photoresist masks.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A process performed during manufacture of a semiconductor device, comprising:
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providing a substrate having formed thereon a gate structure including a gate insulator formed on the substrate and a gate line formed over the gate insulator;
forming a conformal layer of a spacer material over the substrate and the gate structure, the spacer material being one of amorphous carbon and a CVD organic material;
forming a conformal layer of a protective material over the spacer material;
patterning the protective material using a photoresist mask to define an upper portion of an L-shaped spacer; and
removing the photoresist mask and spacer material unprotected by the upper portion of the L-shaped spacer to form a lower portion of the L-shaped spacer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16)
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7. A process performed during manufacture of a semiconductor device, comprising:
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providing a substrate having formed thereon a gate structure including a gate insulator formed on the substrate and a gate line formed over the gate insulator;
forming a conformal layer of a spacer material over the substrate and the gate structure;
forming a conformal layer of amorphous carbon over the layer of spacer material;
anisotropically etching the amorphous carbon layer to form an amorphous carbon spacer around the gate structure; and
patterning the protective layer using the amorphous carbon spacer as a hardmask to define an L-shaped spacer. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification