Method for the production of MOS transistors

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/329,399, filed Jan. 10, 2006 which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/519,374, filed Dec. 22, 2004, entitled METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MOS TRANSISTORS, which prior applications are incorporated herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a method for the production of MOS transistors with extremely low leakage currents at the pn junctions, and also of logic/switching transistors, whose gates are laterally limited with spacers in a p-substrate or a p-well in an n-substrate.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

In standard DSM-MOS transistors (DSM: Deep Submicron Silicon Technology), the poly/silicide/salicide gates are provided with spacers to limit the leakage currents. In this manner, different materials are superimposed in the regions between the spacers. As a general rule, though, these materials are not exclusively silicon, polysilicon, silicon oxides and silicon nitrides. These materials naturally have different material properties, such as different coefficients of expansion. In connection with the deposition temperatures and the temperature loads that in particular the spacers experience during the overall production process, a mechanical stress arises at the spacer edges, among other places, finally resulting in increased leakage currents. These increased leakage currents are also initiated or increased via the implantation of high As doses (e.g., >E15/cm 2 ).

Furthermore, lattice defects cannot be completely annealed out because of the limited thermal budget of the production process, so that leakage currents can likewise be generated. The pn leakage currents are entirely acceptable for digital CMOS applications, but not for analog dynamic memories (e.g., image sensors). These leakage currents would substantially degrade the image information in the image sensors.

One known way to reduce these leakage currents is to perform an additional deep p diffusion, while retaining the spacers and the high-dose As implantation. This does not eliminate the causes of the leakage current, but reduces the effects of the leakage current. The defects are now within n regions, where most of them are inactive. However, a statistical number of these defects “grows” out of the additional p diffusion regions, and is hence active again. It is hardly possible to prevent that, so that significant and difficult to quantify yield risks remain and arise.

However, since diffusion is not just vertical, but also lateral, this leads to greater channel length, lower packing densities, increased parasitic elements (e.g., capacitances, propagation times), lower performance and, finally, higher costs.

Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a method for producing MOS transistors exhibiting extremely low leakage currents that allows parallel n-channel switching transistors.

This object and others are achieved in a method by first performing an LDD ion implantation over the gate edges to form an LDD region, and then producing the spacers at all the gate edges or, in a different embodiment, only selectively at the n-channel switching transistors, wherein, in the former case, the spacers are removed in a masked anisotropic etching step comprising a high selectivity with respect to the gate and substrate materials, including their covering layers, the n-channel transistors with extremely low leakage currents are connected exclusively via LDD regions, the matching pn regions are not provided with a high-dose implantation (As), and are covered with an oxide layer.

Preferably, LDD ion implantation is used to implant phosphorus or boron/arsenic in a dual implantation.

Another embodiment of the invention provides that the n-channel switching transistors are free of photoresist before the etching step. As a result, the spacers are formed only for them, and can be used for a high-dose S/D implantation at a later point in the process.

After the etching step, the surface of the entire transistor structure is covered with a thermal oxide layer or a CVD layer to assure adequate protection of the transistor structure in the subsequent production steps.

This layer can be used to perform conventional S/D implantations for the switching transistors.

The S/D regions (source/drain regions) of the n-channel transistors with extremely low leakage currents are contacted via the opening of the insulation layer gate/metal-I contact, followed by metal deposition and structuring. Contact implantation can take place before or after contact opening to improve contacting.

In particular, some special advantages of the invention are that the interfering pn leakage currents are eliminated by simple means, thereby providing a reliable solution to the problem underlying the invention in terms of process stability, reproducibility and yield.

In addition, packing density is increased, parasitic effects are reduced, performance is improved, and further scaling capability is enhanced, thereby reducing costs.

The invention will be explained in more detail below based on an exemplary embodiment. The accompanying figures in the drawing show:

FIG. 1 : a schematic representation of n-channel transistors with a typical CMOS structure after LDD implantation;

FIG. 1A : a schematic representation of n-channel transistors with a p-well in an n-substrate;

FIG. 2 : a schematic representation of n-channel transistors having a typical CMOS structure after LDD implantation and spacer production at all gate edges;

FIG. 3 : a “conventional” n-channel transistor (n-channel switching transistor) covered with a photoresist layer;

FIG. 4 : the structure corresponding to FIG. 2 after the anisotropic etching of the spacer;

FIG. 5 : the structure corresponding to FIG. 4 with a CVD covering;

FIG. 6 : the structure corresponding to FIG. 4 with an oxide covering;

FIG. 7 : the structure corresponding to FIG. 5 with an oxide gate/metal insulation, contacts and contact window implantation; and

FIG. 8 : the structure corresponding to FIG. 7 with metallic coating.

FIG. 1 shows n-channel transistors 1 , 2 with a typical CMOS structure after LDD implantation, with phosphorus implanted into the p-substrate base material 5 , or even boron/arsenic in a dual implantation via the edges of gates 3 , 4 , thereby forming LDD regions 6 . A p-well 19 in an n-substrate 20 , as shown in FIG. 1A , can be used as possible base material 5 .

FIG. 2 shows the structure after spacer production at the gates 3 , 4 .

It often makes sense to use “normal” n-channel transistors 2 in addition to the n-channel transistors 1 with an extremely low pn leakage current, e.g., for normal digital/switching functions.

For this reason, the region accommodating the n-channel switching transistors is covered with an initial photoresist 9 or another suitable etch-resistant layer, for example ( FIG. 3 ).

An anisotropic etching step subsequently takes place with a high selectivity relative to the gate and substrate materials, including their covering layers, to remove the spacers 8 in the desired regions ( FIG. 4 ) requiring the lowest pn leakage currents. Instead of later removing the spacers 8 , the production of spacers 8 can also be selectively omitted in preceding production steps on the n-channel transistors 1 , which are to have a low leakage current.

A subsequent covering 10 with a CVD layer is shown in FIG. 5 .

FIG. 6 shows another variant, where a covering 11 was accomplished with a thermal oxide.

FIG. 7 shows the structure after S/D implantation 7 , oxide isolation 18 , contact opening 16 and contact window implantation 15 .

FIG. 8 represents the structure after the first metal structuring and contacting. The method according to the invention can be summarized as follows:

The connection of the MOS transistor with extremely low leakage current is accomplished solely through LDD regions 6 within the active regions.

A selective removal/non-production of the spacer 8 takes place at the gate edges of the MOS transistors with extremely low leakage current.

No high-dose As implantation takes place at or in the vicinity of the gate edges and in the pn regions of the MOS transistors with an extremely low leakage current.

N-channel switching transistors are produced in parallel.

The transistor structures are covered with an oxide layer 11 before subsequent implantations or depositions, or there is a (moist) thermal oxidation of the surface of the transistor structures.

1 n-channel transistor with extremely low leakage current

2 “Normal” n-channel transistor/n-channel switching transistor

3 Gate of n-channel transistor with extremely low leakage current

4 Gate of “normal” n-channel transistor/n-channel switching transistor

5 Base material/p-substrate

6 LDD region

7 n+ S/D region of “normal” n-channel transistor/n-channel switching transistor

8 Spacer

9 Photoresist 1 /first photoresist

10 CVD layer

11 Oxide layer

12 Metal conductor path

13 Field oxide

14 Contact window

15 Contact window implantation

16 Contact

17 Gate oxide

18 Oxide insulation gate/metal 1

19 P-well

20 n-substrate

Having thus described at least one illustrative embodiment of the invention, various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be within and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended as limiting. The invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.