MANUFACTURING METHOD OF SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURE
20230115949 ยท 2023-04-13
Inventors
Cpc classification
H01L29/775
ELECTRICITY
H01L29/66439
ELECTRICITY
B82Y10/00
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
H01L21/465
ELECTRICITY
H01L29/66545
ELECTRICITY
H01L29/42392
ELECTRICITY
H01L29/78696
ELECTRICITY
International classification
H01L21/465
ELECTRICITY
H01L21/3213
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure includes the following operations. A stacked structure is formed on a substrate. The stacked structure includes semiconductor layers and sacrificial layers that are alternately stacked, in which the sacrificial layers include germanium, and germanium concentrations of the sacrificial layers decrease from bottom to top. A dummy gate structure is formed on the stacked structure. A spacer is formed on both sides of the dummy gate structure. The dummy gate structure is removed, thereby forming an opening. The sacrificial layers are removed from the opening. A gate structure is formed to cover the semiconductor layers. In another manufacturing method, the stacked structure includes semiconductor layers and sacrificial layers that are alternately stacked, in which thicknesses of the semiconductor layers increase from bottom to top, or thicknesses of the sacrificial layers increase from bottom to top.
Claims
1. A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure, comprising: forming a stacked structure on a substrate, the stacked structure comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers and a plurality of sacrificial layers that are alternately stacked, wherein the sacrificial layers comprise germanium, and germanium concentrations of the sacrificial layers decrease from bottom to top; forming a dummy gate structure on the stacked structure; forming a spacer on both sides of the dummy gate structure; removing the dummy gate structure, thereby forming an opening; removing the sacrificial layers from the opening; and forming a gate structure to cover the semiconductor layers.
2. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor layers comprise silicon, silicon carbide, or silicon phosphide, and the sacrificial layers comprise silicon-germanium, germanium, or germanium-tin.
3. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein thicknesses of the semiconductor layers increase from bottom to top.
4. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein thicknesses of the sacrificial layers increase from bottom to top.
5. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein forming the stacked structure comprises: forming a first sacrificial layer on the substrate; forming a first semiconductor layer on the first sacrificial layer; forming a second sacrificial layer on the first semiconductor layer, wherein a germanium concentration of the second sacrificial layer is less than a germanium concentration of the first sacrificial layer; and forming a second semiconductor layer on the second sacrificial layer.
6. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein in any two of the sacrificial layers adjacent to each other in a vertical direction, the germanium concentration of the sacrificial layer below is 5 at % to 15 at % greater than the germanium concentration of the sacrificial layer above.
7. A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure, comprising: forming a stacked structure on a substrate, the stacked structure comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers and a plurality of sacrificial layers that are alternately stacked, wherein thicknesses of the semiconductor layers increase from bottom to top, or thicknesses of the sacrificial layers increase from bottom to top; forming a dummy gate structure on the stacked structure; forming a spacer on both sides of the dummy gate structure; removing the dummy gate structure, thereby forming an opening; removing the sacrificial layers from the opening; and forming a gate structure to cover the semiconductor layers.
8. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein the thicknesses of the semiconductor layers increase from bottom to top, and forming the stacked structure comprises: forming a first sacrificial layer on the substrate; forming a first semiconductor layer on the first sacrificial layer; forming a second sacrificial layer on the first semiconductor layer; and forming a second semiconductor layer on the second sacrificial layer, wherein a thickness of the second semiconductor layer is greater than a thickness of the first semiconductor layer.
9. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein the thicknesses of the sacrificial layers increase from bottom to top, and forming the stacked structure comprises: forming a first sacrificial layer on the substrate; forming a first semiconductor layer on the first sacrificial layer; forming a second sacrificial layer on the first semiconductor layer, wherein a thickness of the second sacrificial layer is greater than a thickness of the first sacrificial layer; and forming a second semiconductor layer on the second sacrificial layer.
10. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein the semiconductor layers comprise silicon, silicon carbide, or silicon phosphide, and the sacrificial layers comprise silicon-germanium, germanium, or germanium-tin.
11. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein the sacrificial layers comprise germanium, and in any two of the sacrificial layers adjacent to each other in a vertical direction, a germanium concentration of the sacrificial layer below is 5 at % to 15 at % greater than a germanium concentration of the sacrificial layer above.
12. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein the thicknesses of the semiconductor layers increase by a constant amount from bottom to top.
13. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein the thicknesses of the sacrificial layers increase by a constant amount from bottom to top.
14. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein removing the sacrificial layers from the opening is performed by a wet etching.
15. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein the germanium concentrations of the sacrificial layers decrease by a constant amount from bottom to top.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0021] The disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] The following embodiments are disclosed with accompanying diagrams for detailed description. For illustration clarity, many details of practice are explained in the following descriptions. However, it should be understood that these details of practice do not intend to limit the present disclosure. That is, these details of practice are not necessary in parts of embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, for simplifying the drawings, some of the conventional structures and elements are shown with schematic illustrations.
[0028] Although a series of operations or steps below are utilized to illustrate the methods disclosed herein, the order shown by these operations or steps should not be construed as a limitation of this disclosure. For example, certain operations or steps may be performed in a different order and/or in conjunction with other steps. In addition, not all of the operations, steps, and/or features illustrated must be performed in order to implement the embodiment of the disclosure. Further, each operation or step described herein may contain several sub-steps or actions.
[0029] The present disclosure provides a manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure. Please refer to
[0030] As shown in
[0031] In some embodiments, the semiconductor layers 12A include silicon, silicon carbide, or silicon phosphide, and the sacrificial layers 14A include silicon-germanium, germanium, or germanium-tin. In some embodiments, the semiconductor layers 12A are doped with group V element. For example, the semiconductor layers 12A include silicon carbide doped with phosphorus. In some embodiments, the sacrificial layers 14A are doped with group III element. For example, the sacrificial layers 14A include silicon-germanium doped with boron.
