Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a semiconductor device and fabrication method thereof, and more particularly, to an approach of fabricating fin-shaped structure on NMOS region having top portion composed of silicon and bottom portion composed of silicon germanium and fin-shaped structure on PMOS region having top portion composed of silicon germanium and bottom portion composed of silicon. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     With the trend in the industry being towards scaling down the size of the metal oxide semiconductor transistors (MOS), three-dimensional or non-planar transistor technology, such as fin field effect transistor technology (FinFET) has been developed to replace planar MOS transistors. Since the three-dimensional structure of a FinFET increases the overlapping area between the gate and the fin-shaped structure of the silicon substrate, the channel region can therefore be more effectively controlled. This way, the drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect and the short channel effect are reduced. The channel region is also longer for an equivalent gate length, thus the current between the source and the drain is increased. In addition, the threshold voltage of the fin FET can be controlled by adjusting the work function of the gate. 
     However, the overall architecture of fin-shaped structure still poses numerous problems in current FinFET fabrication, which not only affects the carrier mobility in the channel region but also influences overall performance of the device. Hence, how to improve the current FinFET process has become an important task in this field. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for fabricating semiconductor device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a substrate having at least one fin-shaped structure thereon, wherein the fin-shaped structure comprises a top portion and a bottom portion; removing part of the bottom portion of the fin-shaped structure; forming an epitaxial layer on the substrate to surround the bottom portion of the fin-shaped structure; transforming the bottom portion of the fin-shaped structure into the epitaxial layer; and removing part of the epitaxial layer. 
     According to another aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor device is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a substrate having a NMOS region and a PMOS region thereon; a first fin-shaped structure on the NMOS region of the substrate, and a second fin-shaped structure on the PMOS region of the substrate. Preferably, the top portion and bottom portion of the first fin-shaped structure are composed of different material, and the top portion and bottom portion of the second fin-shaped structure are also composed of different material. 
     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 
         FIGS. 1-7  illustrate a method for fabricating semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 8-14  illustrate a method for fabricating a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-7 ,  FIGS. 1-7  illustrate a method for fabricating semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 1 , a substrate  12 , such as a silicon substrate is provided, and at least a transistor region, such as a NMOS region is defined on the substrate  12 . In addition, at least a fin-shaped structure  14  and a hard mask  16  thereon is formed on the substrate  12 , and an insulating layer (not shown) composed of silicon oxide is formed to surround the fin-shaped structure  14  and hard mask  16 , in which the top surface of the insulating layer is preferably even with the top surface of the hard mask  16 . It should be noted that even though three fin-shaped structures  14  are disclosed in this embodiment, the quantity of the fin-shaped structures  14  is not limited to three. 
     The formation of the fin-shaped structures  14  could be accomplished by first forming a patterned mask (now shown) on the substrate,  12 , and an etching process is performed to transfer the pattern of the patterned mask to the substrate  12 . Next, depending on the structural difference of a tri-gate transistor or dual-gate fin-shaped transistor being fabricated, the patterned mask could be stripped selectively or retained, and deposition, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), and etching back processes are carried out to form an insulating layer surrounding the bottom of the fin-shaped structure  14 . Alternatively, the formation of the fin-shaped structure  14  could also be accomplished by first forming a patterned hard mask (not shown) on the substrate  12 , and then performing an epitaxial process on the exposed substrate  12  through the patterned hard mask to grow a semiconductor layer. This semiconductor layer could then be used as the corresponding fin-shaped structure  14 . In another fashion, the patterned hard mask could be removed selectively or retained, and deposition, CMP, and then etching back could be used to form an insulating layer to surround the bottom of the fin-shaped structure  14 . 
