Source and drain formation techniques disclosed herein provide FinFETs with reduced channel resistance and reduced drain-induced barrier lowering. An exemplary three-step etch method for forming a source/drain recess in a source/drain region of a fin includes a first anisotropic etch, an isotropic etch, and a second anisotropic etch. The first anisotropic etch and the isotropic etch are tuned to define a location of a source/drain tip. A depth of the source/drain recess after the first anisotropic etch and the isotropic etch is less than a target depth. The second anisotropic etch is tuned to extend the depth of the source/drain recess to the target depth. The source/drain tip is near a top of the fin to reduce channel resistance while a bottom portion of the source/drain recess is spaced a distance from a gate footing that can minimize DIBL. The source/drain recess is filled with an epitaxial semiconductor material.

The present disclosure describes a fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) standard cell with double self-aligned contacts. The FinFET standard cell with double self-aligned contacts includes a self-aligned gate contact spanning over a diffusion bonding hole and a self-aligned diffusion bonding hole contact spanning over a gate, and the FinFET device further includes a cap layer between the two self-aligned contacts so as to separate the two self-aligned contacts, thereby further reducing the size of the active fin or a dummy fin so as to further reduce the area of the FinFET standard cell, to prevent a bridge connection between adjacent M0 structures like the M0A and M0P, thereby improving yield of manufacturing.

A semiconductor device includes a first gate structure and a second gate structure over a fin, a dielectric cut pattern sandwiched by the first and second gate structures, and a liner layer surrounding the dielectric cut pattern. The dielectric cut pattern is spaced apart from the fin and extends further from the substrate than a first gate electrode of the first gate structure and a second gate electrode of the second gate structure. The semiconductor device further includes a conductive feature sandwiched by the first and second gate structures. The conductive feature is divided by the conductive feature into a first segment and a second segment. The first segment of the conductive feature is above a source/drain region of the fin.

Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the semiconductor devices are described herein. A method includes forming a first etch stop layer from a portion of a gate mask, the gate mask extending between spacers adjacent a gate electrode, the gate electrode overlying a semiconductor fin. The method further includes forming a second etch stop layer adjacent the first etch stop layer, forming an opening through the second etch stop layer, and exposing the first etch stop layer by performing a first etching process. The method further includes extending the opening through the first etch stop layer and exposing the gate electrode by performing a second etching process. Once the gate electrode has been exposed, the method further includes forming a gate contact in the opening.

A transistor structure includes a semiconductor substrate, a gate structure, a channel region, and a first conductive region. The semiconductor substrate has a semiconductor surface. The gate structure is above the semiconductor surface, and a first concave is formed to reveal the gate structure. The channel region is under the semiconductor surface. The first conductive region is electrically coupled to the channel region, and a second concave is formed to reveal the first conductive region. A mask pattern in a photolithography process is used to define the first concave, and the mask pattern only defines one dimension length of the first concave.

A semiconductor device with different configurations of gate structures and a method of fabricating the same are disclosed. The method includes forming a fin structure on a substrate, forming a gate opening on the fin structure, forming an interfacial oxide layer on the fin structure, forming a first dielectric layer over the interfacial oxide layer, forming a dipole layer between the interfacial oxide layer and the first dielectric layer, forming a second dielectric layer on the first dielectric layer, forming a work function metal (WFM) layer on the second dielectric layer, and forming a gate metal fill layer on the WFM layer. The dipole layer includes ions of first and second metals that are different from each other. The first and second metals have electronegativity values greater than an electronegativity value of a metal or a semiconductor of the first dielectric layer.

A method of fabricating semiconductor fins, including, patterning a film stack to produce one or more sacrificial mandrels having sidewalls, exposing the sidewall on one side of the one or more sacrificial mandrels to an ion beam to make the exposed sidewall more susceptible to oxidation, oxidizing the opposite sidewalls of the one or more sacrificial mandrels to form a plurality of oxide pillars, removing the one or more sacrificial mandrels, forming spacers on opposite sides of each of the plurality of oxide pillars to produce a spacer pattern, removing the plurality of oxide pillars, and transferring the spacer pattern to the substrate to produce a plurality of fins.

A semiconductor device includes a substrate. The semiconductor device includes a dielectric layer disposed over a portion of the substrate. The semiconductor device includes a diffusion blocking layer disposed over the dielectric layer. The diffusion blocking layer and the dielectric layer have different material compositions. The semiconductor device includes a ferroelectric layer disposed over the diffusion blocking layer.

A method comprises forming a gate structure between gate spacers; etching back the gate structure to fall below top ends of the gate spacers; forming a gate dielectric cap over the etched back gate structure; performing an ion implantation process to form a doped region in the gate dielectric cap; depositing a contact etch stop layer over the gate dielectric cap and an ILD layer over the contact etch stop layer; performing a first etching process to form a gate contact opening extending through the ILD layer and terminating prior to reaching the doped region of the gate dielectric cap; performing a second etching process to deepen the gate contact opening, wherein the second etching process etches the doped region of the gate dielectric cap at a slower etch rate than etching the contact etch stop layer; and forming a gate contact in the deepened gate contact opening.

A memory device, transistor, and methods of making the same, the memory device including a memory device including: a ferroelectric (FE) structure including: a dielectric layer, an FE layer disposed on the dielectric layer, and an interface metal layer disposed on the FE layer, in which the interface metal layer comprises W, Mo, Ru, TaN, or a combination thereof to induce the FE layer to have an orthorhombic phase; and a top electrode layer disposed on the interface metal.