Patents by Inventor Akiharu Miyanaga

Akiharu Miyanaga has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9177855
    Abstract: By using a conductive layer including Cu as a long lead wiring, increase in wiring resistance is suppressed. Further, the conductive layer including Cu is provided in such a manner that it does not overlap with the oxide semiconductor layer in which a channel region of a TFT is formed, and is surrounded by insulating layers including silicon nitride, whereby diffusion of Cu can be prevented; thus, a highly reliable semiconductor device can be manufactured. Specifically, a display device which is one embodiment of a semiconductor device can have high display quality and operate stably even when the size or definition thereof is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Jun Koyama, Masahiro Takahashi, Hideyuki Kishida, Akiharu Miyanaga, Junpei Sugao, Hideki Uochi, Yasuo Nakamura
  • Patent number: 9171938
    Abstract: An object is to provide a thin film transistor and a method for manufacturing the thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor with a controlled threshold voltage, high operation speed, a relatively easy manufacturing process, and sufficient reliability. An impurity having influence on carrier concentration in the oxide semiconductor layer, such as a hydrogen atom or a compound containing a hydrogen atom such as H2O, may be eliminated. An oxide insulating layer containing a large number of defects such as dangling bonds may be formed in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, such that the impurity diffuses into the oxide insulating layer and the impurity concentration in the oxide semiconductor layer is reduced. The oxide semiconductor layer or the oxide insulating layer in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer may be formed in a deposition chamber which is evacuated with use of a cryopump whereby the impurity concentration is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Junichiro Sakata, Akiharu Miyanaga, Masayuki Sakakura, Junichi Koezuka, Tetsunori Maruyama, Yuki Imoto
  • Publication number: 20150263331
    Abstract: A highly effective positive electrode is obtained by using a material such as Na which is an inexpensive abundant resource. A positive electrode active material of sodium transition metal phosphate of olivine structure in which the sodium transition metal phosphate of olivine structure includes, a phosphorus atom that is located at the center of a tetrahedron having an oxygen atom in each vertex, a transition metal atom that is located at the center of a first octahedron having an oxygen atom in each vertex; and a sodium atom that is located at the center of a second octahedron having an oxygen atom in each vertex, and adjacent sodium atoms are arranged one-dimensionally in a <010> direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2015
    Publication date: September 17, 2015
    Inventors: Akiharu MIYANAGA, Junichi KOEZUKA, Masahiro TAKAHASHI
  • Patent number: 9117919
    Abstract: An object is to provide a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film, which has stable electrical characteristics and high reliability. A stack of first and second material films is formed by forming the first material film (a film having a hexagonal crystal structure) having a thickness of 1 nm to 10 nm over an insulating surface and forming the second material film having a hexagonal crystal structure (a crystalline oxide semiconductor film) using the first material film as a nucleus. As the first material film, a material film having a wurtzite crystal structure (e.g., gallium nitride or aluminum nitride) or a material film having a corundum crystal structure (?-Al2O3, ?-Ga2O3, In2O3, Ti2O3, V2O3, Cr2O3, or ?-Fe2O3) is used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Yusuke Nonaka, Takayuki Inoue, Masashi Tsubuku, Kengo Akimoto, Akiharu Miyanaga
  • Patent number: 9105668
    Abstract: An object is to manufacture a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film, which has stable electric characteristics and high reliability. A crystalline oxide semiconductor film is formed, without performing a plurality of steps, as follows: by utilizing a difference in atomic weight of plural kinds of atoms included in an oxide semiconductor target, zinc with low atomic weight is preferentially deposited on an oxide insulating film to form a seed crystal including zinc; and tin, indium, or the like with high atomic weight is deposited on the seed crystal while causing crystal growth. Further, a crystalline oxide semiconductor film is formed by causing crystal growth using a seed crystal with a hexagonal crystal structure including zinc as a nucleus, whereby a single crystal oxide semiconductor film or a substantially single crystal oxide semiconductor film is formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Yusuke Nonaka, Takayuki Inoue, Masashi Tsubuku, Kengo Akimoto, Akiharu Miyanaga
  • Patent number: 9105659
