TWI579959B - Shallow trench isolation and method of forming the same - Google Patents

Description

Shallow trench isolation structure and forming method thereof

The present invention generally relates to a method of forming a shallow trench isolation (STI), and more particularly to a method for reducing a fluid chemical vapor deposition (FCVD) process for a germanium substrate. A method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure that is consumed.

Increasing the density of circuit components and interconnect structures has been one of the challenges in semiconductor technology. In order to avoid unnecessary circuit interconnections, it is conventional practice in the art to fill electrical gaps or trenches with electrically insulating materials to physically and electrically isolate circuit components from each other. Shallow trench isolation (STI) is one of such isolation structures widely used in integrated circuits that electrically insulate adjacent semiconductor elements formed on a substrate from each other. In the application of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit, a shallow trench isolation structure is generally formed between the NMOS transistor and the PMOS transistor in the doping well to suppress leakage current between the adjacent elements, or It is to avoid the occurrence of latch-ups that can cause CMOS components to fail. The shallow trench isolation structure is also used in the fabrication of fin field effect transistors to isolate the fin structures from each other.

However, as the density of the circuit increases, the width of the trench also decreases. This results in an increase in the aspect ratio of the trench, making filling of the trench more difficult. If the trench is incompletely filled, unintended voids will be created in the trench, which will have a bad effect on the operation of the component. For example, the void will make the impurity easily trapped in the electrically insulating material. , affecting the electrical properties of the component. Therefore, as the semiconductor industry continues to move toward component-intensive design, the industry needs to develop novel methods to fabricate shallow trench isolation structures with increasing aspect ratios.

In order to fabricate a shallow trench isolation structure with an increasing aspect ratio, the present invention proposes a novel shallow trench isolation structure and a method for forming the same, which is characterized by flow chemical vapor deposition (FCVD). The process is to achieve excellent trench filling efficiency, and a shallow trench isolation structure having two upper and lower discontinuous insulating portions is formed by providing a buffer layer in the trench.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a novel shallow trench isolation structure comprising the following component features: an upper insulating portion and a lower insulating portion are located in a trench of a substrate, wherein the lower insulating portion includes a first An insulator and an insulating layer on the peripheral wall and the bottom surface of the first insulator, the upper insulating portion includes a second insulator and a buffer layer on the peripheral wall and the bottom surface of the second insulator, and a portion of the buffer layer is interposed between the first insulator And the second insulator, and the outer peripheral wall of the buffer layer is flush with the peripheral wall of the first insulator.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a novel shallow trench isolation structure comprising the following component features: an upper insulating portion and a lower insulating portion are located in a trench of a substrate, wherein the lower insulating portion includes a first An insulating layer and an insulating layer on the peripheral wall and the bottom surface of the first insulator, the upper insulating portion includes a second insulator and a buffer layer on the peripheral wall of the second insulator, the first insulator is in contact with the second insulator, and the The outer side wall of the buffer layer is flush with the peripheral wall of the first insulator.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure comprising the steps of: forming a trench in a substrate, filling a lower portion of the trench with a first insulating layer and The upper portion of the trench defines a recess, a buffer layer is formed on the sidewall of the recess, a second insulating layer is filled in the recess, and a vapor annealing process is performed to convert the substrate around the first insulating layer into An oxide layer.

The objectives and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent from the written description of the appended claims.

In the detailed description that follows, the component symbols are marked as part of the accompanying drawings and are described in the manner in which the particular embodiments of the embodiments can be practiced. Such embodiments will be described in sufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice. Readers must understand that other methods can also be utilized in the present invention. The embodiments may be structurally, logically, and electrically changed without departing from the embodiments. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be considered as a limitation, and the embodiments included herein are defined by the scope of the accompanying claims. Further, certain terms are used throughout the description of the invention and the scope of the appended claims to refer to the particular elements. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that semiconductor component manufacturers may refer to a different component, such as spacers and spacers, under different names.

Several embodiments will now be provided in conjunction with the drawings to illustrate the method and structure of the present invention. 1 to 7 are schematic cross-sectional views showing a fabrication process of a shallow trench isolation structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 8 to 10 illustrate a shallow trench isolation according to a second embodiment of the present invention. A schematic cross-sectional view of a fabrication flow of the structure, and FIGS. 11 to 12 are schematic cross-sectional views showing a fabrication flow of a shallow trench isolation structure according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a substrate 100 is first provided, including but not limited to a substrate such as a germanium substrate, an epitaxial germanium, a germanium semiconductor substrate, a tantalum carbide substrate or a silicon-on-insulator (SOI). As the basis of the entire semiconductor structure. An NMOS region and a PMOS region may be defined on the substrate 100, and corresponding P well and N well structures are formed. A pad oxide layer 101 and a mask layer 103 are sequentially formed on the substrate 100. The pad oxide layer 101 may be a layer of tantalum oxide formed using a thermal oxidation process as a stress buffer layer between the substrate 100 and the mask layer 103. The pad oxide layer 101 can also serve as an etch stop layer when the mask layer 103 is etched. In an embodiment, the mask layer 103 may be a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (low-pressure chemical vapor deposition, A layer of tantalum nitride formed by processes such as LPCVD). In other embodiments, the mask layer 103 can be formed by a process such as thermal nitridation, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), or plasma anode nitridation. The mask layer 103 serves as a hard mask during the etching process. In the process, the mask layer 103 is first patterned by a lithography process to define the underlying trench pattern. An etching process is then performed to take the trenches 105 in the underlying substrate 100, such as a trench having a depth of about 2300 Å. It should be noted that the above process can be used not only to form a trench having a high aspect ratio, but also to form a plurality of fin structures arranged in parallel to form a fin field effect transistor component.

After the ditch 105 is eaten, then referring to FIG. 2, a fluid chemical vapor deposition (FCVD) process is performed to fill a trench 105 with a first insulating layer 107. Different from the conventional techniques, high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDP-CVD) process is used to fill the trench with undoped silicon glass (USG). The invention uses a fluid chemical vapor deposition process to fill the trench, which has the advantages of excellent trench filling capability, and is suitable for use in the current 20 nm memory and logic device process, and the isolation region has an aspect ratio 30, and can be applied to highly complex surface topography. In a fluid chemical vapor deposition process, a fluid dielectric is filled into the trenches 105, which may be oxygenated dielectrics formed by reacting oxygen-containing precursors and germanium-containing precursors. quality. For example, oxygen can be generated by reacting atomic oxygen (ie, an oxygen-containing precursor) after excitation with a ruthenium-containing precursor such as a tetra-methylorthosilicate (TMOS) sol. Dielectric. After the trench is filled, the fluidizable dielectric may be cured by a process such as curing, baking, or the like to form the first insulating layer 107. The above curing or baking treatment can also be carried out together in the annealing step of the subsequent ion well implantation.

After the first insulating layer 107 is formed in the trench 105, a chemical mechanical polishing and/or an etching back step is performed to remove the first insulating layer on the mask layer 103 and the upper half of the trench 105, as shown in FIG. The layer 107, in turn, forms a first insulator 107a in the lower half of the trench 105 and defines a recess 105a in the upper half of the trench 105. The formation of the recess 105a is related to how a shallow trench isolation structure having two upper and lower discontinuous insulation portions is to be formed in the subsequent process of the present invention. Preferably, the depth of the recess 105a needs to be greater than the depth of the subsequent component, such as greater than the depth of the source/drain or fin structure.

After the concave portion 105a and the first insulator 107a are defined, a buffer layer 109 is formed conformally on the surfaces of the concave portion 105a and the mask layer 103 as shown in FIG. The buffer layer 109 may be formed by a process such as low pressure chemical vapor deposition or plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition, and may be made of a stress buffer film, tantalum nitride, or tantalum carbonitride (SiCN). In the present embodiment, the buffer layer 109 serves as a sacrificial layer which can be oxidized in place of the surrounding substrate in a subsequent process. The buffer layer 109 also defines the shallow trench structure of the present invention as two upper and lower discontinuous portions, which will be described in detail hereinafter.

