A semiconductor device according to one embodiment includes a substrate, a stacked body including conductive layers and insulating layers alternately stacked on the substrate, and first contact plugs individually connected to the conductive layers on an end of the stacked body. The semiconductor device includes, on the substrate, a lower layer three-dimensional structure including any of a lower layer inclined structure continuously inclined upward with respect to a flat surface of the substrate, a lower layer stepped structure inclined upward in a stepwise manner with respect to the flat surface, and a lower layer composite stepped structure in which planes parallel to the flat surface and slopes inclined upward with respect to the flat surface are alternately continuous. At least some of terrace regions being connection regions to the first contact plugs on top surfaces of the conductive layers are located on the lower layer three-dimensional structure.

A method includes: forming a patterned dielectric layer, including a predetermined word line region and a predetermined pick-up neck region being separated by a first distance, and the patterned dielectric layer within the predetermined pick-up neck region has a second distance, wherein the first distance is smaller than or equal to the second distance; forming a spacer on sidewalls of the patterned dielectric layer; cutting off the spacer of a connecting portion of the predetermined word line region from the spacer of a remaining portion of the predetermined word line region; forming a mask pattern, including a first portion across the connecting portion and the predetermined pick-up neck region, wherein the spacer at the remaining portion is spaced apart from the first portion; and forming a dummy structure, word lines, and pick-up necks, wherein the dummy structure is located between the word lines and the pick-up necks.

A semiconductor device is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a first slit, at least one word line, and a second slit. The first slit is disposed at a boundary between contiguous memory blocks to isolate the memory blocks from each other, and includes a first outer slit and a second outer slit, the second outer slit is spaced apart in a first direction from the first outer slit by a predetermined distance. The word line is disposed, between the first and second outer slits, including a center region having a first end and a second end, and an edge region located at the first end and a second end of the center region, and the second slit is disposed at the center region that isolate area of the word line in the center region on either side of the second slit, wherein the word line is continuous in the edge regions.

A memory device with a three-dimensional (3D) staircase memory stack includes dummy connectors proximate semi-isolated connectors. The memory device includes multiple wordlines stacked in a 3D staircase stack, which includes a wordline at an edge of a region of the staircase. The memory device includes vertical connectors through an isolation layer on the 3D staircase stack to connect the wordlines with conductive lines in an access layer. A wordline at the edge of the region of the staircase has a vertical connector that will be adjacent a connector on one side and not on the other side. The memory device includes at least one dummy vertical connector on the edge side of the vertical connector of the wordline on the edge, wherein the dummy vertical connector does not electrically connect a wordline of the 3D staircase stack to a conductive line in the access layer.

A semiconductor device includes a substrate; a first stack structure including first gate electrodes on the substrate; and a second stack structure on the first stack structure; wherein the first stack structure includes a first lower staircase region, a second lower staircase region, and a third lower staircase region, wherein the second stack structure includes a first upper staircase region, a second upper staircase region, a third upper staircase region, and at least one through portion penetrating the second stack structure and on the first to third lower staircase regions, wherein the first lower staircase region has a same shape as a shape of the first upper staircase region, the second lower staircase region has a same shape as a shape of the second upper staircase region, and the third lower staircase region has a same shape as a shape of the third upper staircase region.

A microelectronic device comprises a stack structure, contact structures, and additional contact structures. The stack structure comprises a vertically alternating sequence of conductive material and insulative material arranged in tiers. The stack structure is divided into blocks each comprising a stadium structure including steps comprising horizontal ends of the tiers. The contact structures are within a horizontal area of the stadium structure and vertically extend through the stack structure. The additional contact structures are on at least some of the steps of the stadium structure and are coupled to the contact structures. Memory devices and electronic devices are also disclosed.

A non-volatile memory device, includes a source region and a drain region disposed in a channel length direction on a substrate; a flash cell, including a floating gate and a control gate, disposed between the source region and the drain region; a selection gate disposed between the source region and the flash cell; a selection line connecting the selection gate; a word line connecting the control gate; a common source line connected to the source region; and a bit line connected to the drain region.

Embodiments of three-dimensional (3D) memory devices having through array contacts (TACs) and methods for forming the same are disclosed. In an example, a method for forming a 3D memory device is disclosed. A dielectric stack including interleaved a plurality of dielectric layers and a plurality of sacrificial layers is formed above a substrate. A channel structure extending vertically through the dielectric stack is formed. A first opening extending vertically through the dielectric stack is formed. A spacer is formed in a plurality of shallow recesses and on a sidewall of the first opening. The plurality of shallow recesses abut the sidewall of the first opening. A TAC extending vertically through the dielectric stack is formed by depositing a conductor layer in contact with the spacer in the first opening. A slit extending vertically through the dielectric stack is formed.

A highly reliable memory device is provided. In a method for manufacturing a memory device that includes a first insulator, a first conductor including a first opening over the first insulator, a second insulator including a second opening over the first conductor, a second conductor including a third opening over the second insulator, a third insulator over the second conductor, and a semiconductor provided in the first opening to the third opening, the first insulator is formed, the first conductor is formed over the first insulator, the second insulator is formed over the first conductor, a fourth insulator is formed over the second insulator, the third insulator is formed over the fourth insulator, the third opening is formed in the fourth insulator, the second opening is formed in the second insulator, the first opening is formed in the first conductor, the semiconductor is formed in the first opening to the third opening, the fourth insulator is removed, and the second conductor is formed between the second insulator and the third insulator.

An embodiment of a memory device may include a full block memory array of a lower tile of 3D NAND string memory cells, a full block memory array of an upper tile of 3D NAND string memory cells, a first portion of a string driver circuit coupled to the full block memory array of the lower tile, a second portion of the string driver circuit coupled to the full block memory array of the upper tile, a first split block memory array of the lower tile coupled to the first portion of the string driver circuit, and a second split block memory array of the upper tile coupled to the second portion of the string driver circuit. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.