Semiconductor devices and methods for fabricating the same

1. A semiconductor device comprising:

isolation films in the substrate on opposite sides of an active region;

an upper trench in the active region of a semiconductor substrate;

a lower trench in a bottom of the upper trench, the lower trench being in communication with the upper trench;

a first insulating film on corner surface of the upper trench;

side gate patterns in corners of the upper trench adjacent the first insulating film;

a second insulating film consisting essentially of a thermal oxide on the lower trench and the side gate patterns, to define an effective space scale of the upper and lower trenches;

a main gate pattern adjacent the second insulating film within the upper and lower trenches; and

source and drain diffusion layers in the substrate on opposite sides of the side gate patterns and isolated from adjacent devices by the isolation films.

2. A method for fabricating a semiconductor device comprising:

forming isolation films on opposite sides of an active region;

forming an upper trench in the active region of a semiconductor substrate;

forming a first insulating film on an inside surface of the upper trench;

filling the upper trench with a side gate raw material layer;

etching back the side gate raw material layer to form side gate patterns spaced a distance away from each other in opposite side corners of the upper trench;

forming a lower trench in a bottom of the upper trench between the side gate patterns such that the lower trench is in communication with the lower trench;

forming a second insulating film consisting essentially of an oxide film formed by a thermal oxidation process on surfaces of the lower trench and the side gate patterns;

filling a volume defined by the second insulating film with a main gate pattern; and

forming source and drain diffusion layers on opposite sides of the side gate patterns isolated from adjacent devices by the isolation films.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the upper trench has a depth of about 500 Ř2000 Å

4. A method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the side gate raw material layer has a thickness of about 500 Ř2000 Å.

5. A semiconductor device comprising:

isolation films in the substrate on opposite sides of an active region;

a trench defined in the active region of a semiconductor substrate, the trench having a T-shaped cross-section with a stem portion and a cross portion;

side gate patterns in opposite corners of the cross portion of the trench;

an insulating film consisting essentially of a thermal oxide on internal surfaces of the stem portion of the wench and on the side gate patterns to define a space;

a main gate pattern substantially filling the space defined by the insulating film; and

source and drain diffusion layers in the substrate on opposite sides of the side gate patterns and isolated from adjacent devices by the isolation films.

6. A method for fabricating a semiconductor device comprising:

forming isolation films on opposite sides of an active region;

forming a trench in the active region of a semiconductor substrate, the trench having an elongated, vertically oriented portion;

etching back a raw material layer to form side gate patterns in opposite side corners of an upper portion of the trench;

coating an insulating film consisting essentially of an oxide film formed by a thermal oxidation process on surfaces of the elongated, vertically oriented portion;

forming an elongated main gate by filling the elongated, vertically oriented portion with polysilicon to define an elongated current flow passage around the main gate; and

forming source and drain diffusion layers on opposite sides of the side gate patterns isolated from adjacent devices by the isolation films.

7. The semiconductor device of claim 1 , wherein the first insulating film comprises a thermal oxide.

8. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein forming the first insulating film comprises a thermal oxidation process.

9. The semiconductor device of claim 1 , further comprising a thermal oxide over the source and drain diffusion layers.

10. The method as claimed in claim 2 , further comprising forming a thermal oxide over the semiconductor substrate prior to forming the upper trench.

11. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein forming the lower trench comprises a reactive ion etch process.

12. The semiconductor device of claim 1 , wherein the side gate patterns comprise polysilicon.

13. The semiconductor device of claim 1 , wherein the main gate pattern comprises polysilicon.

14. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein forming the main gate pattern comprises depositing a polysilicon layer.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14 , wherein forming the main gate pattern comprises etching the polysilicon layer.

16. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein forming isolation films comprises either a shallow trench isolation process or a LOCOS process.

17. The device of claim 1 , wherein the second insulating film electrically insulates the side gate patterns from the main gate pattern.

18. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the second insulating film electrically insulates the side gate patterns from the main gate pattern.

19. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein varying the thickness of the second insulating film adjusts a thickness of a portion of the main gate pattern located in the lower trench.

20. The device of claim 1 , wherein a bottom surface of the main gate pattern is substantially deeper in the semiconductor substrate than the side gate patterns and the source and drain diffusion regions.