Patent ID: 11917817
Assignee: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 11:
12. A memory device, comprising:
a stack structure comprising tiers each comprising a conductive material and an insulative material vertically neighboring the conductive material, the stack structure divided into blocks extending in parallel in a first direction and separated from one another in a second direction by dielectric slot structures, each of the blocks comprising:
an uppermost stadium structure comprising:
opposing staircase structures individually having steps comprising horizontal ends of an upper group of the tiers of the stack structure; and
a central portion between the opposing staircase structures in the first direction;

first elevated regions neighboring opposing ends of the uppermost stadium structure in the first direction; and
second elevated regions neighboring opposing sides of the uppermost stadium structure in the second direction, uppermost surfaces of the second elevated regions substantially coplanar with uppermost surfaces of the first elevated regions;

at least one additional dielectric slot structure within horizontal boundaries in the first direction of the central portion of the uppermost stadium structure of each of the blocks and horizontally overlapping the second elevated regions of each of the blocks in the second direction,
the at least one additional dielectric slot structure partially vertically extending through and partially segmenting both the second elevated regions of each of the blocks,
lowermost boundaries of the at least one additional dielectric slot structure vertically overlying lowermost boundaries of the uppermost stadium structure of each of the blocks such that upper portions of the second elevated regions of each of the blocks are respectively partially non-continuous in the first direction while lower portions of the second elevated regions of each of the blocks are respectively substantially continuous in first direction; and

strings of memory cells vertically extending through a portion of each of the blocks neighboring the stadium structure in the first direction.