A compact and reliable changeable negative voltage transmission circuit is described. It is very useful for applications need passing changeable negative voltage to selected pins in certain mode. The changeable negative voltage is 0V when enable signal EN is low and −V1 when enable signal EN is high. The circuit includes a control circuit and an output circuit. The control circuit includes a control high power source V.sub.DD and a control low power source V.sub.NEG. The control circuit generates control output signals CON and CON_B to the output circuit to output either 0V if IN is low or −V1 if IN is high when EN is high. Only single type V.sub.T transistor is used in the transmission circuit without any reliability concern, no extra bias voltage is need, which reduces the area and keeps the manufacturing cost low.

A light-erasable embedded memory device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided in the present invention. The light-erasable embedded memory device includes a substrate with a memory region and a core circuit region, a floating gate on the memory region of the substrate, at least one light-absorbing film above the floating gate, wherein at least one light-absorbing film is provided with dummy via holes overlapping the floating gate, and a dielectric layer on the light-absorbing film and filling up the dummy via holes.

A method of forming a semiconductor device includes recessing the upper surface of first and second areas of a semiconductor substrate relative to the third area of the substrate, forming a pair of stack structures in the first area each having a control gate over a floating gate, forming a first source region in the substrate between the pair of stack structures, forming an erase gate over the first source region, forming a block of dummy material in the third area, forming select gates adjacent the stack structures, forming high voltage gates in the second area, forming a first blocking layer over at least a portion of one of the high voltage gates, forming silicide on a top surface of the high voltage gates which are not underneath the first blocking layer, and replacing the block of dummy material with a block of metal material.

A semiconductor device includes a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells (1). Each of the nonvolatile memory cells comprises a MOS type first transistor section (3) used for information storage, and a MOS type second transistor section (4) which selects the first transistor section. The second transistor section has a bit line electrode (16) connected to a bit line, and a control gate electrode (18) connected to a control gate control line. The first transistor section has a source line electrode (10) connected to a source line, a memory gate electrode (14) connected to a memory gate control line, and a charge storage region (11) disposed directly below the memory gate electrode. A gate withstand voltage of the second transistor section is lower than that of the first transistor section. Assuming that the thickness of a gate insulating film of the second transistor section is defined as tc and the thickness of a gate insulating film of the first transistor section is defined as tm, they have a relationship of tc<tm.

A semiconductor structure and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor substrate, a silicon-containing gate electrode, and at least two gate silicide strips. The silicon-containing gate electrode is on the semiconductor substrate. The at least two gate silicide strips are on an upper surface of the silicon-containing gate electrode.

A semiconductor device includes a peripheral circuit structure disposed on a substrate; a lower stack disposed on the peripheral circuit structure and an upper stack disposed in the lower stack, the lower stack including a plurality of lower insulating layers and a plurality of lower word lines alternately stacked with the lower insulating layers; a plurality of channel structures extending through the lower stack and the upper stack in the cell array area; a pair of separation insulating layers extending vertically through the lower stack and the upper stack and extending in a horizontal direction, the pair of separation insulating layers being spaced apart from each other in a vertical direction; and a word line separation layer disposed at an upper portion of the lower stack and crossing the pair of separation insulating layers when viewed in a plan view, the word line separation layer extending vertically through at least one of the lower word lines.

A memory array and single-crystal circuitry are provided by wafer bonding (e.g., adhesive wafer bonding or anodic wafer bonding) in the same integrated circuit and interconnected by conductors of a interconnect layer. Additional circuitry or memory arrays may be provided by additional wafer bonds and electrically connected by interconnect layers at the wafer bonding interface. The memory array may include storage or memory transistors having single-crystal epitaxial silicon channel material.

A method of forming a device on a substrate with recessed first/third areas relative to a second area by forming a fin in the second area, forming first source/drain regions (with first channel region therebetween) by first/second implantations, forming second source/drain regions in the third area (defining second channel region therebetween) by the second implantation, forming third source/drain regions in the fin (defining third channel region therebetween) by third implantation, forming a floating gate over a first portion of the first channel region by first polysilicon deposition, forming a control gate over the floating gate by second polysilicon deposition, forming an erase gate over the first source region and a device gate over the second channel region by third polysilicon deposition, and forming a word line gate over a second portion of the first channel region and a logic gate over the third channel region by metal deposition.

A semiconductor structure including a semiconductor substrate and at least one patterned dielectric layer is provided. The semiconductor substrate includes a semiconductor portion, at least one first device, at least one second device and at least one first dummy ring. The at least one first device is disposed on a first region surrounded by the semiconductor portion. The at least one second device and the at least one first dummy ring are disposed on a second region, and the second region surrounds the first region. The at least one patterned dielectric layer covers the semiconductor substrate.

A method of forming a semiconductor device by recessing the upper surface of a semiconductor substrate in first and second areas but not a third area, forming a first conductive layer in the first and second areas, forming a second conductive layer in all three areas, removing the first and second conductive layers from the second area and portions thereof from the first area resulting in pairs of stack structures each with a control gate over a floating gate, forming a third conductive layer in the first and second areas, forming a protective layer in the first and second areas and then removing the second conductive layer from the third area, then forming blocks of conductive material in the third area, then etching in the first and second areas to form select and HV gates, and replacing the blocks of conductive material with blocks of metal material.