Power MOSFET device with tungsten spacer in contact hole and method

• US 7,800,170 B1
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Issued: 09/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpha & Omega Semiconductor, Inc. (Alpha & Omega Semiconductor, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpha & Omega Semiconductor, Inc. (Alpha & Omega Semiconductor, Ltd.)
• Inventors: He, Zeng-Yi, Shen, Si-Jie, Sui, Xiao-Ming, Wang, Jian
• Primary Examiner(s): Ha; Nathan W
• Application Number:
  US12/533,319
• Time in Patent Office: 417 Days
• Field of Search: 257330-333, 257/500, 257/501, 257/509, 257/510, 257/E21.421, 438/270, 438/271, 438587-588
• US Class Current: 257/330
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/41741 for vertical or pseudo-vertical devices
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/41766 with at least part of the source or drain electrode having contact below the semiconductor surface, e.g. the source or drain electrode formed at least partially in a groove or with inclusions of conductor inside the semiconductor H01L29/41733 - H01L29/41758 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/4236 within a trench, e.g. trench gate electrode, groove gate electrode
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/456 on silicon
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/4941 with a barrier layer between the silicon and the metal or metal silicide upper layer, e.g. Silicide/TiN/Polysilicon
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/66734 with a step of recessing the gate electrode, e.g. to form a trench gate electrode
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/7813 with trench gate electrode, e.g. UMOS transistors trench gate electrodes per se H01L29/4236

Abstract

The present invention discloses a power MOSFET device with an added tungsten spacer in its contact hole, and manufacturing methods for the device. The features of the device are as follows: It includes trench gate isolated in trench and source/body contacts formed in the contact hole, and the tungsten spacer between Ti/TiN barrier layer and aluminum metal layer, the tungsten spacer is deposited on the bottom corners of the contact hole to cover its bottom corners. The addition of tungsten spacer to the bottom corners of the contact hole can effectively eliminate the presence of pits at the corners and junction spiking due to poor step-coverage of the Ti/TiN barrier layer otherwise leading to direct contact of silicon with aluminum. Thus, the present invention prevents a power MOSFET device from failures due to Idss leakage thus insuring high device quality and yield.

Claims

1. A power MOSFET device with a tungsten spacer in its contact hole, the power MOSFET device comprises:

a substrate;

a body region disposed atop the substrate;

a plurality of trench gates formed in a corresponding plurality of trenches opened through the body region into the substrate;

a plurality of source regions formed on a top portion of the body region around the trench gates;

a dielectric layer formed atop the trench gate and the source regions;

a plurality of contact holes formed through the dielectric layer;

a first barrier layer formed on the side walls and bottom surfaces of the contact holes;

a tungsten spacer disposed atop the first barrier layer at the bottom corners of the contact holes; and

an aluminum contact metal layer disposed over the tungsten spacer and the first barrier layer, filling in the contact holes and extending onto the top surface of the dielectric layer.

2. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein the tungsten spacer comprises wing-shaped spacers covering the bottom corners of the contact holes while exposing the first barrier layer in the middle section of the bottom surfaces of the contact holes for making a direct contact with the contact metal layer.

3. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein the tungsten spacer comprises a V-shaped plug covering the first barrier layer at the bottom portion of the contact-hole-side wall and the first barrier layer at the bottom surface of contact holes hence covering the bottom corners and the bottom surface of contact holes.

4. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 further comprises a second barrier layer disposed between the tungsten spacer and the aluminum contact metal layer.

5. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 further comprises a gate runner area and a trench gate runner inside the gate runner area, where the trench gate runner is formed together with the trench gate and has substantially the same structure as the trench gate.

6. The power MOSFET device of claim 5 wherein the trench gate runner is wider and deeper than the trench gate.

7. The power MOSFET device of claim 5 wherein at least one contact hole is formed on the top surface of the trench gate runner inside the gate runner area.

8. The power MOSFET device of claim 5 wherein at least one contact hole is disposed inside the trench gate runner inside the gate runner area with the bottom of contact hole extending to the inside of the trench gate runner.

9. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein an upper portion of the body region extends to the top surface not covered by the source region with the contact hole disposed on the top surface of the body region and the source region.

10. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein the upper part of the body region is fully covered by the source region with the bottom of contact hole going through the source region and extending to the inside of the body region.

11. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein said dielectric layer further comprises a low temperature oxide layer and a BPSG layer successively deposited on top of the trench gate and the source region.

12. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein said first barrier layer is a Ti/TiN barrier layer.

13. The power MOSFET device of claim 1 wherein the composition of said aluminum contact metal layer further comprises copper.

14. A method for manufacturing a power MOSFET Device with a tungsten spacer in its contact hole, the method comprises the following steps:

a) providing a substrate with a body region layer atop;

b) opening a plurality of trenches through the body region into the substrate and forming a plurality of trench gates in the plurality of trenches;

c) forming source regions on a top portion of the body region and around the trench gate;

d) depositing a dielectric layer on top of the trench gate and the source regions;

e) opening a plurality of contact holes through the dielectric layer and disposing a first barrier layer on top surface of the dielectric layer, side walls and bottom surfaces of the contact holes;

f) disposing a tungsten spacer at the bottom corners of the contact holes while overlaying the first barrier layer;

g) disposing an aluminum contact metal layer on the first barrier layer and the tungsten spacer; and

h) forming a source contact metal layer and a gate contact metal layer by etching the aluminum contact metal layer and the first barrier layer.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein step f) further comprises:

f1) depositing a tungsten layer on the first barrier layer in the contact holes such that the tungsten layer fills in and over the contact hole opening; and

f2) etching back the tungsten layer till surface of the first barrier layer so as to remove a portion of the tungsten layer protruding above the contact hole opening.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein step f) further comprises:

f3) continuing to over etch the tungsten layer to form the tungsten spacer atop the first barrier layer at the bottom corners of the contact hole.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein step f) further comprises:

f3) continuing to over etch the tungsten layer to form wing-shaped spacers covering the bottom corners of the contact holes while exposing the first barrier layer in the middle section of the bottom surfaces of the contact holes for a direct contact with the contact metal layer later.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein step f) further comprises:

f3) continuing to over etch the tungsten layer to form a V-shaped plug covering the first barrier layer at the bottom portion of the contact-hole-side walls and across the bottom surface of contact holes hence covering the bottom corners and the bottom surface of contact holes.

19. The method of claim 14 further comprises, between step f) and step g), the following step:

forming a second barrier layer atop the tungsten spacer.