Abstract:
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including a first conductive type semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode formed over the semiconductor substrate via a gate insulator, a first conductive impurity region buried in the semiconductor substrate, the first conductive impurity region being both sides of an extend plane, the extend plane being extended from side-walls of the gate electrode into the semiconductor substrate and a second conductive type source/drain region partially overlapping with the first conductive impurity region and extending from an end of the gate electrode at the semiconductor substrate to an outer region in the semiconductor substrate, wherein a first conductive impurity concentration at a prescribed depth in the overlapping portion between the first conductive impurity region and the source/drain region is lower than the first conductive impurity concentration in the first conductive impurity region except the overlapping portion corresponding to the prescribed depth.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. JP2006-274447, filed Oct. 5, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to a semiconductor device for high speed operation and a method for fabricating the semiconductor device.  
       DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     Recently, high speed operation as well as large scale integration and high packing density in an integrated circuit has been strongly demanded. For realization of this demand, an improvement of the high speed operation on a semiconductor device such as a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) which is merely called transistor hereafter or the like has been important. For operation speed of the semiconductor device, for example, switching time Tpd of an inverter is generally represented as k×CV/I, where C is parasitic capacitor of the transistor, I is driving force, V is operation voltage and k is proportional constant.  
         [0004]     Necessity for enlarging the driving force I or lowering the parasitic capacitor C is derived from the formula to obtain high speed operation, namely lowering the Tpd. The parasitic capacitor of the transistor is composed of a gate capacitor, a diffusion capacitor, a fringe capacitor and an overlapping capacitor. Shortening a gate length of the transistor leads to decreasing a resistance of a channel region so as to be able to increase the driving force I and to lower the gate capacitor.  
         [0005]     However, shortening the gate length of the transistor causes a problem such as lowering a threshold voltage or being increased with an off current (leakage current) due to a short-channel effect.  
         [0006]     As a technique for controlling the short-channel effect, a halo ion-implantation technique has been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2005-327848 discloses a method for the technique. In the Patent Publication, after forming a source/drain region with a low concentration, ion-implanting a same conductive-type impurity as an impurity into the channel area from a direction with an angle for perpendicular to the semiconductor substrate using a gate electrode as a mask. The ion-implantation increases a channel concentration and shallows a channel depth so that the short-channel effect is suppressed.  
         [0007]     However, the halo ion-implantation in this method is performed not only into a lower channel region of an end of the gate electrode for suppressing the short-channel effect but also into all over the source/drain region. Accordingly, all over the source/drain region becomes a high concentration which is the same as the channel area of the semiconductor substrate.  
         [0008]     Therefore, increasing the diffusion layer capacity of the source/drain region and the resistance of the diffusion layer causes deterioration of the driving force. As a result, the switching operation Tpd of the transistor is also deteriorated.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including a first conductive type semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode formed over the semiconductor substrate via a gate insulator, a first conductive impurity region buried in the semiconductor substrate, the first conductive impurity region being both sides of an extend plane, the extend plane being extended from side-walls of the gate electrode into the semiconductor substrate and a second conductive type source/drain region partially overlapping with the first conductive impurity region and extending from an end of the gate electrode at the semiconductor substrate to an outer region in the semiconductor substrate, wherein a first conductive impurity concentration at a prescribed depth in the overlapping portion between the first conductive impurity region and the source/drain region is lower than the first conductive impurity concentration in the first conductive impurity region except the overlapping portion corresponding to the prescribed depth.  
