Dielectric stack
View Patent ↗A method of forming a device is disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate and forming a device layer on the substrate having a formed thickness T FD . A capping layer is formed on the substrate having a formed thickness T FC . Forming the capping layer consumes a desired amount of the device layer to cause the thickness of the device layer to be about the target thickness T TD . The thickness of the capping layer is adjusted from T FC to about a target thickness T TC .
1. A method of forming a device comprising:
providing a substrate;
forming a device layer on the substrate having a formed thickness T FD ;
forming a capping layer on the substrate having a formed thickness T FC , wherein forming the capping layer consumes a desired amount of the device layer to cause the thickness of the device layer to be about the target thickness T TD and wherein the amount of consumption of the device layer depends on the amount of growth of the capping layer; and
adjusting the thickness of the capping layer from T FC to about a target thickness T TC .
2. The method of claim 1 further comprises thermally forming a dielectric layer prior to forming the device layer.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprises measuring the T FD to obtain a measured thickness of the device layer T MD .
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the T FC is determined or calculated from the T MD .
5. The method of claim 1 wherein adjusting the T FC to about the T TC comprises etching.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the device layer comprises a charge storage layer.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the device layer comprises a nitride material and the capping layer comprises a thermally grown oxide material.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the capping layer is formed by thermal oxidation.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the capping layer comprises selecting a recipe which determines the TFC and an amount of consumption of the device layer.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein adjusting the T FC to about the T TC comprises wet etch or wet clean.
11. A method of forming a device comprising:
forming a base dielectric layer on a substrate having a base target thickness T TB ;
forming a storage dielectric layer over the base dielectric layer, the storage dielectric layer having a storage formed thickness T FS ;
forming an upper dielectric layer over the storage dielectric layer having a upper formed thickness T FU , wherein forming the upper dielectric layer consumes a desired amount of the storage dielectric layer to produce a storage dielectric layer with a storage target thickness T TS ; and
adjusting T FU of the upper dielectric layer to about an upper target thickness T TU .
12. The method of claim 11 wherein adjusting T FU comprises etching the upper dielectric layer.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the base, storage and upper dielectric layers form a dielectric stack of a non-volatile memory.
14. A method of forming a device comprising:
providing a substrate;
forming a dielectric device layer on the substrate having a formed thickness T FD ; and
forming a dielectric capping layer on the substrate having a formed thickness T FC , wherein forming the capping layer consumes a desired amount of the device layer to cause the thickness of the device layer to be about the target thickness T TD .
15. The method of claim 14 further comprises adjusting the thickness of the capping layer from T FC to about a target thickness T TC .
16. The method of claim 15 further comprises forming a base layer in between the substrate and the device layer.
17. The method of claim 14 further comprises measuring the T FD to obtain a measured thickness of the device layer T MD .
18. The method of claim 17 wherein forming the capping layer comprises selecting a recipe which determines the T FC and an amount of consumption of the device layer.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the selected recipe depends on the measured T MD .
20. The method of claim 14 wherein the amount of consumption of the device layer depends on the amount of growth of the capping layer.