A method for forming a semiconductor structure includes providing a semiconductor substrate, forming a sacrificial layer over the semiconductor substrate, etching the sacrificial layer to form a sacrificial pattern, etching the semiconductor substrate using the sacrificial pattern as an etching mask to form an active region of the semiconductor substrate, trimming the sacrificial pattern, and replacing the trimmed sacrificial pattern with a gate electrode.

A memory structure including a substrate, charge storage layers, and a gate is provided. The charge storage layers are located on the substrate. The gate is located on the substrate on one side of the charge storage layers. The gate extends along a first direction. The gate has a protruding portion protruding along a second direction. The second direction intersects the first direction. The protruding portion is located between two adjacent charge storage layers arranged along the first direction.

Exemplary semiconductor structures and processing methods may include forming a first portion of a first semiconductor layer characterized by a first etch rate for an etch treatment, forming a second portion of the first semiconductor layer characterized by a second etch rate that is less than the first etch rate for the etch treatment, and forming a third portion of the first semiconductor layer characterized by a third etch rate that is greater than the second etch rate. The processing methods may further include etching an opening through the first semiconductor layer, where the opening has a height and a width, and where the opening is characterized by a variation in the width between a midpoint of the height of the opening and an endpoint of the opening that is less than or about 5 .

A semiconductor device including a substrate having a trench formed therein, a plurality of gate structures, an isolation layer pattern and an insulating interlayer pattern. The substrate includes a plurality of active regions defined by the trench and spaced apart from each other in a second direction. Each of the active regions extends in a first direction substantially perpendicular to the second direction. Each of the plurality of gate structures includes a tunnel insulation layer pattern, a floating gate, a dielectric layer pattern and a control gate sequentially stacked on the substrate. The isolation layer pattern is formed in the trench. First isolation layer pattern has at least one first air gap between sidewalls of at least one adjacent pair of the floating gates. The insulating interlayer pattern is formed between the gate structures, and the first insulating interlayer pattern extends in the second direction.

An embodiment is a semiconductor device comprising a first gate structure over a semiconductor substrate, a first etch stop layer (ESL) over the semiconductor substrate and the first gate, the first ESL having a curved top surface, and a first inter-layer dielectric (ILD) on the first ESL, the first ILD having a curved top surface. The semiconductor device further comprises a second ESL on the first ILD, the second ESL having a curved top surface, and a second ILD on the second ESL.

Methods for forming semiconductor structures are provided. The method for forming the semiconductor structure includes forming a word line cell over a substrate and forming a dielectric layer over the word line cell. The method further includes forming a conductive layer over the dielectric layer and polishing the conductive layer until the dielectric layer is exposed. The method further includes forming an oxide layer on a top surface of the conductive layer and removing portions of the conductive layer not covered by the oxide layer to form a memory gate.

According to one embodiment, a non-volatile semiconductor memory device includes: a tunnel insulation film provided on a semiconductor substrate; a floating gate electrode provided on the tunnel insulation film; an inter-electrode insulation film provided on the floating gate electrode; and a control gate electrode provided on the inter-electrode insulation film. The inter-electrode insulation film includes: a lower insulation film provided on the floating gate electrode side; and an upper insulation film provided on the control gate electrode side. The lower insulation film includes: N (N is an integer of 2 or larger) electric charge accumulation layers; and boundary insulation films provided between the electric charge accumulation layers.

A method for fabricating memory device includes the steps of: providing a substrate; forming a tunnel oxide layer on the substrate; forming a first gate layer on the tunnel oxide layer; forming a negative capacitance (NC) insulating layer on the first gate layer; and forming a second gate layer on the NC insulating layer. Preferably, the second gate layer further includes a work function metal layer on the NC insulating layer and a low resistance metal layer on the work function metal layer.

A semiconductor device including a memory cell featuring a first gate insulating film over a semiconductor substrate, a control gate electrode over the first gate insulating film, a second gate insulating film over the substrate and a side wall of the control gate electrode, a memory gate electrode over the second gate insulating film arranged adjacent with the control gate electrode through the second gate insulating film, first and second semiconductor regions in the substrate positioned on a control gate electrode side and a memory gate side, respectively, the second gate insulating film featuring a first film over the substrate, a charge storage film over the first film and a third film over the second film, the first film having a first portion between the substrate and memory gate electrode and a thickness greater than that of a second portion between the control gate electrode and the memory gate electrode.

Some embodiments include an integrated structure having a stack of alternating dielectric levels and conductive levels, and having vertically-stacked memory cells within the conductive levels. An opening extends through the stack. Channel material is within the opening and along the memory cells. At least some of the channel material contains germanium.