Embodiments related to transistors and integrated circuits having aluminum indium phosphide subfins and germanium channels, systems incorporating such transistors, and methods for forming them are discussed.

A semiconductor element may include a substrate including source and drain regions formed in the substrate apart from each other by a trench, a gate insulating layer covering a bottom surface and a sidewall of the trench, a gate electrode including lower and upper buried portions. The lower buried portion may be in the trench with the gate insulating layer therearound and fill a lower region of the trench. The upper buried portion may be on the lower buried portion with the gate insulating layer therearound and fill an upper region of the trench. The upper buried portion may include a two-dimensional material layer in the trench on an upper surface of the first conductive layer and an upper region of the sidewall of the gate insulating layer, and a second conductive layer in the upper region of the trench and surrounded by the two-dimensional material layer.

An integrated circuit (IC) device including a fin-type active region on a substrate and a gate line on the fin-type active and having a first uppermost surface at a first vertical level, an insulating spacer covering a sidewall of the gate line and having a second uppermost surface at the first vertical level, and an insulating guide film covering the second uppermost surface of the insulating spacer may be provided. The gate line may include a multilayered conductive film structure that includes a plurality of conductive patterns and have a top surface defined by the conductive patterns, which includes at least first and second conductive patterns including different materials from each other and a unified conductive pattern that is in contact with a top surface of each of the conductive patterns and has a top surface that defines the first uppermost surface.

Embodiments of three-dimensional (3D) memory devices with a 3D NAND memory array having a plurality of pages, an on-die cache coupled to the memory array on a same chip and configured to cache a plurality of batches of program data between a host and the memory array, the on-die cache having SRAM cells, and a controller coupled to the on-die cache on the same chip. The controller is configured to check a status of an (N−2).sup.th batch of program data, N being an integer equal to or greater than 2, program an (N−1).sup.th batch of program data into respective pages in the 3D NAND memory array, and cache an N.sup.th batch of program data in respective space in the on-die cache as a backup copy of the N.sup.th batch of program data.

A butted contact structure is provided. In one embodiment, a structure includes a first transistor on a substrate, the first transistor comprising a first source or drain region, a first gate, and a first gate spacer being disposed between the first gate and the first source or drain region. The structure includes a second transistor on the substrate, the second transistor comprising a second source or drain region, a second gate, and a second gate spacer being disposed between the second gate and the second source or drain region. The structure includes a butted contact disposed above and extending from the first source or drain region to at least one of the first or second gate, a portion of the first gate spacer extending a distance into the butted contact to separate a first bottom surface of the butted contact from a second bottom surface of the butted contact.

A semiconductor device includes fin patterns on a substrate, at least one gate electrode intersecting the fin patterns, source/drain regions on upper surfaces of the fin patterns, and at least one blocking layer on a sidewall of a first fin pattern of the fin patterns, the at least one blocking layer extending above an upper surface of the first fin pattern of the fin patterns, wherein a first source/drain region of the source/drain regions that is on the upper surface of the first fin pattern has an asymmetric shape and is in direct contact with the at least one blocking layer.

A method of forming a memory circuit includes generating a layout design of the memory circuit, and manufacturing the memory circuit based on the layout design. The memory circuit is a four transistor memory cell that includes at least the first pass gate transistor and the first pull up transistor. The generating of the layout design includes generating a first active region layout pattern corresponding to fabricating a first active region of a first pull up transistor, generating a second active region layout pattern corresponding to fabricating a second active region of a first pass gate transistor, and generating a first metal contact layout pattern corresponding to fabricating a first metal contact is electrically coupled to a source of the first pull up transistor. The first metal contact layout pattern extends in a second direction, overlaps a cell boundary of the memory circuit and the first active region layout pattern.

Well pick-up regions are disclosed herein for improving performance of memory arrays, such as static random access memory arrays. An exemplary integrated circuit (IC) device includes a circuit region; a first well pick-up (WPU) region; a first well oriented lengthwise along a first direction in the circuit region and extending into the first WPU region, the first well having a first conductivity type; and a second well oriented lengthwise along the first direction in the circuit region and extending into the first WPU region, the second well having a second conductivity type different from the first conductivity type, wherein the first well has a first portion in the circuit region and a second portion in the first WPU region, and the second portion of the first well has a width larger than the first portion of the first well along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

An IC is provided. The IC includes a plurality of a plurality of P-type fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs). The P-type FinFETs includes at least one first P-type FinFET and at least one second P-type FinFET. Source/drain regions of the first P-type FinFET have a first depth, and source/drain regions of the second P-type FinFET have a second depth that is different from the first depth. A first semiconductor fin of the first P-type FinFET includes a first portion and a second portion that are formed by different materials, and the second portion of the first semiconductor fin has a third depth that is greater than the first depth.

A semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a first dielectric fin, a first semiconductor fin and a second dielectric fin over a substrate. The first semiconductor fin interposes between and is spaced apart from the first dielectric fin and the second dielectric fin. The semiconductor structure also includes a first source/drain structure over a source/drain portion of the first semiconductor fin, an inter-layer dielectric layer covering a first portion of an upper surface of the first source/drain structure and an upper surface of the second dielectric fin, and a first contact in the inter-layer dielectric layer and covering a second portion of the upper surface of the first source/drain structure and an upper surface of the first dielectric fin.