Memory device and method of fabricating the same

This application claims the priority benefit of China application serial no. 201510909859.9, filed on Dec. 10, 2015. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

The invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same, and particularly to a memory device and a method of fabricating the same.

In order to improve the integration density of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) to speed up the operation speed of devices and meet the consumer's requirement of miniaturization of electronic devices, buried word line DRAM has been developed to meet the above requirements in recent years. However, with the increase of the integration density of memory, the spacing between word lines and the isolation structure of the memory array may continue reducing resulted in various undesirable influences, such as cell-to-cell leakage, interference between word lines (also called as row hammer), read/write time failure (t wr failure), retention failure, bit line coupling failure, and the like.

Currently, for the interference between word lines, an isolation structure deeper than the buried word lines is a way used to improve the above problems. As a result, it is necessary to change the original process of the isolation structure. That is, one lithography process of forming the word lines and the isolation structure simultaneously changes into at least two lithography processes. One is for fabricating the deeper isolation structure while the other one is for fabricating the buried word line between the isolation structures.

However, in the prior art, alignment issue tends to happen by using multi-lithography processes to form the isolation structure and the capacitor contact respectively. The alignment issue becomes worse with the reduction of device size. For example, it may cause a reduction of a contact area between an active area (e.g. source/drain region) and a capacitor contact. Since the contact area between the active area and the capacitor contact becomes smaller, resistance between the active area and the capacitor contact increases and thereby resulted in read/write time failure. Therefore, how to develop a method of fabricating a memory device to improve the problem of the reduction of the contact area between the active area and the capacitor contact caused by a misalignment in a lithography process becomes an important issue.

The invention provides a method of fabricating a memory device having a self-aligned isolation structure to improve the problem of the reduction of the contact area between the active area and the capacitor contact caused by the misalignment in the lithography process.

The invention provides a method of fabricating a memory device to reduce the process steps, so as to reduce the process cost.

The invention provides a method of fabricating a memory device includes the following steps. A substrate having a first region and a second region is provided. A plurality of word line sets are formed in the substrate in the first region. Each of the word line sets has two buried word lines. A first dielectric layer is formed on the substrate in the first region. A conductive layer is formed on the substrate in the second region, wherein a top surface of the conductive layer is lower than a top surface of the first dielectric layer. A second dielectric layer is conformally formed on the substrate. A first etching process is performed to remove a portion of the second dielectric layer and a portion of the conductive layer, so as to form a first opening in the conductive layer and the second dielectric layer in the second region. The first opening exposes a surface of the substrate in the second region. A second etching process is performed to remove a portion of the substrate in the second region, so as to form a trench in the substrate in the second region, wherein the first opening is located on the trench. A third dielectric layer is formed in the trench and the first opening. A portion of the first dielectric layer and the third dielectric layer are removed to form a second opening on a remainder of the first dielectric layer and to form a third opening on a remainder of the third dielectric layer. A fourth dielectric layer is formed in the second opening and the third opening.

The invention provides a memory device includes a substrate, at least one word line set, a dielectric structure, a conductive layer, and an isolation structure. The substrate has at least one first region and at least one second region. The at least one word line set is located in the substrate in the at least one first region. The dielectric structure is located on the at least one word line set. The conductive layer is located on the substrate in the at least one second region. The isolation structure is located in the conductive layer. The isolation structure is extended from a top surface of the conductive layer into the substrate. A bottom surface of the isolation structure is lower than a bottom surface of the at least one word line set.

Based on the above description, the isolation structure is formed by forming a self-aligned trench to improve the problem of the reduction of the contact area between the active area and the capacitor contact caused by the misalignment in the lithography process in the invention. In addition, a width of the isolation structure formed subsequently may be adjusted by varying a thickness of the second dielectric layer in the invention. Moreover, the process steps may be simplified to reduce the process cost in the invention.

In order to make the aforementioned features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of a memory device in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2A to FIG. 2H are schematic cross-sectional views illustrating a process of fabricating a memory device in accordance with a second embodiment along line I-I′ in FIG. 1 .

The invention is illustrated more comprehensively referring to the drawings of the embodiments. However, the invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Thicknesses of layers and regions in the drawings may be enlarged for clarity. The same or similar reference numbers represent the same or similar components, and are not repeated again in the following paragraphs.

