Abstract:
A semiconductor integrated circuit according to the present invention, comprising: a buried insulation film formed in a substrate; a first metal layer formed on a top face of the buried insulation film; a vertical transistor having a channel body formed above the first metal layer and in a vertical direction of the substrate; and a gate formed by sandwiching the channel body from both sides in a horizontal direction of the substrate, or surrounding periphery of the channel body.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
         [0001]    This application claims benefit of priority under 35USC§119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-188539, filed on Jun. 30, 2003, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to a semiconductor storage device and a semiconductor integrated circuit each having a vertical transistor.  
           [0004]    2. Related Art  
           [0005]    It is concerned that as a DRAM cell constructed by a conventional one transistor and one capacitor having a trench capacitor or a stacked capacitor is becoming smaller, it becomes difficult to fabricate the DRAM cell. As a memory cell which can replace the DRAM cell of this kind, a new memory cell, an FBC, for storing information by accumulating majority carriers in a floating body of an FET formed on a silicon on insulator (SOI) or the like has been proposed (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-68877 and 2002-246571).  
           [0006]    As a technique of forming an FBC on a normal bulk silicon wafer without using an SOI wafer, a technique using a transistor (SGT) in which a silicon pillar is surrounded by a gate has been proposed. In the FBC of this kind, the height direction of the silicon pillar corresponds to length L of a channel. Even when the cell is formed finer, the length L can be made longer than that of a plane transistor. There is consequently an advantage such that a relatively thick gate insulating film can be used. In addition, a relatively high body impurity concentration can be set, so that the technique also has advantages such as an increased signal amount and longer data holding time.  
           [0007]    The conventional FBC, however, has a drawback such that operation tends to become unstable due to high parasite resistance of a source, and the FBC is subjected to disturbance of “1” by a parasitic bipolar device.  
           [0008]    The phenomenon that “operation becomes unstable due to parasitic resistance” is described as follows. At the time of writing “1”, a transistor is operated in a pentode region. For example, when a word line is operated with 1.5V and a bit line is operated also with 1.5V, Vgs of 1.5V and Vds of 1.5V are applied. Under such conditions, a drain current Ids of about 15 μA flows. Therefore, when a source resistance is about 10 KΩ or higher, a voltage drop of about 150 mV or larger occurs. Although the user intends to apply Vds of 1.5V, substantially, about 1.35V or less is applied on the FBC transistor. A hole generation current due to impact ionization decreases and the speed of writing “1” deteriorates very much.  
           [0009]    On the other hand, at the time of writing “0”, when a word line is operated with 1.5V and a bit line is operated with −1.5V, Vgs of 3V and Vds of 1.5V are applied. Under the conditions, the drain current of about 50 μA flows. Therefore, when resistance of a source is about 10 KΩ or higher, a voltage drop of about 500 mV or higher occurs. Even when the voltage of the bit line is decreased to −1.5V, about −1V or higher is applied to the FBC transistor. Therefore, since the level of writing “0” is too high, only insufficient data “0” can be written.  
           [0010]    [0010]FIG. 22 is a cross section view of a conventional semiconductor storage device having an FBC which is consisted of a vertical transistor. An FBC  70  in FIG. 22 has an N-type diffusion layer  73  disposed via a source face  72  on a silicon wafer  71 , a silicon pillar  74  formed on the top face of the N-type diffusion layer  73 , and an N-type diffusion layer  75  formed on the top face of the silicon pillar  74 .  
           [0011]    Cells A and B in FIG. 22 share a bit line  76  made of a metal material. On the right and left sides of the silicon pillar  74  of the FBC  70 , gates made of polysilicon are formed. One of the gates is connected to a word line  77  and the other gate is connected to a plate line  78 .  
           [0012]    Since the plate line  78  is set to a minus potential and the silicon pillar  74  of the FBC  70  is formed of a P-type diffusion layer, the interface between the plate line  78  and the silicon pillar  74  is in a hole accumulation state and a predetermined capacity is assured.  
           [0013]    It is assumed here that, in the initial state, both of cells A and B are in a “0” state, that is, in a state where the number of holes is small. A situation of writing data “1” into the cell A in this state will be considered. In the situation, the voltage of the word line  77  belonging to the cell A (left word line  77 ) is increased to 1.5V and the voltage of the bit line is also increased to 1.5V.  
           [0014]    In such a state, the cell A operates in the pentode region, electron-hole pairs are generated from a pinch-off point near the drain, and the holes start to be accumulated in the body. Accordingly, the body potential starts rising. When the body potential is raised to a turn-on voltage Vf of a PN junction, as shown in FIG. 23, a current in the PN junction increases, and a part of the holes generated in the body flow out toward the N-type diffusion layer  73  of the source.  
