Provided are a method of forming a carbon layer and a method of forming an interconnect structure. The method of forming a carbon layer includes providing a substrate including first and second material layers, forming a surface treatment layer on at least one of the first and second material layers, and selectively forming a carbon layer on one of the first material layer and the second material layer. The carbon layer has an sp.sup.2 bonding structure.

According to the invention there is provided a method of filling one or more gaps created during manufacturing of a feature on a substrate by providing a deposition method comprising; introducing a first reactant to the substrate with a first dose, thereby forming no more than about one monolayer by the first reactant; introducing a second reactant to the substrate with a second dose. The first reactant is introduced with a subsaturating first dose reaching only a top area of the surface of the one or more gaps and the second reactant is introduced with a saturating second dose reaching a bottom area of the surface of the one or more gaps. A third reactant may be provided to the substrate in the reaction chamber with a third dose, the third reactant reacting with at least one of the first and second reactant.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided. In the method, impurities contained in a first layer formed on a substrate are removed by heating the first layer. On the first layer, a second layer is formed containing a component that forms a substance that is able to vaporize by reacting with the impurities.

Before formation of gate insulating films, an oblique ion implantation of oxygen into opposing sidewalls of trenches, from a top of an oxide film mask is performed, forming oxygen ion-implanted layers in surface regions of the sidewalls. A peak position of oxygen concentration distribution of the oxygen ion-implanted layers is inside the oxide film mask. After removal of the oxide film mask, HTO films constituting the gate insulating films are formed. During deposition of the HTO films, excess carbon occurring at the start of the deposition of the HTO films and in the gate insulating films reacts with oxygen in the oxygen ion-implanted layers, thereby becoming an oxocarbon and being desorbed. The oxygen ion-implanted layers have a thickness in a direction orthogonal to the sidewalls at most half of the thickness of the gate insulating films, and an oxygen concentration higher than any other portion of the semiconductor substrate.

A structure includes a first dielectric film and a second dielectric film. The second dielectric film is formed on and in contact with the first dielectric film, in which a first pore is formed between the first dielectric film and the second dielectric film, and a thickness of the first dielectric film is smaller than a diameter of the first pore.

Methods to improve front-side process uniformity by back-side metallization are disclosed. In some implementations, a metal layer is deposited on the back-side of a wafer prior to performing a plasma-based process on the front side of the wafer. Presence of the back-side metal layer reduces variations in, for example, thickness of a deposited and/or etched layer resulting from the plasma-based process.

A PERC solar cell capable of improving photoelectric conversion efficiency and a preparation method thereof are provided. The solar cell consecutively includes, from the bottom up, a rear silver electrode (1), a rear aluminum field (2), a rear silicon nitride film (3), a rear aluminum oxide film (4), P-type silicon (5), N-type silicon (6), a front silicon nitride film (7), and a front silver electrode (8). The rear aluminum field (2) is connected to the P-type silicon (5) via a rear aluminum strip (10). The P-type silicon (5) is a silicon wafer of the cell. The N-type silicon (6) is an N-type emitter formed by diffusion via the front surface of the silicon wafer. The front silicon nitride film (7) is deposited on the front surface of the silicon wafer. The rear aluminum oxide film (4) is deposited on the rear surface of the silicon wafer. The rear aluminum oxide film (3) is deposited after the front silicon nitride film (7) is deposited on the silicon wafer, and the rear surface of the silicon wafer is washed before depositing the rear aluminum oxide film (3). The cell can significantly improves passivation effect of the rear aluminum oxide film and improve the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of the cell, thereby increasing photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cell.

Methods and associated devices including the fabrication of a semiconductor structure are described that include epitaxially growing a stack of layers alternating between a first composition and a second composition. The stack of layers extends across a first region and a second region of a semiconductor substrate. The stack of layers in the second region of the semiconductor substrate may be etched to form an opening. A passivation process is then performed that includes introducing chlorine to at least one surface of the opening. After performing the passivation process, an epitaxial liner layer is grown in the opening.

Processing platforms having a central transfer station with a robot and an environment having greater than or equal to about 0.1% by weight water vapor, a pre-clean chamber connected to a side of the transfer station and a batch processing chamber connected to a side of the transfer station. The processing platform configured to pre-clean a substrate to remove native oxides from a first surface, form a blocking layer using a alkylsilane and selectively deposit a film. Methods of using the processing platforms and processing a plurality of wafers are also described.

A method for manufacturing a dielectric layer includes forming a first dielectric film over a substrate. A first porogen is deposited over the first dielectric film. A second dielectric film is formed on and in contact with the first dielectric film and the first porogen. The first porogen is removed.