Abstract: In a cleaning method and a cleaning apparatus of a silicon substrate, after wet cleaning or etching of the substrate having a silicon surface is carried out, and during or after a pure water rinse of the substrate, an oxide film with a thickness of 10 to 30 Å is formed on the silicon surface by rinsing the substrate by pure water added with an oxidizer, and then the substrate is dried. Since drying is carried out after the oxide film is formed on the silicon surface, the occurrence of a water mark can be prevented.

Abstract: A number of parallel light-interrupting stripes are formed over the entire TFT substrate, and light-interrupting patterns that are isolated from each other are formed separately from the light-interrupting stripes. Light interruption along gate bus patterns is effected by the light-interrupting stripes, while light interruption along data bus patterns is effected by elongating branches from the gate bus patterns. Light interruption between the tip of each branch and a polysilicon drain is effected by the isolated light-interrupting pattern.

Abstract: A silicon film provided on a blocking film 102 on a substrate 101 is made amorphous by doping Si+, and in a heat-annealing process, crystallization is started in parallel to a substrate from an area 100 where nickel serving as a crystallization-promoting catalyst is introduced.

Abstract: A semiconductor material and a method for forming the same, said semiconductor material having produced by a process comprising melting a noncrystal semiconductor film containing therein carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen each at a concentration of 5×1019 atoms·cm−3 or lower, preferably 1×1019 atoms·cm−3 or lower, by irradiating a laser beam or a high intensity light equivalent to a laser beam to said noncrystal semiconductor film, and then recrystallizing the thus molten amorphous silicon film. The present invention provides thin film semiconductors having high mobility at an excellent reproducibility, said semiconductor materials being useful for fabricating thin film semiconductor devices such as thin film transistors improved in device characteristics.

Abstract: A process for fabricating a thin film transistor, which comprises crystallizing an amorphous silicon film, forming thereon a gate insulating film and a gate electrode, implanting impurities in a self-aligned manner, adhering a coating containing a catalyst element which accelerates the crystallization of the silicon film, and annealing the resulting structure at a temperature lower than the deformation temperature of the substrate to activate the doped impurities. Otherwise, the catalyst element can be incorporated into the structure by introducing it into the impurity region by means of ion implantation and the like.

Abstract: In a source/drain doping step in manufacturing a field effect transistor, particularly a thin-film transistor (TFT), high-speed boron ions are implanted in a state that an active layer in which to form the source and drain is covered with an insulating film, whereas phosphorus ions are implanted in a state that the surface of the active layer is exposed.

Abstract: A method of fabricating silicon TFTs (thin-film transistors) is disclosed. The method comprises a crystallization step by laser irradiation effected after the completion of the device structure. First, amorphous silicon TFTs are fabricated. In each of the TFTs, the channel formation region, the source and drain regions are exposed to laser radiation illuminated from above or below the substrate. Then, the laser radiation is illuminated to crystallize and activate the channel formation region, and source and drain regions. After the completion of the device structure, various electrical characteristics of the TFTs are controlled. Also, the amorphous TFTs can be changed into polysilicon TFTs.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method of fabricating a semiconductor device having excellent characteristics. The device comprises a substrate having an insulating surface. A hydrogen-rich region is formed inside the substrate by ion doping. Thermal processing is performed at 300 to 450° C. to thermally diffuse hydrogen ions. Thus, dangling bonds and defect levels in an active layer are compensated. Since the hydrogenation from inside the semiconductor device is enabled in this way, hydrogen termination can be performed at a high efficiency.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device such as a thin film transistor using a crystal silicon film is provided. The crystal silicon film is obtained by selectively forming films, particles or clusters containing nickel, iron, cobalt, ruthenium, rhodium, paradium, osmium, iridium, platinum, scandium, titanium, vanadium, chrome, manganese, copper, zinc, gold, silver or silicide thereat in a form of island, line, stripe, dot or film on or under an amorphous silicon film and using them as a starting point, by advancing its crystallization by annealing at a temperature lower than a normal crystallization temperature of an amorphous silicon. A transistor whose leak current is low and a transistor in which a mobility is high are obtained in the same time in structuring a dynamic circuit having a thin film transistor by selectively forming a cover film on a semiconductor layer which is to become an active layer of the transistor and by thermally crystallizing it thereafter.