After the deposition of the buffer layer 109, an insulating layer is formed again as shown in Fig. 5, for example, a second insulating layer 111 is filled in the recess 105a by the same fluid chemical vapor deposition process. The material of the second insulating layer 111 can be insulated from the first The body 107a is the same, such as a cerium-based dielectric. As is clear from the figure, the buffer layer 109 is interposed between the second insulating layer 111 and the substrate 100 so that the two are not in contact with each other.

After the second insulating layer 111 is formed, a steam annealing process is performed as shown in FIG. 6, so that the substrate 100 near the periphery of the first insulator 107a is transformed into an oxide layer (or referred to as an insulating layer) 113. Such as yttrium oxide layer. In this steam annealing process, oxygen atoms contained in the first insulator 107a are diffused into the surrounding substrate 100, and the adjacent substrate 100 is reacted to form an oxide due to a high temperature (e.g., 700 ° C). It should be noted that in the present embodiment, the oxygen atoms contained in the second insulating layer 111 cannot directly penetrate into the surrounding substrate 100 due to the isolation of the buffer layer 109. Therefore, it can be seen that the substrate 100 surrounding the second insulating layer 111 is not formed with an oxide layer, and in the case where the buffer layer 109 is made of a stress buffer material, the buffer layer 109 is replaced by oxidation of the substrate 100. It is an oxide layer 109a.

After the steam annealing process, as shown in FIG. 7, a chemical mechanical polishing and/or an etching step is performed to remove the second insulating layer 111 and the oxide layer 109a on the mask layer 103 and the upper half of the trench 105. Further, a second insulator 111a and a surrounding oxide liner 109b are formed in the trench, such that the top surface of the second insulator 111a is lower than the surrounding mask layer 103. Thus, the fabrication of the shallow trench isolation structure of the present invention has been completed.

According to the process provided by the embodiment of the present invention, a novel shallow trench isolation structure can be fabricated. Referring to FIG. 7, the shallow trench isolation structure includes an upper insulating portion 110 and a lower insulating portion 120, and a buffer layer. 109b intermediary Between the two, the upper insulating portion 110 includes a second insulator 111a and a buffer layer 109b on the peripheral wall and the bottom surface of the second insulator 111a. The lower insulating portion 120 includes a first insulator 107a and a peripheral wall and a bottom surface of the first insulator 107a. An insulating layer (ie, an oxide layer) 113 and a portion of the buffer layer 109b are interposed between the first insulator 107a and the second insulator 111a. In the embodiment of the present invention, since the insulating layer 113 is formed by oxidation of the substrate 100, it can be seen from the figure that the upper insulating portion 110 and the lower insulating portion 120 of the shallow trench isolation structure are two discontinuous portions, but The outer peripheral wall of the buffer layer 109b of the upper insulating portion 110 is flush with the peripheral wall of the first insulator 107a of the lower insulating portion 120, that is, smooth without turning.

The above embodiments of Figures 1 through 7 illustrate the basic method flow of the present invention and the shallow trench isolation structure formed therefrom. However, the invention may encompass a variety of method and structural embodiment variations, which will be described in the following examples.

Please refer to FIGS. 8-10, which are schematic cross-sectional views showing a manufacturing process of a shallow trench isolation structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the process of the present invention, the steam annealing process can also be performed before the deposition of the second insulating layer 111. As shown in FIG. 8, after the buffer layer 109 is formed, the steam annealing process is directly performed so that the substrate 100 surrounding the first insulator 107a is oxidized into the insulating layer 113, and the buffer layer 109 is converted into an oxide layer 109a. Next, as shown in Fig. 9, a second insulating layer 115 is deposited on the oxide layer 109a and in the recess, which is similar to the step shown in Fig. 6. The difference between this embodiment and the foregoing embodiment is that since the steam annealing process has been applied before the deposition of the second insulating layer 115 Therefore, the second insulating layer 115 is preferably formed by a sub-atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (SACVD) process. The material source of the second insulating layer 115 may also be different from the second insulating layer 111. For example, the material of the second insulating layer 115 may be yttrium oxide.

