Microelectronic devices—having at least one conductive contact structure adjacent a silicide region—are formed using methods that avoid unintentional contact expansion and contact reduction. A first metal nitride liner is formed in a contact opening, and an exposed surface of a polysilicon structure is thereafter treated (e.g., cleaned and dried) in preparation for formation of a silicide region. During the pretreatments (e.g., cleaning and drying), neighboring dielectric material is protected by the presence of the metal nitride liner, inhibiting expansion of the contact opening. After forming the silicide region, a second metal nitride liner is formed on the silicide region before a conductive material is formed to fill the contact opening and form a conductive contact structure (e.g., a memory cell contact structure, a peripheral contact structure).

A method of forming a high-K dielectric cap layer on a semiconductor structure formed on a substrate includes depositing the high-K dielectric cap layer on the semiconductor structure, depositing a sacrificial silicon cap layer on the high-K dielectric cap layer, performing a post cap anneal process to harden and densify the as-deposited high-K dielectric cap layer, and removing the sacrificial silicon cap layer.

A method is provided for fabricating a semiconductor device structure with a short channel and long channel component having different gate dielectric layers without using lithography processes or masks. The method includes forming first and second openings having sidewalls and bottom surfaces in a dielectric layer, the first opening being narrower than the second opening. A first material layer is formed in the first and second openings. A protective layer is formed over the first material layer, wherein the protective layer covers the sidewalls and the bottom surface of the second opening. A block layer is formed to fill the second opening and cover the protective layer therein. The method further includes removing side portions of the protective layer to expose upper portions of the first material layer in the second opening. The block layer is removed from the second opening to expose the protective layer remaining in the second opening. A second material layer is formed over the first material layer on the exposed upper portions of the first material layer in the second opening. An intermix layer is formed in the second opening using the first and second material layers. The protective layer from the second opening is removed to expose the first material layer.

A differential type non-volatile memory circuit comprising a differential sensing circuit, a differential data line pair, a memory cell array, and a differential bit line pair is provided. The differential sensing circuit has a differential input terminal pair and a differential output terminal pair. The differential data line pair is electrically connected to the differential input terminal pair of the differential sensing circuit. The memory cell array has at least one differential non-volatile memory cell configured to store data. The differential bit line pair is electrically connected between the memory cell array and the differential data line pair. When logic states of the differential output terminal pair start to be different in a read operation phase of the memory cell array, the differential sensing circuit and the differential data line pair are disconnected.

Processes for providing nitridation on a workpiece, such as a semiconductor, are provided. In one example implementation, a method can include supporting a workpiece on a workpiece support. The method can include exposing the workpiece to species generated from a capacitively coupled plasma to provide nitridation on the workpiece. The method can also include exposing the workpiece to species generated form an inductively coupled plasma to provide nitridation on the workpiece.

Processes for providing nitridation on a workpiece, such as a semiconductor, are provided. In one example implementation, a method can include supporting a workpiece on a workpiece support. The method can include exposing the workpiece to species generated from a capacitively coupled plasma to provide nitridation on the workpiece. The method can also include exposing the workpiece to species generated form an inductively coupled plasma to provide nitridation on the workpiece.

There is provided a method of forming an insulating film which includes providing a workpiece having a base portion and a protuberance portion formed to protrude from the base portion; and forming an insulating film on the workpiece by sputtering. The forming an insulating film includes forming the insulating film while changing an angle defined between the workpiece and a target.

A method for forming a conformal hermetic silicon nitride film. The method includes using thermal chemical vapor deposition with a polysilane gas to produce an ultra-conformal amorphous silicon film on a substrate, then treating the film with ammonia or nitrogen plasmas to convert the amorphous silicon film to a conformal hermetic silicon nitride. In some embodiments, the amorphous silicon deposition and the plasma treatment are performed in the same processing chamber. In some embodiments, the amorphous silicon deposition and the plasma treatment are repeated until a desired silicon nitride film thickness is reached.

A PNA temperature monitoring method comprises: Step 1, forming zero mark layer patterns on a tested silicon substrate; Step 2, forming a nitrogen-doped gate oxide by the following process: growing an oxide layer, doping the oxide layer with nitrogen, and carrying out PNA; Step 3, forming overlay layer patterns, and overlaying the overlay layer patterns and the corresponding zero mark layer patterns to form monitoring structures; and Step 4, measuring overlay values of the overlay layer patterns and the corresponding zero mark layer patterns of the monitoring structures, and regulating a PNA temperature according to the measured overlay values. By adoption of the method, the influence of the PNA temperature on a gate oxide in a two-dimensional plane can be monitored, and then the PNA temperature can be regulated to increase product yield.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: providing a substrate comprising a surface; depositing a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer over the substrate; forming a dummy gate electrode over the second dielectric layer; forming a gate spacer surrounding the dummy gate electrode; forming lightly-doped source/drain (LDD) regions in the substrate on two sides of the gate spacer; forming source/drain regions in the respective LDD regions; removing the dummy gate electrode to form a replacement gate; forming an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer over the replacement gate and the source/drain regions; and performing a treatment by introducing a trap-repairing element into at least one of the gate spacer, the second dielectric layer, the surface and the LDD regions at a time before the forming of the source/drain regions or subsequent to the formation of the ILD layer.