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US 5,466,617 AGranted
Manufacturing electronic devices comprising TFTs and MIMs
AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation
InventorJohn M. Shannon
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AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation
InventorJohn M. Shannon
Estimating the term…
Body portions (36) of semiconductor crystalline silicon material of sufficient quality to form high-mobility TFTs (thin-film transistors) and other semiconductor devices of a driver circuit are formed by depositing on a substrate (14) a layer of insulating silicon-based non-stoichiometric compound material (32) and then converting this material (32) into the semiconductive crystalline material (36) by heating with an energy beam (40), for example from an excimer laser. The use of an energy beam (40) permits easy localization of the heating (and consequent conversion) both vertically and laterally. The deposition (e.g. by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition) and the beam annealing can both be carried out without heating the substrate (14) to high temperatures, and so a glass or other low-cost substrate (14) can be used. An unconverted part (32a) underlying the crystalline silicon body portion (36) can form at least part of a gate insulator of the TFT. The deposited non-stoichiometric compound material may be of a type suitable for forming a MIM-type switching device so that unconverted areas (42) of the insulating material ( 32) may be retained for that purpose. This permits the fabrication of an LCD device comprising a picture-element array of MIM type devices in the unconverted material (32) of the layer and TFT driver circuitry in the crystalline silicon material (36) of the layer.
A method of manufacturing an electronic device comprising at least one high mobility semiconductor device which has a body portion of high mobility semiconductive material of crystalline silicon, wherein the high mobility semiconductive crystalline material is formed by depositing a layer on a substrate and annealing at least a part of the layer only, with an energy beam, which method is characterized in that the layer is deposited as a layer of an insulating non-stoichiometric compound material of silicon alloyed with at least one other element, and that at least a part of the layer of the insulating non-stoichiometric material only is converted into the body portion of high mobility semiconductive crystalline material by heating only that part with the energy beam.
A method of manufacturing an electron device comprising at least one MIM-type switching device and at least one semiconductor device other than an MIM-type switching device, wherein the semiconductor device other than an MIM-type switching device has a body portion of semiconductive material of crystalline silicon which is formed by depositing a layer on a substrate and annealing a part of the layer only, with an energy beam, which layer is deposited as an insulating non-stoichiometric compound material of silicon alloyed with at least one other element, at least a first area of the insulating non-stoichiometric compound material is converted into the semiconductive material of crystalline silicon by heating the first area of the deposited layer only, with the energy beam, and a second area of the deposited layer is not subjected to the energy beam and is retained on the substrate as insulating non-stoichiometric material, which second area is provided with two electrodes to form the MIM-type switching device on the substrate.
A method of manufacturing an electronic device comprising at least one semiconductor device which has a body portion of semiconductive crystalline material, wherein the silicon crystalline material is formed by depositing a layer on a substrate and annealing at least a part of the layer with an energy beam, which method is characterised in that the layer is deposited as an insulating non-stoichiometric compound material of silicon alloyed with at least one other element, in that at least a part of the insulating non-stoichiometric compound material is converted into the semiconductive crystalline silicon material by heating that part with the energy beam, and in that the energy beam is of a wavelength having an absorption depth in the deposited layer which is so much less than the thickness of the deposited layer that the insulating non-stoichiometric compound material is converted into semiconductive crystalline silicon material over only a part of its thickness.
A method of manufacturing an electronic device comprising at least one semiconductor device in the form of a thin film transistor having a channel region in a body portion of semiconductor material of crystalline silicon, wherein the semiconductive material is formed by depositing a layer on a substrate and annealing at least a part of the layer only, with an energy beam, which method is characterized in that the layer is deposited as an insulating non-stoichiometric compound material of silicon alloyed with at least one other element, and that at least a part of the insulating non-stoichiometric compound material is converted into the semiconductive material for the channel region of the thin-film transistor by heating that part only, with the energy beam.
A method of manufacturing an electronic device comprising at least one high mobility semiconductor device, which semiconductor device has a body portion consisting of a semiconductive material of crystalline silicon, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
A method of manufacturing an electronic device comprising at least one high mobility semiconductor device, which semiconductor device is formed with a body portion consisting of a semiconductive material of crystalline silicon, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.