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Samsung patents 3D memory design with mixed material layers

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Samsung describes a vertical memory chip design where the top part of the storage channels uses a different material structure than the rest. The filing details how these specific layers connect to the main circuitry to store data in a stacked format.

Why it mattersThis is a detailed engineering update that could help make future memory chips more efficient or compact, though it is too technical for most users to notice directly.

In the filing’s own words

A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor structure and a second semiconductor structure connected to the first semiconductor structure. The second semiconductor structure includes a conductive layer; a stack structure; an upper interconnection structure; an upper bonding structure; and channel structures extending into the stack structure in the first direction and protruding to an upper surface of the stack structure. Each of the channel structures includes a through-portion and a head portion and each of the channel structures includes a conductive spacer layer; a first buried insulating layer; a channel layer including a folded portion and a channel portion; a second buried insulating layer spaced apart from the first buried insulating layer; and a data storage structure disposed on an external side surface of the channel layer.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A semiconductor device, comprising: a first semiconductor structure including a first substrate, circuit elements on the first substrate, a lower interconnection structure connected to the circuit elements, and a lower bonding structure connected to the lower interconnection structure; and a second semiconductor structure connected to the first semiconductor structure on the first semiconductor structure, wherein the second semiconductor structure includes a conductive layer, a stack structure below the conductive layer and including interlayer insulating layers and gate electrodes stacked in a first direction perpendicular to a lower surface of the conductive layer, an upper interconnection structure below the stack structure, an upper bonding structure connected to the upper interconnection structure and bonded to the lower bonding structure, and channel structures extending into the stack structure in the first direction and protruding to an upper surface of the stack structure, wherein each of the channel structures includes a through-portion extending into the stack structure and a head portion protruding to the upper surface of the stack structure, wherein each of the channel structures includes a conductive spacer layer forming an outer region of the head portion and being in contact with the conductive layer, a first buried insulating layer on an internal side surface of the conductive spacer layer, a channel layer in the through-portion and including a folded portion covering a lower surface of the first buried insulating layer and a channel portion extending in the first direction from a lower end of the conductive spacer layer, a second buried insulating layer on an internal side surface of the channel layer and spaced apart from the first buried insulating layer, and a data storage structure on an external side surface of the channel layer.

Facts

Company
Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
Official title
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES WITH CHANNEL SPACER LAYERS OF DIFFERENT CRYSTALLINE PHASES
Publication number
US20260333692A1
Application number
19367045
Filed
Oct 23, 2025
Published
Oct 22, 2026
Inventors
5
Claims
20

Classified under

H10B 43/27 Electricity & electronicsH10B 80/00 Electricity & electronicsH10D 80/30 Electricity & electronicsH10W 90/00 Electricity & electronicsH10W 90/26 Electricity & electronicsH10W 90/792 Electricity & electronics

More from Samsung in Chips & hardware

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.