     In this embodiment, each of the fin-shaped structures  14  includes a top portion  18  and a bottom portion  20 , in which the top portion  18  and the bottom portion  20  preferably share substantially same height and divide the fin-shaped structures  14  into upper and lower portions evenly. Next, an etching back process is conducted by using the hard masks  16  as etching mask to remove part of the insulating layer so that the remaining insulating layer only surrounds the bottom portion  20  of the fin-shaped structures  14 , or the top surface of the insulating layer being coplanar to the intersecting point of the top portion  18  and bottom portion  20  of the fin-shaped structures  14 . This forms a shallow trench isolation (STI)  22  around the fin-shaped structures  14 . 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 2 , spacers  24  are formed on the hard masks  16  and sidewalls of the top portions  18  of fin-shaped structures  14 . The formation of the spacers  24  could be accomplished by first covering a dielectric material composed of silicon nitride on the hard mask  16 , fin-shaped structures  14 , and STI  22 , and then performing an etching back process to remove part of the dielectric material to form the spacers  24 . In this embodiment, the spacers  24  and the hard masks  16  are preferably composed of same material such as both being composed of silicon nitride. Nevertheless, it would also be desirable to use different material for forming the spacers  24  and hard masks  16  individually, which is also within the scope of the present invention. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 3 , an etching process is conducted to remove the STI  22  to expose the bottom portions  20  of the fin-shaped structures  14 , and another dry etching or wet etching process, such as isotropic etching or lateral etching is conducted by using the spacers  24  as mask to remove part of the bottom portions  20  of the fin-shaped structures  14  so that the width of each top portion  18  is greater than the width of each bottom portion  20 . In this embodiment, the width of each bottom portion  20  of fin-shaped structures  14  being removed is at least greater than half the width of each top portion  18 , but not limited thereto. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 4 , a selective epitaxial growth process is conducted to form an epitaxial layer  26  on the substrate  12  and surround the bottom portions  20  of fin-shaped structures  14 . The epitaxial layer  26  is preferably composed of silicon germanium or silicon containing dopants therein, in which the dopants are preferably p-type dopants so that the layer could be serving as an anti-punch-through layer to prevent leakage for the NMOS transistor. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 5 , a thermal treatment, such as a thermal anneal process is conducted by using a temperature greater than 800° C. to transform the bottom portions  20  of fin-shaped structures  14  into epitaxial layer  26 , in which the bottom portions  20  originally composed of pure silicon are preferably transformed into epitaxial layer  26  composed silicon germanium completely through the aforementioned thermal treatment. In other words, the bottom portions  20  of fin-shaped structures  14  are preferably merged with surrounding epitaxial layer  26  after the thermal treatment to form a structure having top portions  18  composed of pure silicon sitting on epitaxial layer  26  composed of silicon germanium. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 6 , an anisotropic etching process is conducted by using the spacers  24  as mask to remove part of the epitaxial layer  26  so that the remaining epitaxial layer  26  and top portions  18  of fin-shaped structures  14  would form a pillar-shaped structure altogether and expose part of the substrate  12  surface. It should be noted that as the epitaxial layer  26  are removed against the sidewall of the spacers  24 , the width of each remaining epitaxial layer  26  or each bottom portion  20  of fin-shaped structures  14  is preferably greater than the width of each top portion  18 , in which the width difference between portions  18  and  20  is substantially equal to the width of a spacer  24 . 
