Fabrication of a vertical fin field effect transistor (vertical finFET) with a self-aligned gate and fin edges

1. A method of forming a vertical fin field effect transistor (vertical finFET) with a self-aligned gate structure, comprising:

forming a plurality of vertical fins on a substrate;

forming gate dielectric layers on at least opposite sidewalk of each vertical fin;

forming a gate fill layer between the vertical fins;

forming a fin-cut mask layer at least on predetermined portions of the gate fill layer;

forming one or more fin-cut mask trench(es) in the fin-cut mask layer; and

removing portions of the gate fill layer and portions of the vertical fins not covered by the fin-cut mask layer to form one or more fin trench(es), and to form two or more vertical fin segments from each of the plurality of vertical fins, wherein there is a separation distance, D 1 , between each of the two vertical fin segments.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the separation distance, D 1 , between the two vertical fin segments is in the range of about 10 nm to about 200 nm.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a fin liner in at least a portion of the one or more tin trench(es); and annealing the fin liner to form a doped layer on at least a portion of the vertical fin segments exposed in the fin trench(es).

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the fin liner is phospho-silicate glass (PSG), boro-silicate glass (BSG), or boro-phospho-silicate glass (BPSG), and annealing the fin liner is conducted at a temperature in the range of about 700° C. to about 1100° C.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the fin liner is conformally deposited by low pressure CVD (LPCVD).

6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising removing the fin liner and a portion of a doped region beneath the vertical fins to extend each of the one or more fin trench(es) to the substrate and form two doped region segments from each of the doped regions.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a dielectric fill in the one or more fin trench(es) between adjacent vertical fin segments.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a top source/drain on each of the vertical fin segments.

9. A method of forming a vertical fin field effect transistor (vertical finFET) with a self-aligned gate structure and doped layer, comprising:

forming a plurality of vertical fins on a substrate;

forming dielectric layers on at least opposite sidewalk of each vertical fin;

forming a bottom spacer layer on exposed portions of the substrate surface;

forming a gate fill layer on the bottom spacer layer between the vertical fins;

thinking a fin-cut mask layer at least on predetermined portions of the gate fill layer;

forming one or more fin-cut mask trench(es) in the fin-cut mask layer;

removing portions of the gate fill layer and portions of the vertical fins not covered by the fin-cut mask layer to form one or more fin trench(es), and to form two vertical fin segments from each of the plurality of vertical fins with a separation distance in the range of about 10 nm to about 200 nm between the two vertical fin segments;

forming a fin liner on at least a portion of the sidewalls of the one or more fin trench(es); and

annealing the fin liner to form a doped layer on at least a portion of the vertical fin segments exposed in the fin trench(es).

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising forming a dielectric fill in the one or more fin trench(es) between adjacent vertical fin segments.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of vertical fins are formed by a sidewall image transfer (SIT) process.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the fin-cut mask layer includes a fin-cut hardmask layer formed on predetermined portions of the gate fill layer, and a fin-cut softmask layer formed on the fin-cut hardmask layer.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein a mask alignment or realignment step is not required to form the fin trench, gate fill blocks, and vertical tin segments.

14. A vertical fin field effect transistor (vertical finFET) with a self-aligned gate structure, comprising:

two or more vertical fin segments formed in a column on the substrate, wherein there is a separation distance, D 1 , between each of the two or more vertical fin segments in the column;

one or more doped region segments formed in a substrate beneath at least one of the two or more vertical fin segments;

a gate dielectric layer on each of the opposing sidewalls of each vertical fin segment, wherein the vertical fin segments are separated by the separation distance, D 1 ; and

a conductive gate fill layer on the gate dielectric layer.

15. The vertical finFET of claim 14 , wherein the separation distance, D 1 , between the two vertical fin segments is in the range of about 10 nm to about 200 nm.

16. The vertical finFET of claim 14 , further comprising a doped layer on each endwall, wherein the doped layer includes a dopant concentration in the range of about 1×10 17 1/cm 3 to about 5×10 19 1/cm 3 .

17. The vertical finFET of claim 14 , wherein the doped layer extends into the vertical fin segment a depth in the range of about 2 nm to about 20 nm.

18. The vertical finFET of claim 14 , wherein the doped layer includes a boron dopant or a phosphorus dopant.

19. The vertical finFET of claim 14 , further comprising one or more bottom spacers formed on the substrate, a gate fill block formed on each of the one or more bottom spacer, and a top spacer formed on the gate fill blocks.

20. The vertical finFET of claim 19 , wherein the bottom spacer is silicon oxide, the gate dielectric layer is a high-k dielectric material, and the top spacer is silicon oxide.