Methods of forming semiconductor devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10811355-B2
Application number	US-201816200902-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2018
Priority date	Aug 28, 2015
Publication date	Oct 20, 2020
Grant date	Oct 20, 2020

Abstract

A semiconductor device including conductive lines is disclosed. First conductive lines each comprise a first portion, a second portion, and an enlarged portion, the enlarged portion connecting the first portion and the second portion of the first conductive line. The semiconductor device includes second conductive lines, at least some of the second conductive lines disposed between a pair of the first conductive lines, each second conductive line including a larger cross-sectional area at an end portion of the second conductive line than at other portions thereof. The semiconductor device includes a pad on each of the first conductive lines and the second conductive lines, wherein the pad on each of the second conductive lines is on the end portion thereof and the pad on each of the first conductive lines is on the enlarged portion thereof.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
forming a first group of conductive lines comprising first conductive lines extending in a first direction;
forming a conductive contact on each first conductive line on an enlarged portion of the respective first conductive line at an end portion located at a terminal region of the respective first conductive line, the conductive contact of at least one first conductive line longitudinally aligned with and laterally offset from the conductive contact of at least another first conductive line;
forming a second group of conductive lines comprising second conductive lines extending in the first direction, forming the second group of conductive lines comprising forming each second conductive line to be located adjacent to at least one of the first conductive lines; and
forming a conductive contact on each of the second conductive lines on an enlarged portion of the respective second conductive line and between end portions thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein forming a second group of conductive lines extending in the first direction comprises forming about the same number of second conductive lines as a number of the first conductive lines.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein forming a conductive contact on each first conductive line on an enlarged portion of the respective first conductive line at an end portion located at a terminal region of the respective first conductive line comprises forming about one-half of the conductive contacts of the first conductive lines at a first terminal region of the first conductive lines and forming about one-half of the conductive contacts of the first conductive lines at a second, opposite terminal region of the first conductive lines.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein forming about one-half of the conductive contacts of the first conductive lines at a first terminal region of the first conductive lines comprises forming the conductive contacts of the first conductive lines at the first terminal region of the first conductive lines to be laterally and longitudinally offset from at least one other of the conductive contacts of the first conductive lines at the first terminal region and longitudinally aligned with at least a second other of the conductive contacts of the first conductive lines at the first terminal region.

5. A method of forming a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
forming lines of a photoresist material on a semiconductor device, each line of the photoresist material comprising a widened portion relative to other portions of the respective line of photoresist material;
forming spacers on sidewalls of the lines of the photoresist material;
removing the lines of the photoresist material;
removing portions of a sacrificial material and an oxide material through openings between the spacers;
removing the spacers and the sacrificial material and leaving first loops of the oxide material;
forming a nitride material over the oxide material and forming another oxide material over the nitride material;
removing a portion of the nitride material to form second loops comprising the nitride material and the another oxide material; and
transferring a pattern of the first loops and the second loops to an underlying conductive material and removing a portion of the underlying conductive material to form a pattern of conductive lines, at least some of the conductive lines of the pattern of conductive lines having a widened portion relative to other portions of the respective conductive lines.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising removing the photoresist material from between end portions of the lines of the photoresist material while a portion of the photoresist material remains at the end portions of the lines of the photoresist material.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein forming a pattern of conductive lines comprises forming four times as many conductive lines as lines of the photoresist material.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein forming a pattern of conductive lines comprises forming about one-half of the conductive lines of the pattern of conductive lines comprising the widened portion at end portions thereof and about one-half of the conductive lines of the pattern of conductive lines comprising the widened portion between end portions thereof.

9. The method of claim 5 , further comprising forming conductive contacts on the widened portion of the conductive lines, wherein forming conductive contacts on the widened portion of the conductive lines comprises:
forming a conductive contact between end portions of a first set of conductive lines to be longitudinally and laterally offset from other conductive contacts; and
forming a conductive contact at end portions of a second set of conductive lines, some of the conductive contacts at end portions of the second set of conductive lines longitudinally offset from other conductive contacts of the second set of conductive lines.

10. The method of claim 5 , further comprising trimming the lines of photoresist material prior to forming spacers on sidewalls of the lines of photoresist material.

11. The method of claim 5 , wherein forming a pattern of conductive lines comprises forming adjacent conductive lines of the pattern of conductive lines to be spaced from each other by between about 10 nm and about 20 nm.

12. A method of forming a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
forming spacers on sides of lines of a photoresist material;
removing the lines of the photoresist material to form a pattern of the spacers;
transferring the pattern of the spacers to an oxide material and removing the spacers to form first lines comprising the oxide material;
forming a nitride material over the first lines;
forming another oxide material over the nitride material;
removing a portion of the another oxide material to expose at least a portion of the nitride material while at least another portion of the another oxide material remains;
removing exposed portions of the nitride material to form second lines comprising the another oxide material and the nitride material between adjacent first lines; and
transferring a pattern of the first lines and the second lines to a conductive material to form conductive lines.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein removing exposed portions of the nitride material comprises selectively removing the exposed portions of the nitride material relative to the another oxide material.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising forming conductive contacts proximate end portions of about one half of the conductive lines.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising forming conductive contacts between end portions of another about one half of the conductive lines.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein transferring a pattern of the first lines and the second lines to a conductive material to form conductive lines comprises removing portions of the conductive material to electrically isolate the conductive lines from each other.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein transferring a pattern of the first lines and the second lines to a conductive material to form conductive lines comprises:
forming about one half of the conductive lines to have an enlarged portion between end portions thereof; and
forming about another one half of the conductive lines to have a larger cross-sectional area at an end portion thereof than at other portions thereof.

18. The method of claim 12 , further comprising forming conductive contac

Assignees

• Micron Technology Inc

Inventors

• Brown William R
• Russon Jenna L
• Bossart Tim H
• Watson Brian R
• Mirin Nikolay A
• Kewley David A

Classifications

• H10W20/0633

  using subtractive patterning of the conductive members · CPC title

• H10P74/277

  Circuits for electrically characterising or monitoring manufacturing processes, e.g. circuits in tested chips or circuits in testing wafers · CPC title

• H10P74/273

  Interconnections for measuring or testing, e.g. probe pads · CPC title

• H10P74/27

  Structural arrangements therefor · CPC title

• H10P76/4085

  characterised by the processes involved to create the masks · CPC title