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 semiconductor device having favorable electrical characteristics is provided. A semiconductor device having stable electrical characteristics is provided. A highly reliable semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer, a first insulating layer, and a first conductive layer. The semiconductor layer includes an island-shaped top surface. The first insulating layer is provided in contact with a top surface and a side surface of the semiconductor layer. The first conductive layer is positioned over the first insulating layer and includes a portion overlapping with the semiconductor layer. In addition, the semiconductor layer includes a metal oxide, and the first insulating layer includes an oxide. The semiconductor layer includes a first region overlapping with the first conductive layer and a second region not overlapping with the first conductive layer. The first insulating layer includes a third region overlapping with the first conductive layer and a fourth region not overlapping with the first conductive layer. Furthermore, the second region and the fourth region contain phosphorus or boron.

Methods of synthesis and fabrication of a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) structures are disclosed. A method can include first patterning a transition metal (TM) on a substrate and placing the substrate in a process chamber. Oxygen can be applied to the transition metal on the substrate and a mixture of highly reactive transition metal oxides can be formed and simultaneously thinned down by sublimation. Finally, a chalcogen can be applied to the substrate and a transition metal dichalcogenide structure can be formed.

Disclosed is a method of manufacturing multilayer graphene, including (a) contacting of a metal substrate with a nonmetal element, (b) reduction through heat treatment, and (c) chemical vapor deposition of a graphene precursor on the metal substrate containing the nonmetal element dissolved therein, thereby manufacturing multilayer graphene that is doped with the nonmetal element on the metal substrate. In the multilayer graphene thus manufactured, the number of graphene layers and the work function are simultaneously adjusted by controlling the concentration of doped nonmetal element in a thickness direction of graphene through interactions related to the reduction of the nonmetal element dissolved in a copper catalyst and the growth of graphene, and moreover, the stacking structure of graphene is maintained and the optoelectronic properties of multilayer graphene can be controlled by simultaneously regulating graphene growth and doping during the synthesis procedure without additional processing.

A germanium semiconductor layer doped with a dopant such as boron becomes a p-type semiconductor. The semiconductor layer is preheated at a preheating temperature ranging from 200 C. to 300 C., and then heated at a treatment temperature ranging from 500 C. to 900 C., by extremely short-time irradiation of flash light. While oxygen is unavoidably mixed in germanium and becomes a thermal donor at 300 C. to 500 C., the semiconductor layer stays in a temperature range of 300 C. to 500 C. for a negligibly short period of time due to an extremely short irradiation time of 0.1 milliseconds to 100 milliseconds by the flash light. Therefore, the thermal donor can be prevented from being generated in the germanium semiconductor layer.

Implementations of a method for healing a crack in a semiconductor substrate may include identifying a crack in a semiconductor substrate and heating an area of the semiconductor substrate including the crack until the crack is healed.

A heat treatment apparatus includes a heating unit provided around a processing container accommodating a substrate; a plurality of blowing units configured to blow a cooling medium into a space between the processing container and the heating unit; and a shutter configured to simultaneously opens/closes at least two of the plurality of blowing units and including a slit formed corresponding to each of the blowing units.

Film information about a thin film formed on the front surface of a semiconductor wafer, substrate information about the semiconductor wafer, and an installation angle of an upper radiation thermometer are set and input. Emissivity of the front surface of the semiconductor wafer formed with a multilayer film is calculated based on the various kinds of information. Further, a weighted average efficiency of the emissivity of the front surface of the semiconductor wafer is determined based on a sensitivity distribution of the upper radiation thermometer. Front surface temperature of the semiconductor wafer at the time of heat treatment is measured using the determined weighted average efficiency of the emissivity. The emissivity is determined based on the film information and the like, so that the front surface temperature of the semiconductor wafer can be accurately measured even when thin films are formed in multiple layers.

A method of doping a substrate. The method may include providing a substrate in a process chamber. The substrate may include a semiconductor structure, and a dopant layer disposed on a surface of the semiconductor structure. The method may include maintaining the substrate at a first temperature for a first interval, the first temperature corresponding to a vaporization temperature of the dopant layer. The method may further include rapidly cooling the substrate to a second temperature, less than the first temperature, and heating the substrate from the second temperature to a third temperature, greater than the first temperature.

A laser annealing device includes: a CW laser device configured to emit continuous wave laser light caused by continuous oscillation to preheat the amorphous silicon; a pulse laser device configured to emit the pulse laser light toward the preheated amorphous silicon; an optical system configured to guide the continuous wave laser light and the pulse laser light to the amorphous silicon; and a control unit configured to control an irradiation energy density of the continuous wave laser light so as to preheat the amorphous silicon to have a predetermined target temperature less than a melting point thereof, and configured to control at least one of a fluence and a number of pulses of the pulse laser light so as to crystallize the preheated amorphous silicon.