    Abstract: An embodiment is to include a staggered (top gate structure) thin film transistor in which an oxide semiconductor film containing In, Ga, and Zn is used as a semiconductor layer and a buffer layer is provided between the semiconductor layer and a source and drain electrode layers. The buffer layer having higher carrier concentration than the semiconductor layer is provided intentionally between the source and drain electrode layers and the semiconductor layer, whereby an ohmic contact is formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Hidekazu Miyairi, Akiharu Miyanaga, Kengo Akimoto, Kojiro Shiraishi
  • Publication number: 20150179805
    Abstract: An oxide semiconductor film which has more stable electric conductivity is provided. The oxide semiconductor film comprises a crystalline region. The oxide semiconductor film has a first peak of electron diffraction intensity with a full width at half maximum of greater than or equal to 0.4 nm?1 and less than or equal to 0.7 nm?1 in a region where a magnitude of a scattering vector is greater than or equal to 3.3 nm?1 and less than or equal to 4.1 nm?1. The oxide semiconductor film has a second peak of electron diffraction intensity with a full width at half maximum of greater than or equal to 0.45 nm?1 and less than or equal to 1.4 nm?1 in a region where a magnitude of a scattering vector is greater than or equal to 5.5 nm?1 and less than or equal to 7.1 nm?1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2015
    Publication date: June 25, 2015
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Masashi TSUBUKU, Kengo AKIMOTO, Hiroki OHARA, Tatsuya HONDA, Takatsugu OMATA, Yusuke NONAKA, Masahiro TAKAHASHI, Akiharu MIYANAGA
  • Publication number: 20150162450
    Abstract: A thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor with favorable electrical characteristics is provided. The thin film transistor includes a gate electrode provided over a substrate, a gate insulating film provided over the gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor film provided over the gate electrode and on the gate insulating film, a metal oxide film provided on the oxide semiconductor film, and a metal film provided on the metal oxide film. The oxide semiconductor film is in contact with the metal oxide film, and includes a region whose concentration of metal is higher than that of any other region in the oxide semiconductor film (a high metal concentration region). In the high metal concentration region, the metal contained in the oxide semiconductor film may be present as a crystal grain or a microcrystal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 13, 2015
    Publication date: June 11, 2015
    Inventors: Akiharu MIYANAGA, Junichiro SAKATA, Masayuki SAKAKURA, Masahiro TAKAHASHI, Hideyuki KISHIDA, Shunpei YAMAZAKI
  • Patent number: 9054205
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having a novel structure or a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device is provided. For example, the reliability of a transistor which is driven at high voltage or large current is improved. For improvement of the reliability of the transistor, a buffer layer is provided between a drain electrode layer (or a source electrode layer) and an oxide semiconductor layer such that the end portion of the buffer layer is beyond the side surface of the drain electrode layer (or the source electrode layer) when seen in a cross section, whereby the buffer layer can relieve the concentration of electric field. The buffer layer is a single layer or a stacked layer including a plurality of layers, and includes, for example, an In—Ga—Zn—O film containing nitrogen, an In—Sn—O film containing nitrogen, an In—Sn—O film containing SiOx, or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Yusuke Nonaka, Takatsugu Omata, Tatsuya Honda, Akiharu Miyanaga, Hiroki Ohara
  • Patent number: 9048094
    Abstract: It is an object to provide a thin film transistor having favorable electric characteristics and high reliability and a semiconductor device which includes the thin film transistor as a switching element. An In—Ga—Zn—O-based film having an incubation state that shows an electron diffraction pattern, which is different from a conventionally known amorphous state where a halo shape pattern appears and from a conventionally known crystal state where a spot appears clearly, is formed. The In—Ga—Zn—O-based film having an incubation state is used for a channel formation region of a channel etched thin film transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akiharu Miyanaga, Junichiro Sakata, Masayuki Sakakura, Shunpei Yamazaki
  • Publication number: 20150144947
