A method for forming a stacked transistor includes forming a sacrificial cap over a first interconnect of a lower level transistor. The method further includes forming an upper level transistor above the sacrificial cap. The method further includes removing the sacrificial cap to form an opening such that the opening is delimited by the upper level transistor. The method further includes forming a second interconnect in the opening such that the second interconnect is in direct contact with the first interconnect.

An ESD protection diode in a semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a diode group that has a plurality of grouped VNW diodes, each of the VNW diodes having a VNW having a lower end and an upper end, that are formed on the semiconductor substrate and have a semiconductor material; and a top plate that is formed above the diode group and is a conductive layer electrically connected to the upper ends of the VNWs of the respective VNW diodes, and there is fabricated the semiconductor device that is capable of, even when large current flows through the VNW diode, suppressing current concentration and preventing damage of the VNW diode.

A semiconductor integrated circuit device including a plurality of rows of IO cells has a configuration capable of avoiding a latchup error without causing an increase in area. The device includes a first IO cell row placed closest to an edge of a chip and a second IO cell row placed adjacent to a core region side of the first IO cell row. Each of the IO cells of the first and second IO cell rows has a high power supply voltage region and a low power supply voltage region provided separately in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the IO cells are lined up. The IO cell rows are placed so that the high power supply voltage regions of these rows are mutually opposed.

An integrated circuit includes a resistive material layer formed on a substrate, a metal layer formed on the resistive material layer, a bipolar transistor formed on the substrate, and a resistive element formed on the substrate. The bipolar transistor includes, as a sub-layer, the metal layer formed in a first region, and also includes a collector layer formed on the sub-collector layer. The resistive element is constituted by the resistive material layer formed in a second region.

Embodiments of a marking pattern in forming the staircase structure of a three-dimensional (3D) memory device are provided. In an example, a semiconductor device includes a stack structure having insulating layers and conductor layers arranged alternatingly over a substrate along a vertical direction; and a marking pattern having interleaved layers over the substrate and neighboring the stack structure. The marking pattern includes a central marking structure located in a marking area. The central marking structure consists of interleaved layers and divides the marking area into a first marking sub-area and a second marking sub-area. A first pattern density of the first marking sub-area is higher than or equal to a second pattern density of the second marking sub-area.

A device area and a marking area neighboring the device area over a dielectric stack are determined. The dielectric stack includes insulating material layers and sacrificial material layers arranged alternatingly over a substrate. The device area and the marking area are patterned using a same etching process to form a marking pattern having a central marking structure in a marking area and a staircase pattern in the device area. The marking pattern and the staircase pattern have a same thickness equal to a thickness of at least one insulating material layer and one sacrificial material layer, and the central marking structure divides the marking area into a first marking sub-area farther from the device area and a second marking sub-area closer to the device area. A first pattern density of the first marking sub-area is greater than or equal to a second pattern density of the second marking sub-area. A photoresist layer is formed to cover the staircase pattern and expose the marking pattern, and the photoresist layer is trimmed to expose a portion of the dielectric stack along a horizontal direction. An etching process is performed to maintain the marking pattern and remove the exposed portion of the dielectric stack and form a staircase.

Provided is an on-chip monitor circuit mounted on a semiconductor chip that is equipped with a security function module for performing a security function process on an input signal and outputting a security function signal, the on-chip monitor circuit comprising a monitor circuit for monitoring signal waveforms of the semiconductor chip, wherein the circuit is provided with a first storage means for storing data that designates a window period in which to perform a test of the semiconductor chip, and a control means for performing control to operate the circuit during the window period, when a prescribed test signal is inputted to the security function module. By using the on-chip monitor circuit in a semiconductor chip of which security is required, security attacks, e.g., a Trojan horse or the like, intended to embed a malicious circuit in the production stage of security function module-equipped semiconductors chips, can be prevented.

A semiconductor device is provided with one or more gate fingers (20) that are provided in an active region on a semiconductor substrate (1), and a source finger (30) and a drain finger (40) that are provided in the active region and arranged alternately to allow each gate finger to be sandwiched between the source and drain fingers. The semiconductor device includes terminal circuit (60) that has inductive impedance at the frequency of a signal input to an input terminal of the one or more gate fingers, and is directly or indirectly connected to the one or more gate fingers at an area being spaced away from a connecting position of the input terminal (21a) of the one or more gate fingers (20).

A semiconductor device according to an embodiment includes: a stacked body including a plurality of first conductive films stacked via an inter-layer insulating film;

a first conductive body contacting the stacked body to extend in a stacking direction; and a plurality of first insulating films in the same layers as the first conductive films and disposed between the first conductive body and the first conductive films, the first conductive body including a projecting part that projects along tops of one of the first insulating films and one of the first conductive films, and a side surface of the projecting part contacting an upper surface of the one of the first conductive films.

A semiconductor device includes a substrate, conductive features on the substrate, and a passivation layer over the conductive features to define conductive pads in the respective conductive features through exposed portions of each of the conductive features. Each corner of the conductive pads is free of right angle, the substrate has a pair of long sides from a top view perspective, the shape of each of the conductive pads is a parallelogram. Each of the conductive pads has a pair of long sides and a pair of short sides from a top view perspective, a portion of the conductive pads have the long sides sloped away from a first pad density area of the substrate and toward one long side of the substrate, and the rest of the conductive pads have the long sides sloped toward the first pad density area and toward the other long side of the substrate.