The invention discloses a method for forming the
gate stack of a 3D memory device. The method comprises the following steps that: an insulating stack structure is formed on a
semiconductor substrate;a step-shaped
mask layer is formed on the insulating laminated structure; a step-shaped insulating laminated structure is formed; and the insulating laminated structure is replaced with a gate laminated structure, and the height of the step-shaped
mask layer is set through the material and height of the insulating laminated structure. According to the method of the invention, a gray-scale photoetching method, a
nanoimprint lithography method, a gray-scale
mask plate photoetching method or an
ion beam gas-assisted deposition method is adopted to form a step-shaped
mask layer; a
semiconductor structure is etched by using
dry etching, so that the pattern of the
mask layer is transferred into the insulating laminated structure; and therefore, process steps are reduced, and
process complexity is reduced.