An alternating stack of insulating layers and sacrificial material layers is formed over a substrate. Memory openings are formed through the alternating stack to the substrate. After formation of memory film layers, a sacrificial cover material layer can be employed to protect the tunneling dielectric layer during formation of a bottom opening in the memory film layers. An amorphous semiconductor material layer can be deposited and optionally annealed in an ambient including argon and/or deuterium to form a semiconductor channel layer having a thickness less than 5 nm and surface roughness less than 10% of the thickness. Alternately or additionally, at least one interfacial layer can be employed on either side of the amorphous semiconductor material layer to reduce surface roughness of the semiconductor channel. The ultrathin channel can have enhanced mobility due to quantum confinement effects.

A stack including an alternating plurality of first material layers and second material layers is provided. A memory opening is formed and at least a contiguous semiconductor material portion including a semiconductor channel is formed therein. The contiguous semiconductor material portion includes an amorphous or polycrystalline semiconductor material. A metallic material portion is provided at a bottom surface of the semiconductor channel, at a top surface of the semiconductor channel, or on portions of an outer sidewall surface of the semiconductor channel. An anneal is performed to induce diffusion of a metal from the metallic material portion through the semiconductor channel, thereby inducing conversion of the amorphous or polycrystalline semiconductor material into a crystalline semiconductor material. The crystalline semiconductor material has a relatively large grain size due to the catalytic crystallization process, and can provide enhanced charge carrier mobility.

A first stack of alternating layers including first electrically insulating layers and first sacrificial material layers is formed with first stepped surfaces. First memory openings can be formed in a device region outside of the first stepped surfaces, and first support openings can be formed through the first stepped surfaces. The first memory openings and the first support openings can be filled with a sacrificial fill material. A second stack of alternating layers including second electrically insulating layers and second sacrificial material layers can be formed over the first stack. Inter-stack memory openings including the first memory openings can be formed in the device region, and inter-stack support openings including the first support openings can be formed in a steppes surface region. Memory stack structures and support pillar structure are simultaneously formed in the inter-stack memory openings and the inter-stack support openings, respectively.

A memory device includes a semiconductor substrate, an isolation layer disposed on the semiconductor substrate, a first conductive layer disposed on the isolation layer, at least one contact plug passing through the isolation layer and electrically contacting the semiconductor substrate with the first conductive layer, a plurality of insulating layers disposed on the first conductive layer, a plurality of second conductive layers alternatively stacked with the insulating layers and insulated from the first conductive layer, a channel layer disposed on at least one sidewall of a first through opening and electrically contacting to the contact plug, wherein the first through opening passes through the insulating layers and the second conductive layers to expose the contact plug, and a memory layer disposed between the channel layer and the second conductive layers.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory element including: a semiconductor substrate including: a source region; a drain region; and a channel region; a lower insulating film that is formed on the channel region; a charge storage film that is formed on the lower insulating film and that stores data; an upper insulating film that is formed on the charge storage film; and a control gate that is formed on the upper insulating film, wherein the upper insulating film includes: a first insulting film; and a second insulating film that is laminated with the first insulating film, and wherein the first insulating film is formed to have a trap level density larger than that of the second insulating film.

A method of forming a pair of memory cells that includes forming a polysilicon layer over and insulated from a semiconductor substrate, forming a pair of conductive control gates over and insulated from the polysilicon layer, forming first and second insulation layers extending along inner and outer side surfaces of the control gates, removing portions of the polysilicon layer adjacent the outer side surfaces of the control gates, forming an HKMG layer on the structure and removing portions thereof between the control gates, removing a portion of the polysilicon layer adjacent the inner side surfaces of the control gates, forming a source region in the substrate adjacent the inner side surfaces of the control gates, forming a conductive erase gate over and insulated from the source region, forming conductive word line gates laterally adjacent to the control gates, and forming drain regions in the substrate adjacent the word line gates.

A memory stack structure includes a cavity including a back gate electrode, a back gate dielectric, a semiconductor channel, and at least one charge storage element. In one embodiment, a line trench can be filled with a memory film layer, and a plurality of semiconductor channels can straddle the line trench. The back gate electrode can extend along the lengthwise direction of the line trench. In another embodiment, an isolated memory opening overlying a patterned conductive layer can be filled with a memory film, and the back gate electrode can be formed within a semiconductor channel and on the patterned conductive layer. A dielectric cap portion electrically isolates the back gate electrode from a drain region. The back gate electrode can be employed to bias the semiconductor channel, and to enable sensing of multinary bits corresponding to different amounts of electrical charges stored in a memory cell.

A semiconductor structure of a split gate flash memory cell is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor substrate including a source region and a drain region. Further, the semiconductor structure includes a floating gate, a word line, and an erase gate located over the semiconductor substrate between the source and drain regions. The floating gate is arranged between the word line and the erase gate. Even more, the semiconductor structure includes a dielectric disposed between the erase and floating gates. A thickness of the dielectric between the erase and floating gates is variable and increases towards the semiconductor substrate. A method of manufacturing the semiconductor structure is also provided.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor structure includes forming a stack of alternating layers comprising insulating layers and spacer material layers over a semiconductor substrate, forming a memory opening through the stack, forming an aluminum oxide layer having a horizontal portion at a bottom of the memory opening and a vertical portion at least over a sidewall of the memory opening, where the horizontal portion differs from the vertical portion by at least one of structure or composition, and selectively etching the horizontal portion selective to the vertical portion.

A vertical channel-type 3D semiconductor memory device and a method for manufacturing the same are disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes depositing alternating insulating and electrode layers on a substrate to form a multi-layer film. The method further includes etching the film to the substrate to form through-holes, each of which defines a channel region. The method further includes depositing barrier, storage, and tunnel layers in sequence on inner walls of through-holes to form gate stacks. The method further includes depositing and incompletely filling a channel material on a surface of the tunnel layer of gate stacks to form a hollow channels. The method further includes forming drains in contact hole regions for bit-line connection in top portions of the hollow channels. The method further includes forming sources in contact regions between the through-holes and the substrate in bottom portions of the hollow channels.