Patent · US Expired

Control trimming of hard mask for sub-100 nanometer transistor gate

US6482726B1 · kind B1 · utility

57Cited by
6References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 17, 2000
Grant dateNov 19, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 17, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10D30/0227
  • WIPO fieldSemiconductors
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method is provided, the method including forming a gate dielectric layer above a substrate layer, forming a gate conductor layer above the gate dielectric layer, forming a first hard mask layer above the gate conductor layer, and forming a second hard mask layer above the first hard mask layer. The method also includes forming a trimmed photoresist mask above the second hard mask layer, and forming a patterned hard mask in the second hard mask layer using the trimmed photoresist mask to remove portions of the second hard mask layer, the patterned hard mask having a first dimension. The method further includes forming a selectively etched hard mask in the first hard mask layer by removing portions of the first hard mask layer adjacent the patterned hard mask, the selectively etched hard mask having a second dimension less than the first dimension, and forming a gate structure using the selectively etched hard mask to remove portions of the gate conductor layer above the gate dielectric layer.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.