A novel borderless contact/interconnect technology using aluminum oxide etch stop for high performance SRAM and logic

To keep pace with scaled technology and the requirements of SRAM for embedded high speed microprocessor cache, we use borderless contacts with an Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ etch-stop and a combination of damascene and metal RIE local interconnect to achieve bulk 6T CMOS SRAM cell sizes from 34 to 15 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ (2-->4 Mb). The Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ etch stop is RIE etched allowing the simultaneous formation of dense borderless contacts and low-resistance local interconnect, unlike previous approaches that wet etch the Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/. We have fabricated 64 K CMOS SRAMs with 5 ns access time suitable for 2 Mb embedded 2.5 V, 0.25 pm L/sub EFF/ SRAM technology using salicide, oxide planarization, dry etched Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ etch stop, W damascene local interconnect layer, and two level AlCu metal. We have extended this technology to 4 Mb SRAM cells using a polycide gate stack damascene MO with contact to diffusion that is borderless to both gate and isolation edges, a second metal RIE local interconnect, and using a scaled device design.<<ETX>>