Next, as shown in FIG. 10, a chemical mechanical polishing and/or an etching back step is performed to remove the second insulating layer 115 on the mask layer 103 and the upper half of the trench 105, as in the step of FIG. And the oxide layer 109a further forms a second insulator 115a and a surrounding oxide layer 109b in the trench, such that the top surface of the second insulator 115a is lower than the surrounding mask layer 103. Thus, the fabrication of the shallow trench isolation structure of the present invention has been completed.

Referring now to FIGS. 11-12, a cross-sectional view showing a fabrication process of a shallow trench isolation structure in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention is shown. In the present invention, the material of the buffer layer 109 is selected from tantalum nitride (SiN) or tantalum carbonitride (SiCN), etc., which can be used as a pure barrier layer and is not oxidized by a steam annealing process. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, after the buffer layer 109 is formed, a selective etching process is performed to remove the buffer layer 109 on the top surface of the first insulator 107a, thus forming the mask layer 103. And a structure of the spacer 109c on the side wall of the substrate 100. Next, as shown in FIG. 12, a second insulating layer 111 is filled in the recess 105a by the same fluid chemical vapor deposition process, and the material thereof may be a tantalum-based dielectric. Then, a steam annealing process is performed to oxidize the substrate 100 surrounding the first insulator 107a into the insulating layer 113, and the buffer layer 109 is not converted into an oxide layer due to the material. As can be seen from the figure, the shallow trench isolation structure is different from the one shown in Figure 7, the first below The insulator 107a is in contact with the upper second insulator 111, and the buffer layer functions as a spacer structure.

There are other variations of the invention in the present invention. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, the process parameters in the steam annealing step, such as time, temperature, etc., can be controlled to increase the diffusion amplitude of oxygen atoms in the first insulator 107a, thereby enabling any two adjacent shallow trenches. The insulating layer 113 of the isolation structure is combined to form a common insulating layer to form a structure similar to a silicon-on-insulator substrate (SOI).

Furthermore, the mask layer 103 on the substrate 100 can also be removed after the shallow trench isolation structure is completed. As shown in FIG. 14, the mask layer 103 is removed through a selective etching process to make the shallow trench isolation structure The surface of the insulating portion 110 is higher than the surrounding pad oxide layer 101, and an active area for forming various MOS and the like is defined between adjacent shallow trench isolation structures.

On the other hand, the shallow trench isolation structure forming method of the present invention is very suitable for use in the fabrication of fin field effect transistors. As shown in Fig. 15, the shallow trench isolation structure 130 formed by the method of the present invention can serve as an isolation structure between the fin structures 140. The oxidized buffer layer 109 can be directly used as a gate oxide layer or an interfacial layer, and a high dielectric constant material layer (not shown) and a gate structure 150 are formed thereon. Fin structure 140.

The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all changes and modifications made to the scope of the present invention should be within the scope of the present invention.

100‧‧‧Base

101‧‧‧Mat oxide layer

103‧‧‧mask layer

105‧‧‧ Ditch

105a‧‧‧ recess

107‧‧‧First insulation

107a‧‧‧First insulator

109‧‧‧buffer layer

109a‧‧‧Oxide layer

109b‧‧‧buffer layer

109c‧‧‧ clearance

110‧‧‧Upper insulation

111‧‧‧Second insulation

111a‧‧‧second insulator

113‧‧‧Oxide layer (insulation layer)

115‧‧‧Second insulation

115a‧‧‧second insulator

120‧‧‧lower insulation

130‧‧‧Shallow trench isolation structure

140‧‧‧Fin structure

150‧‧‧ gate structure

The present specification contains the drawings and constitutes a part of the specification in the specification, and the reader will further understand the embodiments of the invention. The drawings depict some embodiments of the invention and, together with the description herein. In the drawings: FIGS. 1-7 are schematic cross-sectional views showing a manufacturing process of a shallow trench isolation structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention; and FIGS. 8 to 10 are diagrams showing a second embodiment according to the present invention. A schematic cross-sectional view of a fabrication process of a shallow trench isolation structure; FIGS. 11-12 are schematic cross-sectional views showing a fabrication flow of a shallow trench isolation structure according to a third embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 13 illustrates a common A schematic cross-sectional view of two shallow trench isolation structures of the oxide layer; a cross-sectional view of the shallow trench isolation structure with the upper insulating portion higher than the surrounding substrate; and a shallow trench isolation of the present invention A schematic cross-sectional view of a structure applied to a fin field effect transistor structure.

