Abstract:
A method of fabricating self-aligned recess utilizing asymmetric poly spacer is disclosed. A semiconductor substrate having thereon a first pad layer and second pad layer is provided. A plurality of trenches is embedded in a memory array region of the semiconductor substrate. Each of the trenches includes a trench top layer that extrudes from a main surface of the semiconductor substrate. Asymmetric poly spacer is formed on one side of the extruding trench top layer and is used, after oxidized, as a mask for forming a recess in close proximity to the trenches.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to method of fabricating an electrical device and, more particularly, to a method for fabricating gate trench for a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor device. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    With the continuing shrinkage of device feature size, the so-called short channel effect (SCE) due to shrunk gate channel length has been found that it can hinder the integrity of integrated circuit chips. Many efforts have been made for solving this problem, for example, by reducing the thickness of the gate oxide dielectric or by increasing the doping concentration of source/drain. However, these approaches adversely affect the device reliability and speed of data transfer on the other hand, and are thus impractical. 
         [0005]    A newly developed recessed-gate MOS transistor becomes most promising. In the filed of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), the recessed-gate technology may be used to improve the integrity of the memory chip. Typically, the recess-gate MOS transistor has a gate insulation layer formed on sidewalls and bottom surface of a recess formed in a substrate, a conductive filling the recess, contrary to a planar gate type transistor having a gate electrode formed on a planar surface of a substrate. 
         [0006]    However, the aforesaid recess-gate MOS transistor has some shortcomings. For example, the recess for accommodating the gate of the MOS transistor is formed in a semiconductor wafer by using conventional dry etching methods. It is difficult to forming the recesses having the same depth across the wafer that a threshold voltage control problem arises. Further, as the width of the recess shrinks, the channel length is reduced, resulting in short channel effect. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]    It is one object of this invention to provide a method of fabricating a self-aligned gate trench for recess-gate MOS transistor devices in order to solve the above-mentioned problems. 
         [0008]    According to the claimed invention, a method of fabricating self-aligned gate trench utilizing asymmetric spacer is disclosed. A semiconductor substrate having a main surface is provided. A pad oxide layer and a pad nitride layer are formed on the main surface. Deep trench capacitors are formed in the semiconductor substrate. Each of the deep trench capacitors has a trench top layer extruding from the main surface. The pad nitride layer is stripped off to expose the pad oxide layer and the trench top layer. A conformal liner layer is deposited on the semiconductor substrate. The liner layer covers the pad oxide layer and the trench top layer. A polysilicon layer is deposited on the liner layer. The polysilicon layer is anisotropically etched to form a polysilicon spacer on sidewall of the trench top layer. A tilt-angle ion implatation is performed to implant dopants into the polysilicon spacer at one side of the trench top layer. The polysilicon spacer at the other side of the trench top layer not ion implanted is selectively removed, thereby forming a single-side polysilicon spacer. The single-side polysilicon spacer is oxidized to form a silicon oxide spacer. Using the silicon oxide spacer as an etching hard mask and etching the liner layer, the pad oxide layer and the semiconductor substrate to form a gate trench therein. 
         [0009]    These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0010]    The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: 
           [0011]      FIGS. 1-7  are schematic, cross-sectional diagrams illustrating a self-aligned method of fabricating a recess utilizing asymmetric spacer for recess-gate MOS transistor devices in accordance with one preferred embodiment of this invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0012]      FIGS.1 -7  are schematic, cross-sectional diagrams illustrating a self-aligned method of fabricating a recess utilizing asymmetric spacer for recess-gate MOS transistor devices in accordance with one preferred embodiment of this invention. As shown in  FIG. 1 , a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate  10 , more particularly is a silicon substrate, silicon epitaxital substrate or Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) substrate is provided. A first pad layer  12  is then deposited on or over the semiconductor substrate  10  such as oxide layer. A second pad layer  14  is then deposited on the first pad layer  12  as a mask is provided such as nitride layer. A trench structure such as deep trench capacitors  20   a  and  20   b  are formed in deep trench  22   a  and deep trench  22   b,  respectively, within a memory array area  100  of the semiconductor substrate  10 . 
         [0013]    The deep trench capacitor  20   a  comprises a sidewall oxide dielectric layer  24 a and a doped polysilicon  26 a. The deep trench capacitor  20   b  comprises a sidewall oxide dielectric layer  24   b  and a doped polysilicon  26   b.  The doped polysilicon  26   a  and the doped polysilicon  26   b  function as one capacitor electrode of the deep trench capacitors  20   a  and  20   b , respectively. 
         [0014]    For the sake of simplicity, only an upper portion of the deep trench capacitors  20   a  and  20   b  are shown in figures. It is understood that the deep trench capacitors  20   a  and  20   b  further comprises a buried plate acting as the other capacitor electrode, which is not shown. 
