Patent ID: 9576966
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: H01L

Claim:
1. A method of manufacturing a three-dimensional memory device, comprising: forming an alternating stack comprising insulating layers and sacrificial material layers over a substrate; forming memory stack structures extending through the alternating stack; forming a backside trench through the alternating stack; forming backside recesses around the memory stack structures by removing the sacrificial material layers through the backside trench; depositing an electrically conductive material which comprises a cobalt-containing material in the backside recesses and the backside trench, wherein a vertically-extending portion of deposited cobalt-containing material covers a portion of a sidewall of the backside trench between a vertically neighboring pair of backside recesses; and separating, by performing an anneal, the cobalt-containing material into electrically conductive portions which comprise cobalt-containing material portions which are physically disjoined from each other, wherein: the vertically-extending portion of cobalt-containing material migrates into the neighboring pair of backside recesses to form the physically disjoined cobalt-containing material portions during the anneal without etching the cobalt-containing material.