Method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device

Details Method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device Method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device

2003-07-31

2004-08-24

Booth, Richard A. (Department: 2812)

Semiconductor device manufacturing: process

Coating with electrically or thermally conductive material

Insulated gate formation

C438S264000, C438S296000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06780743

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device, and more particularly, to a method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device capable of improving a characteristic of a data flash memory device by removing a native oxide film within the interface of a first polysilicon film and a second polysilicon film, in such a manner that after the first polysilicon film is formed, a SiH
4
gas is introduced to decompose the native oxide film, a N
2
anneal process is implemented so that the decomposed a H
2
gas and an O
2
gas react to a N
2
gas and are then outgassed, and a SiH
4
gas and a PH
3
gas are introduced to form the second polysilicon film.
2. Background of the Related Art
A floating gate of a data flash memory device of 0.115 &mgr;m consists of a dual polysilicon film of first and second polysilicon films. This plays an important role that electrons are moved by a mechanism such program, erase, etc. However, since the first and second polysilicon films are formed by an ex-situ process, a native oxide film is formed at the interface of the first polysilicon film and the second polysilicon film.
A method of forming the floating gate in the data flash memory device of 0.115 &mgr;m that has been currently developed will be described by reference to FIG.
1
A and FIG.
1
B.
Referring to
FIG. 1A
, a tunnel oxide film
12
and a first polysilicon film
13
are formed on a semiconductor substrate
11
. A nitride film
14
is then formed on the first polysilicon film
13
. Next, the nitride film
14
is patterned by a lithography process and an etch process using an isolation mask. The first polysilicon film
13
and the tunnel oxide film
12
are etched using the patterned nitride film
14
as a mask. Thereafter, the exposed semiconductor substrate
11
is etched by a given depth, thus forming a trench. An oxide film
15
is then formed on the entire structure so that the trench is buried.
By reference to
FIG. 1B
, after the oxide film
15
is polished, the nitride film
14
on the first polysilicon film
13
is etched to form an isolation film. A second polysilicon film
16
is then formed on the entire structure. Next, the second polysilicon film
16
and the first polysilicon film
13
are patterned to form a floating gate. As the first polysilicon film
13
and the second polysilicon film
16
are not formed by a consecutive process, however, the native oxide film
17
exists at the interface of the first polysilicon film
13
and the second polysilicon film
16
.
As the floating gate is formed by the above process, the native oxide film exists at the interface of the first polysilicon film and the second polysilicon film. Due to this, there is a problem that electrons are trapped to the native oxide film when the device operates. Bit fail occurs in which the threshold voltage of the cell drops due to the electrons trapped to the native oxide film. Furthermore, as the native oxide film serves as a parasitic capacitor, there occurs a phenomenon that the initially applied voltage is dropped. This degrades the overall uniformity in distributing the threshold voltage of the cell being an important parameter of the flash memory device, which results in degrading characteristics of the device.
Meanwhile, if the process time until the second polysilicon film is formed after the surface of the first polysilicon film is cleaned is delayed, the thickness of the native oxide film is further increased. The reason why the native oxide film is grown even after the surface of the first polysilicon film is cleaned is that it is difficult to complete remove a chemical oxide film since a small amount of the chemical oxide film remains due to chemical material even after the cleaning process is implemented.
FIG. 2
is a graph illustrating relationship of the threshold voltage of the cell and number of the cell in an erase operation. In
FIG. 2
, cells at a portion indicated by “A” represent ones the threshold voltage of which is dropped. This is called “bit fail tail”.
FIG. 3
illustrates observation results on a SIMS profile in order to confirm a phosphorous doping profile depending on whether the surface of the first polysilicon film is cleaned. In
FIG. 3
, “A” represents a wafer on which an amorphous silicon film which not given a thermal budget is deposited. This represents that the phosphorous concentration within the second polysilicon film bulk is about 3.2E20 atoms/cc and phosphorous is not yet diffused into the first polysilicon film. “B” represents that the surface of the first polysilicon film is cleaned. In case where the native oxide film at the interface of the first and second polysilicon films is grown in thickness of about 18 Å, “B” represents that the concentration of phosphorous within the first polysilicon film and the concentration of phosphorous within the second polysilicon film are almost same. “C” represents that the surface of the first polysilicon film is not cleaned. Since the native oxide film of over 30 Å is grown at the interface of the first polysilicon film and the second polysilicon film, the concentration of phosphorous within the first polysilicon film is about 5.6E19 atoms/cc and the concentration of phosphorous within the second polysilicon film is not more than 1.1E20 atoms/cc that is a half of the concentration of phosphorous within the first polysilicon film. As described above, as the thickness of the native oxide film is increased at the interface of the first polysilicon film and the second polysilicon film, there is a significant difference in the phosphorous doping profile.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is contrived to substantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device capable of completely removing a native oxide film grown between a first polysilicon film and a second polysilicon film and thus improving the operational reliability of the device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device capable of completely removing a native oxide film within the interface of a first polysilicon film and a second polysilicon film, in such a manner that after the first polysilicon film is formed, a SiH
4
gas is introduced to decompose the native oxide film, a N
2
anneal process is implemented so that a H
2
gas and an O
2
gas of the decomposed native oxide film react to a N
2
gas and are then outgassed, and the second polysilicon film is then formed.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a method of forming a floating gate in a flash memory device according to the present invention is characterized in that it comprises the steps of forming a tunnel oxide film and a first polysilicon film on a semiconductor substrate, etching given regions of the first polysilicon film and the tunnel oxide film and then etching the exposed semiconductor substrate by a given depth, thus forming a trench, forming an oxide film on the entire structure so that the trench is buried, and then polishing the oxide film to form an isolation film, decomposing a native oxide film grown on the first polysilicon film, implementing an anneal process to outgas the decomposed material, and then forming a second polysilicon film, and pattern

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