The performances of a semiconductor device of a memory element are improved. Over a semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode for memory element is formed via overall insulation film of gate insulation film for memory element. The overall insulation film has first insulation film, second insulation film over first insulation film, third insulation film over second insulation film, fourth insulation film over third insulation film, and fifth insulation film over fourth insulation film. The second insulation film is an insulation film having charge accumulation function. Each band gap of first insulation film and third insulation film is larger than the band gap of second insulation film. The third insulation film is polycrystal film including high dielectric constant material containing metallic element and oxygen. Fifth insulation film is polycrystal film including the same material as that for third insulation film. Fourth insulation film includes different material from that for third insulation film.

A surface of an article is modified by aluminizing an initial surface at a first temperature to form a first aluminized layer and a sublayer, removing at least a portion of the first aluminized layer, aluminizing the sublayer at a second temperature to form a second aluminized layer, and finally removing at least a portion of the second aluminized layer to form a processed surface. The second temperature is less than the first temperature and a roughness of the processed surface is less than the roughness of the initial surface.

A semiconductor device including an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) structure having a multi-layer charge storing layer and methods of forming the same are provided. Generally, the method involves: (i) forming a first oxide layer of the ONO structure; (ii) forming a multi-layer charge storing layer comprising nitride on a surface of the first oxide layer; and (iii) forming a second oxide layer of the ONO structure on a surface of the multi-layer charge storing layer. Preferably, the charge storing layer comprises at least two silicon oxynitride layers having differing stochiometric compositions of Oxygen, Nitrogen and/or Silicon. More preferably, the ONO structure is part of a silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) structure and the semiconductor device is a SONOS memory transistor. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

In one aspect, the invention is formulations comprising both organoaminohafnium and organoaminosilane precursors that allows anchoring both silicon-containing fragments and hafnium-containing fragments onto a given surface having hydroxyl groups to deposit silicon doped hafnium oxide having a silicon doping level ranging from 0.5 to 8 mol %, preferably 2 to 6 mol %, most preferably 3 to 5 mol %, suitable as ferroelectric material. In another aspect, the invention is methods and systems for depositing the silicon doped hafnium oxide films using the formulations.

A memory cell, which is a nonvolatile memory cell, includes a gate dielectric film having charge storage layer capable of holding charges, and a memory gate electrode formed on the gate dielectric film. The charge storage layer includes an insulating film containing hafnium, silicon, and oxygen, an insertion layer formed on the insulating film and containing aluminum, and an insulating film formed on the insertion layer and containing hafnium, silicon, and oxygen.

According to a certain embodiment, the semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor region having a first conductivity type including a first surface; an insulating portion formed on the semiconductor region, and having a second surface moved backward in the depth direction of the semiconductor region more than the first surface; a first region disposed on the semiconductor region between a first portion and second portions of the insulating portion; a second region disposed on the semiconductor region between the first and second portions to be separated from the first region; a control electrode disposed above the first surface to be located between the first and second regions; a first electrode disposed on the first region so as to be contacted with the first region; and a first insulating film containing hafnium disposed on a side wall of the semiconductor region at a stepped portion between the first and second surfaces.

A method includes forming a gate stack of a transistor. The formation of the gate stack includes forming a silicon oxide layer on a semiconductor region, depositing a hafnium oxide layer over the silicon oxide layer, depositing a lanthanum oxide layer over the hafnium oxide layer, and depositing a work-function layer over the lanthanum oxide layer. Source/drain regions are formed on opposite sides of the gate stack.

A semiconductor memory device according to an embodiment, includes a semiconductor pillar extending in a first direction, a first electrode extending in a second direction crossing the first direction, a second electrode provided between the semiconductor pillar and the first electrode, a first insulating film provided between the semiconductor pillar and the second electrode, and a second insulating film provided between the first electrode and the second electrode. The second electrode includes a thin sheet portion disposed on the first electrode side, and a thick sheet portion disposed on the semiconductor pillar side. A length in the first direction of the thick sheet portion is longer than a length in the first direction of the thin sheet portion.

A device includes a semiconductor fin and a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure. The semiconductor fin extends from a semiconductor substrate. The STI structure is around a lower portion of the semiconductor fin, and the STI structure includes a liner layer and an isolation material. The liner layer includes a metal-contained ternary dielectric material. The isolation material is over the liner layer.

An example embodiment of the present disclosure involves a method for semiconductor device fabrication. The method comprises providing a structure that includes a conductive component and an interlayer dielectric (ILD) that includes silicon and surrounds the conductive component, and forming, over the conductive component and the ILD, an etch stop layer (ESL) that includes metal oxide. The ESL includes a first portion in contact with the conductive component and a second portion in contact with the ILD. The method further comprises baking the ESL to transform the metal oxide located in the second portion of the ESL into metal silicon oxide, and selectively etching the ESL so as to remove the first portion of the ESL but not the second portion of the ESL.