BACKGROUND

The semiconductor industry has experienced rapid growth due to continuous improvements in the integration density of a variety of electronic components (e.g., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.). For the most part, this improvement in integration density has come from repeated reductions in minimum feature size, which allows more components to be integrated into a given area.

Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) devices are becoming commonly used in integrated circuits. FinFET devices have a three-dimensional structure that comprises a semiconductor fin protruding from a substrate. A gate structure, configured to control the flow of charge carriers within a conductive channel of the FinFET device, wraps around the semiconductor fin. For example, in a tri-gate FinFET device, the gate structure wraps around three sides of the semiconductor fin, thereby forming conductive channels on three sides of the semiconductor fin.

