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The selective emitter formation by laser doping is a well known process to increase the efficiency of silicon solar cells [1] , [2] . For the characterization of laser doped emitters, SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy) and ECV (Electrochemical Capacitance Voltage Measurement) techniques are used to analyze the emitter profile [3] . It is very difficult to get acceptable result by SIMS on a textured surface, so only ECV can be used. It has been shown, that a charge carrier depth profile can be measured on a homogeneous emitter only by ECV. The use of laser doping results in a non-homogeneous emitter. We have shown that the emitter depth is not just a function of the pulse power, but in addition of the surface structure of the wafer. The texture seems responsible for a strong variability in the doping profile. It has been shown, that the ECV measurement is not applicable to characterize the emitter depth on laser doped areas, because of the microscopic inhomogeneities in the emitter on the macroscopic measurement area. The real emitter profiles are to complex to be characterized by SIMS or ECV. We have shown that the variation in the emitter profile is resulting from the texture in the laser-doped regions.

New materials are of key importance for scaling memories in the sub 50 nm generations. Currently high-k materials and metal gates are investigated for usage in Flash and DRAM memory. However, the requirements in the applications are different, leading to different material combinations. This paper gives an overview on new materials with focus on memory applications.