           [0015]    Although the ratio of the holes which flow to the N-type diffusion layer  73 , re-combine with the electrons and disappear is high, there is probability that a part of the holes is not recombined but is diffused into the diffusion layer  72 , passes under the adjacent cell B, and enters the body of the cell B of low potential. It means that, in such a situation, the cell B in which data of “0” is originally written (specifically, a storage state as a state where the number of holes in the body of the cell B is small is held) changes to the state of “1”.  
           [0016]    Therefore, when an event of continuously writing “1” into the cell A for a long time, or an event of writing “1” a number of times though each writing period is short occurs, an inconvenience such that the cell B is changed to “1” arises. This inconvenience is disturbance of “1”. In other words, when “1” is written into a cell by the operation of a parasitic PNP bipolar in which the body of the cell A is an emitter, the body of the cell B is a collector, and the diffusion layer  72  between the cells A and B serves as a base, an inconvenience such that a neighboring “0” cell is changed to a “1” cell occurs.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0017]    A semiconductor integrated circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising:  
           [0018]    a buried insulation film formed in a substrate;  
           [0019]    a first metal layer formed on a top face of said buried insulation film;  
           [0020]    a vertical transistor having a channel body formed above said first metal layer and in a vertical direction of the substrate; and a gate formed by sandwiching said channel body from both sides in a horizontal direction of the substrate, or surrounding periphery of said channel body.  
           [0021]    Furthermore, a semiconductor storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising:  
           [0022]    a buried insulation film formed in a substrate;  
           [0023]    an FBC (Floating Body Cell) having a channel body which extends in a vertical direction of the substrate and a gate formed to sandwich said channel body from both sides in a horizontal direction of the substrate, which is formed above said buried insulation film and stores information by accumulating a majority carrier into said channel body; and  
           [0024]    a first metal layer formed between said buried insulation film and said FBC.  
         BRIEF DESCRIPITON OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a first embodiment of a semiconductor storage device according to the invention.  
           [0026]    [0026]FIG. 2 is a cross section taken along line A-A of FIG. 1.  
           [0027]    [0027]FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of FIG. 1.  
           [0028]    [0028]FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a state where the channel body is elongated in a channel width direction of a vertical transistor.  
           [0029]    [0029]FIG. 5 is a cross section of a junction portion between an FBC array region  11  in which FBCs  2  are formed in an array and a peripheral circuit region  12  in which a peripheral circuit is formed.  
           [0030]    [0030]FIG. 6 is a process drawing showing a process of fabricating the semiconductor storage device of the embodiment.  
           [0031]    [0031]FIG. 7 is a process drawing following from FIG. 6.  
           [0032]    [0032]FIG. 8 is a process drawing following from FIG. 7.  
           [0033]    [0033]FIG. 9 is a process drawing following from FIG. 8.  
           [0034]    [0034]FIG. 10 is a process drawing following from FIG. 9.  
           [0035]    [0035]FIG. 11 is a process drawing following from FIG. 10.  
           [0036]    [0036]FIG. 12 is a process drawing following from FIG. 11.  
           [0037]    [0037]FIG. 13 is a process drawing following from FIG. 12.  
           [0038]    [0038]FIG. 14 is a cross section showing a second embodiment of a semiconductor storage device according to the invention.  
           [0039]    [0039]FIG. 15 is a cross section in which a metal layer  4  is disposed between an NFET  14  and a buried oxide film  3  and the metal layer  4  is disposed between a PFET  13  and the buried oxide film  3 .  
           [0040]    [0040]FIG. 16 is a cross section showing a third embodiment of a semiconductor storage device according to the invention.  
           [0041]    [0041]FIG. 17 is a cross section showing a case where a peripheral circuit is constructed by a vertical transistor.  
           [0042]    [0042]FIG. 18 is a plan view of an embodiment of the semiconductor integrated circuit.  
           [0043]    [0043]FIG. 19 is a plan view showing a case where a CMOS-NAND circuit having two inputs is realized by a vertical transistor.  
           [0044]    [0044]FIG. 20 is a plan view showing a sixth embodiment of a semiconductor storage device according to the invention.  
           [0045]    [0045]FIG. 21 is a cross section taken along line A-A of FIG. 20.  
           [0046]    [0046]FIG. 22 is a cross section of a conventional semiconductor storage device having an FBC constructed by a vertical transistor.  
