A method of treating a surface of a silicon substrate forms an accelerated gas cluster ion beam of carbon atoms, promotes fragmentation and/or dissociation of gas cluster ions in the beam, removes charged particles from the beam to form a neutral beam, and treats a portion of a surface of the silicon substrate by irradiating it with the neutral beam. A silicon substrate surface layer of SiC.sub.X (0.05<X<3) formed by accelerated and focused Neutral Beam irradiation of a silicon substrate wherein the Neutral Beam is derived from a gas cluster ion beam which has had its cluster ions dissociated and charged particles removed.

At least one method, apparatus and system disclosed herein involves a gate cut process using a stress material for a finFET device. A set of fins are formed on a semiconductor substrate. A gate region is formed above a portion of the set of fins. A gate cut trench is formed within the gate region. A dielectric material comprising an intrinsic stress is deposited into the gate cut region. A replacement metal gate process is performed in the gate region. Residue metal features are removed about the gate cut region.

Provided is an SOI wafer manufacturing method that allows production of an SOI wafer having a high gettering ability and a small resistance variance in a thickness direction of an active layer, at high productivity. The SOI wafer manufacturing method includes a first step of implanting light element ions to a surface of at least one of a first substrate and a second substrate to form, on the at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate, a modified layer in which the light element ions are present in solid solution, a second step of forming an oxide film on a surface of at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate, a third step of bonding the first substrate and the second substrate according to a normal-temperature vacuum bonding method, and a fourth step of obtaining an active layer by thinning the first substrate.

A semiconductor epitaxial wafer production method that can increase the peak concentration of hydrogen in a surface portion of a semiconductor wafer after epitaxial layer formation is provided. A method of producing a semiconductor epitaxial wafer comprises: a first step of irradiating a surface of a semiconductor wafer with cluster ions containing hydrogen as a constituent element, to form a modifying layer formed from, as a solid solution, a constituent element of the cluster ions including hydrogen in a surface portion of the semiconductor wafer; a second step of, after the first step, irradiating the semiconductor wafer with electromagnetic waves of a frequency of 300 MHz or more and 3 THz or less, to heat the semiconductor wafer; and a third step of, after the second step, forming an epitaxial layer on the modifying layer of the semiconductor wafer.

The present invention provides a method of producing a semiconductor epitaxial wafer, which can suppress metal contamination by achieving higher gettering capability.

The method of producing a semiconductor epitaxial wafer includes a first step of irradiating a surface portion 10A of a semiconductor wafer 10 with cluster ions 16 thereby forming a modifying layer 18 formed from carbon and a dopant element contained as a solid solution that are constituent elements of the cluster ions 16, in the surface portion 10A of the semiconductor wafer; and a second step of forming an epitaxial layer 20 on the modifying layer 18 of the semiconductor wafer, the epitaxial layer 20 having a dopant element concentration lower than the peak concentration of the dopant element in the modifying layer 18.

A production method for a semiconductor epitaxial wafer includes: a first step of irradiating a surface of a semiconductor wafer with cluster ions to form a modified layer that is located in a surface portion of the semiconductor wafer and that includes a constituent element of the cluster ions in solid solution; and a second step of forming an epitaxial layer on the modified layer of the semiconductor wafer. The first step is performed such that a portion of the modified layer in terms of a thickness direction becomes an amorphous layer and an average depth of an amorphous layer surface at a semiconductor wafer surface-side of the amorphous layer is at least 20 nm from the surface of the semiconductor wafer.

A bone implantable medical device made from a biocompatible material, preferably comprising titania or zirconia, has at least a portion of its surface modified to facilitate improved integration with bone. The implantable device may incorporate a surface infused with osteoinductive agent and/or may incorporate holes loaded with a therapeutic agent. The infused surface and/or the holes may be patterned to determine the distribution of and amount of osteoinductive agent and/or therapeutic agent incorporated. The rate of release or elation profile of the therapeutic agent may be controlled. Methods for producing such a bone implantable medical device are also disclosed and employ the use of accelerated Neutral Beam irradiation, wherein the Neutral Beam is derived from an accelerated gas cluster ion beam irradiation for improving bone integration.

A method of processing a trench, via, hole, recess, void, or other feature that extends a depth into a substrate to a base or bottom and has an opening by irradiation with an accelerated neutral beam derived from an accelerated gas cluster ion beam for processing materials at the base or bottom of the opening.

A method of processing a trench, via, hole, recess, void, or other feature that extends a depth into a substrate to a base or bottom and has an opening with high aspect ratio (into depth from opening to base or bottom divided by minimum space of the trench therebetween) by irradiation with an accelerated neutral beam derived from an accelerated gas cluster ion beam for processing materials at the base or bottom of the opening.

A method of making a nanowire device includes disposing a first nanowire stack over a substrate, the first nanowire stack including alternating layers of a first and second semiconducting material, the first semiconducting material contacting the substrate and the second semiconducting material being an exposed surface; disposing a second nanowire stack over the substrate, the second nanowire stack including alternating layers of the first and second semiconducting materials, the first semiconducting material contacting the substrate and the second semiconducting material being an exposed surface; forming a first gate spacer along a sidewall of a first gate region on the first nanowire stack and a second gate spacer along a sidewall of a second gate region on the second nanowire stack; oxidizing a portion of the first nanowire stack within the first gate spacer; and removing the first semiconducting material from the first nanowire stack and the second nanowire stack.