Title :
New process damage during the etching of small-contact on long floating conductor layer
Author :
Choi, Jinkee ; Park, Donggun ; Moon, Hongjoon ; Lee, Sanghyok ; Ko, Hyeongchan ; Yang, Kihoon ; Lee, Wonshik
Author_Institution :
DRAM PA, Samsung Electron. Co., Kyungki, South Korea
fDate :
30 March-4 April 2003
Abstract :
We observed a new plasma process-induced damage during the contact etching on the long poly-silicon resistor. Plasma charging during the small contact etching is believed to form a non-conducting film layer in the contact area resulting in a failure of circuit operation. A chain structure with 200 pieces of 5 KΩ small poly-silicon resistors instead of a single 1 MΩ resistor could solve the problem. An antenna rule on the conductor layer is required for the small contact etching process to prevent the process damage.
Keywords :
CMOS memory circuits; DRAM chips; X-ray chemical analysis; integrated circuit reliability; resistors; sputter etching; surface charging; transmission electron microscopy; 1 Mohm; 5 kohm; Si; TEM analysis; antenna rule; circuit operation failure; double-metal process; energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis; giga-bit scale DRAM fabrication; long floating conductor layer; long poly-silicon resistor; nonconducting film layer; plasma charging; plasma process-induced damage; poly-silicon resistor chain structure; process damage; small contact etching; Circuits; Conductors; Delta modulation; Etching; Moon; Plasma applications; Research and development; Resistors; Surface resistance; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings, 2003. 41st Annual. 2003 IEEE International
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7649-8
DOI :
10.1109/RELPHY.2003.1197762