Patent ID: 9634110
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: H01L

Claim:
1. A method of filling trenches between gates, the method comprising: forming a first dummy gate and a second dummy gate over a substrate, the first dummy gate and the second dummy gate comprising a sacrificial gate material and a hard mask layer on the sacrificial gate material; forming a first gate spacer along a sidewall of the first dummy gate and a second gate spacer along a sidewall of the second dummy gate; performing an epitaxial growth process to form a source/drain on the substrate between the first dummy gate and the second dummy gate; disposing a conformal liner over the first dummy gate, the second dummy gate, and the source/drain; disposing an oxide on the conformal liner between the first dummy gate and the second dummy gate; recessing the oxide to a level below the hard mask layer on the first dummy gate and the second dummy gate to form a recessed oxide; disposing a spacer material layer over the recessed oxide and the hard mask layer; disposing a planarization layer over the spacer material layer; and performing a planarization process to remove the planarization layer and a portion of the spacer material layer and to expose the hard mask layer; wherein the performing the planarization process comprises a first planarization process that selectively stops on the spacer material layer and a second planarization process that exposes the hard mask layer.