A semiconductor transistor includes a first lightly doped-drain region disposed in a drain region of a semiconductor substrate; a first heavily doped region disposed in the first lightly doped-drain region; and a gate located on the channel region; a gate oxide layer between the gate and the channel region; and a first insulating feature disposed in the first lightly doped-drain region between the channel region and the first heavily doped region. The gate overlaps with the first insulating feature. The thickness of the first insulating feature is greater than that of the gate oxide layer.

Various embodiments of the present application are directed towards a method to integrate NVM devices with a logic or BCD device. In some embodiments, an isolation structure is formed in a semiconductor substrate. The isolation structure demarcates a memory region of the semiconductor substrate, and further demarcates a peripheral region of the semiconductor substrate. The peripheral region may, for example, correspond to BCD device or a logic device. A doped well is formed in the peripheral region. A dielectric seal layer is formed covering the memory and peripheral regions, and further covering the doped well. The dielectric seal layer is removed from the memory region, but not the peripheral region. A memory cell structure is formed on the memory region using a thermal oxidation process. The dielectric seal layer is removed from the peripheral region, and a peripheral device structure including a gate electrode is formed on the peripheral region.

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 semiconductor device is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, an active region in the substrate, a recessed region in the active region, a gate dielectric layer on the recessed region, a gate structure on the gate dielectric layer, and a source/drain region in the active region and at a side of the gate structure. An edge portion of the gate dielectric layer comprises a rounded profile, and the source/drain region directly contacts the edge portion of the gate dielectric layer.

A method for forming an oxide layer includes forming an interfacial layer on a substrate, forming an amorphous silicon layer on the interfacial layer, performing a direct oxidation process to selectively oxidize the formed amorphous silicon layer, and performing a thermal oxidation process to oxidize the formed amorphous silicon layer.

A method for making a semiconductor device includes forming a ROX layer on a substrate and a patterned silicon oxynitride layer on the patterned ROX layer; conformally forming a dielectric oxide layer to cover the substrate, the patterned silicon oxynitride layer, and the patterned ROX layer; and fully oxidizing the patterned silicon oxynitride layer to form a fully oxidized gate oxide layer on the substrate.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer, a crystal defect region formed in the semiconductor layer, and an insulating layer formed on the semiconductor layer, composed of an insulator containing silicon, and including, in the insulator, an Si—H bond in which a dangling bond of silicon atom is hydrogen-terminated.

A method for preparing a semiconductor structure includes: providing a substrate which includes a device region and a shallow trench isolation region surrounding the device region, in which the device region is exposed from a surface of the substrate; depositing a barrier layer on the substrate, the barrier layer at least covering the device region; forming an initial oxide which is located in the device region and in contact with the barrier layer; and removing part of the initial oxide to form a device oxide.

A method for forming a gate oxide film of a transistor device includes: step 1: forming a hard mask layer on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, etching the hard mask layer and the semiconductor substrate to form shallow trenches; step 2: performing an tilt-angle ion implantation to the upper area of the side surfaces of each shallow trench to form an upper doped region; step 3: filling a field oxide layer into the shallow trenches and removing the hard mask layer; and step 4: performing thermal oxidation to form a gate oxide film on the surface of an active region. The method can improve the morphology of the gate oxide film, thus increase the breakdown voltage threshold and reliability of the device.

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.