A semiconductor structure includes a substrate, a buried oxide layer formed in the substrate and near a surface of the substrate, a gate dielectric layer formed on the substrate and covering the buried oxide layer, a gate structure formed on the gate dielectric layer and overlapping the buried oxide layer, and a source region and a drain region formed in the substrate and at two sides of the gate structure.

A method includes forming a first high-k dielectric layer over a first semiconductor region, forming a second high-k dielectric layer over a second semiconductor region, forming a first metal layer comprising a first portion over the first high-k dielectric layer and a second portion over the second high-k dielectric layer, forming an etching mask over the second portion of the first metal layer, and etching the first portion of the first metal layer. The etching mask protects the second portion of the first metal layer. The etching mask is ashed using meta stable plasma. A second metal layer is then formed over the first high-k dielectric layer.

A gate electrode is formed inside a trench via a gate insulating film. The gate insulating film formed on a semiconductor substrate is removed. An insulating film is formed on the semiconductor substrate. A p-type base region is formed in the semiconductor substrate. An n-type emitter region is formed in the base region. Hydrogen annealing process is performed to the semiconductor substrate. A boundary between the base region and the emitter region is located at a position deeper than the insulating film formed between a side surface of the trench and the gate insulating film.

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.

To provide a novel method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. To provide a method for manufacturing a highly reliable semiconductor device at relatively low temperature. The method includes a first step of forming a first oxide semiconductor film in a deposition chamber and a second step of forming a second oxide semiconductor film over the first oxide semiconductor film in the deposition chamber. Water vapor partial pressure in an atmosphere in the deposition chamber is lower than water vapor partial pressure in atmospheric air. The first oxide semiconductor film and the second oxide semiconductor film are formed such that the first oxide semiconductor film and the second oxide semiconductor film each have crystallinity. The second oxide semiconductor film is formed such that the crystallinity of the second oxide semiconductor film is higher than the crystallinity of the first oxide semiconductor film.

A semiconductor device according to the present invention includes a semiconductor layer, a gate trench defined in the semiconductor layer, a first insulating film arranged on the inner surface of the gate trench, a gate electrode arranged in the gate trench via the first insulating film, and a source layer, a body layer, and a drain layer arranged laterally to the gate trench, in which the first insulating film includes, at least at the bottom of the gate trench, a first portion and a second portion with a film elaborateness lower than that of the first portion from the inner surface of the gate trench in the film thickness direction.

A method for manufacturing a novel semiconductor device is provided. The method includes a first step of forming a first oxide semiconductor film over a substrate, a second step of heating the first oxide semiconductor film, and a third step of forming a second oxide semiconductor film over the first oxide semiconductor film. The first to third steps are performed in an atmosphere in which water vapor partial pressure is lower than water vapor partial pressure in atmospheric air, and the first step, the second step, and the third step are successively performed in this order.

Memory cells including embedded SONOS based non-volatile memory (NVM) and MOS transistors and methods of forming the same are described. Generally, the method includes: forming a gate stack of a NVM transistor in a NVM region of a substrate including the NVM region and a plurality of MOS regions; and depositing a high-k dielectric material over the gate stack of the NVM transistor and the plurality of MOS regions to concurrently form a blocking dielectric comprising the high-k dielectric material in the gate stack of the NVM transistor and high-k gate dielectrics in the plurality of MOS regions. In one embodiment, a first metal layer is deposited over the high-k dielectric material and patterned to concurrently form a metal gate over the gate stack of the NVM transistor, and a metal gate of a field effect transistor in one of the MOS regions.

A technique of manufacturing a semiconductor device of stable operation is provided. There is provided a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising a first process of forming an insulating film from a nitrogen-containing organic metal used as raw material, on a semiconductor layer by atomic layer deposition; a second process of processing the insulating film by oxygen plasma treatment in an atmosphere including at least one of oxygen and ozone; and a third process of processing the insulating film by heat treatment in a nitrogen-containing atmosphere, after the second process.

In one aspect, a method of forming a silicon-insulator layer is provided. The method includes arranging a silicon structure in a plasma etch process chamber and applying a plasma to the silicon structure in the plasma etch process chamber at a temperature of the silicon structure equal to or below 100° C. The plasma includes a component and a halogen derivate, thereby forming the silicon-insulator layer. The silicon-insulator layer includes silicon and the component. In another aspect, a semiconductor device is provided having a silicon-insulator layer formed by the method.