Granted Patent B2

US 7,211,484 · App. 10/745,008 · Granted May 1, 2007

Abstract

Claims (49)

1. A method of manufacturing a flash memory device, comprising:

providing a semiconductor substrate in which a cell region, a high-voltage transistor region and a low-voltage transistor region are defined;

forming gate oxide films in the high-voltage transistor, cell and low-voltage transistor regions where the gate oxide films in the high-voltage transistor region is thicker than the gate oxide films in the low-voltage transistor and cell regions;

forming a first polysilicon layer on the gate oxide films and a nitride film on the first polysilicon layer;

forming a plurality of trenches for isolating the respective regions;

forming field oxide films in the trenches of the cell and the low-voltage transistor and high voltage transistor regions, wherein the cell and the low voltage transistor regions have a high EFH and the high voltage transistor region has a low EFH;

forming a photoresist pattern on top of the nitride film and the field oxide films in the high-voltage transistor region that has the low EFH; and

performing an etching process to etch selectively the field oxide films in the low-voltage transistor and cell regions having the high EFH to reduce differences in the EFHs of the high-voltage transistor region and the low-voltage transistor and cell regions by a given thickness using a BOE solution and the photoresist pattern as an etch mask thereby, the field oxide films of the cell and the low-voltage and high voltage transistor regions have a different height.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the gate oxide films are a cell gate oxide film, a high-voltage gate oxide film and a low-voltage gate oxide film, and wherein the high-voltage gate oxide film has a thickness in the range of 300 to 500 Å, and each of the low-voltage gate and cell gate oxide films have a thickness of 100 Å or less.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the field oxide films are formed by means of a self align shallow trench isolation (SA-STI) process.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

stripping the photoresist pattern and organic contaminant using a PIRANHA cleaning solution after etching the field oxide film having the high EFH ; and

stripping particles and organic contaminant using a SC-1 cleaning, solution.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the photoresist pattern is hardened by means of a descum process at a temperature in the range of 80° C. to 140° C.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the BOE solution is a solution in which NH 4 F and HF are mixed in a ratio of 9:1 or 300:1.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a field oxide film etch target using the BOE solution is set according to variation in the EFH between the field oxide films having the low EFH and the field oxide films having the high EFH.

8. A method of manufacturing a flash memory device, comprising:

forming a cell gate oxide film, a high-voltage gate oxide film and a low-voltage gate oxide film on a semiconductor substrate in which a cell region, a high-voltage transistor region and a low-voltage transistor region are defined;

forming a first polysilicon layer and a nitride film on the gate oxide films; sequentially etching the nitride film, the first polysilicon layer, the gate oxide films and the

semiconductor substrate to form a plurality of trenches for isolating the respective regions;

depositing an oxide film on the entire structure including the trenches and polishing the oxide film and the nitride film to a given thickness, whereby the field oxide films having a high EFH are formed in each of the cell, the low-voltage transistor regions and field oxide films having a low EFH are formed in the high-voltage transistor region;

stripping the nitride film that remains after the polishing process;

forming a photoresist pattern on top of the nitride film and the field oxide films in the high-voltage transistor region having the low EFH;

performing an etching process to etch selectively the field oxide films in the low-voltage transistor and cell regions having the high EFH to reduce differences in the EFHs of the high-voltage transistor region and the low-voltage transistor and cell regions by a given thickness using a BOE solution and the photoresist pattern as an etch mask thereby, the field oxide films of the cell and the low-voltage and high voltage transistor regions have a different height; and

forming a second polysilicon layer on the entire structure.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the high-voltage gate oxide film is formed with a thickness in the range of 300 Å to 500 Å, each of the low-voltage gate oxide film and the cell gate oxide film is formed with a thickness of 100 Å or less, the first polysilicon layer is formed with a thickness in the range of 300 Å to 700 Å, and the nitride film is formed with a thickness in the range of 800 Å to 1200 Å.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the stripping of the nitride film includes pre-treating the nitride film by using an oxide etch solution containing HF and stripping the nitride film by using a solution comprising H 3 PO 4 .

11. The method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising:

stripping the photoresist pattern and organic contaminant using a PIRANHA cleaning solution after etching the field oxide films in the low-voltage transistor and cell regions; and

stripping particles and organic contaminant using a SC-1 cleaning solution.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the photoresist pattern is hardened by means of a descum process at a temperature in the range of 80° C. to 140° C.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the BOE solution is a solution in which NH 4 F and HF are mixed in a ratio of 9:1, or 300:1.

14. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein a field oxide film etch target using the BOE solution is set by differences in EFHs between the field oxide films in the high-voltage transistor region and the field oxide films in the low-voltage transistor and cell regions.

15. A method of manufacturing a flash memory device, comprising: forming a cell gate oxide film, a high-voltage gate oxide film and a low-voltage gate oxide film on a semiconductor substrate in which a cell region, a high-voltage transistor region and a low-voltage transistor region are defined;

forming a first polysilicon layer and a nitride film on the gate oxide films;

sequentially etching the nitride film, the first polysilicon layer, the gate oxide films and the semiconductor substrate to form a plurality of trenches for isolating the respective regions;

depositing an oxide film on the entire structure and then polishing the oxide and nitride films to a given thickness, whereby field oxide films having a high EFH are formed in each of the cell and the low-voltage transistor regions and field oxide films having a low EFH are formed in the high-voltage transistor region;

forming a photoresist pattern on top of the nitride film and the field oxide films having the low EFH in the high 0 voltage transistor region; and

performing an etching process to etch selectively the field oxide films in the low-transistor and cell regions having the high EFHs to reduce differences in the EFHs of the high-voltage transistor region and the low-voltage transistor and cell regions by a given thickness using a BOE solution and the photoresist pattern as an etch mask thereby, the field oxide films of the cell and the low-voltage and high voltage transistor regions have a different height;

stripping the nitride film remaining after the polishing process; and

forming a second polysilicon layer on the entire srtucture.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the high-voltage gate oxide films are formed with a thickness in the range of 300 Å to 500 Å, the low-voltage gate oxide film and the cell gate oxide film are formed with a thickness of 100 Å or less, the first polysilicon layer is formed with a thickness of 300 Å to 700 Å, and the nitride film is formed with a thickness in the range of 800 Å to 1200 Å.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the process of stripping the remaining nitride film includes pre-treating the remaining nitride film by using an oxide etch solution containing HF and stripping the remaining nitride film by using a solution comprising H 3 PO 4 .

18. The method as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising:

stripping the photoresist pattern and organic contaminant using a PIRANHA cleaning solution after etching the field oxide film in the cell and the low-voltage transistor; and

stripping particles and organic contaminant using a SC-1 cleaning solution.

19. The method as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the photoresist pattern is hardened by means of a descum process at a temperature in the range of 80□to 140□.

20. The method as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the BOE solution is a solution in which NH 4 F and HF are mixed in a ratio of 9:1 or 300:1.

21. The method as claimed in claim 15 , wherein a field oxide film etch target using the BOE solution is set using differences in the EFHs between the field oxide films in the high-voltage transistor region and the field oxide films in the low-voltage transistor and cell regions.

Assignments (10)