A semiconductor memory device includes: a substrate including a cell region and a connection region; a first word line stack comprising a plurality of first word lines that extend to the connection region and are stacked on the cell region; a second word line stack comprising a plurality of second word lines that extend to the connection region and are stacked on the cell region, the second word line being adjacent to the first word line stack; vertical channels in the cell region of the substrate, the vertical channels being connected to the substrate and coupled with the plurality of first and second word lines; a bridge region that connects the first word lines of the first word line stack with the second word lines of the second word line stack; and a local planarized region under the bridge region.

A semiconductor device of the present invention has a first insulating film formed between a control gate electrode and a semiconductor substrate and a second insulating film formed between a memory gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate and between the control gate electrode and the memory gate electrode, the second insulating film having a charge accumulating part therein. The second insulating film has a first film, a second film serving as a charge accumulating part disposed on the first film, and a third film disposed on the second film. The third film has a sidewall film positioned between the control gate electrode and the memory gate electrode and a deposited film positioned between the memory gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate. In this structure, the distance at a corner part of the second insulating film can be increased, and electric-field concentration can be reduced.

A method of controlling the thickness of gate oxides in an integrated CMOS process which includes performing a two-step gate oxidation process to concurrently oxidize and therefore consume at least a first portion of the cap layer of the NV gate stack to form a blocking oxide and form a gate oxide of at least one metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor in the second region, wherein the gate oxide of the at least one MOS transistor is formed during both a first oxidation step and a second oxidation step of the gate oxidation process.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method including forming a structure on a substrate, the structure including a metal pattern, at least a portion of the metal pattern being exposed; forming a preliminary buffer oxide layer to cover the structure, a metal oxide layer being formed at the exposed portion of the metal pattern; and deoxidizing the metal oxide layer so that the preliminary buffer oxide layer is transformed into a buffer oxide layer.

A non-volatile memory includes a substrate, a plurality of gate stacked strips and a plurality of contact plugs. The substrate includes a plurality of diffusion strips. The plurality of gate stacked strips are disposed over the diffusion strips, wherein each of the gate stacked strips includes a charge storage layer and a gate conductor layer stacked from bottom to top. The plurality of contact plugs are disposed on the diffusion strips between the gate stacked strips, wherein a sidewall of each of the gate conductor layer beside the contact plugs and above the diffusion strips has a step profile.

A method of integrating a silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) transistor into a complementary metal-oxide-silicon (CMOS) baseline process. The method includes the steps of forming the gate oxide layer of at least one metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) transistor prior to forming a non-volatile (NV) gate stack of the SONOS transistor.

A non-volatile memory device includes gate electrodes stacked on a substrate, a semiconductor pattern penetrating the gate electrodes and connected to the substrate, and a charge storage layer between the semiconductor pattern and the gate electrodes. The charge storage layer includes a first charge storage layer between the semiconductor pattern and the gate electrodes, a second charge storage layer between the first charge storage layer and the semiconductor pattern, and a third charge storage layer between the first charge storage layer and the gate electrodes. An energy band gap of the first charge storage layer is smaller than those of the second and third charge storage layers. The first charge storage layer is thicker than the second and third charge storage layers.

A semiconductor memory device may include: a first group of pillars having diameters which are gradually increased toward the a first side; and interlayer insulating layers and conductive patterns surrounding the pillars of the first group, the interlayer insulating layers and conductive patterns being alternately stacked.

Methods of forming integrated circuit devices containing memory cells over a first region of a semiconductor substrate and gate structures over a second region of the semiconductor substrate recessed from the first region. The methods include forming a metal that is common to both the memory cells and the gate structures.

Vertical memory devices, and methods of manufacturing the same, include providing a substrate including a cell array region and a peripheral circuit region, forming a mold structure in the cell array region, forming an opening for a common source line passing through the mold structure and extending in a first direction perpendicular to a top surface of the substrate, forming a first contact plug having an inner sidewall delimiting a recessed region in the opening for the common source line, and forming a common source bit line contact electrically connected to the inner sidewall of the first contact plug.