A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate and a control electrode provided on a first surface side of the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a first area on the first surface side and two second areas on the first surface side of the first area. The two second areas are arranged along the first surface. The control electrode provided above a portion of the first area between the two second areas. The first area includes a main portion and a peripheral edge portion extending outward from the main portion along the first surface. A depth of the peripheral edge portion from the first surface is shallower than a depth of the main portion from the first surface; and the peripheral edge portion has a concentration of second conductivity type impurities lower than a concentration of the second conductivity type impurities at a surface of the main portion.

Various embodiments disclose a method for fabricating a semiconductor structure including a plurality of vertical transistors each having different threshold voltages. In one embodiment the method includes forming a structure having at least a substrate, a source contact layer on the substrate, a first spacer layer on the source contact layer, a replacement gate on the first spacer layer, a second spacer layer on the replacement gate, and an insulating layer on the second spacer layer. A first trench is formed in a first region of the structure. A first channel layer having a first doping concentration is epitaxially grown in the first trench. A second trench is formed in a second region of the structure. A second channel layer having a second doping concentration is epitaxially grown in the second trench. The second doping concentration is different from the first doping concentration.

Devices and methods of fabricating integrated circuit devices for dynamically applying bias to back plates and/or p-well regions are provided. One method includes, for instance: obtaining a wafer with a silicon substrate, at least one first oxide layer, at least one silicon layer, and at least one second oxide layer; forming at least one recess in the wafer; depositing at least one third oxide layer over the wafer and filling the at least one recess; depositing a silicon nitride layer over the wafer; and forming at least one opening having sidewalls and a bottom surface within the filled at least one recess. An intermediate semiconductor device is also disclosed.

A planar gate power MOSFET includes a substrate having a semiconductor surface doped a first conductivity type, a plurality of transistor cells (cells) including a first cell and at least a second cell each having a gate stack over a body region. A trench has an aspect ratio of >3 extending down from a top side of the semiconductor surface between the gate stacks providing a source contact (SCT) from a source doped a second conductivity type to the substrate. A field plate (FP) is over the gate stacks that provides a liner for the trench. The trench has a refractory metal or platinum-group metal (PGM) metal filler within. A drain doped the second conductivity type is in the semiconductor surface on a side of the gate stacks opposite the trench.

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a microelectronic circuit. A substrate is provided. A source contact, a bulk contact and a drain contact are each produced for a transistor and for a memory transistor. In a respective common step, an insulating layer of the transistor and an insulating layer of the memory transistor as well as a metal layer of the transistor and a metal layer of the memory transistor are produced. At least one capacitor is produced as part of the memory transistor. Gate contacts connected to the metal layer of the transistor and connected to a metal layer of the capacitor of the memory transistor, respectively, are produced. Furthermore, the invention relates to a microelectronic circuit.

A semiconductor device includes a body and a transistor fabricated into the body. Isolation material at least partially encases the body. Biasing is coupled to the isolation material, wherein the biasing is for changing the electric potential of the isolation material in response to an electrostatic discharge event.

In one embodiment, a semiconductor device comprises a bulk semiconductor substrate that includes a first conductivity type floating buried doped region bounded above by a second conductivity type doped region and bounded below by another second conductivity semiconductor region. Dielectric isolation regions extend through the second conductivity doped region and the first conductivity floating buried doped region into the semiconductor region. Functional devices are disposed within the second conductivity type doped region. The first conductivity type floating buried doped region is configured as a self-biased region that laterally extends between adjacent dielectric isolation regions.

A method of controlling an etch-pattern density of a polysilicon layer includes depositing polysilicon on a wafer. The method includes determining polysilicon-etch regions that include DMOS source regions within circuit-device areas of the wafer. The method includes calculating an etch area of the polysilicon-etch regions and then comparing the calculated etch area of the polysilicon-etch regions to a predetermined minimum etch area. If the calculated etch area is less than a predetermined threshold, the method adds polysilicon-etch regions within non-circuit-device areas to the determined polysilicon-etch regions within the circuit-device areas until the comparing step results in the calculated etch area of the polysilicon-etch regions being greater than the predetermined minimum etch area. The method includes etching the polysilicon from the polysilicon-etch regions in both the circuit-device areas and the non-circuit-device areas. Adding polysilicon-etch regions in non-circuit device areas can advantageously facilitate automatic process control of an etch step.

NAND string configurations and semiconductor memory arrays that include such NAND string configurations are provided. Methods of making semiconductor memory cells used in NAND string configurations are also described.

A method includes forming an isolation region extending into a semiconductor substrate, etching a top portion of the isolation region to form a recess in the isolation region, and forming a gate stack extending into the recess and overlapping a lower portion of the isolation region. A source region and a drain region are formed on opposite sides of the gate stack. The gate stack, the source region, and the drain region are parts of a Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) device.