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of a memory device in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the embodiment provides a memory device including a substrate 100 , a plurality of isolation structures 101 , a plurality of active areas 102 , a plurality of bit lines 104 , a plurality of word line sets 106 , a plurality of capacitor contacts 108 , and a plurality of bit line contacts 110 . For clarity, only the above components are shown in FIG. 1 while other structures may be shown in the following cross-sectional views of FIG. 2A to FIG. 2H .

In the first embodiment, the substrate 100 includes a plurality of first regions R 1 and a plurality of second regions R 2 . The first regions R 1 and the second regions R 2 are alternatively arranged along a first direction D 1 . The isolation structures 101 are formed in the substrate 100 in the second regions R 2 extending along a second direction D 2 . The isolation structures 101 may chop a plurality of strip-type active areas alternatively arranged along the second direction D 2 to define and form a plurality of the active areas 102 . In other words, the isolation structure 101 is formed between two adjacent active areas 102 . In the embodiment, the strip-type active area is a linear shape. However, the invention is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the strip-type active area may be a non-linear shape, such as a zigzag shape.

The bit lines 104 are located on the substrate 100 and cross the first regions R 1 and the second regions R 2 . The bit lines 104 extend along the first direction D 1 and are alternatively arranged along the second direction D 2 . The word line sets 106 are located in the substrate 100 in the first regions R 1 . The word line sets 106 extend along the second direction D 2 and are alternatively arranged along the first direction D 1 . Each of the word line sets 106 has two buried word lines 106 a , 106 b . The first direction D 1 is different from the second direction D 2 . In one embodiment, the first direction D 1 and the second direction D 2 are perpendicular to each other substantially.

In the embodiment, each of the active areas 102 has long sides L 1 and short sides L 2 , and the long sides L 1 cross the corresponding word line set 106 (i.e. two buried word lines 106 a , 106 b ). Also, the overlap between each of the active areas 102 and the corresponding bit line 104 has the bit line contact 110 . Therefore, each of the bit lines 104 may be electrically connected to the corresponding doped region (not shown) by the bit line contact 110 when crossing the corresponding word line set 106 , wherein the doped region is located between the two buried word lines 106 a , 106 b . In addition, although the bit line contacts 110 are shown as a rectangle in FIG. 1 , the contact is formed to be a slight circular shape actually, and the size thereof may be designed according to the process requirement.

The capacitor contacts 108 are located on the substrate 100 between the bit lines 104 . Specifically, the capacitor contacts 108 are arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. The rows are arranged along the second direction D 2 while the columns are arranged along the first direction D 1 . From another aspect, the capacitor contacts 108 are disposed on the substrate 100 between two sides of the word line sets 106 . That is, every two columns of the capacitor contacts 108 and the word line sets 106 having two buried word lines 106 , 106 b are arranged alternatively along the first direction D 1 .

FIG. 2A to FIG. 2H are schematic cross-sectional views illustrating a process of fabricating a memory device in accordance with a second embodiment along line I-I′ in FIG. 1 .

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2A at the same time, the invention provides a method of fabricating a memory device including the following steps. First, the substrate 100 is provided. In the embodiment, the substrate 100 may be a semiconductor substrate, a semiconductor compound substrate, or a semiconductor over insulator (SOI) substrate, for example. The substrate 100 has a plurality of the first regions R 1 and a plurality of the second regions R 2 . The first regions R 1 and the second regions R 2 are arranged alternatively.

Then, a plurality of the word line sets 106 are formed in the substrate 100 in the first regions R 1 . Specifically, each of the word line sets 106 includes two buried word lines 106 , 106 b . Each of the buried word lines 106 includes a gate electrode 112 a and a gate dielectric layer 114 a . The gate dielectric layer 114 a is around the gate electrode 112 a , so that the gate electrode 112 a is electrically isolated from the substrate 100 . In one embodiment, a material of the gate electrode 112 a includes a conductive material. The conductive material may be a metal material, a barrier metal material, or a combination thereof, for example, and a method of forming the same may be a chemical vapor deposition method or a physical vapor deposition method. A material of the gate dielectric layer 114 a may be silicon oxide, for example, and a method of forming the same may be a chemical vapor deposition method, a thermal oxidation method, or an in situ steam generation (ISSG) method, etc. Similarly, another buried word line 106 b also includes a gate electrode 112 b and a gate dielectric layer 114 b . The gate dielectric layer 114 b is around the gate electrode 112 b , so that the gate electrode 112 b is electrically isolated form the substrate 100 .