     After removing the spacers  24 , as shown in  FIG. 7 , an insulating layer (not shown) is deposited on the substrate  12  to surround the fin-shaped structures  14 , in which the insulating layer is preferably composed of silicon oxide, but not limited thereto. A planarizing process such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is then conducted to remove part of the insulating layer and the hard mask  16  so that the remaining insulating layer surface and the fin-shaped structures  14  surface are coplanar. Next, an etching back is carried out to remove part of the insulating layer so that the remaining insulating layer only surrounds the bottom portion  20  of fin-shaped structures  14  or that the remaining insulating layer surface is substantially aligned with the intersecting point between top portion  18  and bottom portion  20  for forming a STI  28 . Formation of transistor elements including gate structure, spacer, and source/drain region could be carried out thereafter depending on the demand of the process and the details of which are not explained herein for the sake of brevity. This completes the fabrication of a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 8-14 ,  FIG. 8-14  illustrate a method for fabricating a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 8 , a substrate  32 , such as a silicon substrate is first provided, and a NMOS region  34  and a PMOS region  36  are defined on the substrate  32 . A plurality of fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  are formed on NMOS region  32  and PMOS region  34  respectively, a hard mask  42  is disposed on each of the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40 , and an insulating layer  50  composed of silicon oxide is formed to surround the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40 , in which the top surface of insulating layer  50  is even with the hard mask  42  top surface. In this embodiment, each of the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  includes a top portion  44  and a bottom portion  46 , in which the top portion  44  and the bottom portion  46  preferably share substantially same height and divide the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  into upper and lower portions evenly. It should also be noted that both top portion  44  and bottom portion  46  of the fin-shaped structures  38  on NMOS region  34  are composed of pure silicon while the top portion  44  and bottom portion  46  of the fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36  are composed of different material. For instance, the top portion  44  of the fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36  is composed epitaxial containing silicon germanium while the bottom portion  46  is composed of pure silicon. 
     In this embodiment, the formation of the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  shown in  FIG. 8  could be accomplished by first providing a substrate  32  composed of pure silicon, using a mask to remove part of the substrate  32  on PMOS region  36 , forming an epitaxial layer composed of silicon germanium through process such as selective epitaxial growth on substrate  32  of PMOS region  36  while controlling the substrate  32  surface of the NMOS region  34  to be substantially even with the epitaxial layer on PMOS region  36 , and then covering a hard mask  42  composed of silicon nitride on the substrate  32  of NMOS region  34  and epitaxial layer of PMOS region  34 . A photo-etching process is conducted thereafter by using a patterned resist (not shown) as mask to remove part of hard mask  42  and part of substrate  32  from NMOS region  34  and part of hard mask  42 , part of epitaxial layer, and part of substrate  32  from PMOS region  36  for forming the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40 . 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 9 , a photo-etching process is conducted by first forming a patterned resist (not shown) on the PMOS region  36 , and then conducting an etching process to remove part of the insulating layer  50  on NMOS region  34  till reaching the intersecting point between top portion  44  and bottom portion  46  of the fin-shaped structures  38 . This exposes the top portion  44  of the fin-shaped structures  38 . Next, spacers  48  are formed on the hard masks  42  and sidewalls of top portions  44  of NMOS region  34 . The formation of the spacers  48  could be accomplished by first covering a dielectric material composed of silicon nitride on the hard mask  42 , fin-shaped structures  38 , and insulating layer  50 , and then performing an etching back process to remove part of the dielectric material to form the spacers  48 . In this embodiment, the spacers  48  and hard masks  42  are preferably composed of same material such as both being composed of silicon nitride. However, it would also be desirable to use different material for forming spacers  48  and hard masks  42  individually, which is also within the scope of the present invention. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 10 , an etching process is conducted to completely remove the insulating layer  50  of NMOS region  34  to expose the bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  38 , and another dry etching or wet etching process, such as isotropic etching or lateral etching is conducted by using the spacers  48  as mask to remove part of the bottom portions  46  of the fin-shaped structures  38  so that the width of each top portion  44  is greater than the width of each bottom portion  46 . Similar to the first embodiment, the width of the removed bottom portion  46  of each bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  being removed is at least greater than half the width of each top portion  44 , but not limited thereto. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 11 , a selective epitaxial growth process is conducted to form an epitaxial layer  52  on the substrate  32  and surround the bottom portions  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  of NMOS region  34 . The epitaxial layer  52  is preferably composed of silicon germanium or silicon containing dopants therein, in which the dopants are preferably p-type dopants so that the layer could be used as an anti-punch-through layer to prevent current leakage for the NMOS transistor. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 12 , a thermal treatment, such as a thermal anneal process is conducted by using a temperature greater than 800° C. to transform the bottom portions  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  into epitaxial layer  52 , in which the bottom portions  46  originally composed of pure silicon are preferably transformed into epitaxial layer  52  composed of silicon germanium completely through the aforementioned thermal treatment. In other words, the bottom portions  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  are preferably merged with surrounding epitaxial layer  52  after the thermal treatment to form a structure having top portions  44  composed of pure silicon sitting on epitaxial layer  52  composed of silicon germanium. 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 13 , an etching process is conducted by using the spacer  48  as mask to remove part of the epitaxial layer  52  so that the remaining epitaxial layer  52  and top portions  44  of fin-shaped structures  38  would form a pillar-shaped structure altogether and expose part of the substrate  32  surface. Similar to the first embodiment, as the epitaxial layer  52  are removed against the sidewall of the spacers  48  during the etching process, the width of each remaining epitaxial layer  52  or each bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  is preferably greater than the width of each top portion  44 , in which the width difference between portions  44  and  46  is approximately equal to the width of a spacer  48 . 
