Patent ID: 9368599
Filing Date: 2016-06-14
CPC Classification: B82Y,H01L

Claim Text:
1. A method for forming a field effect transistor (FET), the method comprising: depositing a channel material on an insulator layer of a substrate, the insulator layer having a substantially uniform thickness across a semiconductor layer of the substrate, the channel material comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes configured in a nonparallel arrangement; forming a gate over a first portion of the carbon nanotube channel material; forming spacers, having substantially vertical sidewalls, on and in contact with a second portion of the carbon nanotube channel material adjacent to the gate, the second portion of the carbon nanotube channel material including undoped carbon nanotube channel material; depositing a layer of contact material over the carbon nanotube channel material, gate, spacers, the substantially vertical sidewalls of the spacers, and the insulator layer of the substrate, such that a portion of the layer of contact material conforms to, and is in contact with the substantially vertical sidewalls of the spacers; depositing a layer of dielectric material over the layer of contact material, the layer of dielectric material being deposited using a directional deposition process that deposits the layer of dielectric material on substantially horizontal portions of the contact material without depositing the dielectric material on substantially vertical portions of the contact material partially defined by the substantially vertical sidewalls of the spacers; removing a portion of the layer of dielectric material and a portion of the layer of contact material to expose the gate; recessing a portion of the layer of contact material located adjacent to the spacers to expose at least a portion of a sidewall of the spacers; removing the dielectric material; and patterning the layer of contact material to form a self-aligned contact for the FET, the self-aligned contact being disposed directly on a source region and a drain region of the FET, the source region and the drain region comprising any portion of the carbon nanotube channel material not covered by the gate or the spacers, wherein the patterning comprises removing any portion of the layer of contact material that is not in contact with the FET regions of the substrate such that a sidewall end portion of the carbon nanotube channel material is covered by the remaining portion of the layer of contact material.