Various laser processing schemes are disclosed for producing various types of hetero-junction and homo-junction solar cells. The methods include base and emitter contact opening, selective doping, metal ablation, annealing to improve passivation, and selective emitter doping via laser heating of aluminum. Also, laser processing schemes are disclosed that are suitable for selective amorphous silicon ablation and selective doping for hetero-junction solar cells. Laser ablation techniques are disclosed that leave the underlying silicon substantially undamaged. These laser processing techniques may be applied to semiconductor substrates, including crystalline silicon substrates, and further including crystalline silicon substrates which are manufactured either through wire saw wafering methods or via epitaxial deposition processes, or other cleavage techniques such as ion implantation and heating, that are either planar or textured/three-dimensional. These techniques are highly suited to thin crystalline semiconductor, including thin crystalline silicon films.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for forming a semiconductor device includes pattering a first fin in a semiconductor substrate, and forming a liner layer over the first fin. The method further includes removing a first portion of the liner layer, and removing a portion of the exposed semiconductor substrate to form a first cavity. The method also includes performing an isotropic etching process to remove portions of the semiconductor substrate in the first cavity and form a first undercut region below the liner layer, growing a first epitaxial semiconductor material in the first undercut region and the first cavity, and performing a first annealing process to drive dopants from the first epitaxial semiconductor material into the first fin to form a first source/drain layer under the first fin and in portions of the semiconductor substrate.

A metal insulator semiconductor field effect transistor (MISFET) such as a super junction metal oxide semiconductor FET with high voltage breakdown is realized by, in essence, stacking a relatively low aspect ratio column (trenches filled with dopant, e.g., p-type dopant) on top of a volume or volumes formed by implanting the dopant in lower layers. Together, the low aspect ratio column and the volume(s) form a continuous high aspect ratio column.

A method for forming a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate structure having a plurality of semiconductor fins disposed on a substrate and a hard mask layer on the semiconductor fins. A first insulating material layer is formed covering the semiconductor fins, the hard masks, and the spaces between the semiconductor fins. Next, a first etch back process is performed to remove a top portion of the first insulating material layer to expose a portion of each of the semiconductor fins. Then dopants are implanted into remaining portions of the first insulating material layer and diffused into the semiconductor fins to form impurity regions. Next, a second etch back process is performed to remove a top portion of the remaining first insulating material layer to remove the implanted dopants in the first insulating material layer. Thereafter, a second insulating material layer is formed overlying the remaining first insulating material layer.

In an embodiment, a device includes: a fin on a substrate, fin having a Si portion proximate the substrate and a SiGe portion distal the substrate; a gate stack over a channel region of the fin; a source/drain region adjacent the gate stack; a first doped region in the SiGe portion of the fin, the first doped region disposed between the channel region and the source/drain region, the first doped region having a uniform concentration of a dopant; and a second doped region in the SiGe portion of the fin, the second doped region disposed under the source/drain region, the second doped region having a graded concentration of the dopant decreasing in a direction extending from a top of the fin to a bottom of the fin.

A method is provided for solid source doping for source and drain extensions. According to one embodiment, the method includes providing a substrate containing fins of first and second film stacks, sacrificial gates across and on the fins of the first and second film stacks, where the first and second film stacks include alternating first and second films, and where the first films extend through sidewall spacers on the sacrificial gates, selectively forming a first mask layer on the sidewall spacers and on the first films of the first film stack, depositing a first dopant layer on the substrate, heat-treating the substrate to diffuse dopants from the first dopant layer into the first films of the second film stack to form doped first films in the second film stack, and removing the first mask layer from the substrate. The processing steps may be repeated for the second film stack.

Methods of doping semiconductor substrates using deposition of a rare earth metal-containing film such as an yttrium-containing film, and annealing techniques are provided herein. Rare earth metal-containing films are deposited using gas, liquid, or solid precursors without a bias and may be deposited conformally. Some embodiments may involve deposition using a plasma. Substrates may be annealed at temperatures less than about 500° C.

A diffusing agent composition and a method for producing a semiconductor substrate using the diffusing agent composition. The diffusing agent composition includes an impurity diffusing component which is a phosphorus compound, and a solvent. The phosphorus compound has a stabilization energy of −3 kcal/mol or less, and is in an amount of 80% by mass or more relative to a total solid content in the diffusing agent composition.

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming vertically-extending channel-material strings into a stack comprising vertically-alternating first tiers and second tiers. Material of the first tiers is of different composition from material of the second tiers. A liner is formed laterally-outside of individual of the channel-material strings in one of the first tiers and in one of the second tiers. The liners are isotropically etched to form void-spaces in the one second tier above the one first tier. Individual of the void-spaces are laterally-between the individual channel-material strings and the second-tier material in the one second tier. Conductively-doped semiconductive material is formed against sidewalls of the channel material of the channel-material strings in the one first tier and that extends upwardly into the void-spaces in the one second tier. The conductively-doped semiconductive material is heated to diffuse conductivity-increasing dopants therein from the void-spaces laterally into the channel material laterally there-adjacent and upwardly into the channel material that is above the void-spaces. Other aspects, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.

An apparatus including a circuit structure including a device stratum including a plurality of devices including a first side and an opposite second side; and a metal interconnect coupled to at least one of the plurality of devices from the second side of the device stratum. A method including forming a transistor device including a channel between a source region and a drain region and a gate electrode on the channel defining a first side of the device; and forming an interconnect to one of the source region and the drain region from a second side of the device.