         [0010]     Further, another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for fabricating a semiconductor device, including, forming a gate electrode over a surface of a first conductive type semiconductor substrate via a gate insulator, forming a mask over the surface of the semiconductor substrate, the mask having a space for a side-wall of the gate electrode, ion-implanting a first conductive impurity into the surface of the semiconductor substrate through the space from a direction inclined with a prescribed angles for perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate to form the first conductive impurity region, the first conductive impurity region being buried in the semiconductor substrate, the first conductive impurity region being extended at both sides of an extend plane, the extend plane being extended from both the side-wall sides of the gate electrode into the semiconductor substrate, and ion-implanting a second conductive impurity into the surface of the semiconductor substrate using the gate electrode as a mask to form a source/drain region, the source/drain region being extended from an end of the gate electrode at the semiconductor substrate to an outer region in the semiconductor substrate and the source/drain region being partially overlapped with the first conductive impurity region. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a schematic cross-section view showing a structure of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0012]      FIGS. 2A-2C  are schematic cross-section views showing a fabricating process of the semiconductor device according to the embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0013]      FIGS. 3A-3C  are schematic cross-section views showing the fabricating process of the semiconductor device according to the embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0014]      FIGS. 4A-4C  are schematic cross-section views showing the fabricating process of the semiconductor device according to the embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0015]     An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings mentioned above.  
       EMBODIMENT  
       [0016]     First, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a structure of a semiconductor device is explained with reference to  FIG. 1  being a schematic cross-section view.  
         [0017]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , a semiconductor device  1  includes a first conductive semiconductor substrate  11 , a gate insulator  21 , a gate electrode  24 , a cap insulator  25 , a spacer  30 , a second conductive source/drain region  31 , a first conductive impurity region  33  said as a halo-ion-implantation region, an inter-layer dielectric film  41  and a contact layer  45 .  
         [0018]     A gate electrode  24  is formed on a surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  with p-type, for example, via the gate insulator  21  composed of a silicon oxide film.  
         [0019]     The gate electrode  24  is constituted of a lower portion gate electrode film  22  and an upper portion gate electrode film  23 . The lower portion gate electrode  22  is composed of poly-crystalline silicon doped with phosphorous (P), for example, and the upper portion gate electrode  23  is composed of tungsten-silicon compound (WSi) , for example.  
         [0020]     The cap insulator  25  is composed of a silicon nitride film, for example, and is formed on the upper portion gate electrode film  23 .  
         [0021]     The spacer  30  is composed of a silicon nitride film, for example, and is formed to cover with side-walls of the gate insulator  21 , the gate electrode  24  and the cap insulator  25 .  
         [0022]     A source/drain region  31  being an n-type, for example, as a second conductive type, is formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  to extend from an end of the gate electrode  24  to an outer region. The source/drain region  31  is constituted of a low concentration source/drain region  31   a  and a high concentration source/drain region  31   b . The low concentration source/drain region  31   a  is formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  under the spacer  30  and is contacted with a channel area  13  under the gate electrode  24 . The high concentration source/drain region  31   b  is formed an outer region of the spacer  30  to contact with the low concentration source/drain region  31   a  and at a region being deeper than the low concentration source/drain region  31   a.    
         [0023]     The first conductive impurity region  33  has the same conductive type as the semiconductor substrate  11  which means channel area  13 , is composed of a p-type impurity, for example. The first conductive impurity region  33  is formed at both sides of an extend plane being extended from the side-walls of the gate electrode  24  into the semiconductor substrate  11 . Further, the first conductive impurity region  33  is restrictedly formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  near the extend plane A. Namely, one portion of the first conductive impurity region  33  is formed at a side of the source/drain region  31  and the other region is formed at the side of the channel area  13 . Furthermore, a part of the first conductive impurity region  33  is overlapped with the source/drain region  31 . Further, the first conductive impurities region  33  has a concentration profile. In a depth direction perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 , the concentration profile is a mountain-type, namely, high at a center portion and low at a periphery portion at the left side in  FIG. 1 . Further, in a horizontal direction, as same as the depth direction to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 , the concentration profile is also a mountain-type, namely, high at a center portion and low at a periphery portion at the lower side in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0024]     Next, according to the embodiment of the present invention, processing steps for fabricating the semiconductor device  1  with the structure mentioned above is explained with reference to  FIGS. 2-4 .  FIGS. 2A-2C  are schematic cross-section views showing a fabricating process of the semiconductor device  1 . Successively,  FIGS. 3A-3C  are schematic cross-section views showing the fabricating process of the semiconductor device  1 . Further successively,  FIGS. 4A-4C  are schematic cross-section views showing the fabricating process of the semiconductor device  1 .  
