A method may include forming a first silicon nitride layer in an opening of the semiconductor device and on a top surface of the semiconductor device, wherein the semiconductor device includes an epitaxial source/drain and a metal gate. The method may include forming a second silicon nitride layer on the first silicon nitride layer, as a sacrificial layer, and removing the second silicon nitride layer from sidewalls of the first silicon nitride layer formed in the opening. The method may include removing the second silicon nitride layer and the first silicon nitride layer formed at a bottom of the opening, and depositing a metal layer in the opening to form a metal drain in the opening of the semiconductor device.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes forming a plurality of metal lines on substrate, forming a sacrificial dielectric material layer between the metal lines, forming a hardmask over at least one of the metal lines, etching at least one of the metal lines that is not covered by the hardmask, treating the sacrificial dielectric material layer to soften the layer. The method also includes removing the treated sacrificial dielectric material layer.

An embodiment of a memory device may comprise a vertical channel, a first memory cell formed on the vertical channel, a first wordline coupled to the first memory cell, a second memory cell formed on the vertical channel immediately above the first memory cell, a second wordline coupled to the second memory cell, and an airgap disposed between the first wordline and the second wordline. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

According to one embodiment, a substrate processing device includes a processing tank to store a liquid and to permit a plurality of substrates to be immersed in the liquid at the same time. The device also has a holder member configured to hold the plurality of substrates while the substrates are immersed into and withdrawn from the liquid in the processing tank as well as a straightening vane configured to be positioned in the liquid above the plurality of substrates in the processing tank. The straightening vane includes vane portions extending in a vertical direction into the processing tank that have a length in the vertical direction that is greater than a cross sectional width in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical direction. A bubble discharge pipe is disposed in the processing tank below the holder member. The bubble discharge pipe discharges gas into the liquid.

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a fin structure that includes a plurality of semiconductor channel layers alternatively spaced apart from one another with a plurality of semiconductor sacrificial layers. The method further includes forming a semiconductor cladding layer extending along sidewalls of the fin structure. The method further includes patterning the semiconductor cladding layer to have a top surface with a highest point and a lowest point by performing at least one sequential combination of a first etching process and a second etching process. A vertical difference between the highest point and the lowest point is less than 3 nanometers.

In a semiconductor process, a seamless tungsten plug is formed in an inter-layer dielectric by forming the inter-layer dielectric from multiple oxide layers having different wet etch rates, from lowest wet-etch rate for the lowest layer to highest wet-etch rate for the highest layer, forming a hole or trench in the inter-layer dielectric using a dry etch process, reconfiguring the hole or trench to have sloped side walls by performing a wet etch step, and filling the hole or trench with tungsten and etching back the tungsten to form a seamless tungsten plug.

Some embodiments relate to an integrated chip that includes a first source/drain region and a second source/drain region disposed in a substrate. A plane that is substantially perpendicular to an upper surface of the substrate traverses the first source/drain region and the second source/drain region. Agate electrode extends over a channel region in the substrate between the first source/drain region and the second source/drain region. The gate electrode is separated from the channel region by way of a charge trapping dielectric structure. The charge trapping dielectric structure includes a tunnel dielectric layer, a charge trapping dielectric layer over the tunnel dielectric layer, and a blocking dielectric layer over the charge trapping dielectric layer. The channel region has a channel width measured perpendicularly to the plane, and the tunnel dielectric layer has different thicknesses at different respective points along the channel width.

A method for forming a conductive through-hole-via in a glass substrate comprises: placing circuitry on a first surface of the glass substrate such that a section of the glass substrate on the first surface is exposed; applying a coating to the first surface covering both the circuitry and the exposed section of the first surface; removing the coating over the exposed section; inducing structural damage to at least a portion of the exposed section with laser radiation; and wet etching away the at least a portion of the exposed section to form a via.

The present disclosure provides one embodiment of a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a first active region and a second fin active region extruded from a semiconductor substrate; an isolation featured formed in the semiconductor substrate and being interposed between the first and second fin active regions; a dielectric gate disposed on the isolation feature; a first gate stack disposed on the first fin active region and a second gate stack disposed on the second fin active region; a first source/drain feature formed in the first fin active region and interposed between the first gate stack and the dielectric gate; a second source/drain feature formed in the second fin active region and interposed between the second gate stack and the dielectric gate; a contact feature formed in a first inter-level dielectric material layer and landing on the first and second source/drain features and extending over the dielectric gate.

A method for shallow trench isolation structures in a semiconductor device and a semiconductor device including the shallow trench isolation structures are disclosed. In an embodiment, the method may include forming a trench in a substrate; depositing a first dielectric liner in the trench; depositing a first shallow trench isolation (STI) material over the first dielectric liner, the first STI material being deposited as a conformal layer; etching the first STI material; depositing a second STI material over the first STI material, the second STI material being deposited as a flowable material; and planarizing the second STI material such that top surfaces of the second STI material are co-planar with top surfaces of the substrate.