Method for fabricating word lines of NAND memory and NAND memory comprising word lines fabricated by adopting the same
View Patent ↗Embodiments described herein relate to a method for fabricating word lines of a NAND memory. In the process for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory, by adding a sacrificial pattern at a position close to a core layer or a sidewall of a select transistor at the edge of the word lines, the actual word line pattern is not at the outermost edge of the pattern, the pattern density of the edge word line pattern is closer to the pattern density of the middle word line pattern, the morphology and size of the edge word line are closer to the morphology and size of the middle area during core layer etching and sidewall etching, and thus the uniformity of the finally etched word lines is improved.
1. A method for fabricating word lines of a NAND memory, wherein the method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory comprises:
S 1 : depositing a core layer on a to-be-etched layer, performing exposure and development by adopting a word line mask, forming a plurality of word line patterns through photoresist, the plurality of word line patterns forming a word line pattern area, and respectively forming sacrificial patterns through photoresist on two sides of the word line pattern area, the width of the sacrificial pattern being equal to the width of the word line pattern, a spacing between the sacrificial pattern and the word line pattern, a spacing between the sacrificial patterns and a spacing between the word line patterns being equal;
S 2 : etching the core layer by using the photoresist in step S 1 as a masking film, and removing a remaining photoresist to form a word line core layer pattern and a sacrificial core layer pattern;
S 3 : shrinking the word line core layer pattern and the sacrificial core layer pattern through a shrinking process;
S 4 : performing a sidewall deposition process and then performing a sidewall etching process to form word line core layer pattern sidewalls and sacrificial core layer pattern sidewalls on two sides of the word line core layer pattern and the sacrificial core layer pattern respectively;
S 5 : removing the core layer to form word line sidewalls and sacrificial sidewalls; and
S 6 : performing exposure and development by adopting a select transistor mask to enable select transistor photoresist to cover at least part of the sacrificial sidewalls, and then etching the to-be-etched layer by using the select transistor photoresist and the sacrificial sidewalls as a masking layer to form select transistors and word lines.
2. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the number of the sacrificial patterns in step S 1 is two.
3. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 2 , wherein two sacrificial core layer patterns are formed in step S 2 .
4. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 3 , wherein the number of the sacrificial sidewalls formed in step S 5 is four.
5. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein a material of the core layer in step S 1 is silicon oxide, silicon nitride or polysilicon.
6. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 5 , wherein a material of the sidewalls in step S 4 is silicon oxide, silicon nitride or polysilicon, and is different from the material of the core layer.
7. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the core layer is formed by adopting low pressure chemical vapor deposition or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
8. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the core layer is etched by adopting a dry etching process in step S 2 .
9. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the shrinking process is performed by adopting a wet etching process in step S 3 .
10. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the width of the word line core layer pattern and the sacrificial core layer pattern is reduced by a half through the shrinking process.
11. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the sidewalls in step S 4 are formed by adopting low pressure chemical vapor deposition or low-temperature atomic layer deposition.
12. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the sidewall etching process in step S 4 etches out materials at positions other than a required width of the sidewalls on the two sides of the word line core layer pattern and the sacrificial core layer pattern on the to-be-etched layer, and the materials deposited on the word line core layer pattern and the sacrificial core layer pattern through the sidewall deposition process.
13. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 12 , wherein the required width of the sidewalls is equal to the width of prefabricated word lines.
14. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the core layer is removed by adopting a wet process in step S 5 .
15. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 14 , wherein wet solution for the wet process is a high-selectivity etchant.
16. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein the select transistor photoresist covers at least three sacrificial sidewalls in step S 6 .
17. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein in step S 6 , a boundary of the select transistor photoresist close to the word line sidewall is located at a middle position of one sacrificial sidewall.
18. The method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory according to claim 1 , wherein in step S 6 , a side of the select transistor photoresist far away from the word line sidewall at least covers ½ of the sacrificial sidewall farthest away from the word line sidewall.
19. A NAND memory, wherein the NAND memory comprises word lines fabricated by adopting the method for fabricating the word lines of the NAND memory claimed by claim 1 .