         [0025]     Generally, in a surface region of the semiconductor substrate  11 , for example, an isolation area with a STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) structure is formed. Here, for simply describing, only the semiconductor substrate  11  in the isolation region is illustrated, on the other hand, the other portion is omitted.  
         [0026]     As shown in  FIG. 2 , on the surface of the p-type semiconductor substrate  11 , for example, the gate insulator  21  composed of a silicon oxide film is formed to be 3.5 nm thick by thermal oxidation. The film thickness of the gate insulator  21  is necessary in a range of 1.0 nm-20 nm, preferably 3.0 nm-5.0 nm. Next, the lower portion gate electrode film  22  is deposited on the gate insulator  21  composed of poly-crystalline silicon, to be 80 nm thick, for example, by CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition).  
         [0027]     Next, the poly-crystalline silicon as the lower portion gate electrode film  22  is doped with phosphorous (P) by ion implantation, for example, in a case of n-type transistor. The lower portion gate electrode film  22  doped with phosphorous (P) may be simultaneously deposited in the CVD process.  
         [0028]     After processing steps mentioned above, upper portion gate electrode film  23  composed of tungsten-silicon compound (WSi) being 50 nm thick is deposited on the lower portion gate electrode film  22 , for example, by sputtering. Next, a cap insulator  25  composed of a silicon nitride film being 200 nm thick is deposited on the upper portion gate electrode film  23 , for example, by LPCVD (Low Pressure CVD).  
         [0029]     As shown in  FIG. 2B , the cap insulator  25  is delineated by lithography and anisotropic etching such as RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) or the like. The upper portion gate electrode film  23 , the lower portion gate electrode film  22  and the gate insulator  21  are delineated in order using the cap insulator  25  as a mask by anisotropic etching, so that the gate electrode  24  of a stacked layer structure with the upper portion gate electrode film  23  and the lower portion gate electrode film  22  is formed.  
         [0030]     As shown in  FIG. 2C , a post-oxide film  26  is formed to be 4.0 nm thick over the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  under a low pressure by wet RTO (Rapid Thermal Oxidation) so as to cover the gate insulator  21 , the gate electrode  24 , and the cap insulator  25 .  
         [0031]     As shown in  FIG. 3A , undoped silicon film  27  composed of poly-crystallites is deposited to be 40-50 nm thick, for example, by CVD, to cover the post-oxide film  26 . In this case, the silicon film  27  may not restricted to be the poly-crystalline silicon, but may be composed of amorphous silicon.  
         [0032]     As shown in  FIG. 3B , boron fluoride (BF 2 ) is ion-implanted at an acceleration energy of 5 keV and a dose of 5E14 cm −2  from perpendicular (arrow direction) to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 . The acceleration energy in the ion-irradiation process is set at the amount that the impurity is practically not reached to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 .  
         [0033]     By using the ion-implantation process, an etching rate for an etching solution of an upper portion of the semiconductor substrate  11  and the silicon film  27  of an upper portion of the cap insulator  25 , where BF 2  is ion-implanted, is later than an etching rate for the etching solution of a side-wall of the gate electrode  24  and the silicon film  27  on a side-wall of the cap insulator  25 , where BF 2  is not ion-implanted. In addition, the impurity changing the etching rate is not restricted to BF 2 , for example, boron (B) , boron compound or the like may be used.  
         [0034]     As shown in  FIG. 3C , the semiconductor substrate  11  is etched by alkali solution, for example, trimethylsilane (TMS) solution or potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution so that the gate electrode  24  and the silicon film  27  on the side-wall of the cap insulator  25  where BF 2  is ion-implanted are selectively removed.  
