A semiconductor device including a substrate; gate structures spaced apart from each other on the substrate, each gate structure including a gate electrode and a gate capping pattern; source/drain patterns on opposite sides of the gate structures; first isolation patterns that respectively penetrate adjacent gate structures; and a second isolation pattern that extends between adjacent source/drain patterns, and penetrates at least one gate structure, wherein each first isolation pattern separates the gate structures such that the gate structures are spaced apart from each other, the first isolation patterns are aligned with each other, and top surfaces of the first and second isolation patterns are each located at a level the same as or higher than a level of a top surface of the gate capping pattern.

Techniques are disclosed for forming nanowire transistors employing carbon-based layers. Carbon is added to the sacrificial layers and/or non-sacrificial layers of a multilayer stack forming one or more nanowires in the transistor channel region. Such carbon-based layers reduce or prevent diffusion and intermixing of the sacrificial and non-sacrificial portions of the multilayer stack. The reduction of diffusion/intermixing can allow for the originally formed layers to effectively maintain their original thicknesses, thereby enabling the formation of relatively more nanowires for a given channel region height because of the more accurate processing scheme. The techniques can be used to benefit group IV semiconductor material nanowire devices (e.g., devices including Si, Ge, and/or SiGe) and can also assist with the selective etch processing used to form the nanowires. The carbon concentration of the sacrificial and/or non-sacrificial layers can be adjusted to facilitate etch process to liberate nanowires in the channel region.

A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same, the device including an active pattern extending in a first direction on a substrate; a field insulating film surrounding a part of the active pattern; a first gate structure extending in a second direction on the active pattern and the field insulating film, a second gate structure spaced apart from the first gate structure and extending in the second direction on the active pattern and the field insulating film; and a first device isolation film between the first and second gate structure, wherein a side wall of the first gate structure facing the first device isolation film includes an inclined surface having an acute angle with respect to an upper surface of the active pattern, and a lowermost surface of the first device isolation film is lower than or substantially coplanar with an uppermost surface of the field insulating film.

Integrated circuit structures having backside self-aligned conductive pass-through contacts, and methods of fabricating integrated circuit structures having backside self-aligned conductive pass-through contacts, are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a first sub-fin structure over a first stack of nanowires. A second sub-fin structure is over a second stack of nanowires. A dummy gate electrode is laterally between the first stack of nanowires and the second stack of nanowires. A conductive pass-through contact is laterally between the first stack of nanowires and the second stack of nanowires. The conductive pass-through contact is on and in contact with the dummy gate electrode.

Integrated circuit structures having plugged metal gates, and methods of fabricating integrated circuit structures having plugged metal gates, are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a fin having a portion protruding above a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure. A gate dielectric material layer is over the protruding portion of the fin and over the STI structure. A conductive gate layer is over the gate dielectric material layer. A conductive gate fill material is over the conductive gate layer. A dielectric gate plug is laterally spaced apart from the fin, the dielectric gate plug on the STI structure. The gate dielectric material layer and the conductive gate layer are along a side of the dielectric gate plug, and the gate dielectric material layer is in direct contact with an entirety of the side of the dielectric gate plug.

A method of manufacturing a vertical metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET) device is provided. The method includes forming a first oxide layer, forming a first electrode in the oxide layer, forming a crystallized silicon layer on the first electrode, forming a second electrode on the first oxide layer and on sidewalls of the crystalized silicon layer, forming a second oxide layer on upper surfaces of the second electrode. The method also includes forming a third electrode on an upper surface of the crystallized silicon layer.

The invention provides a semiconductor structure, the semiconductor structure includes a substrate, a gate structure which extends along a first direction, and a plurality of supporting patterns which are separated from each other and arranged along a second direction which is perpendicular to the first direction.

A semiconductor device includes first and second active regions parallel to each other and respectively extending in a first direction, an isolation layer between the first and second active regions, a first line structure and a second line structure overlapping the first and second active regions and the isolation layer, parallel to each other, and extending in a second direction, a first source/drain region on the first active region, and a second source/drain region on the second active region. The first line structure includes a first gate structure, a second gate structure, and a first insulating separation pattern between the first and second gate structures. The second line structure includes a third gate structure, a fourth gate structure, and a second insulating separation pattern between the third and fourth gate structures. The first and second insulating separation patterns are spaced apart from each other. The first insulating separation pattern has first and second side surfaces opposing each other, and third and fourth side surfaces opposing each other. At least one of the first and second side surfaces and at least one of the third and fourth side surfaces have different side profiles.

A method of forming an integrated circuit structure includes forming a first source/drain contact plug over and electrically coupling to a source/drain region of a transistor, forming a first dielectric hard mask overlapping a gate stack, recessing the first source/drain contact plug to form a first recess, forming a second dielectric hard mask in the first recess, recessing an inter-layer dielectric layer to form a second recess, and forming a third dielectric hard mask in the second recess. The third dielectric hard mask contacts both the first dielectric hard mask and the second dielectric hard mask.

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having embedded GeSnB source or drain structures, and methods of fabricating gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having embedded GeSnB source or drain structures, are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires above a fin, the fin including a defect modification layer on a first semiconductor layer, and a second semiconductor layer on the defect modification layer. A gate stack is around the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A first epitaxial source or drain structure is at a first end of the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, and a second epitaxial source or drain structure is at a second end of the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires.