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US 6,319,761 B1Granted
Method of fabricating a thin film transistor
AssigneeSemiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
InventorsHongyong Zhang, Satoshi Teramoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method of fabricating TFTs starts with forming a nickel film selectively on a bottom layer which is formed on a substrate. An amorphous silicon film is formed on the nickel film and heated to crystallize it. The crystallized film is irradiated with infrared light to anneal it. Thus, a crystalline silicon film having excellent crystallinity is obtained. TFTs are built, using this crystalline silicon film.
Claims57
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film comprising amorphous silicon on an insulating surface;
- disposing a catalyst material in contact with said semiconductor film, said catalyst material being capable of promoting a crystallization of said amorphous silicon;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film provided with said catalyst material by thermal annealing;
- and then
- irradiating said semiconductor film with light after the thermal annealing in order to further crystallize said semiconductor film.
2 more elements
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film comprising amorphous silicon on an insulating surface;
- disposing a catalyst material in contact with said semiconductor film, said catalyst material being capable of promoting a crystallization of said amorphous silicon;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film provided with said catalyst material by thermal annealing;
- and then
- irradiating said semiconductor film with infrared light after the thermal annealing in order to further crystallize said semiconductor film,
- wherein said infrared light has a peak intensity at a wavelength in a range from 0.5 to 5 μm.
3 more elements
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film on an insulating surface;
- disposing a catalyst material in contact with a selected region of said semiconductor film;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film by thermal annealing so that crystallization proceeds through said semiconductor film horizontally from said selected region;
- and then
- irradiating said semiconductor film with light after the thermal annealing in order to flirter crystallize said semiconductor film.
2 more elements
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film comprising amorphous silicon on an insulating surface;
- disposing a catalyst material in contact with said semiconductor film, said catalyst material being capable of promoting a crystallization of said amorphous silicon;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film provided with said catalyst material by thermal annealing;
- irradiating said semiconductor film with light after the thermal annealing in order to further crystallize said semiconductor film;
- patterning said semiconductor film into at least one active layer by etching after the irradiation step;
- forming a gate insulating film on said active layer;
- annealing said gate insulating film and said active layer;
- and then forming a gate electrode on said gate insulating film.
5 more elements
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film comprising amorphous silicon on an insulating surface;
- disposing a catalyst material in contact with a selected region of said semiconductor film, said catalyst material being capable of promoting a crystallization of said amorphous silicon;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film provided with said catalyst material by thermal annealing so that crystallization proceeds horizontally through said semiconductor film from said selected region;
- irradiating said semiconductor film with light after the thermal annealing in order to further crystallize said semiconductor film;
- patterning said semiconductor film into at least one active layer by etching after the irradiation step, wherein said active layer excludes said selected region of the semiconductor film;
- forming a gate insulating film on said active layer;
- annealing said gate insulating film and said active layer;
- and then
- forming a gate electrode on said gate insulating film.
6 more elements
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film on an insulating surface;
- disposing a crystallization promoting material in contact with a selected region of said semiconductor film;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film by thermal annealing so that crystallization proceeds through said semiconductor film horizontally from said selected region;
- irradiating said semiconductor film with light after the thermal annealing in order to further crystallize said semiconductor film;
- and
- removing a portion in which said crystallization promoting material is disposed.
3 more elements
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor film comprising amorphous silicon on an insulating surface;
- disposing a crystallization promoting material in contact with said semiconductor film;
- crystallizing said semiconductor film provided with said crystallization promoting material by thermal annealing;
- irradiating said semiconductor film with light after the thermal annealing in order to further crystallize said semiconductor film;
- patterning said semiconductor film into at least one active layer by etching after the irradiation step;
- forming a gate insulating film on said active layer;
- heating said gate insulating film and said active layer;
- forming a gate electrode on said gate insulating film;
- and
- introducing a dopant impurity into a source and a drain regions.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.