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US5665629A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Four transistor SRAM process

Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1995-08-11
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Granted: 1997-09-09
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Expires: 2015-08-11
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Abstract

Abstract A SRAM cell with cross-coupled transistors, a pair of transfer gate transistors and a pair of load resistors is manufactured by forming a plurality of field effect transistors in a silicon substrate. In one embodiment, the transistors are formed in an SOI substrate to improve soft-error resistance. An insulator layer is deposited over the source, drain and gate contacts (device contact areas), hole openings are etched into the insulating layer to expose a plurality of device contact areas. A highly resistive layer is patterned to substantially cover and in contact with some selected contact hole openings and device contact areas. A conductive material is deposited into all of the contact hole openings so as to substantially over-fill the contact hole openings and make electrical contact with the device contacts and patterned resistive layer. A planarizing process used to remove the conductive material and the resistive layer outside of the contact holes, thus forming all contact studs with selected studs having integrated resistors. The contact studs are interconnected among themselves and connected to a power bus, a ground, word and bit lines to form the SRAM cell.

Inventors

  • 👤 Bomy Able Chen
  • 👤 Gorden Seth Starkey

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 07:59
CPC Classifications
H; H10; H10B; H10B10/00; H10B10/15

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 17
Claim 1
Independent Claim 158 words
A method of forming a contact stud with an integral vertical resistor using a self aligned process, said method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of devices and a plurality of contact areas on a substrate, each said device having at least one contact area; depositing an insulating layer over said substrate, said deposited insulating layer overlying and in contact with said plurality of contact areas; etching contact hole openings in said insulating layer to expose said plurality of contact areas; patterning a layer of resistive material to substantially cover and in contact with selected contact hole openings; depositing a conductive material into all of said contact hole openings so as to substantially over-fill said contact hole openings and be in electrical contact with said plurality of contact areas and said patterned layer of resistive material; and, removing said conductive material and said patterned layer of resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 158 words
A method of forming a contact stud with an integral vertical resistor using a self aligned process, said method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of devices and a plurality of contact areas on a substrate, each said device having at least one contact area; depositing an insulating layer over said substrate, said deposited insulating layer overlying and in contact with said plurality of contact areas; etching contact hole openings in said insulating layer to expose said plurality of contact areas; patterning a layer of resistive material to substantially cover and in contact with selected contact hole openings; depositing a conductive material into all of said contact hole openings so as to substantially over-fill said contact hole openings and be in electrical contact with said plurality of contact areas and said patterned layer of resistive material; and, removing said conductive material and said patterned layer of resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 75 words
The method of claim 1, wherein said step of patterning a layer of resistive material comprises the steps of: depositing said layer of resistive material over the insulating layer and all of said contact hole openings, said deposited layer being in contact with said contact hole openings; forming a blockout mask to protect said layer of resistive material over selected contact hole openings; and etching said layer of resistive material exposed by said blockout mask.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 65 words
The method of claim 1, wherein said step of patterning a layer of resistive material comprises the steps of: forming a soluble stencil with openings correspond to selected contact hole openings; depositing said layer of resistive material using a directional physical deposition process; and, removing said soluble stencil along with portions of said layer of resistive material outside of the openings of said soluble stencil.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 35 words
The method of claim 1, wherein said layer of resistive material is selected from a group consisting of Si rich silicon dioxide, Si rich silicon nitride, Ta rich Tantalum oxide and Ti rich titanium oxide.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 33 words
The method of claim 1, wherein said step of removing said conductive material and layer of resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings, uses a chemical mechanical polish process.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 32 words
The method of claim 1, wherein said step of removing said conductive material and layer of resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings, uses an etch back process.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 33 words
The method of claim 1, wherein said conductive material is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, molybdenum, aluminum, Al--Cu, Al--Ti, copper, Cu--Sn, Cu--Al, layered structure with aluminum and layered structure with copper.
Claim 9
Independent Claim 186 words
A method of manufacturing an SRAM cell comprising of cross-coupled transistors, a pair of transfer gate transistors and a pair of load resistors, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of field effect transistors and a plurality of contact areas on a substrate, each said field effect transistor having at least one contact area; depositing an insulating layer over said substrate in contact with said plurality of contact areas; etching contact hole openings in said insulating layer to expose said plurality of contact areas; patterning a layer of resistive material to substantially cover and in contact with selected contact hole openings; depositing a conductive material into all of said contact hole openings so as to substantially over-fill said contact hole openings and in electrical contact with said plurality of contact areas and said patterned layer of resistive material; removing said conductive material and said resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings thereby forming a plurality of contact studs and, connecting said contact studs to a power bus, a ground, word and bit lines and to each other thereby forming said SRAM cell.
Claim 10
Independent Claim 186 words
A method of manufacturing an SRAM cell comprising of cross-coupled transistors, a pair of transfer gate transistors and a pair of load resistors, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of field effect transistors and a plurality of contact areas on a substrate, each said field effect transistor having at least one contact area; depositing an insulating layer over said substrate in contact with said plurality of contact areas; etching contact hole openings in said insulating layer to expose said plurality of contact areas; patterning a layer of resistive material to substantially cover and in contact with selected contact hole openings; depositing a conductive material into all of said contact hole openings so as to substantially over-fill said contact hole openings and in electrical contact with said plurality of contact areas and said patterned layer of resistive material; removing said conductive material and said resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings thereby forming a plurality of contact studs and, connecting said contact studs to a power bus, a ground, word and bit lines and to each other thereby forming said SRAM cell.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 73 words
The method of claim 7, wherein said step of patterning a layer of resistive material comprising the steps of: depositing said layer of resistive material over the insulating layer and all of said hole openings, said deposited layer being in contact with said hole openings; forming a blockout mask to protect said layer of resistive material over selected contact hole openings; and etching said layer of resistive material exposed by said blockout mask.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 58 words
The method of claim 8, wherein said step of patterning a resistive layer comprises the steps of: forming a soluble stencil with openings correspond to said selected hole openings; depositing said resistive layer using a directional physical deposition process; and, removing said soluble stencil along with portions of said resistive layer outside the openings of said soluble stencil.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 35 words
The method of claim 8, wherein said layer of resistive material is selected from a group consisting of Si rich silicon dioxide, Si rich silicon nitride, Ta rich Tantalum oxide and Ti rich titanium oxide.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 33 words
The method of claim 8, wherein said step of removing said conductive material and layer of resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings, uses a chemical mechanical polish process.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim 32 words
The method of claim 8, wherein said step of removing said conductive material and layer of resistive material from said substrate outside of said contact hole openings, uses an etch back process.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim 33 words
The method of claim 8, wherein said conductive material is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, molybdenum, aluminum, Al--Cu, Al--Ti, copper, Cu--Sn, Cu--Al, layered structure with aluminum and layered structure with copper.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim 18 words
The method of claim 8, wherein said substrate containing a plurality of field effect transistor is a silicon-on-insulator.

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 2000-09-08 2001-03-10 2001-09-09 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2004-09-08 2005-03-10 2005-09-09 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2008-09-08 2009-03-10 2009-09-09 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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