The Metal Gate Cut Process Development

The technology of FinFET has led to the continuity of device scaling and enabled the prolongation of Moore’s Law towards the 7nm and beyond nodes. The metal gate cut(MGC) will be widely adopted since it can provide better SiP/SiGe growth environment, improve yield, and enhance electrical performance. However, this approach requires more complex process engineering at 3D structure. Both perfect physical structure and good electronic performance are challenging for metal gate cut last process. This paper will introduce metal gate cut process to form separation transistor. This definitely requires large CD shrinkage etch process to avoid lithography limitation and channel while meeting all the physical targets.