A method for fabricating a vertical semiconductor device may include forming a lower-level stack including a source sacrificial layer over a semiconductor substrate; forming an upper-level stack including dielectric layers and sacrificial layers over the lower-level stack; forming a vertical channel structure including a channel layer that penetrates the upper-level stack and the lower-level stack; forming a slit that penetrates the upper-level stack while exposing the source sacrificial layer; forming a lateral recess that extends from the slit by removing the source sacrificial layer; forming a first contact layer which is coupled to a portion of the channel layer while filling the lateral recess; selectively forming a second contact layer over an exposed surface of the first contact layer; and selectively forming a chemical barrier layer over the second contact layer.

A microelectronic device, including a stack structure including alternating conductive structures and dielectric structures is disclosed. Memory pillars extend through the stack structure. Contacts are laterally adjacent to the memory pillars and extending through the stack structure. The contacts including active contacts and support contacts. The active contacts including a liner and a conductive material. The support contacts including the liner and a dielectric material. The conductive material of the active contacts is in electrical communication with the memory pillars. Methods and electronic systems are also disclosed.

A semiconductor device includes a lower insulating film that includes a first and second trenches on a substrate, a first wiring in the first trench, a second wiring in the second trench, a capping insulating film including an insulating recess portion and an insulating liner portion, an upper insulating film on the capping insulating film, and an upper contact that penetrates the capping insulating film and connects to the first wiring, The insulating recess portion is in the second trench and the insulating liner portion extends along an upper surface of the lower insulating film. The upper contact includes a contact recess portion in the first trench, an extended portion connected to the contact recess portion, and a plug portion connected to the extended portion inside the upper insulating film. A width of the extended portion is greater than a width of the plug portion.

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming a lower portion of a stack that will comprise vertically-alternating conductive tiers and insulative tiers. The stack comprises laterally-spaced memory-block regions. The lower portion comprises multiple lower of the conductive tiers and multiple lower of the insulative tiers. The lower insulative tiers comprise insulative material. The lower conductive tiers comprise sacrificial material that is of different composition from that of the insulative material. The sacrificial material is replaced with conducting material. After the replacing of the sacrificial material, the vertically-alternating conductive tiers and insulative tiers of an upper portion of the stack are formed above the lower portion. The upper portion comprises multiple upper of the conductive tiers and multiple upper of the insulative tiers. The upper insulative tiers comprise insulating material. The upper conductive tiers comprise sacrifice material that is of different composition from that of the conducting material, the insulating material, and the insulative material. The sacrifice material is replaced with conductive material. Other embodiments, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.

A semiconductor device includes a stacked structure including conductive layers and insulating layers alternately stacked with each other, and a channel layer passing through the stacked structure, wherein the channel layer is a single layer, the single layer including a first GIDL region, a cell region, and a second GIDL region, and the first GIDL region has a greater thickness than each of the cell region and the second GIDL region.

Embodiments of 3D memory devices and methods for forming the same are disclosed. In an example, a 3D memory device includes a substrate, a peripheral circuit on the substrate, a memory stack including interleaved conductive layers and dielectric layers above the peripheral circuit, a P-type doped semiconductor layer above the memory stack, a plurality of channel structures each extending vertically through the memory stack into the P-type doped semiconductor layer, and a source contact above the memory stack and in contact with the P-type doped semiconductor layer. An upper end of each of the plurality of channel structures is flush with or below a top surface of the P-type doped semiconductor layer.

A semiconductor device includes gate electrodes stacked to be spaced apart from each other on a substrate in a first direction, extending in a second direction, and including pad regions bent in a third direction, sacrificial insulating layers extending from the gate electrodes to be stacked alternately with the interlayer insulating layers, separation regions penetrating through the gate electrodes, extending in the second direction, and spaced apart from each other to be parallel to each other, and a through-wiring region spaced apart from the separation regions to overlap the pad regions between the separation regions adjacent to each other and including contact plugs penetrating through the pad regions. The through-wiring region includes slit regions, and each of the slit regions is disposed to penetrate through the sacrificial insulating layers on one side of a respective pad region.

Some embodiments include a NAND memory array having a vertical stack of alternating insulative levels and conductive levels. The conductive levels include control gate regions and include second regions proximate to the control gate regions. High-k dielectric structures are directly against the control gate regions and extend entirely across the insulative levels. Charge-blocking material is adjacent to the high-k dielectric structures. Charge-storage material is adjacent to the charge-blocking material. The charge-storage material is configured as segments which are vertically stacked one atop another, and which are vertically spaced from one another. Gate-dielectric material is adjacent to the charge-storage material. Channel material extends vertically along the stack and is adjacent to the gate-dielectric material. Some embodiments include integrated assemblies, and methods of forming integrated assemblies.

A nonvolatile memory device includes; a memory cell area including a cell structure and a common source plate. The memory cell area is mounted on a peripheral circuit area including a buried area covered by the memory cell area and an exposed area uncovered by the memory cell area. A first peripheral circuit (PC) via extending from the exposed area, and a common source (CS) via extending from the common source plate, wherein the first PC via and the CS via are connected by a CS wire disposed outside the cell structure and providing a bias voltage to the common source plate.

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming laterally-spaced memory blocks individually comprising a vertical stack comprising alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers. Channel-material strings of memory cells extend through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers. The conductive tiers comprise metal along sides of the memory blocks. Silicon is formed between the memory blocks over the metal of the conductive tiers. The silicon and the metal react to form metal silicide therefrom that is directly against and longitudinally-along the metal of individual of the conductive tiers. After the reacting, unreacted of the silicon is removed from between the memory blocks and intervening material is formed between and longitudinally-along the memory blocks. Other embodiments, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.