Patent ID: 8697523
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A method of fabricating a FIN field-effect transistor (FINFET) device, comprising the steps of: providing a wafer; patterning a plurality of fins in the wafer; forming a dummy gate covering a portion of the fins, wherein the portion of the fins covered by the dummy gate serves as a channel region of the device and portions of the fins extending out from under the dummy gate serve as source and drain regions of the device; forming spacers on opposite sides of the dummy gate; removing the dummy gate thus forming a trench between the spacers that exposes the fins in the channel region of the device once covered by the dummy gate; depositing a silicon nitride material into the trench so as to cover a top and sidewalls of each of the fins in the channel region of the device; annealing the wafer to induce strain in the silicon nitride material, wherein by way of the annealing the silicon nitride material is converted into a stress-induced nitride film that contacts the top and the sidewalls of each of the fins in the channel region of the device; and wherein by way of having the stress-induced silicon nitride film contact the top and the sidewalls of each of the fins in the channel region of the device, the strain induced in the silicon nitride material by the annealing will be transferred during the annealing to the channel region of the device resulting in a strain being induced in the top and the sidewalls of each of the fins in the channel region of the device; removing the stressed-induced silicon nitride film; wherein the strain induced in the top and the sidewalls of each of the fins in the channel region of the device remains after the stress-induced silicon nitride film is removed; and forming a replacement gate covering the fins in the channel region of the device.