Laser annealing method and laser annealing apparatus
AssigneeV Technology Co., Ltd.
InventorMichinobu MIZUMURA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
With providing a workpiece that has a seed-crystal zone for microcrystalline silicon at a location proximate to the periphery of and aligned with one of transformation-scheduled regions, each of which is set to coextend with that portion of amorphous silicon which extends over one of gate fins, in a lateral straight line perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the gate fins, a lateral crystal forming process carries out selective crystal growth by moving a continuous wave laser beam along the lateral straight line with the seed-crystal zone as a starting point to irradiate the amorphous silicon to grow crystalline silicon within the transformation-scheduled region.
Claims9
A laser annealing method of transforming amorphous silicon of a film, which overlaps a workpiece including gate fins formed on a substrate in a way such that they extend along a longitudinal axis and are arranged in parallel, to crystalline silicon, the laser annealing method comprising:
- providing the workpiece having a seed-crystal zone for microcrystalline silicon at a location proximate to the periphery of and aligned with one of transformation-scheduled regions, each of which is set to coextend with that portion of the amorphous silicon which extends over one of the gate fins, in a lateral straight line perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and
- a lateral crystal forming process of carrying out selective crystal growth by moving a continuous wave laser beam along the lateral straight line with the seed-crystal zone as a starting point to irradiate the amorphous silicon to grow crystalline silicon within the transformation-scheduled region.
A laser annealing apparatus for transforming amorphous silicon of a film, which overlaps a workpiece including gate fins formed on a substrate in a way such that they extend along a longitudinal axis and are arranged in parallel, to crystalline silicon, the laser annealing apparatus comprising:
- a laser source part operative in a continuous wave mode to emit a continuous wave laser beam, and
- a laser beam irradiation part operative to move the beam spot of the continuous wave laser beam along a lateral straight line perpendicular to the longitudinal axis to grow crystalline silicon within a selected one of transformation-scheduled regions, each of which is set to coextend with that portion of the amorphous silicon which extends over one of the gate fins.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.