US Patent Application 17804447. SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE PRE-CLEANING simplified abstract

SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE PRE-CLEANING

Organization Name

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.==Inventor(s)==

[[Category:Yi-Hsiang Chao of New Taipei City (TW)]]

[[Category:Chih-Sheng Chou of Changhua County (TW)]]

[[Category:Shu-Ting Yang of Taipei City (TW)]]

[[Category:Ting-Wei Weng of Hsinchu City (TW)]]

[[Category:Peng-Hao Hsu of Hsinchu City (TW)]]

[[Category:Chun-Hsien Huang of Hsinchu (TW)]]

[[Category:Hung-Hsu Chen of Tainan (TW)]]

[[Category:Hung-Chang Hsu of Kaohsiung (TW)]]

[[Category:Chih-Wei Chang of Hsin-Chu (TW)]]

[[Category:Ming-Hsing Tsai of Chu-Pei City (TW)]]

SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE PRE-CLEANING - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 17804447 titled 'SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE PRE-CLEANING

Simplified Explanation

- The patent application describes a technique for removing native oxides and contaminants from a semiconductor device without damaging the device. - A protection layer is formed on top of a capping layer that covers the gate structure of a transistor. - A pre-cleaning operation is performed to remove native oxides from the top surface of the source/drain region of the transistor. - During the pre-cleaning operation, the protection layer is consumed instead of the material of the capping layer. - This use of the protection layer reduces the likelihood of material being removed from the capping layer and minimizes the amount of material removed during the pre-cleaning operation.

Original Abstract Submitted

A pre-cleaning technique described herein may be used to remove native oxides and/or other contaminants from a semiconductor device in a manner in which the likelihood of chopping, clipping, and/or sidewall spacer thickness reduction is reduced. As described herein, a protection layer is formed on a capping layer over a gate structure of a transistor. A pre-cleaning operation is then performed to remove native oxides from the top surface of a source/drain region of the transistor. In the pre-cleaning operation, the protection layer is consumed instead of the material of the capping layer. In this way, the use of the protection layer reduces the likelihood of removal of material from the capping layer and/or reduces the amount of material that is removed from the capping layer during the pre-cleaning operation.