Abstract: Many unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) methods have been proposed to bridge the domain gap by utilizing domain invariant information. Most approaches have chosen depth as such information and achieved remarkable successes. Despite their effectiveness, using depth as domain invariant information in UDA tasks may lead to multiple issues, such as excessively high extraction costs and difficulties in achieving a reliable prediction quality. As a result, we introduce Edge Learning based Domain Adaptation (ELDA), a framework which incorporates edge information into its training process to serve as a type of domain invariant information. Our experiments quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrate that the incorporation of edge information is indeed beneficial and effective, and enables ELDA to outperform the contemporary state-of-the-art methods on two commonly adopted benchmarks for semantic segmentation based UDA tasks.

Abstract: A trimming method is provided. The trimming method includes the following steps. A first wafer including a substrate and a device layer over a first side of the substrate is provided. The first wafer is bonded to a second wafer with the first side of the substrate facing toward the second wafer. An edge trimming process is performed to remove a trimmed portion of the substrate from a second side opposite to the first side vertically downward toward the first side in a first direction along a perimeter of the substrate, wherein the edge trimming process results in the substrate having a flange pattern laterally protruding from the device layer and laterally surrounding an untrimmed portion of the substrate along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a trench disposed in an epitaxial layer on a substrate. A gate structure is disposed in the trench and includes upper and lower conductive portions. A dielectric isolation portion is disposed between the upper and lower conductive portions. A dielectric liner is disposed in the trench and has an opening on the bottom surface of the trench. The opening is filled up with a part of the lower conductive portion. A portion of the epitaxial layer and the lower conductive portion construct a Schottky barrier diode. A doped region is disposed in the epitaxial layer, under the bottom surface of the trench and on one side of the lower conductive portion. The portion of the epitaxial layer and a portion of the doped region are in contact with the lower conductive portion.

Abstract: A system and method for generating a gas curtain over an access port of a processing chamber for a semiconductor substrate. A gas flow stabilizer and a gas flow receiver, each including a horizontal flow section and a vertical flow section cooperate to generate a gas curtain that impedes gas, e.g., oxygen, from outside the processing chamber, from flowing into the chamber, for example, when the access port is opened to add/or to remove a workpiece from the processing chamber.