[0032] In some embodiments, the sacrificial layers 14A include germanium, and germanium concentrations of the sacrificial layers 14A decrease from bottom to top. For example, the germanium concentrations of the sacrificial layers 14A shown in
[0033] In some embodiments, the semiconductor layers 12A and the sacrificial layers 14A in the multilayer stack 10A can be deposited by the following process, such as vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), or atomic layer deposition (ALD).
[0034] Each layer in the multilayer stack 10A may have a small thickness, such as about 5 nm to about 30 nm. In some embodiments, thicknesses of the semiconductor layers 12A increase from bottom to top. For example, the thicknesses of the semiconductor layers 12A gradually increase by a constant amount from bottom to top. In some embodiments, forming the multilayer stack 10A includes the following operations. A first sacrificial layer is formed on the substrate. A first semiconductor layer on the first sacrificial layer. A second sacrificial layer is formed on the first semiconductor layer. A second semiconductor layer is formed on the second sacrificial layer, in which a thickness of the second semiconductor layer is greater than a thickness of the first semiconductor layer. Repeating the above operations can form the semiconductor layers 12A with increasing thicknesses from bottom to top. In other embodiments, thicknesses of the sacrificial layers 14A increase from bottom to top. For example, thicknesses of the sacrificial layers 14A gradually increase by a constant amount from bottom to top. In some embodiments, forming the multilayer stack 10A includes the following operations. A first sacrificial layer is formed on the substrate. A first semiconductor layer is formed on the first sacrificial layer. A second sacrificial layer is formed on the first semiconductor layer, in which a thickness of the second sacrificial layer is greater than a thickness of the first sacrificial layer. A second semiconductor layer is formed on the second sacrificial layer. Repeating the above operations can form the sacrificial layers 14A with increasing thicknesses from bottom to top. In the following content, the benefits brought by the above-mentioned embodiments will be further described.
[0035] In some embodiments, the substrate 20 is a semiconductor substrate, such as a bulk semiconductor, a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, or the like. The semiconductor substrate may be doped (with p-type or n-type dopant) or undoped. The substrate 20 may be a wafer, such as a silicon wafer. Generally speaking, SOI substrate is a layer of semiconductor material formed on an insulator layer. The insulator layer is, for example, an oxide layer, a silicon oxide layer, or the like. In some embodiments, the semiconductor material of substrate 20 includes silicon; germanium; compound semiconductor, including silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, indium phosphide, indium arsenide, and/or indium antimonide; alloy semiconductor, including germanium-silicon, phosphorus gallium arsenide, aluminum indium arsenide, aluminum gallium arsenide, gallium indium arsenide, gallium indium phosphide, and/or indium gallium arsenide phosphide; or combinations thereof.
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[0046] As shown in
[0047] Generally speaking, in the etching process, the rate of etching the upper part of the stacked structure is faster than the rate of etching the lower part of the stacked structure. Therefore, after removing the sacrificial layers, it is easy to cause that the upper semiconductor layers in the remaining semiconductor layers have thinner thicknesses and smaller widths, while the lower semiconductor layers in the remaining semiconductor layers have greater thicknesses and greater widths. In other words, the remaining semiconductor layers have uneven shapes and have a deformation problem. For wider stacked structures, for example, stacked structures with widths of 60 nm or more than 100 nm, the deformation problem caused by the etching process is more serious. For example, since high performance computing (HPC) devices usually require higher currents, a wider stacked structure needs to be formed during the manufacturing process, and therefore the deformation problem of HPC devices is more serious. Since the semiconductor layers will serve as the channel layers, the uneven shapes and deformation of the semiconductor layers may adversely affect the performance of the final semiconductor structure.
[0048] In some embodiments, the sacrificial layers 14B shown in
[0049] In other embodiments, please refer to
[0050] As mentioned above, the rate of the etching process for etching the upper part of the stacked structure 10B is faster; the rate of the etching process for etching the lower part of the stacked structure 10B is slower. The present disclosure overcomes the problem of uneven shapes and deformation of the semiconductor layers caused by the etching process by using a structural design that has thicknesses of the semiconductor layers 12C gradually increasing from bottom to top, so that the remaining semiconductor layers (namely the semiconductor layers 12B shown in
[0051] In other embodiments, please refer to
[0052] As mentioned above, the rate of the etching process for etching the upper part of the stacked structure 10B is faster; the rate of the etching process for etching the lower part of the stacked structure 10B is slower. The present disclosure overcomes the problem of uneven shapes and deformation of the semiconductor layers caused by the etching process by using a structural design that has thicknesses of the sacrificial layers 14D gradually increasing from bottom to top, so that the remaining semiconductor layers (namely the semiconductor layers 12B shown in
[0053] In other embodiments, the embodiments of
[0054] As shown in
[0055] In summary, the present disclosure provides a variety of manufacturing methods for the semiconductor structures, which can prevent the semiconductor layers from having a problem of uneven shapes after etching the sacrificial layers by adjusting the germanium concentration distribution of the sacrificial layers, the thickness distribution of the semiconductor layers, and the thickness distribution of the sacrificial layers. Since a wider stacked structure usually has a serious deformation problem after etching, the manufacturing method of the present disclosure can be applied to the wider stacked structure to overcome the deformation problem. In addition, the manufacturing method of the present disclosure has a simple process, and can be easily applied to the current manufacturing process and equipment.
[0056] Although the present disclosure has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
[0057] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.