After that, a silicon nitride layer 116 a is formed on the buried word line 106 a , and a silicon nitride layer 116 b is formed on the buried word line 106 b . A silicon oxide layer 118 is formed on the substrate 100 between the silicon nitride layers 116 a , 116 b . A silicon nitride layer 120 is formed on the silicon nitride layers 116 a , 116 b and the silicon oxide layer 118 . In one embodiment, a method of forming the silicon nitride layers 116 a , 116 b , the silicon oxide layer 118 , and the silicon nitride layer 120 may be a chemical vapor deposition method.

Then, a first dielectric layer 112 is formed on the substrate 100 in the first regions R 1 . The first dielectric layer 112 includes dielectric material layers 121 a , 121 b . In one embodiment, a material of the dielectric material layer 121 a may be a spin-on dielectric (SOD) material, for example. A material of the dielectric material layer 121 b may be tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), for example. However, the invention is not limited thereto. A material of the first dielectric layer 122 may be a combination of one or more dielectric materials.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2B at the same time, a conductive layer 124 is formed on the substrate 100 in the second regions R 2 , wherein a top surface of the conductive layer 124 is lower than a top surface of the first dielectric layer 122 . Particularly, steps of forming the conductive layer 124 include forming a conductive material layer (not shown) on the substrate 100 first. The conductive material layer not only covers a surface of the substrate 100 in the second regions R 2 , but covers a top surface and sidewalls of the first dielectric layer 122 . Next, an etch back process is performed to remove a portion of the conductive material layer, so as to expose the top surface and a portion of the sidewalls of the first dielectric layer 122 . In one embodiment, a material of the conductive layer 124 may be doped polycrystalline silicon, for example, and a method of forming the same may be a chemical vapor deposition method.

Then, referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2C at the same time, a second dielectric layer 126 is conformally formed on the substrate 100 . Since the top surface of the conductive layer 124 is lower than the top surface of the first dielectric layer 122 , the second dielectric layer 126 may be a continuous concave and convex structure, for example. The second dielectric layer 126 on the first dielectric layer 122 is a convex portion while the second dielectric layer 126 on the conductive layer 124 is a concave portion. In one embodiment, a material of the second dielectric layer 126 may be silicon nitride, for example, and a method of forming the same may be an atomic layer deposition (ALD) method.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment, a width W (as shown in FIG. 2F ) of the isolation structure 101 formed subsequently may be adjusted by varying a thickness T of the second dielectric layer 126 . For example, a width of a concave portion opening 125 on the conductive layer 124 is smaller when the thickness T of the second dielectric layer 126 is thicker. Then, widths of a first opening 10 and a trench 15 (as shown in FIG. 2E ) formed after performing the first etching process and the second etching process become smaller. Therefore, the width W of the isolation structure 101 located in the trench 15 is smaller and vice versa.

