Abstract: A solar cell has a backside resonant waveguide structure. The backside structure includes a plurality of resonant waveguides formed in or on a semiconductor-based light absorbing material and arranged in a pattern to cause laterally scattered light to be at least partially confined in the semiconductor-based light absorbing material.

Abstract: A solar cell has a backside resonant waveguide structure. The backside structure includes a plurality of resonant waveguides formed in or on a semiconductor-based light absorbing material and arranged in a pattern to cause laterally scattered light to be at least partially confined in the semiconductor-based light absorbing material.

Abstract: A photovoltaic semiconductor solar cell with a backside semiconductor-oxide-nitride-oxide nonvolatile charge storage structure (referred to as a “PHONOS solar cell”) is disclosed. The PHONOS solar cell includes a semiconductor surface region, a semiconductor bulk region, and a backside structure that includes the SONO nonvolatile charge storage structure and a backside contact. The backside SONO nonvolatile charge storage structure greatly improves solar cell efficiency gains by eliminating “backside” losses, i.e., losses due to the recombination of photo-generated minority charge carriers created by the incident sunlight. The PHONOS solar cell is a highly efficient, ultra-thin, semiconductor solar cell that can be manufactured at low cost.

Abstract: An embodiment of a method is disclosed to integrate silicon oxide nitride oxide silicon (SONOS) non-volatile memory (NVM) into a standard sub-90 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) semiconductor foundry process flow. An embodiment of the method adds a few additional steps to a standard CMOS foundry process flow and makes minor changes to the rest of the baseline CMOS foundry process flow to form a new process module that includes both CMOS devices and an embedded SONOS NVM. An embodiment of the method utilizes new material sets (which are not utilized at larger nodes) that enhance NVM performance by improving charge tunneling behavior and reducing leakage currents. Furthermore, an embodiment of the method integrates CMOS with SONOS NVM at ever-shrinking dimensions while enhancing the NVM performance, without performing extra, costly processing steps.

Abstract: An embodiment of a method is disclosed to integrate silicon oxide nitride oxide silicon (SONOS) non-volatile memory (NVM) into a conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) semiconductor foundry process flow. An embodiment of the method only adds a few additional steps to a standard CMOS foundry process flow and makes minor changes to the rest of the baseline CMOS foundry process flow to form a new process module that includes both CMOS devices and an embedded SONOS NVM.

Abstract: An embodiment of a method is disclosed to integrate silicon oxide nitride oxide silicon (SONOS) non-volatile memory (NVM) into a conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) semiconductor foundry process flow. An embodiment of the method only adds a few additional steps to a standard CMOS foundry process flow and makes minor changes to the rest of the baseline CMOS foundry process flow to form a new process module that includes both CMOS devices and an embedded SONOS NVM.

Abstract: A photovoltaic semiconductor solar cell with a backside semiconductor-oxide-nitride-oxide nonvolatile charge storage structure (referred to as a “PHONOS solar cell”) is disclosed. The PHONOS solar cell includes a semiconductor surface region, a semiconductor bulk region, and a backside structure that includes the SONO nonvolatile charge storage structure and a backside contact. The backside SONO nonvolatile charge storage structure greatly improves solar cell efficiency gains by eliminating “backside” losses, i.e., losses due to the recombination of photo-generated minority charge carriers created by the incident sunlight. The PHONOS solar cell is a highly efficient, ultra-thin, semiconductor solar cell that can be manufactured at low cost.