           [0047]    [0047]FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a state where holes are accumulated in the structure of FIG. 22. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0048]    A semiconductor storage device and a semiconductor integrated circuit according to the invention will be concretely described hereinbelow with reference to the drawings.  
         [0049]    (First Embodiment)  
         [0050]    [0050]FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a first embodiment of a semiconductor storage device according to the invention. FIG. 2 is a cross section view taken along line A-A of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of FIG. 1. A broken-line portion in FIG. 1 shows the configuration of one bit.  
         [0051]    The semiconductor storage device of the embodiment is obtained by arranging FBCs  2  including vertical transistors in a matrix on an SOI wafer  1  and is characterized in that a metal layer  4  is formed between a buried oxide film  3  of the SOI wafer  1  and the FBC  2 .  
         [0052]    The vertical transistor of the FBC  2  has a channel body including an N-diffusion layer  5 , a P-diffusion layer  6  and an N-diffusion layer  7  which are stacked in the vertical direction of the wafer and gates made of polysilicon which are formed on the right and left sides of the channel body. One of the gates are connected to a word line  8  and another thereof are connected to a plate line  9 . The word line  8  is used to form a channel. A negative potential is applied to the plate line  9 , thereby accumulating holes in the channel body and forming a capacitance.  
         [0053]    Between the under faces of the FBC  2 , the word line  8  and the plate line  9  and the buried oxide film  3 , the above-described metal layer  4  (source plane) is formed. On the top faces of the FBC  2 , word line  8 , and plate line  9 , a bit line  10  is disposed. A plurality of bit lines  10  are provided at predetermined intervals as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.  
         [0054]    The channel body may be extended in the channel width direction of the vertical transistor as shown in FIG. 4, thereby increasing a read current and realizing high-speed reading. To increase the channel length, it is sufficient to increase the height of the channel body.  
         [0055]    In the first embodiment, the metal layer  4  is disposed on the under faces of the FBC  2 , word line  8 , and plate line  9 , so that resistance of the source plane of the FBC  2  can be sufficiently decreased. Therefore, the drawback as a problem of the conventional technique such that operation becomes unstable due to parasitic resistance can be solved with reliability. Since the metal layer  4  exists between neighboring cells, holes released from the cells into the N-diffusion layer  7  are easily recombined with electrons in the metal layer  4 . There is consequently no possibility that holes reach the N-diffusion layer  7  in the adjacent cell. Thus, the problem such that the FBC is subjected to disturbance of “1” by a parasitic bipolar device can be perfectly avoided.  
         [0056]    [0056]FIG. 5 is a cross section view of a junction portion between an FBC array region  11  in which the FBCs  2  are formed in an array and a peripheral circuit region  12  in which peripheral circuits are formed. The peripheral circuit region  12  in which a P-type MOSFET (hereinbelow, PFET)  13  and an N-type MOSFET (hereinbelow, NFET)  14  are isolated from each other by an insulation film is formed on the buried oxide film  3  of the SOI wafer  1 . Each of the PFET  13  and the NFET  14  is not a vertical transistor but a lateral plane transistor. The gates of the PFET  13  and NFET  14  are made of polysilicon, the source and drain regions of the NFET  14  are formed by an N diffusion layer  15 , and the source and drain regions of the PFET  13  are formed by a P diffusion layer  16 .  
         [0057]    The metal layer  4  does not exist between the peripheral circuits and the buried oxide film  3 . The height of the gate in the peripheral circuit region  12  is lower than that of the polysilicon region of the word line  8  and the plate line  9  in the FBC array region  11 .  
         [0058]    With the configuration, the source and drain of the plane transistor can be formed in the peripheral circuit region  12  without electrically short-circuiting the source and drain. The bit line  10  in the FBC array region  11  can be extended on the peripheral circuit region  12  without changing the height. The peripheral circuit region  12  can use the bit line  10  as a wiring region.  
         [0059]    FIGS.  6  to  13  are process drawings each showing a fabricating process of the semiconductor storage device of the embodiment, which is formed by using two wafers  21  and  23 . First, as shown in FIG. 6, hydrogen ions are implanted into the wafer  21 . After that, as shown in FIG. 7, the metal  4  is deposited on the surface and patterned by using a mask. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 8, a thick oxide film  22  is deposited. As shown in FIG. 9, the surface is planarized.  
