Patent ID: 11942550
Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  B | IPC H

Claim 10:
11. A nanosheet semiconductor device, comprising:
a source/drain region;
a first channel region and a second channel region separated from each other by the source/drain region in a horizontal direction, each of the first and second channel regions including at least one nanosheet;
a first gate structure and a second gate structure, each of which includes an upper gate portion disposed over a corresponding one of the first and second channel regions and a lower gate portion surrounding the at least one nanosheet of the corresponding one of the first and second channel regions;
a dummy spacer laterally covering the upper gate portion of a corresponding one of the first gate structure and the second gate structure and having a first surface in contact with the upper gate portion of the corresponding one of the first gate structure and the second gate structure and a second surface opposite to the first surface;
a contact etch stop layer disposed to cover the source/drain region, the contact etch stop layer including a bottom portion that includes a flat main part and an inclined edge part inclined outwardly and downwardly from the flat main part in the horizontal direction;
at least one first inner spacer laterally covering the lower gate portion of the first gate structure; and
at least one second inner spacer laterally covering the lower gate portion of the second gate structure,
a distance between the at least one nanosheet of the first channel region and the at least one nanosheet of the second channel region being greater than a distance between the at least one first inner spacer and the at least one second inner spacer,
the inclined edge part of the bottom portion of the contact etch stop layer extending to terminate at a position of the second surface of the dummy spacer to divide the second surface of the dummy spacer into a lower surface portion and an upper surface portion, the lower surface portion of the second surface of the dummy spacer extending in a vertical direction perpendicular to the horizontal direction.