Then, referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2D at the same time, a first etching process is performed to remove a portion of the second dielectric layer 126 and a portion of the conductive layer 124 , so as to form the first opening 10 in the conductive layer 124 a and the second dielectric layer 126 a in the second regions R 2 . The first opening 10 exposes a surface of the substrate 100 in the second regions R 2 . In addition, when the first etching process is performed, a portion of the second dielectric layer 126 in the first regions R 1 is also removed to expose a top surface of the first dielectric layer 122 . From another aspect, the conductive layer 124 is separated into two conductive layers 124 a by the first opening 10 . In one embodiment, the first etching process may be a one-step process, a two-step process, or a multi-step process.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2E at the same time, a second etching process is performed to remove a portion of the substrate 100 in the second regions R 2 , so as to form the trench 15 in the substrate 100 in the second regions R 2 . The first opening 10 is located on the trench 15 . In the embodiment, etching selectivity of the material (e.g. silicon) of the substrate 100 to the second etching process may be higher by adjusting process parameters (e.g. etching gas composition or proportion, etc.) of the second etching process. Thus, the second etching process is performed by using the first dielectric layer 122 and the second dielectric layer 126 a as a mask layer, most of the substrate 100 may be removed to form the self-aligned trench 15 . In one embodiment, a small part of the first dielectric layer 122 and the second dielectric layer 126 a are still removed in the second etching process, but the formation of the self-aligned trench 15 is not affected thereby. Here, the first dielectric layer 122 and the second dielectric layer 126 a removed by the second etching process are represented as the first dielectric layer 122 a and the second dielectric layer 126 b . In one embodiment, a bottom surface of the trench 15 is lower than bottom surfaces of the buried word lines 106 a , 106 b.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2F at the same time, a third dielectric layer 128 is formed in the trench 15 and the first opening 10 . Particularly, steps of forming the third dielectric layer 128 include forming a third dielectric material layer (not shown) on the substrate 100 first. The third dielectric material layer is not only filled in the trench 15 and the first opening 10 , but also covers a top surface of the first dielectric layer 122 a and a top surface of the second dielectric layer 126 b . A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is performed to remove a portion of the third dielectric material layer, so as to expose the top surface of the first dielectric layer 122 a or the top surface of the second dielectric layer 126 b , thereby the top surface of the first dielectric layer 122 a is coplanar with the top surface of the second dielectric layer 126 b . In one embodiment, a material of the third dielectric layer 128 may be silicon oxide or a spin-on dielectric (SOD) material, for example. However, the invention is not limited thereto. Only if a dielectric material having good gap filling capacity is suitable. In one embodiment, the third dielectric layer 128 filled in the trench 15 may be the isolation structure 101 , for example. A bottom surface of the isolation structure 101 is lower than the bottom surfaces of the buried word lines 106 a , 106 b to improve the interference between the word lines.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2G at the same time, a portion of the first dielectric layer 122 a and the third dielectric layer 128 are removed to form a second opening 20 on a remainder of the first dielectric layer 122 b and to form a third opening 30 on a remainder of the third dielectric layer 128 a . A bottom surface of the second opening 20 is coplanar with a bottom surface of the third opening 30 . In other word, the remainder of the first dielectric layer 122 b and the remainder of the third dielectric layer 128 a have the same level. In one embodiment, a method of removing the portion of the first dielectric layer 122 a and the third dielectric layer 128 may be a wet etching method, for example.

Referring to FIG. 1 , FIG. 2G , and FIG. 2H at the same time, a fourth dielectric layer 130 is formed in the second opening 20 and the third opening 30 . Since the fourth dielectric layer 130 is disposed on the first dielectric layer 122 b and the third dielectric layer 128 a , and the fourth dielectric layer 130 may be used as an etching stop layer. Therefore, when a capacitor (not shown) formed subsequently, problems of the depletion of the first dielectric layer 122 b and the isolation structure 101 caused by over etching does not happen. Particularly, a fourth dielectric material layer (not shown) is conformally formed on the substrate 100 first. The fourth dielectric material layer is filled in the second opening 20 and the third opening 30 and covers a top surface of the second dielectric layer 126 b . A planarization process is performed to remove a portion of the fourth dielectric material layer and the second dielectric layer 126 b , so that a top surface of the fourth dielectric layer 130 is coplanar with a top surface of the conductive layer 124 a . In one embodiment, a material of the fourth dielectric layer 130 may be silicon nitride, for example, and a method of forming the same may be an atomic layer deposition (ALD) method, for example. In one embodiment, the planarization process may be a CMP process or an etch back process, for example. In one embodiment, the conductive layer 124 a may be the capacitor contact 108 , for example. After that, a plurality of capacitors (not shown) may be formed on the conductive layer 124 a (or the capacitor contact 108 ) respectively.

In summary, the isolation structure is formed by forming the self-aligned trench to improve the problem of the reduction of the contact area between the active area and the capacitor contact caused by the misalignment in the lithography process in the invention. In addition, the width of the isolation structure formed subsequently may be adjusted by varying the thickness of the second dielectric layer in the invention. Moreover, the process steps may be simplified to reduce the process cost in the invention.

Although the invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that modifications to the described embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is defined by the attached claims not by the above detailed descriptions.