Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Making field effect device having pair of active regions... – Having insulated gate
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-05
2004-05-18
Chaudhari, Chandra (Department: 2813)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Making field effect device having pair of active regions...
Having insulated gate
C438S296000, C438S426000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06737321
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a method of manufacturing a flash memory device, and more particularly to, a method of manufacturing a flash memory device using a shallow trench isolation (STI) process and a self-aligned source (SAS) etch process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a common source line of a flash EEPROM is formed by means of a tungsten local interconnection (WLI) process or a self-aligned source (SAS) etch process. It is considered that the tungsten local interconnection (WLI) process is inadequate in applying it to higher-integrated devices since a contact margin must be considered. The self-aligned source etch process is thus widely used in order to realize higher-integration of the device.
In the method of manufacturing the flash memory device using the self-aligned source etch process, the common source line is formed by the self-aligned etch process for removing a cell isolation film existing between sources of an unit cell and an impurity ion implantation process for connecting neighboring sources. The cell isolation film may be formed by various methods. However, in order to increase the level of integration in the semiconductor device, the cell isolation film is recently formed by a shallow trench isolation (STI) process. A conventional method of manufacturing the flash memory device using the shallow trench isolation process and the self-aligned source etch process will be below described.
FIG. 1
 is a layout diagram of the flash memory cell for explaining the conventional method of manufacturing the flash memory device, FIG. 
2
A through 
FIG. 2D
 are cross sectional views of the flash memory devices taken along line 
2
-
2
′ in 
FIG. 1
, FIG. 
3
A through 
FIG. 3D
 are cross sectional views of the flash memory devices taken along line 
3
-
3
′ in 
FIG. 1
, and FIG. 
4
A through 
FIG. 4D
 are cross sectional views of the flash memory devices taken along line 
4
-
4
′ in FIG. 
1
.
Referring now to 
FIG. 1
, 
FIG. 2A
, FIG. 
3
A and 
FIG. 4A
, a pad oxide film 
12
 and a pad nitride film 
14
 are sequentially formed on a semiconductor substrate 
10
 and are then patterned. A plurality of straight trenches 
16
 are formed in the semiconductor substrate 
10
 through the shallow trench isolation (STI) process using the patterned pad oxide film 
12
 and the pad nitride film 
14
 as an etch mask. After a wall oxidation process is performed, a gap fill oxide film 
18
 is formed so that the plurality of the straight trenches 
16
 are sufficiently buried.
By reference to 
FIG. 1
, 
FIG. 2B
, FIG. 
3
B and 
FIG. 4B
, the gap fill oxide film 
18
 is planarized by means of a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process until the pad nitride film 
14
 is exposed. The planarized pad nitride film 
14
 and the pad oxide film 
12
 are removed to leave the gap fill oxide film 
18
 only at the straight trenches, so that a plurality of the straight cell isolation films 
18
T are formed. As the straight cell isolation films 
18
T are formed, a plurality of active regions are defined in the same direction to the straight cell isolation films 
18
T. After an ion implantation process for controlling the threshold voltage is performed, tunnel oxide films 
20
 are formed on the semiconductor substrate 
10
 in the active regions. Conductive layers 
22
 for the floating gate are then formed on the entire structure on which the tunnel oxide films 
20
 are formed. Next, the conductive layers 
22
 for the floating gate are patterned by means of an etch process using the floating gate mask.
Referring to 
FIG. 1
, 
FIG. 2C
, FIG. 
3
C and 
FIG. 4C
, a dielectric film 
24
, a conductive layer 
26
 for a control gate, and a hard mask layer 
28
 are sequentially formed on the entire structure including the patterned conductive layers 
22
 for the floating gate. The conductive layers 
26
 for the control gate are then patterned by an etch process using a mask for the control gate, so that a plurality of control gates 
26
G being the word lines are formed in a direction intersecting the straight cell isolation films 
18
T. Next, the exposed portions of the patterned conductive layers 
22
 for the floating gate are etched by the self-aligned etch process. Thereby, a plurality of floating gates 
22
G each of which exists every unit cell while overlapping with the control gates 
26
G, respectively, are formed.
Referring to 
FIG. 1
, 
FIG. 2D
, FIG. 
3
D and 
FIG. 4D
, the exposed portions of the straight cell isolation films 
18
T are removed by the self-aligned source etch process. Thereby, a plurality of recesses 
30
 are formed in the semiconductor substrate 
10
 as shown in FIG. 
4
D. An impurity ion is implanted into the exposed portions of the semiconductor substrate 
10
 through a cell source/drain implantation process. Thus, respective drains 
32
 are formed every unit cell and a common source line 
34
 sharing the plurality of the cells is formed.
In the cell of the flash memory device, erase or program operations are performed by injecting electrons into the floating gate through Fowler-Nordheim tunneling or hot carrier injection. In order for the cell to operate, independent word lines, bit lines, the common source line and the sub-line are necessary. In order to increase the level of integration in the semiconductor device, the cell size is shrunken by reducing the width of the line. Though the chip size is decided depending on the degree that the width of the line is reduced, the cell characteristic is degraded if the width of the line is too reduced. Thus, there is a limit in increasing the level of integration in the semiconductor device. In particular, if the common source line is formed by the shallow trench isolation (STI) process as in the conventional method, an electrical characteristic of the common source line is affected by the shape of the trench. Thus, in order to form the trench that is uniform and has an adequate shape to the common source line, the process of forming the trench is very difficult. Further, an over-etch process is necessarily required in order to completely remove oxide filled in the trench by the self-aligned source etch process. The surface of the semiconductor substrate, the tunnel oxide film, the gate, and the like are damaged due to excess over etch. Due to this, there are problems that the electrical characteristic and reliability of the flash memory device are degraded. In addition, an impurity ion is implanted into the recess from which the straight cell isolation film is removed, thus forming the common source line is formed by implanting. In this case, there is a limit in reducing the width of the common source line due to an electrical characteristic. There is a difficulty in increasing the level of integration in the device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is contrived to solve the above problems and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a flash memory device that can uniformly maintain an electrical characteristic of a common source line, improve the productivity and yield of the device due to simplified process and reduce the cell size. To this end, a plurality of isolating cell isolation films are formed by a shallow trench isolation process so that active regions are defined between sources and sources in respective unit cells. Thus, trenches are not formed at a common source line portion between the isolating cell isolation films, and portions of the common source lines between the isolating cell isolation films are overlapped with word lines like the sources of the unit cell.
In detail, in order to accomplish the above object, the method of manufacturing a flash memory device according to the embodiment of the present invention, is characterized in that it comprises the steps of sequentially forming a pad oxide film and a pad nitride film on a semiconductor substrate, forming a plurality of isolating trenches in the semiconductor substrate by means of a shallow trench isolation process using the pa
Chaudhari Chandra
Hynix / Semiconductor Inc.
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
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