It should be noted that all the illustrations in this specification are of the nature of the legend. For the sake of clarity and convenience of illustration, the various components in the drawings may be exaggerated or reduced in size and proportion. The same reference numbers are used in the drawings to refer to the corresponding or similar features in the modified or different embodiments.

100‧‧‧Base

101‧‧‧Mat oxide layer

103‧‧‧mask layer

105‧‧‧ Ditch

107a‧‧‧First insulator

109b‧‧‧buffer layer

110‧‧‧Upper insulation

111a‧‧‧second insulator

113‧‧‧Oxide layer (insulation layer)

120‧‧‧lower insulation

Claims (19)

A shallow trench isolation structure comprising: an upper insulating portion and a lower insulating portion in a trench of a substrate, wherein the lower insulating portion comprises a first insulator and an insulation on a peripheral wall and a bottom surface of the first insulator a buffer layer including a second insulator and a buffer layer on a peripheral wall and a bottom surface of the second insulator, wherein a portion of the buffer layer is interposed between the first insulator and the second insulator, and the buffer layer The outer peripheral wall is flush with the peripheral wall of the first insulator. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 1, wherein the first insulator and the second insulator are made of ruthenium oxide. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 1, wherein the material of the buffer layer comprises a stress buffer material, tantalum nitride, or niobium carbonitride. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 1, wherein the shallow trench isolation structure is an isolation structure between fin field effect transistors. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 1, wherein a top surface of the upper insulating portion is higher than the surrounding substrate. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 1, wherein the substrate further comprises a pad oxide layer and a mask layer. A shallow trench isolation structure comprising: an upper insulating portion and a lower insulating portion in a trench of a substrate, wherein the lower insulating portion comprises a first insulator and an insulation on a peripheral wall and a bottom surface of the first insulator a layer, the upper insulating portion includes a second insulator and a buffer layer on a peripheral wall of the second insulator, the first insulator is in contact with the second insulator, and the outer sidewall of the buffer layer and the peripheral wall of the first insulator Department is flush. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 7, wherein the material of the buffer layer comprises a stress buffer material, tantalum nitride, or niobium carbonitride. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 7, wherein the first insulator and the second insulator are made of ruthenium oxide. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 7, wherein the shallow trench isolation structure is an isolation structure between fin field effect transistors. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 7, wherein a top surface of the upper insulating portion is higher than the surrounding substrate. The shallow trench isolation structure of claim 7, wherein the substrate further comprises a pad oxide layer and a mask layer. A method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure, comprising the steps of: forming a trench in a substrate; filling a lower portion of the trench with a first insulating layer and defining a recess in an upper portion of the trench; Forming a buffer layer on the sidewall of the recess; filling a recess in the second insulating layer; and performing a steam annealing process to convert the substrate around the first insulating layer into an oxide layer. The method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure according to claim 13 wherein the first insulating layer is filled in the trench by a fluid chemical vapor deposition process. The method for forming a shallow trench isolation structure according to claim 13, further comprising performing a chemical mechanical polishing process and/or an etching process on the first insulating layer to define the recess. The method for forming a shallow trench isolation structure according to claim 13 , further comprising performing a chemical mechanical polishing process and/or an etching process on the second insulating layer such that a top surface of the second insulating layer is low. The substrate around it. The method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure according to claim 13 wherein the step of forming the buffer layer on the sidewall of the recess comprises: conformally forming the buffer layer in the recess; and selectively shifting The buffer layer is disposed on the bottom surface of the recess such that the buffer layer is located only on the sidewall of the recess. The method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure according to claim 13, wherein the second insulation system is filled in the recess by a sub-atmospheric chemical vapor deposition process or a fluid chemical vapor deposition process. The method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure according to claim 13 wherein the buffer layer is converted into an oxide layer during the steam annealing process.