Low-flow tungsten chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques described herein provide substantially uniform deposition of tungsten on a semiconductor substrate. In some implementations, a flow of a processing vapor is provided to a CVD processing chamber such that a flow rate of tungsten hexafluoride in the processing vapor results in the tungsten layer being grown at a slower rate than a higher flow rate of the tungsten hexafluoride to promote substantially uniform growth of the tungsten layer. In this way, the low-flow tungsten CVD techniques may be used to achieve similar surface uniformity performance to an atomic layer deposition (ALD) while being a faster deposition process relative to ALD (e.g., due to the lower deposition rate and large quantity of alternating processing cycles of ALD). This reduces the likelihood of defect formation in the tungsten layer while increasing the throughput of semiconductor device processing for the semiconductor substrate (and other semiconductor substrates).

A device includes a substrate including an active region, a gate stack over the active region, and a hard mask over the gate stack. The hard mask includes a capping layer, a buttress layer extending along sidewalls and a bottom of the capping layer, and a liner layer extending along sidewalls and a bottom of the buttress layer. The buttress layer includes a metal oxide material or a metal nitride material.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: a first insulating film forming step of forming a first insulating film in a transistor having a structure in which a source and a drain raised in a fin shape are covered with a gate; a sacrifice film forming step of forming a sacrifice film; a hard mask pattern forming step of forming a hard mask film having a desired pattern; a first opening forming step of forming a first opening; a second insulating film forming step of forming a second insulating film made of a material different from the first insulating film, in the first opening; a second opening forming step of forming a second opening by removing the sacrifice film, after the second insulating film forming step; and a contact plug forming step of forming a contact plug in the second opening.

Disclosed are semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the same. The semiconductor device comprises a gate electrode on a substrate, an upper capping pattern on the gate electrode, and a lower capping pattern between the gate electrode and the upper capping pattern. The lower capping pattern comprises a first portion between the gate electrode and the upper capping pattern, and a plurality of second portions extending from the first portion onto corresponding side surfaces of the upper capping pattern. The upper capping pattern covers a topmost surface of each of the second portions.

In one exemplary aspect, a method comprises providing a semiconductor structure having a substrate, one or more first dielectric layers over the substrate, a first metal plug in the one or more first dielectric layers, and one or more second dielectric layers over the one or more first dielectric layers and the first metal plug. The method further comprises etching a via hole into the one or more second dielectric layers to expose the first metal plug, etching a top surface of the first metal plug to create a recess thereon, and applying a metal corrosion protectant comprising a metal corrosion inhibitor to the top surface of the first metal plug.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, includes forming a sacrificial film made of a polymer having a urea bond on a substrate by supplying an amine and an isocyanate to a surface of the substrate, wherein the sacrificial film is provided in a specific region of the substrate; performing a predetermined process on the substrate on which the sacrificial film is formed; and removing the sacrificial film by heating the substrate to depolymerize the polymer, wherein a carbon bonded to a nitrogen atom contained in an isocyanate group of the isocyanate is a secondary or tertiary non-aromatic carbon.

A method includes depositing an interlayer dielectric (ILD) over a source/drain region, implanting impurities into a portion of the ILD, recessing the portion of the ILD to form a trench, forming spacers on sidewalls of the trench, the spacers including a spacer material, forming a source/drain contact in the trench and removing the spacers and the portion of the ILD with an etching process to form an air-gap, the air-gap disposed under and along sidewalls of the source/drain contact, where the etching process selectively etches the spacer material and the impurity.

A method is provided for sealing a seam in a self-aligned contact (SAC) layer that is disposed on a gate of a semiconductor structure. The method includes depositing a filler in the seam to seal the seam.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to an embedded trace substrate (ETS) with one or more passive components embedded therein. Such an ETS may provide shorter routing, smaller loop area, and lower parasitics between a semiconductor die and a land-side passive component embedded in the ETS. One example embedded trace substrate generally includes a core, a first insulating material disposed above the core and having a first metal pattern embedded therein, a second insulating material disposed below the core and having a second metal pattern embedded therein, and one or more passive components embedded in the core.

In some embodiments, an integrated circuit device includes a substrate having a frontside and a backside; one or more active semiconductor devices formed on the frontside of the substrate; conductive paths formed on the frontside of the substrate; and conductive paths formed on the backside of the substrate. At least some of the conductive paths formed on the backside of the substrate, and as least some of the conductive paths formed on the front side of the substrate, are signal paths among the active semiconductor devices. In in some embodiments, other conductive paths formed on the backside of the substrate are power grid lines for powering at least some of the active semiconductor devices.