Samsung patents 3D chip design with vertical channels and dummy supports
Samsung describes a semiconductor device where a memory cell structure sits on top of a peripheral circuit. The design features a vertical channel that extends through stacked layers, connected by a contact plug that reaches down to lower gate electrodes. Insulating spacers surround this plug and attach to a dummy structure with protrusions to provide support.
In the filing’s own words
The concepts discussed herein provide a device including a cell structure on top of a periphery circuit structure. The cell structure includes an alternating stack of gate electrodes and mold insulating layers. A contact plug connects to a specific gate electrode and extends downward into others below it. The contact plug is surrounded by insulating spacers with both vertical and horizontal extension units. The vertical extension units are in contact with the contact plug. The insulating spacers are also coupled with a dummy structure, which has a main body and multiple protrusions.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A semiconductor device comprising: a periphery circuit structure; and a cell structure on the periphery circuit structure, comprising: a cell region, a connection region, a plurality of gate electrodes, a plurality of mold insulating layers alternately arranged with the plurality of gate electrodes on the cell region and the connection region in a first direction that is perpendicular to an upper surface of the periphery circuit structure, a channel structure configured to extend into the plurality of gate electrodes in the first direction, a contact plug in contact with a first gate electrode of the plurality of gate electrodes in the connection region, wherein the contact plug extends into at least one second gate electrode of the plurality of gate electrodes that is under the first gate electrode, a dummy structure comprising a body that extends in the first direction and a plurality of protrusion units that extend from the body in a second direction that crosses the first direction, and a plurality of insulating spacers surrounding the contact plug and connected to at least one protrusion unit of the plurality of protrusion units, each insulating spacer of the plurality of insulating spacers comprising vertical extension units in contact with at least one sidewall of the contact plug, and horizontal extension units that extend from the vertical extension unit in the second direction.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
- Official title
- SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING VERTICAL CHANNEL
- Publication number
- US20260282382A1
- Application number
- 19337367
- Filed
- Sep 23, 2025
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H10B 51/40 Electricity & electronicsG11C 5/063 Physics & computingG11C 16/0483 Physics & computingH10B 51/10 Electricity & electronicsH10B 51/20 Electricity & electronicsH10D 80/30 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.