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AssigneesSharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Hideo Ohno, Masashi Kawasaki
InventorsToshinori Sugihara, Hideo Ohno, Masashi Kawasaki
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In a thin film transistor (1), a gate insulating layer (4) is formed on a gate electrode (3) formed on an insulating substrate (2). Formed on the gate insulating layer (4) is a semiconductor layer (5). Formed on the semiconductor layer (5) are a source electrode (6) and a drain electrode (7). A protective layer (8) covers them, so that the semiconductor layer (5) is blocked from an atmosphere. The semiconductor layer (5) (active layer) is made of, e.g., a semiconductor containing polycrystalline ZnO to which, e.g., a group V element is added. This allows practical use of a semiconductor device which has an active layer made of zinc oxide and which includes an protective layer for blocking the active layer from an atmosphere.
A semiconductor device comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Characterised by the active materials: oxide semiconductors, e.g. zinc oxide, copper aluminium oxide or cadmium stannate
Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
Inorganic electric semiconductor devices
Term ended 11 Sep 2024 (estimated)
This application is the US national phase of international application PCT/JP2004/008322 filed 14 Jun. 2004, which designated the U.S. and claims priority to JP 177272/2003 filed 20 Jun. 2003, and JP 79273/2004 filed 18 Mar. 2004, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having an active layer made of a zinc oxide. The present invention particularly relates to (i) a semiconductor device suitable for a switching element for use in an electronic device, and (ii) an electronic device using the semiconductor device.
Conventionally, zinc oxide (ZnO) is transparent in a visible light region, and is a semiconductor having a relatively good property even when prepared under a low temperature. For this reason, study on ZnO has been actively carried out in recent years, so that various techniques have been reported.
FIG. 1(a) is a plan view illustrating a structure of a thin film transistor according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 1(b) is a cross sectional view taken along A-A line of FIG. 1(a).
FIG. 1(c) is a cross sectional view taken along B-B line of FIG. 1(a).
The following explains the present invention more in detail, with reference to examples and comparative examples; however, the present invention is not limited to these.
Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be explained below with reference to FIG. 1 through FIG. 5.
FIG. 1(a) is a plan view illustrating a thin film transistor 1 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1(b) is a cross sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 1(a). FIG. 1(c) is a cross sectional view taken along line B-B of FIG. 1(a). Note that, although FIG. 1(b) and FIG. 1(c) describes rise and recess each formed in the central portion of the surface of a protective layer 8, FIG. 1(a) does not describe the rise and the recess for the sake of simplicity.