Tunable spacers for improved gapfill
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for forming a device comprising:
- providing a substrate with an active region, the substrate is prepared with a gate;
forming sidewall spacers on sidewall of the gate, wherein a portion of the spacers is processed to produce an etch rate differential between the processed portion and an unprocessed portion of the spacers; and
performing a tuning process on the spacers to produce a desired profile based on the etch rate differential of the processed and unprocessed portions of the spacers.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A device that includes a substrate with an active region is disclosed. The device includes a gate disposed in the active region and tunable sidewall spacers on sidewalls of the gate. A profile of the tunable sidewall spacers includes upper and lower portions in which width of the spacers in the upper portion is reduced at a greater rate than the lower portion.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method for forming a device comprising:
-
providing a substrate with an active region, the substrate is prepared with a gate; forming sidewall spacers on sidewall of the gate, wherein a portion of the spacers is processed to produce an etch rate differential between the processed portion and an unprocessed portion of the spacers; and performing a tuning process on the spacers to produce a desired profile based on the etch rate differential of the processed and unprocessed portions of the spacers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method for forming a device comprising:
-
providing a substrate with an active region, the substrate is prepared with a gate; forming sidewall spacers on sidewall of the gate, wherein a portion of the spacers is doped with etch rate controlling (ERC) dopants to produce an etch rate differential between the doped portion and an undoped portion of the spacers in a tuning process; and performing the tuning process on the spacers to produce a desired profile based on the etch rate differential of the doped and undoped portions of the spacers. - View Dependent Claims (11)
-
-
12. A method for forming tunable sidewall spacers comprising:
-
providing a substrate having a feature thereon; forming a dielectric layer on the substrate covering the feature; patterning the dielectric layer to form sidewall spacers; doping a portion of the sidewall spacers with etch rate controlling (ERC) dopants to produce an etch rate differential between the doped portion and an undoped portion in a tuning process; and processing the sidewall spacers to form spacers with a desired profile based on the etch rate differential of the doped and undoped portions of the spacers. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method for forming a device comprising:
-
providing a substrate with an active region, the substrate is prepared with a gate; forming sidewall spacers on sidewall of the gate, wherein a portion of the spacers is doped with etch rate controlling (ERC) dopants to produce an etch rate differential between the doped portion and an undoped portion of the spacers in a tuning process; performing the tuning process on the spacers to produce a profile wherein a width of the spacers in the undoped portion is reduced at a greater rate than the doped portion; and wherein the sidewall spacers comprise; an initial width ratio before performing the tuning process on the spacers; a final width ratio after performing the tuning process on the spacers, wherein the initial width ratio is greater than the final width ratio; and wherein the width ratio is equaled to the width of the undoped portion of the spacers divided by the width of the doped portion of the spacers. - View Dependent Claims (18)
-
-
19. A method for forming a device comprising:
-
providing a substrate with an active region, the substrate is prepared with a gate; forming sidewall spacers on sidewall of the gate; doping a portion of the sidewall spacers with etch rate controlling (ERC) dopants to produce an etch rate differential between the doped portion and an undoped portion of the spacers in a tuning process; and performing the tuning process on the spacers to produce a profile wherein a width of the spacers in the undoped portion is reduced at a greater rate than the doped portion; wherein the performing the tuning process comprises reducing the undoped portion about 50% faster than the doped portion. - View Dependent Claims (20)
-
-
21. A method of forming a device which comprises:
-
forming a gate on a substrate; forming a dielectric on the gate; forming a spacer on the sidewall of the gate; doping the spacer with dopants, wherein the dopants are configured to reduce the etch rate of the spacer; and after forming the spacer, etching the spacer to produce a spacer profile in which a slope at an upper portion of the spacer is steeper than at a lower portion of the spacer, wherein the upper portion of the spacer is etched at a greater rate than the lower portion of the spacer. - View Dependent Claims (22)
-
-
23. A method of forming a device which comprises:
-
forming a gate on a substrate; forming a dielectric on the gate; forming a spacer on the sidewall of the gate; doping the spacer with dopants, wherein the dopants are configured to reduce the etch rate of the spacer; and after forming the spacer, etching the spacer, wherein an upper portion of the spacer is etched at a greater rate than a lower portion of the spacer; wherein the spacer comprises; an initial width ratio before etching the spacer; a final width ratio after etching the spacer, wherein the initial width ratio is greater than the final width ratio; and wherein the width ratio is equal to, the width of the upper portion of the spacer divided by the width of the lower portion of the spacer.
-
Specification