    Abstract: An object is to provide a method for manufacturing a highly reliable semiconductor device including a transistor with stable electric characteristics. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes the steps of: forming a gate electrode over a substrate having an insulating surface; forming a gate insulating film over the gate electrode; forming an oxide semiconductor film over the gate insulating film; irradiating the oxide semiconductor film with an electromagnetic wave such as a microwave or a high frequency; forming a source electrode and a drain electrode over the oxide semiconductor film irradiated with the electromagnetic wave; and forming an oxide insulating film, which is in contact with part of the oxide semiconductor film, over the gate insulating film, the oxide semiconductor film, the source electrode, and the drain electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2015
    Publication date: May 28, 2015
    Inventor: Akiharu MIYANAGA
  • Publication number: 20150109201
    Abstract: Provided is a device capable of displaying an image with small power consumption by adjusting output of the device in accordance with the physical and mental state of a user, such as tiredness or excitement. An electronic device includes one or a plurality of sensor portions which collects data from a user; a chaotic attractor generation portion which calculates a chaotic attractor by arithmetic processing of the collected data; and a Lyapunov index generation portion which calculates an index indicating the degree to which the chaotic attractor is matched to chaos definition conditions. Output of the electronic device is changed in accordance with the physical and mental state of a user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Publication date: April 23, 2015
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Akiharu MIYANAGA
  • Publication number: 20150104901
    Abstract: It is an object to provide a highly reliable semiconductor device with good electrical characteristics and a display device including the semiconductor device as a switching element. In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer, a needle crystal group provided on at least one surface side of the oxide semiconductor layer grows in a c-axis direction perpendicular to the surface and includes an a-b plane parallel to the surface, and a portion except for the needle crystal group is an amorphous region or a region in which amorphousness and microcrystals are mixed. Accordingly, a highly reliable semiconductor device with good electrical characteristics can be formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Publication date: April 16, 2015
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Masayuki SAKAKURA, Ryosuke WATANABE, Junichiro SAKATA, Kengo AKIMOTO, Akiharu MIYANAGA, Takuya HIROHASHI, Hideyuki KISHIDA
  • Patent number: 8994021
    Abstract: An oxide semiconductor film which has more stable electric conductivity is provided. The oxide semiconductor film comprises a crystalline region. The oxide semiconductor film has a first peak of electron diffraction intensity with a full width at half maximum of greater than or equal to 0.4 nm?1 and less than or equal to 0.7 nm?1 in a region where a magnitude of a scattering vector is greater than or equal to 3.3 nm?1 and less than or equal to 4.1 nm?1. The oxide semiconductor film has a second peak of electron diffraction intensity with a full width at half maximum of greater than or equal to 0.45 nm?1 and less than or equal to 1.4 nm?1 in a region where a magnitude of a scattering vector is greater than or equal to 5.5 nm?1 and less than or equal to 7.1 nm?1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Masashi Tsubuku, Kengo Akimoto, Hiroki Ohara, Tatsuya Honda, Takatsugu Omata, Yusuke Nonaka, Masahiro Takahashi, Akiharu Miyanaga
  • Publication number: 20150069393
    Abstract: Manufactured is a transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer, a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer overlapping with part of the oxide semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer overlapping with the oxide semiconductor layer, the source electrode layer, and the drain electrode layer, and a gate electrode overlapping with part of the oxide semiconductor layer with the gate insulating layer provided therebetween, wherein, after the oxide semiconductor layer which is to be a channel formation region is irradiated with light and the light irradiation is stopped, a relaxation time of carriers in photoresponse characteristics of the oxide semiconductor layer has at least two kinds of modes: ?1 and ?2, ?1<?2 is satisfied, and ?2 is 300 seconds or less. In addition, a semiconductor device including the transistor is manufactured.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2014
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Inventors: Masashi TSUBUKU, Takayuki INOUE, Suzunosuke HIRAISHI, Erumu KIKUCHI, Hiromichi GODO, Shuhei YOSHITOMI, Koki INOUE, Akiharu MIYANAGA, Shunpei YAMAZAKI
  • Publication number: 20150053971
