Vertical hall sensor, hall sensor module and method for manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016018478-A1
Application number	US-201514594499-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 12, 2015
Priority date	Jul 16, 2014
Publication date	Jan 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A vertical Hall sensor, a Hall sensor module, and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. By applying a trench structure inside a substrate with respect to a ground terminal, a directional component parallel to surface of the substrate is maximized with respect to a current flow to detect the magnetic field with improved sensitivity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A vertical Hall sensor comprising:
a first conductivity type substrate; an input terminal comprising a first conductivity type input contact region situated inside the substrate, wherein the input contact region is electrically connected to an input power source; a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal, each comprising trenches spaced apart from each other by an interval with the input terminal being at their center, an insulating layer disposed along the sidewalls of the trenches, and a first conductivity type ground contact region situated at bottoms of the trenches and electrically connected to a ground power source; and a first sensing terminal and a second sensing terminal, each comprising a first conductivity type sensing contact region, situated between the input terminal and the first output terminal and between the input terminal and the second output terminal in the substrate, respectively, wherein the sensing contact regions are configured to detect a Hall voltage.

2 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 ,
wherein the input terminal further comprises a trench having a depth, and a conductor formed inside the trench, and wherein the input contact region is formed at a bottom of the trench of the input terminal.

3 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 2 ,
wherein a depth of the trench of the input terminal is equal to or less than that of the trenches of the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal.

4 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 ,
wherein the first sensing terminal and the second sensing terminal each further comprise a trench having a depth and an insulating layer disposed along the sidewalls of the trench, and wherein the sensing contact regions of the first sensing terminal and the second sensing terminal are formed at bottoms of the trenches of the first sensing terminal and the second sensing terminal, respectively.

5 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 4 ,
wherein depths of the trenches of the first sensing terminal and the second sensing terminal are equal to or less than depths of the trenches of the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal.

6 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 ,
wherein the trenches of the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal are aligned in a ring structure.

7 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 , further comprising:
an isolation ground ring surrounding peripheries of the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal.

8 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 , further comprising:
an interlayer insulating layer disposed on the substrate, and contact plugs electrically connected to the input contact region, the ground contact regions, and the sensing contact regions, respectively.

9 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first field isolation layer disposed between the input terminal and the first sensing terminal and the input terminal and the second sensing terminal; and a second field isolation layer disposed between the first sensing terminal and the first ground terminal and the second sensing terminal and the second ground terminal.

10 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 , further comprising:
a sensing region that is a second conductivity type well disposed inside the substrate, wherein the input contact region, the ground contact regions and the sensing contact regions are formed in the second conductivity type well sensing region.

11 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 , further comprising:
a high concentration second conductivity type buried layer inside the substrate, wherein the input contact region, the ground contact regions, and the sensing contact regions are formed in the high concentration second conductivity type buried layer.

12 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 1 , wherein the vertical Hall sensor has a linear structure, a cross structure, or a bull's eye concentric round structure.

13 . A vertical Hall sensor comprising:
a first conductivity type substrate; an input terminal comprising a trench having a first depth, a conductor formed inside the trench, an insulating layer disposed along the sidewalls of the trench, and a first conductivity type input contact region situated at a bottom of the trench and electrically connected to an input power source; a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal each comprising a trench having a second depth, an insulating layer disposed along the sidewalls of the trench, and a first conductivity type ground contact region situated at a bottom of the trench and electrically connected to a ground power source, wherein the trenches are spaced apart from each other by an interval with the input terminal being their center; and a first sensing terminal and a second sensing terminal each comprising a trench having a third depth, an insulating layer disposed along the sidewalls of the trench, and a first conductivity type sensing contact region situated at a bottom of the trench, and configured to detect a Hall voltage.

14 . A vertical Hall sensor of claim 13 ,
wherein the first depth, second depth, and third depth are the same depth.

15 . A vertical Hall sensor of claim 13 ,
wherein the first depth is the same as the second depth, and greater than the third depth.

16 . A vertical Hall sensor of claim 13 ,
wherein the third depth is greater than the first depth, and less than the second depth.

17 . A method for manufacturing a vertical Hall sensor comprising:
disposing an input trench having a first depth and ground trenches having a second depth and spaced apart from each other by an interval with the input trench being their center in the first conductivity type substrate; disposing a first conductivity type contact region at bottoms of the input trench and the ground trenches; disposing an insulating layer along the sidewalls of the input trench and the ground trenches; disposing a conductor inside of the input trench and the ground trenches; disposing a first conductivity type sensing contact region between the input trench and the ground trenches in the substrate; disposing an interlayer insulating layer on the substrate; and disposing a contact plug electrically connected to each contact region in the interlayer insulating layer.

18 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
disposing a high concentration second conductivity type buried layer in the substrate; and disposing a low concentration second conductivity type sensing region in the substrate.

19 . A vertical Hall sensor comprising:
a substrate; an input terminal comprising an input contact region electrically connected to an input power source situated inside the substrate; a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal, each comprising trenches spaced apart from each other with the input terminal being at their center, an insulating layer disposed along the sidewalls of the trenches, and a ground contact region situated at bottoms of the trenches and electrically connected to the ground power sources; and a first sensing terminal situated between the input terminal and the first output terminal and a second sensing terminal between the input terminal and the second output terminal in the substrate, each comprising a sensing contact region configured to detect a Hall voltage.

20 . The vertical Hall sensor of claim 19 , wherein the substrate, the input contact region, the ground contact regions, and the sensing contact regions a

Assignees

• Magnachip Semiconductor Ltd

Inventors

• Hebert Francois

Classifications

• G01R33/077 Primary

  Vertical Hall-effect devices · CPC title

• G01R33/0052

  Manufacturing aspects; Manufacturing of single devices, i.e. of semiconductor magnetic sensor chips (devices based on galvano-magnetic effect or the like H10N50/85) · CPC title

• H01L43/14

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L43/04

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L43/065

  Electricity · mapped topic