         [0035]     After processing steps mentioned above, exposed post-oxide film  26  is removed by RIE or the like, for example. As a result, a mask  28  composed of the gate insulator  21  and the silicon film  27  are formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  and a space  29  is formed between the mask  28  and the side-wall of the gate electrode  24 . A width of the space  29 , namely, a distance between the mask  28  and the side-wall of the gate electrode  24  has a length of 44 nm-54 nm which is summed up the thicknesses of the silicon film  27  and the post-oxide film  26 .  
         [0036]     As shown in  FIG. 4A , in a case of an n-type transistor, BF 2  is ion-implanted from a direction (arrow direction) being inclined approximately 30 degrees from perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 . An acceleration energy and a dose as the conditions of the ion implantation are ranged at 10 keV and between 1E14-1E15 cm −2 , respectively. Subsequently, a thermal treatment is performed. BF 2  is ion-implanted into the semiconductor substrate  11  only from the space  29  between the gate electrode  24  and the mask  28 , and the gate electrode  24  and the mask  28  near the space  29 . BF 2  being ion-implanted into the other portion is stopped by the mask  28  or the gate electrode  24 , as a result, BF 2  is not ion-implanted into the semiconductor substrate  11 .  
         [0037]     Accordingly, BF 2  is ion-implanted only into both a channel area  13  inside the extend plane A of the side-wall of the gate electrode  24  and a prescribed source/drain region outside the extend plane A. Moreover, p-type, so called, a first conductive impurity region  33  is buried into near the side-wall of the gate electrode  24 . The first conductive impurity region  33  is not formed in the other region of the semiconductor substrate  11 .  
         [0038]     Further, the first conductive impurity region  33  has a concentration profile. In a depth direction perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 , the concentration profile is a mountain-type, namely, high at a center portion and low at a periphery portion at the left side in  FIG. 1 . Further, in a horizontal direction, as the same as the depth direction to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 , the concentration profile is a mountain-type, namely, high at a center portion and low at a periphery at the lower side in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0039]     An angle of ion implantation is not necessarily restricted to about 30 degrees from perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 . The first conductive impurities region  33  can be changed to be formed more suitable portion.  
         [0040]     As shown in  FIG. 4B , a second conductive type, for example, arsenic (As) is ion-implanted with an acceleration energy of 7 keV and a dose of 1E15 cm −2  into the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  from the perpendicular (arrow direction) to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  using the gate electrode  24  as a mask. The source/drain region  31   a  with low concentration is formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  by subsequent thermal annealing.  
         [0041]     As shown in  FIG. 4C , for example, silicon nitride film is deposited to be 5.0 nm-30 nm thick on the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 , for example, by LPCVD, to cover the gate insulator  21 , the gate electrode  24  and the cap insulator  25 . Subsequently, the silicon nitride film is etched back by RIE having a different selective-ratio to the semiconductor substrate  11  to form the spacer  30  on the side-walls of the gate insulator  21 , the gate electrode  24  and the cap insulator  25 .  
         [0042]     After processing steps mentioned above, for example, As is ion-implanted with an acceleration energy of 5 keV and a dose of 2E15 cm −2  from the perpendicular (arrow direction) to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  using the spacer  30  as a mask, subsequently, the source/drain region  31   b  with a high concentration is formed at a position deeper than the source/drain region  31   a  with a low concentration by thermal annealing. The source/drain region  31  is composed of the source/drain region  31   b  with the high concentration and the source/drain region  31   a  with the low concentration. The source/drain region  31 , as shown by the dotted line, is overlapped with the periphery portion of the first conductive impurity region  33  and generates a junction between the first conductive impurity regions  33 .  
         [0043]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , an inter-layer dielectric film  41  composed of BPSG (Boron Phosphorus Silicate Glass) is deposited on the semiconductor substrate  11 , for example, by CVD. Next, a contact hole  43  is formed in the inter-layer dielectric film  41  on the source/drain region  31  by anisotropic etching. The contact hole  43  is formed between adjacent spacers  30  in self-align. Next, for example, Ti (Ti) and Ti nitride (TiN) are formed in the contact hole  43  by sputtering, subsequently, tungsten (W) is deposited in the contact hole  43 . The surface of W layer is polished by CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) to form a contact layer  45  with W in the contact hole  43 . After the processing steps mentioned above, the semiconductor device  1  is completed.  