         [0060]    On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 10, the oxide film  3  is deposited on the surface of the wafer  23 . As shown in FIG. 11, the wafer  21  is bonded to the wafer  23  in such a manner that the oxide films  3  and  22  face each other. The silicon in an upper portion from the face in which hydrogen ions were implanted is removed and the surface of the remaining silicon is polished as shown in FIG. 12. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 13, a region in which the metal  4  is not deposited, that is, the peripheral circuit region  12  is etched and removed by using a mask.  
         [0061]    The method of removing silicon from the face in which hydrogen ions are implanted is well known as a smart-cut process (J-P Colinge: “Silicon-On-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI”, 2nd Edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, P. 50, 1997).  
         [0062]    As described above, in the first embodiment, the metal layer  4  is formed between the FBC  2  and the buried oxide film  3 , so that the parasitic resistance of the source can be reduced and the FBC  2  having excellent characteristics, which is not influenced by disturbance of “1” by a parasitic bipolar device can be obtained.  
         [0063]    (Second Embodiment)  
         [0064]    A second embodiment relates to a structure of the case where a silicon film in which channel, source, and drain regions of a peripheral circuit are formed is thick.  
         [0065]    [0065]FIG. 14 is a cross section showing a second embodiment of a semiconductor storage device according to the invention. In the semiconductor storage device of FIG. 14, a P-well region  31  of the NFET  14  and an N-well region  32  of the PFET  13  in the peripheral circuit region  12  are thicker than those in FIG. 5. In this case as well, the metal layer  4  is provided only in the lower portion of the FBC array region  11 . Between the P-well region  31  and the N-well region  32 , an STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) region  33  is provided.  
         [0066]    Alternately, as shown in FIG. 15, the metal layer  4  may be disposed between the NFET  14  and the buried oxide film  3 , and the metal layer  4  may be also disposed between the PEFT  13  and the buried oxide film  3 . With the configuration, resistance to latch-up of a CMOS as a component of a peripheral circuit is improved.  
         [0067]    (Third Embodiment)  
         [0068]    A third embodiment relates to a structure of a case where an N-well region of the PFET  13  in the peripheral circuit is shallow.  
         [0069]    [0069]FIG. 16 is a cross section showing the third embodiment of the semiconductor storage device according to the invention. In the semiconductor storage device of FIG. 16, the P-well region  31  in the NFET  14  extends below the N-well region  32  in the PFET  13 .  
         [0070]    In this case, it is unnecessary to pattern the metal layer  4  on the top face of the buried oxide film  3 . The metal layer  4  may be extended to the peripheral circuit region  12 .  
         [0071]    With the configuration, the fabrication process is simplified, the SOI wafer  1  in which the metal layer  4  is buried in advance can be easily purchased from a material manufacturer, so that the material cost can be suppressed.  
         [0072]    (Fourth Embodiment)  
         [0073]    Although an example of forming the NEFT  14  and the PFET  13  in the peripheral circuit region  12  of plane transistors has been described in the foregoing first to third embodiments, each of the NFET  14  and the PFET  13  may be formed of a vertical transistor. A sectional structure in this case is as shown in FIG. 17.  
         [0074]    In FIG. 17, the metal layer  4  formed on the top face of the buried oxide film  3  in the FBC array region  11  is isolated by the insulation film and is also disposed in the peripheral circuit region  12 . In the peripheral circuit region  12 , the metal layer  4  is used as a GND line of the NFET  14  and a power source line of the PEFT  13 .  
         [0075]    The metal layer  4  can be also used as an intermediate node of a stacked transistor or a node of a transfer gate, i.e. wires other than a GND and a power supply line.  
         [0076]    The NEFT  14  in FIG. 17 is formed of an N-diffusion layer  43 , a channel body  44 , and an N-diffusion layer  45  which are stacked in the vertical direction of the wafer. Similarly, the PFET  13  is formed of a P-diffusion layer  46 , a channel body  47 , and a P-diffusion layer  48  which are stacked in the vertical direction of the wafer. The N-diffusion layer  43  and the P-diffusion layer  46  in the upper part of the NFET  14  and the PEFT  13  are in contact with the bit line  10 , and the N-diffusion layer  45  and P-diffusion layer  48  in the lower part of the NFET  14  and PFET  13  are in contact with the metal layer  4 . For the NFET  14  and PFET  13 , gates  49  made of polysilicon are disposed. The NFET  14  and PFET  13  are surrounded by the gates  49 .  
         [0077]    By forming the peripheral circuit by the vertical transistors, the peripheral circuit can be formed by the same process as that of the FBC  2 . Thus, the fabrication process can be simplified.  
         [0078]    (Fifth Embodiment)  
         [0079]    In a fifth embodiment, a CMOS circuit having the NFET  14  and PFET  13  is formed of vertical transistors.  