    Abstract: In a semiconductor device using a transistor including an oxide semiconductor, a change in electrical characteristics is suppressed and reliability is improved. The semiconductor device includes a gate electrode over an insulating surface; an oxide semiconductor film overlapping with the gate electrode; a gate insulating film that is between the gate electrode and the oxide semiconductor film and in contact with the oxide semiconductor film; a protective film in contact with a surface of the oxide semiconductor film that is an opposite side of a surface in contact with the gate insulating film; and a pair of electrodes in contact with the oxide semiconductor film. The spin density of the gate insulating film or the protective film measured by electron spin resonance spectroscopy is lower than 1×1018 spins/cm3, preferably higher than or equal to 1×1017 spins/cm3 and lower than 1×1018 spins/cm3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Publication date: February 26, 2015
    Inventors: Akiharu MIYANAGA, Yasuharu HOSAKA, Toshimitsu OBONAI, Junichi KOEZUKA, Motoki NAKASHIMA, Masahiro TAKAHASHI, Shunsuke ADACHI, Takuya HIROHASHI
  • Patent number: 8963149
    Abstract: A thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor with favorable electrical characteristics is provided. The thin film transistor includes a gate electrode provided over a substrate, a gate insulating film provided over the gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor film provided over the gate electrode and on the gate insulating film, a metal oxide film provided on the oxide semiconductor film, and a metal film provided on the metal oxide film. The oxide semiconductor film is in contact with the metal oxide film, and includes a region whose concentration of metal is higher than that of any other region in the oxide semiconductor film (a high metal concentration region). In the high metal concentration region, the metal contained in the oxide semiconductor film may be present as a crystal grain or a microcrystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akiharu Miyanaga, Junichiro Sakata, Masayuki Sakakura, Masahiro Takahashi, Hideyuki Kishida, Shunpei Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 8952378
    Abstract: An object is to provide a method for manufacturing a highly reliable semiconductor device including a transistor with stable electric characteristics. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes the steps of: forming a gate electrode over a substrate having an insulating surface; forming a gate insulating film over the gate electrode; forming an oxide semiconductor film over the gate insulating film; irradiating the oxide semiconductor film with an electromagnetic wave such as a microwave or a high frequency; forming a source electrode and a drain electrode over the oxide semiconductor film irradiated with the electromagnetic wave; and forming an oxide insulating film, which is in contact with part of the oxide semiconductor film, over the gate insulating film, the oxide semiconductor film, the source electrode, and the drain electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Akiharu Miyanaga
  • Publication number: 20150024544
    Abstract: An object is to manufacture a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film, which has stable electric characteristics and high reliability. A crystalline oxide semiconductor film is formed, without performing a plurality of steps, as follows: by utilizing a difference in atomic weight of plural kinds of atoms included in an oxide semiconductor target, zinc with low atomic weight is preferentially deposited on an oxide insulating film to form a seed crystal including zinc; and tin, indium, or the like with high atomic weight is deposited on the seed crystal while causing crystal growth. Further, a crystalline oxide semiconductor film is formed by causing crystal growth using a seed crystal with a hexagonal crystal structure including zinc as a nucleus, whereby a single crystal oxide semiconductor film or a substantially single crystal oxide semiconductor film is formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 7, 2014
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Yusuke NONAKA, Takayuki INOUE, Masashi TSUBUKU, Kengo AKIMOTO, Akiharu MIYANAGA
  • Publication number: 20150014684
    Abstract: The field of an oxide semiconductor has been attracted attention in recent years. Therefore, the correlation between electric characteristics of a transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer and physical properties of the oxide semiconductor layer has not been clear yet. Thus, a first object is to improve electric characteristics of the transistor by control of physical properties of the oxide semiconductor layer. A semiconductor device including at least a gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor layer, and a gate insulating layer sandwiched between the gate electrode and the oxide semiconductor layer, where the oxide semiconductor layer has the relative permittivity of equal to or higher than 13 (or equal to or higher than 14), is provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2014
    Publication date: January 15, 2015
    Inventors: Akiharu MIYANAGA, Tatsuya HONDA