Freescale Assigned Patent

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,716,089) developed by Mark D. Hall, Frank K. Baker Jr. and Mehul D. Shroff, Austin, TX, for “integrating formation of a replacement gate transistor and a non-volatile memory cell having thin film storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A thermal oxide is formed in an NVM region and a logic region. A polysilicon layer is formed over the thermal oxide and patterned to form a dummy gate and a select gate in the logic and NVM regions, respectively. A first dielectric layer is formed in the NVM and logic regions which surrounds the select gate and dummy gate. The first dielectric layer is removed from the NVM region and protected in the logic region. A charge storage layer is formed over the select gate. The dummy gate is removed, forming an opening. A second dielectric layer is formed over the select gate and within the opening, and a gate layer is formed over the second dielectric layer and within the opening, wherein the gate layer within the opening forms a logic gate and the gate layer is patterned to form a control gate in the NVM region.”

The patent application was filed on March 8, 2013 (13/790,225).