There is provided a technique of forming an insulating film containing silicon oxide. A coating solution containing polysilazane is applied onto a wafer W, the solvent of the coating solution is volatilized, and the coating film is irradiated with ultraviolet rays in nitrogen atmosphere before performing a curing process. Dangling bonds are generated in silicon which is a pre-hydrolyzed site in polysilazane. Therefore, the energy for hydrolysis is reduced, and unhydrolyzed sites are reduced even when the temperature of the curing process is 350° C. Since efficient dehydration condensation occurs, the crosslinking rate is improved, and a dense (good-quality) insulation film is formed. By forming a protective film on the surface of the coating film to which ultraviolet rays irradiated, the reaction of dangling bonds prior to the curing process is suppressed.

Provided are electronic devices and methods of manufacturing the same. An electronic device may include a substrate, a gate electrode on the substrate, a ferroelectric layer between the substrate and the gate electrode, and a carbon layer between the substrate and the ferroelectric layer. The carbon layer may have an sp.sup.2 bonding structure.

A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a sacrificial layer on sidewalls of gate spacers disposed over a semiconductor layer, forming a first hafnium-containing gate dielectric layer over the semiconductor layer in a first trench disposed between the gate spacers, removing the sacrificial layer to form a second trench between the gate spacers and the first hafnium-containing gate dielectric layer, forming a second hafnium-containing gate dielectric layer over the first hafnium-containing gate dielectric layer and on the sidewalls of the gate spacers, annealing the first and the second hafnium-containing gate dielectric layers while simultaneously applying an electric field, and subsequently forming a gate electrode over the annealed first and second hafnium-containing gate dielectric layers.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is disclosed herein. The method includes forming a first layer of a first planarizing material over a patterned surface of a substrate, forming a second layer of a second planarizing material over the first planarizing layer, crosslinking a portion of the first planarizing material and a portion of the second planarizing material, and removing a portion of the second planarizing material that is not crosslinked. In an embodiment, the method further includes forming a third layer of a third planarizing material over the second planarizing material after removing the portion of the second planarizing material that is not crosslinked. The third planarizing material can include a bottom anti-reflective coating or a spin-on carbon, and an acid or an acid generator. The first planarizing material can include a spin-on carbon, and an acid, a thermal acid generator or a photoacid generator.

A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a thin film capacitor a silicon substrate having a silicon dioxide layer; an adhesion layer on the silicon dioxide layer, wherein the adhesion layer is a polar dielectric; a first electrode layer on the adhesion layer; a dielectric layer on the first electrode layer; and a second electrode layer on the dielectric layer. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Over a front surface of a silicon semiconductor wafer is deposited a high dielectric constant film with a silicon oxide film, serving as an interface layer, provided between the semiconductor wafer and the high dielectric constant film. After a chamber houses the semiconductor wafer, a chamber's pressure is reduced to be lower than atmospheric pressure. Subsequently, a gaseous mixture of ammonia and nitrogen gas is supplied into the chamber to return the pressure to ordinary pressure, and the front surface is irradiated with a flash light, thereby performing post deposition annealing (PDA) on the high dielectric constant film. Since the pressure is reduced once to be lower than atmospheric pressure and then returned to ordinary pressure, a chamber's oxygen concentration is lowered remarkably during the PDA. This restricts an increase in thickness of the silicon oxide film underlying the high dielectric constant film by oxygen taken in during the PDA.

A method for bonding a first substrate with a second substrate, with the following sequence: production of a first amorphous layer on the first substrate and/or production of a second amorphous layer on the second substrate, bonding of the first substrate with the second substrate at the amorphous layer or at the amorphous layers to form a substrate stack, irradiation of the amorphous layer or the amorphous layers with radiation in such a way that the amorphous layer or the amorphous layers is/are transformed into a crystalline layer or crystalline layers.

A self-assembled film-forming composition for orthogonally inducing, with respect to a substrate, a microphase separation structure in a layer including a block copolymer, in the whole surface of a coating film, even at high heating temperatures at which arrangement failure of the microphase separation of the block copolymer occurs. The self-assembled film-forming composition includes a block copolymer, and at least two solvents having different boiling points as a solvent. The block copolymer is obtained by bonding: a non-silicon-containing polymer having, as a structural unit, styrene, a derivative thereof, or a structure derived from a lactide; and a silicon-containing polymer having, as a structural unit, styrene substituted with silicon-containing groups. The solvent includes: a low boiling point solvent (A) having a boiling point of 160° C. or lower; and a high boiling point solvent (B) having a boiling point of 170° C. or higher.

Provided are an electronic device including a dielectric layer having an adjusted crystal orientation and a method of manufacturing the electronic device. The electronic device includes a seed layer provided on a substrate and a dielectric layer provided on the seed layer. The seed layer includes crystal grains having aligned crystal orientations. The dielectric layer includes crystal grains having crystal orientations aligned in the same direction as the crystal orientations of the seed layer.

Disclosed herein is a thin film structure, including a first conductive layer on a dielectric layer including a plurality of layers. Each of the plurality of layers includes a dopant layer containing a dopant A and a HfO.sub.2 layer to form a compound of Hf.sub.xA.sub.1-xO.sub.z (0<x<1, z is a real number). An uppermost layer of the plurality of layers is thickest among the plurality of layers. The first conductive layer contacts the uppermost layer.