Patent ID: 11923457
Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method of forming a semiconductor device, comprising:
forming a hard mask over a substrate;
forming a fin over the substrate, wherein the fin includes a channel region and a source/drain region, wherein the hard mask is over a top surface of the fin and includes a material having different etching selectivity than a material of the fin;
forming a dummy gate stack above the hard mask that is disposed over the channel region of the fin;
forming a spacer layer over the hard mask and the fin;
removing the spacer layer from along sidewalls of the fin;
removing the hard mask in the source/drain region of the fin;
epitaxially growing a source/drain structure on the source/drain region of the fin;
removing the dummy gate stack to form a gate trench exposing the hard mask disposed over the channel region of the fin;
removing the hard mask from the gate trench to expose the fin; and
forming a metal gate stack in the gate trench.