A vertical semiconductor device (e.g. a vertical power device, an IGBT device, a vertical bipolar transistor, a UMOS device or a GTO thyristor) is formed with an active semiconductor region, within which a plurality of semiconductor structures have been fabricated to form an active device, and below which at least a portion of a substrate material has been removed to isolate the active device, to expose at least one of the semiconductor structures for bottom side electrical connection and to enhance thermal dissipation. At least one of the semiconductor structures is preferably contacted by an electrode at the bottom side of the active semiconductor region.

An opening extending through a gate insulating layer and a gate conductor layer is formed in the circumferential portion of a Si pillar at an intermediate height of the Si pillar. A laminated structure including two sets each including a Ni film, a poly-Si layer containing donor or acceptor impurity atoms, and a SiO.sub.2 layer is formed so as to surround the opening. A heat treatment is carried out to form silicide from the poly-Si layers and this silicide formation causes the resultant NiSi layers to protrude and come into contact with the side surface of the Si pillar. The donor or acceptor impurity atoms diffuse from the NiSi layers into the Si pillar to thereby form an N.sup.+ region and a P.sup.+ region serving as a source or a drain of SGTs.

A Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell includes a first and a second pull-up transistor, a first and a second pull-down transistor forming cross-latched inverters with the first and the second pull-up transistors, and a first and a second pass-gate transistor. Each of the first and the second pull-up transistors, the first and the second pull-down transistors, and the first and the second pass-gate transistors includes a bottom plate as a first source/drain region, a channel over the bottom plate, and a top plate as a second source/drain region. A first isolated active region is in the SRAM cell and acts as the bottom plate of the first pull-down transistor and the bottom plate of the first pass-gate transistor. A second isolated active region is in the SRAM cell and acts as the bottom plate of the second pull-down transistor and the bottom plate of the second pass-gate transistor.

In one implementation, a reliable and robust electrical contact includes a contact pad patterned from a first metal layer situated over a surface of an active die, and multiple dielectric islands situated over the contact pad. The dielectric islands are spaced apart from one another by respective segments of a second metal layer formed between and over the dielectric islands. The contact pad, the dielectric islands, and the second metal layer provide the reliable and robust electrical contact.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a base region situated over a drift region, a source trench extending through the base region and into the drift region, the source trench having a shield electrode, a gate trench extending through the base region and into the drift region, the gate trench adjacent the source trench, the gate trench having a gate electrode situated above a buried electrode. The source trench is surrounded by the gate trench. The shield electrode is coupled to a source contact over the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device also includes a source region over the base region. The gate trench includes gate trench dielectrics lining a bottom and sidewalls of the gate trench. The source trench includes source trench dielectrics lining a bottom and sidewalls of the source trench.

A semiconductor device includes a trench formed in an epitaxial layer and an oxide layer that lines the sidewalls of the trench. The thickness of the oxide layer is non-uniform, so that the thickness of the oxide layer toward the top of the trench is thinner than it is toward the bottom of the trench. The epitaxial layer can have a non-uniform dopant concentration, where the dopant concentration varies according to the thickness of the oxide layer.

One illustrative method disclosed includes, among other things, forming a vertically oriented semiconductor structure above a doped well region defined in a semiconductor substrate, the semiconductor structure comprising a lower source/drain region and an upper source/drain region, wherein the lower source/drain region physically contacts the upper surface of the substrate, forming a counter-doped isolation region in the substrate, forming a metal silicide region in the substrate above the counter-doped isolation region, wherein the metal silicide region is in physical contact with the lower source/drain region, and forming a lower source/drain contact structure that is conductively coupled to the metal silicide region.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate including, between a bottom side and a top side, a first trench and a second trench extending in a vertical direction, and a contact groove arranged between the first trench and the second trench. The contact groove has a longitudinal extension in a plane perpendicular to the vertical direction. The longitudinal extension of the contact groove at least partially has a wave-shape.

A power semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing a power semiconductor device is provided, including a shield gate trench (SGT) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). The present disclosure provides for a MOSFET with a reduced charge between the gate conductive region and the drain or collector region, in order to improve the switching efficiency of the MOSFET.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip in a rectangular shape having longer sides extending in a first direction and shorter sides extending in a second direction. The semiconductor chip includes: a first vertical MOS transistor that includes a first gate pad and a plurality of first source pads, and a second vertical MOS transistor that includes a second gate pad and a plurality of second source pads. A plurality of first linear disposition regions in each of which source pads are linearly aligned in the first direction and a plurality of second linear disposition regions in each of which source pads are linearly aligned in the second direction are provided on an upper surface of the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor device further includes a plurality of ball-shaped bump electrodes connected to the first gate pad, the first source pads, the second gate pad, and the second source pads.