Samsung patents semiconductor electrodes with varying stiffness
Samsung has been granted a patent for a semiconductor device featuring electrodes made of materials with different stiffness levels. The design uses a gradient where one material becomes less concentrated as you move horizontally across the electrode, potentially improving the device's structural or electrical performance.
In the filing’s own words
A semiconductor device includes a lower structure, first electrodes spaced apart from each other on the lower structure, a second electrode on the first electrodes, and a dielectric layer between the first electrodes and the second electrode. Each of the first electrodes includes a first element, a second element, and nitrogen (N). A degree of stiffness of a first nitride material including the first element is higher than a degree of stiffness of a second nitride material including the second element. Each of the first electrodes includes a region in which a ratio of a concentration of the first element in the region to a concentration of the second element in the region decreases in a horizontal direction, away from a side surface of each of the first electrodes.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A semiconductor device comprising: a lower structure; first electrodes spaced apart from each other on the lower structure; a second electrode on the first electrodes; and a dielectric layer between the first electrodes and the second electrode, wherein each of the first electrodes includes a first element, a second element, and nitrogen (N), a degree of stiffness of a first nitride material including the first element is higher than a degree of stiffness of a second nitride material including the second element, each of the first electrodes includes a region in which a concentration of the first element in the region gradually decreases and/or a concentration of the second element in the region gradually increases in a horizontal direction, away from a side surface of each of the first electrodes, and the horizontal direction is parallel to an upper surface of the lower structure.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
- Official title
- Semiconductor device
- Patent number
- US12750998B2
- Application number
- 18332876
- Filed
- Jun 12, 2023
- Granted
- Sep 29, 2026
- Inventors
- 5
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H10B 12/315 Electricity & electronicsH10B 12/033 Electricity & electronicsMore from Samsung in Chips & hardware
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.