Granted Patent B2

US 12,575,145 · App. 17/936,417 · Granted Mar 10, 2026

Inventors: Jingyun Zhang (Albany, NY); Ruilong Xie (Niskayuna, NY); Julien Frougier (Albany, NY); Ruqiang Bao (Niskayuna, NY); Prabudhya Roy Chowdhury (Albany, NY)

Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation

H10D62/121H10D30/014H10D30/43H10D30/6757H10D84/0167H10D84/017H10D84/0188H10D84/038

Abstract

Claims (24)

1 . A method for forming a semiconductor device, the method comprising:

forming a first nanosheet;

forming a second nanosheet vertically stacked over the first nanosheet;

forming a gate around a channel region of the first nanosheet and a channel region of the second nanosheet; and

forming a middle dielectric isolation structure between the first nanosheet and the second nanosheet, the middle dielectric isolation structure comprising:

a first middle dielectric isolation layer; and

a second middle dielectric isolation layer vertically stacked over the first middle dielectric isolation layer;

wherein a portion of the gate extends between the first middle dielectric isolation layer and the second middle dielectric isolation layer in the middle dielectric isolation structure; and

wherein forming the middle dielectric isolation structure comprises:

forming a temporary isolation structure between the first nanosheet and the second nanosheet, the temporary isolation structure comprising a top sacrificial layer, a bottom sacrificial layer, and a middle sacrificial layer between the top sacrificial layer and the bottom sacrificial layer, the middle sacrificial layer having a first germanium concentration and the top sacrificial layer and the bottom sacrificial layer having a second germanium concentration higher than the first germanium concentration, thereby providing etch selectivity with respect to the middle sacrificial layer; and

replacing the top sacrificial layer and the bottom sacrificial layer with the first middle dielectric isolation layer and the second middle dielectric isolation layer, respectively.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a first nanosheet stack comprising the first nanosheet and one or more additional nanosheets; and

forming a second nanosheet stack comprising the second nanosheet and one or more additional nanosheets.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the semiconductor device comprises a stacked field effect transistor.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the gate comprises a common gate of the stacked field effect transistor.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the stacked field effect transistor comprises a complementary stacked field effect transistor comprising an nFET and a pFET.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the first nanosheet stack defines a portion of one of the nFET and the pFET and the second nanosheet stack defines a portion of the other one of the nFET and the pFET.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a first source or drain region in direct contact with sidewalls of the first nanosheet; and

forming a second source or drain region in direct contact with sidewalls of the second nanosheet.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising forming a middle interlayer dielectric between the first source or drain region and the second source or drain region, the middle interlayer dielectric in direct contact with sidewalls of the first middle dielectric isolation layer and sidewalls of the second middle dielectric isolation layer.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the first source or drain region comprises a first doping type and the second source or drain region comprises a second doping type opposite the first doping type.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the first middle dielectric isolation layer and a thickness of the second middle dielectric isolation layer is less than or equal to 10 nanometers.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (18)