Patent ID: 8921183

Claim:
A method for fabricating a trench isolation structure, comprising: forming, on a substrate, a pad oxide layer, and a patterned hard mask layer disposed on the pad oxide layer and having therein a pattern of a trench; forming the trench in the substrate using the patterned hard mask layer as a mask, wherein the trench has an aspect ratio larger than 6; forming a liner layer in the trench and on the patterned hard mask layer over the substrate; then forming, in presence of the patterned hard mask layer, a silicon layer on sidewalls and a bottom of the trench and also over the patterned hard mask layer, wherein the silicon layer does not fill up the trench; then converting only the silicon layer to an insulating layer that has a larger volume than the layer and completely fills up the trench without a void, by oxidizing the silicon layer using a furnace oxidation step, wherein the liner layer is capable of preventing portions of the substrate around the trench from being affected by the oxidation; then removing portions of the insulating layer over the substrate by CMP; and removing portions of the liner layer outside of the trench, the patterned hard mask layer on the pad oxide layer and the pad oxide layer by wet etching, while portions of the insulating layer are also removed.