Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device

1. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:

forming a fin structure over a substrate;

forming a first insulating layer covering a bottom part of the fin structure;

forming a second insulating layer over the first insulating layer;

sculpting a side face of the fin structure protruding from the second insulating layer to have a plurality of non-etched portions and a plurality of etched portions having a narrower width than the plurality of non-etched portions;

oxidizing the sculpted fin structure so that a plurality of nanowires are formed in the plurality of non-etched portions, respectively, and the plurality of etched portions are oxidized to form oxide, wherein adjacent nanowires are connected by the oxide; and

releasing the plurality of nanowires by removing the oxide,

wherein the sculpting the fin structure includes:

(i) forming a cover layer on the side face and a top face of the fin structure, the cover layer being in contact with the second isolation insulating layer;

(ii) etching the second insulating layer to expose a part of the side face of the fin structure corresponding to one of the plurality of etched portions;

(iii) etching the exposed portion of the side face, while a part of the side face and the top of the fin structure is covered by the cover layer, to form the one of the plurality of etched portions; and

(iv) after (iii), further etching the second insulating layer, and removing the cover layer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein in (iii) the exposed portion is a portion between a bottom of the cover layer formed on the side face of the fin structure and an upper surface of the second insulating layer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein (i) to (iv) are repeated twice or more to form the plurality of etched portions.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein (i) to (iv) are repeated from a portion corresponding to an uppermost one of the plurality of etched portions to a portion corresponding to a bottommost one of the plurality of etched portions.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fin structure includes a hard mask layer on the top of the fin structure, and the cover layer is formed on the hard mask layer.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first insulating layer includes silicon oxide.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the channel cover layer includes one of SiN, SiCN, SiON and SiC.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the fin structure includes a channel region and source/drain regions, and

during the sculpting, the source/drain regions are covered by a source/drain cover layer.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the source/drain cover layer and the channel cover layer are made of the same material.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the source/drain cover layer and the channel cover layer are made of different material from each other.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the source/drain cover layer includes one of SiN, SiCN, SiON and SiC.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

after the sculpting, forming a sacrificial gate structure to cover the sculpted tin structure;

removing the source/drain cover layer;

forming source/drain epitaxial layers over the source/drain regions of the fin structure;

covering the source/drain epitaxial layers with a dielectric layer; and

removing the sacrificial gate structure, wherein:

after the sacrificial gate structure is removed, the oxidizing and the releasing are performed, and

a gate dielectric layer is formed over each of the released nanowires and a gate electrode layer is formed over the gate dielectric layer.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein a fin cover layer is disposed between the sacrificial gate structure and the sculpted fin structure.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein:

during the sculpting, the oxidizing and the releasing, the source/drain regions are covered by the source/drain cover layer, and

the method further comprises, after the releasing:

forming a sacrificial gate structure over the released nanowires;

removing the source/drain cover layer;

forming source/drain epitaxial layers over the source/drain regions of the fin structure;

covering the source/drain epitaxial layers with a dielectric layer;

removing the sacrificial gate structure; and

forming a gate dielectric layer over each of the nanowires and forming a gate electrode layer over the gate dielectric layer.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxidizing is performed by one of thermal oxidation, plasma oxidation and chemical oxidation.

16. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:

forming a fin structure over a substrate;

forming an isolation insulating layer covering a bottom part of the fin structure;

forming a first sacrificial gate structure over the fin structure;

forming sidewall spacers on opposing side faces of the first sacrificial gate structure;

removing the first sacrificial gate structure leaving the sidewall spacers;

sculpting a side face of a channel region of the fin structure protruding from the isolation insulating layer to have a plurality of non-etched portions and a plurality of etched portions having a narrower width than the plurality of non-etched portions;

oxidizing the sculpted fin structure so that a plurality of nanowires are formed in the plurality of non-etched portions, respectively, and the plurality of etched portions are oxidized to form oxide, wherein adjacent nanowires are connected by the oxide; and

releasing the plurality of nanowires by removing the oxide,

wherein the sculpting the fin structure includes:

(i) forming an insulating layer over the isolation insulating layer;

(ii) forming a cover layer on the side face and a top face of the fin structure and on the insulating layer;

(iii) etching the insulating layer to expose a part of the side face of the fin structure corresponding to one of the plurality of etched portions;

(iv) etching the exposed portion of the side face, while a part of the side face and the top of the fin structure is covered by the cover layer, to form the one of the plurality of etched portions; and

(v) after (iv), further etching the insulating layer, and removing the cover layer.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the fin structure includes a hard mask layer on the top of the fin structure, and the cover layer is formed on the hard mask layer.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising forming a source/drain cover layer after the sidewall spacers are formed,

wherein during the sculpting, source/drain regions of the tri structure are covered by the source/drain cover layer.

19. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:

forming a fin structure over a substrate;

forming a first sacrificial gate structure over the fin structure;

forming sidewall spacers on opposing side faces of the first sacrificial gate structure;

removing the first sacrificial gate structure leaving the sidewall spacers;

sculpting a channel region of the fin structure to have a plurality of non-etched portions and a plurality of etched portions having a narrower width than the plurality of non-etched portions;

forming a second sacrificial gate structure over the sculpted fin structure;

forming a source/drain epitaxial layer over a source/drain region of the fin structure;

covering the source/drain epitaxial layer;

removing the second sacrificial gate structure;

oxidizing the sculpted fin structure so that a plurality of nanowires are formed in the plurality of non-etched portions, respectively; and the plurality of etched portions are oxidized to form oxide; and

releasing the plurality of nanowires by removing the oxide.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein:

the fin structure incudes a hard mask layer thereon, and

the first sacrificial gate structure is formed over the fin structure with the hard mask layer.