         [0015]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , a so-called Single-Sided Buried Strap (SSBS) process is carried out to form single-sided buried strap  28   a  and  28   b  in the upper portion of the deep trench capacitors  20   a  and  20   b  respectively. Subsequently, a Trench Top isolation Layer such as a Trench Top Oxide (TTO) layers  30   a  and  30   b  are formed to cap the single-sided buried strap  28   a  and  28   b  respectively. The TTO layers  30   a  and  30   b  extrude from a main surface of the semiconductor substrate  10 . 
         [0016]    The aforesaid SSBS process generally comprises the steps of etching back the sidewall oxide dielectric layer and the doped polysilicon (or so-called Poly-2)  26   a  and  26   b  to a first depth; refilling the recess with another layer of polysilicon (or so-called Poly-3); etching back the Poly-3 to a second depth; forming an asymmetric spacer on interior sidewall of the recess; etching away the Poly-3 and Poly-2 that are not covered by the asymmetric spacer; filling the recess with TTO insulation layer; and chemical mechanical polishing the TTO insulation layer. 
         [0017]    As shown in  FIG. 3 , after the formation of the SSBS  28   a  and  28   b , the pad nitride layer  14  is stripped off by using methods known in the art, for example, wet etching solution such as heated phosphorus acid dipping, but not limited thereto. 
         [0018]    A Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process such as a Low-Pressure CVD (LPCVD) or Plasma-Enhanced CVD (PECVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) is carried out to deposit a first liner layer could be as an isolation layer or a etch stop layer or a semiconductor layer such as silicon-oxy-nitride, alumina, polysilicon layer, silicon nitride, more particularly, silicon nitride liner  42  over or on the semiconductor substrate  10 . According to the preferred embodiment of this invention, the silicon nitride liner  42  has thickness of about 50-500 angstroms, preferably 100-300 angstroms. 
         [0019]    Another CVD process such as a LPCVD or PECVD or ALD is carried out to deposit a second liner layer that including silicon therein such as polysilicon layer  44  over or on the silicon nitride liner  42 . According to the preferred embodiment of this invention, the polysilicon layer  44  has thickness of about 50-500 angstroms, preferably 100-200 angstroms. 
         [0020]    As shown in  FIG. 4 , an anisotropic dry etching process is then carried out to etch the polysilicon layer  44 , thereby forming a structure of spacer, such as polysilicon spacer  44   a  encircling sidewall of the extruding TTO layers  30   a  and  30   b.  A drive-in treatment such as a tilt-angle ion implantation process  50  is performed to implant dopants such as BF 2  into the polysilicon spacer  44   a  adjacent to one side of the TTO layers  30   a  and  30   b.    
         [0021]    As shown in  FIG. 5 , the polysilicon spacer  44   a  is selectively etched. The polysilicon spacer  44   a  that is not doped with BF2 is removed from the sidewall of the TTO layers  30   a  and  30   b , thereby forming an asymmetric spacer structure, such as single-sided polysilicon spacer  44   b.  It is noted that the formation of the single-sided polysilicon spacer  44   b  should not limited to the method disclosed in the preferred embodiment. The selective etching of the polysilicon spacer  44   a  may be accomplished by implanting dopants other than BF 2 . 
         [0022]    As shown in  FIG. 6 , an oxidation process is performed to oxidize the single-sided polysilicon spacer  44   b,  thereby forming a single-sided silicon oxide spacer  54 . The volume of the spacer expands after oxidation. The volume expansion ratio from polysilicon to oxide is about 1.4 to 1.8. 
         [0023]    As shown in  FIG. 7 , an anisotropic dry etching process is carried out. Using the single-sided silicon oxide spacer  54  as an etching hard mask and etching the exposed silicon nitride liner  42  to form a silicon nitride spacer  42   a  on sidewall of the TTO layers  30   a  and  30   b.  Thereafter, the pad oxide layer  12  and the semiconductor substrate  10  are etched to a predetermined depth in a self-aligned manner, thereby forming a recess  60 . 
         [0024]    As specifically indicated in  FIG. 7 , a distance D 1  that including distance of the single-sided silicon oxide spacer  54  and the remainder silicon nitride liner  42  between the edge of the recess  60  and the edge of the TTO layer  30   a  is greater than a distance D 2  that including distance of the silicon nitride spacer  42   a  between the edge of the recess  60  and the TTO layer  30   b  because of the asymmetric spacer structure. But the distance D 2  isn&#39;t small than 10 nm. By providing this feature, the process window for forming the source contact plug between the TTO layer  30   a  and the recess  60  is increased. 
         [0025]    Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.