         [0044]     In the semiconductor device  1  of the embodiment mentioned above, as the first conductive impurity region  33  having the same conductive type as the channel area  13  is constituted at the channel area  13  under the gate electrode  24  and the channel depth is shallow with increasing the channel concentration, a short-channel effect can be suppressed. Furthermore, in the conventional method, the impurity region is configured with the total source/drain region and has the same impurity concentration in a prescribed region. However, as first conductive impurity region  33  is only constituted near the extend plane A of the side-wall of the gate electrode  24  in this embodiment, a portion of the semiconductor substrate  11  highly concentrated by the first conductive impurity region  33  is less as comparing with the conventional case. Further, as the first conductive impurities region  33  is high at the center portion in the concentration profile at a prescribed depth is decreased towards periphery portion, a diffusion layer capacity is decreased by reduction in near the junction.  
         [0045]     Further, in the conventional case, the first conductive impurity region is overlapped with all the source/drain region and has the same impurity concentration at prescribed depth, however, in this embodiment, only the portion of the first conductive impurity region  33  is overlapped with the source/drain region  31 . In addition, as the first conductive impurity region  33  has the concentration profile being high at the center portion and decreasing towards the periphery portion at the prescribed portion, the concentration of the portion overlapped with the source/drain region  31  is low so that the diffusion layer resistance in the source/drain region  31  can be decreased.  
         [0046]     Accordingly, reduction of the driving force can be suppressed, which leads to the semiconductor device having a capability of high speed.  
         [0047]     Further, in the method for fabricating a semiconductor device, the first conductive impurity region  33  is formed by the ion implantation from the space  29  constituted between the mask  28  and the side-wall of the gate electrode  24  after covering the prescribed region of the source/drain region  31  by the mask  28 . As a result, the first conductive impurity region  33  having prescribed concentration profile can be only restrictedly constituted under the end of the gate electrode  2 .  
         [0048]     Furthermore, the mask  28  being composed of the silicon film  27  and having the space  29  between the side-wall of the gate electrodes  24  is deposited on the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11  to cover the gate electrode  24 . After changing the etching rate for the etching solution between the silicon film  27  being on the side-wall of the gate electrode  24  and the silicon film  27  being the upper portion of the gate electrode  24  and being the upper portion of the semiconductor substrate  11  by ion-implanting with boron from perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate  11 , the silicon film  27  of the side-wall of the gate electrode  24  is only selectively removed so that the first conductive impurity region  33  is simply formed. Therefore, the semiconductor device with a capability of high speed in this embodiment can be easily fabricated.  
       OTHER EMBODIMENTS  
       [0049]     Other embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and example embodiments be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the claims that follow. The invention can be carried out by being variously modified within a range not deviated from the gist of the invention.  
         [0050]     For example, the first conductive impurity region and the source/drain region with the low concentration can be formed by another order. For example, first, the source/drain region with the low concentration can be formed and the first conductive impurity region can be secondly formed.  
         [0051]     For another example, the n-type transistor is demonstrated in the embodiment; however, the p-type transistor can be also applied. In a case of the p-type transistor, the impurities used as the case in the n-type transistor are all exchanged to the reverse type.  
         [0052]     For further example, in the embodiment, bulk silicon substrate is demonstrated as a semiconductor substrate, however, a SOI (Silicon on Insulator) structure can be used as the substrate.  
         [0053]     For further example, in the embodiment, boron is demonstrated as the ion-implanted impurity being ion-implanted into the silicon film, however, arsenic, indium, antimony, phosphorous, boron compounds, arsenic compounds, indium compounds, antimony compounds or phosphorous compounds can be also used.