SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND METHOD FOR FABRICATING THE SAME

1 . A semiconductor device comprising:

a base substrate;

a lower electrode formed on a main surface of the base substrate; and

an insulating film formed over the lower electrode and the main surface of the base substrate and having a contact hole defined by a wall extending upwardly from a top surface of the lower electrode, the insulating film having a film density distribution in which a film density decreases with increasing distance from the main surface of the base substrate in a thickness direction of the insulating film, the contact hole having a width which increases as the film density decreases.

2 . The semiconductor device as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising:

an underlying metal layer continuously formed on both the top surface of the lower electrode and the wall of the insulating film; and

an upper electrode formed on the underlying metal layer.

3 . The semiconductor device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the insulating film includes a nitride film.

4 . The semiconductor device as set forth in claim 2 , wherein the upper electrode is formed by a plating process using the underlying metal layer as a seed layer.

5 . The semiconductor device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the base substrate includes a semiconductor substrate on which a semiconductor device element is formed.

6 . A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising:

depositing an insulating film over a main surface of a base substrate and a lower electrode formed on the main surface, by changing a process condition gradually or step-by-step for depositing the insulating film so as to decrease a film density with increasing time; and

selectively etching the insulating film thereby to form a contact hole in the insulating film, the contact hole being defined by a wall extending upwardly from a top surface of the lower electrode.

7 . The method of fabricating a semiconductor device as set forth in claim 6 , further comprising:

forming an underlying metal layer as a continuous layer on both an exposed portion of the top surface and one wall; and

forming an upper electrode on the underlying metal layer.

8 . The method of fabricating a semiconductor device as set forth in claim 6 , wherein said depositing an insulating film is performed by using a plasma chemical vapor deposition system.

9 . The method of fabricating a semiconductor device as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the plasma chemical vapor deposition system includes:

a pair of opposed electrodes being spaced apart from each other;

a gas supply system for supplying source gases for forming the insulting film; and

an AC power source for supplying an electric power to at least one of the opposed electrodes thereby to generate plasma decomposing the source gases into activated species, the AC power source supplying the electric power that decreases with said increasing time thereby to change the process condition gradually or step-by-step.

10 . The method of fabricating a semiconductor device as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the AC power source includes:

a low-frequency power source for supplying a first electric power in a low-frequency range, the first electric power decreasing with said increasing time thereby to change the process condition gradually or step-by-step;

a high-frequency power source for supplying a second electric power in a high-frequency range higher than the low-frequency range; and

a power combiner for combining the first and second electric powers thereby to generate the electric power.

11 . The method of fabricating a semiconductor device as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the gas supply system supplies the source gases for forming a nitride film as the insulating film.

12 . The method of fabricating a semiconductor device as set forth in claim 7 , wherein said forming an underlying metal layer is performed by a sputtering process.