Abstract: A semiconductor device and a method of forming the same are provided. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a gate structure, a dielectric structure and a contact structure. The substrate has source/drain (S/D) regions. The gate structure is on the substrate and between the S/D regions. The dielectric structure covers the gate structure. The contact structure penetrates through the dielectric structure to connect to the S/D region. A lower portion of a sidewall of the contact structure is spaced apart from the dielectric structure by an air gap therebetween, while an upper portion of the sidewall of the contact structure is in contact with the dielectric structure.

Abstract: A boron (B) layer may be formed as a passivation layer in a recess in which a vertical transfer gate is to be formed. The recess may then be filled with a gate electrode of the vertical transfer gate over the passivation layer (and/or one or more intervening layers) to form the vertical transfer gate. The passivation layer may be formed in the recess by epitaxial growth. The use of epitaxy to grow the passivation layer enables precise control over the profile, uniformity, and boron concentration in the passivation layer. Moreover, the use of epitaxy to grow the passivation layer may reduce the diffusion length of the passivation layer into the substrate of the pixel sensor, which provides increased area in the pixel sensor for the photodiode.

Abstract: A system for encoding Chinese characters in which each character is divided into a prefix and a suffix each related to one of 10 primary character elements. The prefixes for all Chinese characters are organized in 10 groups corresponding to the primary character elements. Each group is further divided into another 10 units providing 100 consecutively numbered divisions of prefixes. The suffixes are similarly allotted to 100 numerals based on their relationship to the ten primary character elements. Using a keyboard with 100 keys, any given Chinese character can be specified by two keystrikes. The first keystrike corresponds to the prefix and the second keystrike corresponds to the suffix of the Chinese character. Identifying the unique composite code for any given Chinese character is simplified by recognition of the prefix or suffix as a member of a family of prefixes or suffixes based on one of the 10 primary character elements.