A method of producing a bifacial photovoltaic cell is disclosed herein, the method comprising: forming a boron-containing layer on a second surface of a semiconductor substrate; forming a cap layer above the boron-containing layer; effecting simultaneously: i) deposition on the first surface and ii) diffusion into it of the phosphorous using POCl.sub.3 gas phase process and iii) diffusion of the boron into the second surface of the substrate, to thereby dope the first surface with n-dopant and the second surface with boron.

Various forms of Mg.sub.xGe.sub.1-xO.sub.2-x are disclosed, where the Mg.sub.xGe.sub.1-xO.sub.2-x are epitaxial layers formed on a substrate comprising a substantially single crystal substrate material. The epitaxial layer of Mg.sub.xGe.sub.1-xO.sub.2-x has a crystal symmetry compatible with the substrate material. Semiconductor structures and devices comprising the epitaxial layer of Mg.sub.xGe.sub.1-xO.sub.2-x are disclosed, along with methods of making the epitaxial layers and semiconductor structures and devices.

A semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing the same and an electronic device including the semiconductor device are provided. According to embodiments, the semiconductor device may include a substrate, a first source/drain layer, a channel layer and a second source/drain layer stacked in sequence on the substrate, and a gate stack surrounding a periphery of the channel layer. The channel layer includes a channel region close to its peripheral surface and a body region disposed on an inner side of the channel region.

Techniques are disclosed for controlling transistor sub-fin leakage. The techniques can be used for highly scaled finFETs, as well as other non-planar transistors. In some cases, the techniques include exposing a middle portion of a fin structure formed on a substrate and then converting the exposed portion to an electrically isolating material via a doping or oxidation process. For example, a monolayer doping (MLD) process may be used to deliver dopants to the exposed portion of the fin in a self-saturated monolayer scheme. In another example case, thermal oxidation may be used to convert the exposed portion to an insulator material. In some cases, a barrier layer (e.g., including carbon doping) may be located above the exposed portion of the fin to help prevent the doping or oxidation process from affecting the upper region of the fin, which is used for the transistor channel.

A SiO.sub.2 layer 5 is formed in the bottom portion of a Si pillar 3 and on an i-layer substrate 2. Subsequently, a gate HfO.sub.2 layer 11b is formed so as to surround the side surface of the Si pillar 3, and a gate TiN layer 12b is formed so as to surround the HfO.sub.2 layer 11b. Subsequently, P.sup.+ layers 18 and 32 containing an acceptor impurity at a high concentration and serving as a source and a drain are simultaneously or separately formed by a selective epitaxial crystal growth method on the exposed side surface of the bottom portion of and on the top portion of the Si pillar 3. Thus, an SGT is formed on the i-layer substrate 2.

There are provided a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic device including the device. According to an embodiment, the semiconductor device may include a substrate; a first source/drain layer, a channel layer and a second source/drain layer stacked on the substrate in sequence, wherein the second source/drain layer comprises a first semiconductor material which is stressed; and a gate stack surrounding a periphery of the channel layer.

The present invention generally provides semiconductor substrates having submicron-sized surface features generated by irradiating the surface with ultra short laser pulses. In one aspect a method of processing a semiconductor substrate is disclosed that includes placing at least a portion of a surface of the substrate in contact with a fluid, and exposing that surface portion to one or more femtosecond pulses so as to modify the topography of that portion. The modification can include, e.g., generating a plurality of submicron-sized spikes in an upper layer of the surface.

There are provided a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic device including the device. According to an embodiment, the semiconductor device may include a substrate; a first source/drain layer, a channel layer and a second source/drain layer stacked on the substrate in sequence, wherein the second source/drain layer comprises a first semiconductor material which is stressed; and a gate stack surrounding a periphery of the channel layer.

A method of fabricating an image sensor is provided. The method includes comprises forming a deep trench in a semiconductor substrate, performing a first plasma doping process to form a first impurity region a portion of in the semiconductor substrate adjacent to inner sidewalls and a bottom surface of the deep trench, the first impurity region being doped with first impurities of a first conductivity type, and performing an annealing process to diffuse the first impurities from the first impurity region into the semiconductor substrate to form a photoelectric conversion part.

A method of processing a semiconductor device, comprising: providing a semiconductor body having dopants of a first conductivity type; forming at least one trench that extends into the semiconductor body along a vertical direction, the trench being laterally confined by two trench sidewalls and vertically confined by a trench bottom; applying a substance onto at least a section of a trench surface formed by one of the trench sidewalls and/or the trench bottom of the at least one trench, such that applying the substance includes preventing that the substance is applied to the other of the trench sidewalls; and diffusing of the applied substance from the section into the semiconductor body, thereby creating, in the semiconductor body, a semiconductor region having dopants of a second conductivity type and being arranged adjacent to the section.