     Next, as shown in  FIG. 14 , an insulating layer (not shown) is deposited on the substrate  32  and surround the fin-shaped structures  38  on NMOS region  34 , fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36 , and insulating layer  50 , in which the insulating layer is preferably composed of silicon oxide, but not limited thereto. A planarizing process such as CMP is then conducted to remove part of the insulating layer and hard masks  42  on NMOS region  34  so that the remaining insulating layer surface and top surfaces of fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  are coplanar. Next, an etching back is carried out to remove part of the insulating layer so that the remaining insulating layer only surrounds the bottom portions  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  or that the remaining insulating layer surface is substantially aligned with the intersecting point between top portion  44  and bottom portion  46  for forming a STI  54 . Formation of transistor elements including gate structure, spacer, and source/drain region could be carried out thereafter depending on the demand of the process and the details of which are not explained herein for the sake of brevity. This completes the fabrication of a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
     Referring again to  FIG. 14 , which illustrates a structural view of a semiconductor device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 14 , the semiconductor device includes a substrate  32 , at least a fin-shaped structure  38  disposed on NMOS region  34  of the substrate  32  and at least a fin-shaped structure  40  disposed on PMOS region  36  of the substrate  32 , in which each of the fin-shaped structures  38  and  40  includes a top portion  44  and a bottom portion  46  and the top portion  44  and bottom portion  46  of each of the regions  34  and  36  are preferably composed of different material. 
     Specifically, the top portion  44  of fin-shaped structures  38  on NMOS region  34  and bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36  share same material, and bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  on NMOS region  34  and top portion  44  of fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36  share same material, or in this embodiment, the top portion  44  of fin-shaped structures  38  on NMOS region  34  and bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36  are composed of silicon while the bottom portion  46  of fin-shaped structures  38  on NMOS region  34  and top portion  44  of fin-shaped structures  40  on PMOS region  36  are composed of silicon germanium. 
     Overall, the present invention discloses an approach of forming top portion and bottom portion of a fin-shaped structure with different material. In fabricating a NMOS transistor, the present invention preferably forms a fin-shaped structure composed of pure silicon on a substrate, removes part of the bottom portion of the fin-shaped structure, forms an epitaxial layer surrounding the thinned bottom portion of fin-shaped structure, transforms the bottom portion of fin-shaped structure into epitaxial layer entirely, and then removes part of the epitaxial layer so that the remaining epitaxial layer and the original top portion of fin-shaped structure would form a pillar-shaped fin altogether. In fabricating a CMOS transistor, both the top portion of fin-shaped structure on NMOS region and the bottom portion of fin-shaped structure on PMOS region are composed of silicon while both the bottom portion of fin-shaped structure on NMOS region and top portion of fin-shaped structure on PMOS are composed of silicon germanium. By using this design, it would be desirable to improve carrier mobility in the channel region and also boost up the overall performance of the device. 
     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.

Technology Category: h