         [0080]    [0080]FIG. 18 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a semiconductor integrated circuit. A CMOS transistor having the NEFT  14  and PFET  13  is formed of a vertical transistor. In the example of FIG. 18, the NFET  14  uses the metal layer  4  on the buried oxide film  3  as a GND line and the PFET  13  uses it as a power source line Vcc. As an input line and an output line of the peripheral circuit region  12 , a wiring layer of the same height as that of the bit line  10  in the FBC  2  region is used.  
         [0081]    As the gates of the NFET  14  and PFET  13 , as shown in FIG. 18, a polysilicon layer  50  is shared by the NFET  14  and PFET  13 . The polysilicon layer  50  surrounds the NFET  14  and PFET  13 . Although not shown in FIG. 18, the potential of the metal layer  4  is set by a contact extending upward from the metal layer  4 .  
         [0082]    As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, the metal layer  4 , polysilicon layer  50 , and bit line  10  can be shared by the peripheral circuit region  12 , so that the embodiment is effective as a general wiring technique of a vertical transistor irrespective of the presence or absence of the FBC  2 .  
         [0083]    [0083]FIG. 19 is a plan view of a case where a CMOS-NAND circuit having two inputs is realized by using vertical transistors. The circuit of FIG. 19 has gate electrodes  61  and  66 , the power source line Vcc, the GND line, input lines in 1  and in 2 , an output line OUT, a channel body  62  of the NFET  14  and PFET  13 , a contact  63  for connecting the input line to the gate, a contact  64  for connecting the channel body  62  to the output line, and a through hole  65  for connecting wirings on the top face and the under face of the silicon layer.  
         [0084]    As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, the CMOS circuit can be formed of the channel body  62  of the NFET  14  and the PFET  13 , the gate electrode  61  and  66  insulated by the gate insulation film surrounding the channel body  62 , the wiring layers Vcc and GND on the under face side of the channel body  62 , and the wiring layer on the top face side of the channel body  62 , so that the structure can be simplified.  
         [0085]    (Sixth Embodiment)  
         [0086]    In a sixth embodiment, in addition to the word line  8 , a back-side word line is provided.  
         [0087]    [0087]FIG. 20 is a plan view showing the sixth embodiment of the semiconductor storage device according to the invention. FIG. 21 is a cross section view taken along line A-A of FIG. 20. A broken line of FIG. 20 shows the configuration of one bit.  
         [0088]    The semiconductor storage device of FIG. 21 has a back-side word line  8   a  in place of the plate line  9  in FIG. 2. On both sides of the channel body of the FBC  2 , the word line  8  and the back-side word line  8   a  are disposed. That is, the channel body of the FBC  2  is sandwiched with the word line  8  and the back-side word line  8   a.    
         [0089]    The amplitude of the word line  8  lies in a range, for example, from −0.5V (at the time of data holding) to 1.5V (at the time of writing and reading). On the other hand, the amplitude of the back-side word line  8   a  lies in a range, for example, from −1.5V (at the time of data holding) to 0.5V (at the time of writing and reading). As described above, the amplitude of the back-side word line  8   a  is set to be lower than the amplitude of the word line  8  only by an amount of the offset voltage.  
         [0090]    Alternately, the type of an impurity implanted in the polysilicon of the word line  8  is the N type, the type of an impurity implanted in the polysilicon of the back-side word line  8   a  is the P type, and the back-side word line  8   a  may be driven with the same amplitude as that of the word line  8 , which lies in the range from −0.5V (at the time of data holding) to 1.5V (at the time of writing/reading) without the offset.  
         [0091]    When the polysilicon is made to the P type by ion implantation, by the difference (about 1V) between the work function of the P-type silicon and the work function of the N-type silicon, the threshold voltage by the back-side word line  8   a  becomes higher than the threshold voltage by the word line  8  by about 1V. With the configuration, substantially the same effects as those in the case where an offset of −1V is provided can be obtained. The word line  8  and the back-side word line  8   a  operate with the same phase and the same amplitude.  
         [0092]    The technique of providing the back-side word line  8   a  has already been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-86712). By such a series of techniques, the channel body of the FBC  2  can be coupled to the back-side word line  8   a  with the almost same linear capacitance, and the level at the holding time of the word line  8  can be set to be shallow.  
         [0093]    Thus, the invention is advantageous to situations such as deterioration in the gate insulator breakdown voltage and in retention time by GIDL. The structure of the peripheral circuit can be variously modified in a manner similar to the first embodiment.