A method and structure is provided in which germanium or a germanium tin alloy can be used as a channel material in either planar or non-planar architectures, with a functional gate structure formed utilizing either a gate first or gate last process. After formation of the functional gate structure, and contact openings within a middle-of-the-line (MOL) dielectric material, a hydrogenated silicon layer is formed that includes hydrogenated crystalline silicon regions disposed over the germanium or a germanium tin alloy, and hydrogenated amorphous silicon regions disposed over dielectric material. The hydrogenated amorphous silicon regions can be removed selective to the hydrogenated crystalline silicon regions, and thereafter a contact structure is formed on the hydrogenated crystalline silicon regions.

There is provided a technique, which includes: a process chamber where a substrate is processed; a microwave oscillator configured to supply microwaves to the process chamber; and a controller configured to be capable of controlling the microwave oscillator to perform: a heating process where the substrate is heated with a first microwave, among the supplied microwaves, supplied at a first microwave power so that a process of supplying the first microwave during a supply time and a process of stopping the supply of the first microwave during a stop time shorter than the supply time are performed a predetermined number of times or for a first predetermined time; and a modifying process in which the substrate is supplied with a second microwave, among the supplied microwaves, at a second microwave power higher than the first microwave power for a second predetermined time while maintaining the second microwave power.

In some embodiments, silicon-filled openings are formed having no or a low occurrence of voids in the silicon fill, while maintaining a smooth exposed silicon surface. In some embodiments, an opening in a substrate may be filled with silicon, such as amorphous silicon. The deposited silicon may have interior voids. This deposited silicon is then exposed to a silicon mobility inhibitor, such as an oxygen-containing species and/or a semiconductor dopant. The deposited silicon fill is subsequently annealed. After the anneal, the voids may be reduced in size and, in some embodiments, this reduction in size may occur to such an extent that the voids are eliminated.

A method and a device for prefixing substrates, whereby at least one substrate surface of the substrates is amorphized in at least one surface area, characterized in that the substrates are aligned and then make contact and are prefixed on the amorphized surface areas.

Provided are an oxide sintered compact whereby low carrier density and high carrier mobility are obtained when the oxide sintered compact is used to obtain an oxide semiconductor thin film by a sputtering method, and a sputtering target which uses the oxide sintered compact. This oxide sintered compact contains oxides of indium, gallium, and aluminum. The gallium content is from 0.15 to 0.49 by Ga/(In+Ga) atomic ratio, and the aluminum content is from 0.0001 to less than 0.25 by Al/(In+Ga+Al) atomic ratio. A crystalline oxide semiconductor thin film formed using this oxide sintered compact as a sputtering target is obtained at a carrier density of 4.0×10.sup.18 cm.sup.−3 or less and a carrier mobility of 10 cm.sup.−2V.sup.−1sec.sup.−1 or greater.

A laser irradiation apparatus includes a laser generation device, a levitation unit to levitate an object to which the laser light is applied, and a conveyance unit to convey the levitated object. The conveyance unit includes a holding mechanism for holding the object by absorption, and a moving mechanism for moving the holding mechanism in a conveyance direction. The holding mechanism includes a base including a plurality of through holes, a plurality of pipes respectively connected to the through holes, a vacuum generation device configured to evacuate air from the pipes, and a plurality of absorption assistance valves each disposed in the middle of a respective one of the pipes, each of the plurality of absorption assistance valves being configured to be closed when a flow rate of a gas flowing into the pipe through the through hole becomes equal to or higher than a threshold.

Methods of manufacturing a semiconductor structure are provided. One of the methods includes the following operations. A substrate is received, and the substrate includes a first conductive region and a second conductive region. A first laser anneal is performed on the first conductive region to repair lattice damage. An amorphization is performed on the first conductive region and the second conductive region to enhance silicide formation to a desired phase transformation in the subsequent operations. A pre-silicide layer is formed on the substrate. A thermal anneal is performed to the substrate to form a silicide layer from the pre-silicide layer. A second laser anneal is performed on the first conductive region and the second conductive region.

Provided is a thin film transistor including a highly-textured dielectric layer, an active layer, a gate electrode and a source/drain electrode that are stacked on a base substrate. The source/drain electrode includes a source electrode and a drain electrode. The gate electrode and the active layer are insulated from each other. The source electrode and the drain electrode are electrically connected to the active layer. Constituent particles of the active layer are of monocrystalline silicon-like structures. According to the present disclosure, the highly-textured dielectric layer is adopted to replace an original buffer layer to induce the active layer to grow into a monocrystalline silicon-like structure, such that the performance of the thin film transistor is improved.

The invention disclosed a method of manufacturing the thin film, which belongs to the technological field of SOI wafer manufacture. By growing a layer of dielectric material (silicon oxide) on the provided high-resistivity silicon wafer, then to grow a layer of amorphous silicon on the dielectric material, to transfer a layer of silicon oxide to the amorphous silicon, to make the mono crystalline silicon exist on the oxidation layer, so that a SOI wafer with a layer of amorphous silicon is manufactured. The process above is completed in specific process conditions. The manufactured thin film, e.g. SOI wafer with amorphous silicon layer, is used main for RF apparatus.

Provided is a semiconductor device of the embodiment including: an oxide semiconductor layer; a gate electrode; a first electrode electrically connected to one portion of the oxide semiconductor layer, the first electrode including a first region, second region, a third region, and a fourth region, the first region disposed between the first portion and the second region, the first region disposed between the third region and the fourth region, the first region containing at least one element of In, Zn, Sn or Cd, and oxygen, the second region containing at least one metal element of Ti, Ta, W, or Ru, the third region and the fourth region containing the at least one metal element and oxygen, the third region and the fourth region having an atomic concentration of oxygen higher than that of the second region; and a second electrode electrically connected to another portion of the oxide semiconductor layer.