Various embodiments of the present application are directed to a method for forming a thin semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate without implantation radiation and/or plasma damage. In some embodiments, a device layer is epitaxially formed on a sacrificial substrate and an insulator layer is formed on the device layer. The insulator layer may, for example, be formed with a net charge that is negative or neutral. The sacrificial substrate is bonded to a handle substrate, such that the device layer and the insulator layer are between the sacrificial and handle substrates. The sacrificial substrate is removed, and the device layer is cyclically thinned until the device layer has a target thickness. Each thinning cycle comprises oxidizing a portion of the device layer and removing oxide resulting from the oxidizing.

An embodiment includes a method including forming an opening in a cut metal gate region of a metal gate structure of a semiconductor device, conformally depositing a first dielectric layer in the opening, conformally depositing a silicon layer over the first dielectric layer, performing an oxidation process on the silicon layer to form a first silicon oxide layer, filling the opening with a second silicon oxide layer, performing a chemical mechanical polishing on the second silicon oxide layer and the first dielectric layer to form a cut metal gate plug, the chemical mechanical polishing exposing the metal gate structure of the semiconductor device, and forming a first contact to a first portion of the metal gate structure and a second contact to a second portion of the metal gate structure, the first portion and the second portion of the metal gate structure being separated by the cut metal gate plug.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a recess, a first gate oxide layer, and a gate structure. The semiconductor substrate includes a first region and a second region adjacent to the first region. The recess is disposed in the first region of the semiconductor substrate, and an edge of the recess is located at an interface between the first region and the second region. At least a part of the first gate oxide layer is disposed in the recess. The first gate oxide layer includes a hump portion disposed adjacent to the edge of the recess, and a height of the hump portion is less than a depth of the recess. The gate structure is disposed on the first region and the second region of the semiconductor substrate, and the gate structure overlaps the hump portion of the first gate oxide layer in a vertical direction.

Negative capacitance field-effect transistor (NCFET) and ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FE-FET) devices and methods of forming are provided. The gate dielectric stack of the NCFET and FE-FET devices includes a non-ferroelectric interfacial layer formed over the semiconductor channel, and a ferroelectric gate dielectric layer formed over the interfacial layer. The ferroelectric gate dielectric layer is formed by inserting dopant-source layers in between amorphous high-k dielectric layers and then converting the alternating sequence of dielectric layers to a ferroelectric gate dielectric layer by a post-deposition anneal (PDA). The ferroelectric gate dielectric layer has adjustable ferroelectric properties that may be varied by altering the precisely-controlled locations of the dopant-source layers using ALD/PEALD techniques. Accordingly, the methods described herein enable fabrication of stable NCFET and FE-FET FinFET devices that exhibit steep subthreshold slopes.

The disclosure is directed towards semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the semiconductor devices. The methods include forming fins in a device region and forming other fins in a multilayer stack of semiconductor materials in a multi-channel device region. A topmost nanostructure may be exposed in the multi-channel device region by removing a sacrificial layer from the top of the multilayer stack. Once removed, a stack of nanostructures are formed from the multilayer stack. A native oxide layer is formed to a first thickness over the topmost nanostructure and to a second thickness over the remaining nanostructures of the stack, the first thickness being greater than the second thickness. A gate dielectric is formed over the fins in the device region. A gate electrode is formed over the gate dielectric in the device region and surrounding the native oxide layer in the multi-channel device region.

Integrated circuits and methods for fabricating integrated circuits are provided. An exemplary method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a substrate including a semiconductor layer over an insulator layer. The method includes selectively replacing portions of the semiconductor layer with insulator material to define an isolated semiconductor layer region. Further, the method includes selectively forming a relaxed layer on the isolated semiconductor layer region. Also, the method includes selectively forming a strained layer on the relaxed layer. The method forms a device over the strained layer.

The present invention discloses a formation method, comprising: forming a hard mask layer and a photo-lithographic pattern of a fin structure on a the semiconductor substrate; patterning the hard mask layer and the semiconductor substrate to gain the fin structure with a profile of steep sidewalls; forming a protective layer on the sidewall surface of the fin structure; etching the semiconductor substrate located below the fin structure to form isolation structure trenches; performing a modified treatment on the exposed surfaces of the isolation structure trenches to form a modified layer with a certain thickness; removing the protective layer and the modified layer simultaneously; filling a dielectric layer in the isolation structure trenches till to cover the fin structure and then planarizing the dielectric layer; performing a trench etching to the dielectric layer and forming the fin structure and an isolation structure with sloped sidewalls. The present invention adjusts physical profiles of the sidewalls of both the fin structure and the isolation structure independently, improves process accuracy, uniformity and stability, so as to improve electrical performance and device reliability of FET devices.

A method of making a monolithic three dimensional NAND string which contains a semiconductor channel and a plurality of control gate electrodes, includes selectively forming a plurality of discrete charge storage regions using atomic layer deposition. The plurality of discrete charge storage regions includes at least one of a metal or an electrically conductive metal oxide.

A method for fabricating a high-voltage (HV) transistor is provided. The method includes providing a substrate, having a first isolation structure and a second isolation structure in the substrate and a recess in the substrate between the first and second isolation structures. Further, a hydrogen annealing process is performed over the recess. A sacrificial dielectric layer is formed on the recess. The sacrificial dielectric layer is removed, wherein a portion of the first and second isolation structures is also removed. A gate oxide layer is formed in the recess between the first and second isolation structures after the hydrogen annealing process.

The present disclosure relates to methods for forming a high-k gate dielectric, the methods comprising the steps of providing a semiconductor substrate, cleaning the substrate, performing a thermal treatment, and performing a high-k dielectric material deposition, wherein said thermal treatment step is performed in a non-oxidizing ambient, leading to the formation of a thin interfacial layer between said semiconductor substrate and said high-k dielectric material and wherein the thickness of said thin interfacial layer is less than 10 Å.