1. Technical Field
The inventive concept relates to methods of fabricating semiconductor devices. More particularly, the inventive concept relates to a semiconductor device including a gate electrode and to a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
The fabricating of semiconductor devices entails forming various patterns using a mask. An example of such a patterning process is the etching of a silicon-containing conductive layer to form a conductive pattern such as a pattern of gate electrodes. The patterning process is followed by a deposition process in which an interlayer dielectric is deposited to fill the space between the gate electrodes. However, when the silicon-containing conductive layer is etched, byproducts of the etching process are produced on the mask. A void or a seam may be formed in the interlayer dielectric due to the etch byproducts. The void or the seam can degrade the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds