Nitrogen controlled growth of dislocation loop in stress...

Details Nitrogen controlled growth of dislocation loop in stress... Nitrogen controlled growth of dislocation loop in stress...

2003-03-31

2004-10-05

Cao, Phat X. (Department: 2814)

Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diode

Field effect device

Junction field effect transistor

C257S287000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06800887

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to transistors, and in particular to improving the speed of transistors.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A typical metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) has a gate, a drain, and a source formed in or on a semiconductor wafer. When a voltage V
g
is applied to the gate that is greater than the threshold voltage V
t
of the transistor, the transistor turns on and current flows in a conducting layer formed below the gate and between the source and drain. When the voltage V
g
applied to the gate that is less than the threshold voltage V
t
of the transistor, the transistor turns off and current stops flowing in the channel. The current that flows in the channel is the drive current I
D
, sometimes called saturation drive current or linear drive current. In the MOSFET equation, saturation drive current (ID) is expressed by
I
D
=W/L &mgr; C
ox
(
V
g
−V
t
)
2
where W is the width of the gate, L is the length of the gate, C
ox
is the gate capacitance, V
g
is the gate voltage, V
t
is the threshold voltage for the transistor, &mgr; is electron mobility in the channel, in percent change. As the equation indicates, as the electron mobility increases, drive current increases.
MOSFETS can be either n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistors or p-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistors and usually a combination of NMOS transistors and PMOS transistors are present in a single integrated circuit device. Integrated circuit technology is advancing at a rapid pace and transistor technology must keep up.
One method for improving NMOS transistor performance is to add a layer of high stress dielectric material to the transistor. Adding a layer of high stress dielectric material to the transistor introduces stress in the device. Introducing stress by adding a layer of high stress dielectric material to the transistor increases electron mobility in the transistor. Increasing electron mobility causes transistor drive current to improve. This technique, i.e., adding a layer of high stress dielectric material, increases transistor fabrication process complexity, however, and can degrade PMOS transistor performance.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5266816 (1993-11-01), Seto et al.
patent: 5792699 (1998-08-01), Tsui
patent: 5895954 (1999-04-01), Yasumura et al.

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