Abstract: A process for laser processing an article, which comprises: heating the intended article to be doped with an impurity to a temperature not higher than the melting point thereof, said article being made from a material selected from a semiconductor, a metal, an insulator, and a combination thereof; and irradiating a laser beam to the article in a reactive gas atmosphere containing said impurity, thereby allowing the impurity to physically or chemically diffuse into, combine with, or intrude into said article.

Abstract: An LDD structure is manufactured to have a desired aspect ratio of the height to the width of a gate electrode. The gate electrode is first deposited on a semiconductor substrate followed by ion implantation with the gate electrode as a mask to form a pair of impurity regions. The gate electrode is then anodic oxidized to form an oxide film enclosing the electrode. With the oxide film as a mask, highly doped regions are formed by ion implantation in order to define lightly doped regions between the highly doped regions and the channel region located therebetween.

Abstract: A semiconductor material and a method for forming the same, said semiconductor material having produced by a process comprising melting a noncrystal semiconductor film containing therein carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen each at a concentration of 5×1019 atoms·cm−3 or lower, preferably 1×1019 atoms·cm−3 or lower, by irradiating a laser beam or a high intensity light equivalent to a laser beam to said noncrystal semiconductor film, and then recrystallizing the thus molten amorphous silicon film. The present invention provides thin film semiconductors having high mobility at an excellent reproducibility, said semiconductor materials being useful for fabricating thin film semiconductor devices such as thin film transistors improved in device characteristics.

Abstract: A high quality semiconductor device comprising at least a semiconductor film having a microcrystal structure is disclosed, wherein said semiconductor film has a lattice distortion therein and comprises crystal grains at an average diameter of 30 Å to 4 &mgr;m as viewed from the upper surface of said semiconductor film and contains oxygen impurity and concentration of said oxygen impurity is not higher than 7×1019 atoms·cm−3 at an inside position of said semiconductor film.

Abstract: To provide a technology for fabricating a high image quality liquid crystal display device, a set range of a cell gap for holding a liquid crystal layer is limited in accordance with a distance of a pixel pitch in which specifically, the cell gap is set to be a distance of one tenth of the pixel pitch, whereby the high image quality liquid crystal display device with no occurrence of image display failure caused by disturbances of an electric field such as disclination, can be realized.

Abstract: A thin film transistor device reduced substantially in resistance between the source and the drain by incorporating a silicide film, which is fabricated by a process comprising forming a gate insulator film and a gate contact on a silicon substrate, anodically oxidizing the gate contact, covering an exposed surface of the silicon semiconductor with a metal, and irradiating an intense light such as a laser beam to the metal film either from the upper side or from an insulator substrate side to allow the metal coating to react with silicon to obtain a silicide film. The metal silicide layer may be obtained otherwise by tightly adhering a metal coating to the exposed source and drain regions using an insulator formed into an approximately triangular shape, preferably 1 &mgr;m or less in width, and allowing the metal to react with silicon.

Abstract: In an active matrix display device integrated with peripheral drive circuits, an image sensor is provided on the same substrate as a pixel matrix and peripheral drive circuits. The image sensor is formed on the substrate having pixel electrodes, pixel TFTs connected to the pixel electrodes and CMOS-TFTs for driving the pixel TFTs. The light receiving unit of the image sensor has light receiving elements having a photoelectric conversion layer and light receiving TFTs. These TFTs are produced in the same step. The lower electrode and transparent electrode of the light receiving element are produced by patterning the same film as the light shielding film and the pixel electrodes arranged in the pixel matrix.

Abstract: In an annealing process of illuminating a semiconductor thin film with laser light, in the case where the laser illumination is performed at an energy level that is lower than an output energy range that allows a laser apparatus to operate most stably, the laser output is fixed somewhere in the above output energy range and the illumination energy is changed by inserting or removing a light attenuation filter into or from the laser illumination optical path. As a result, the time required for the laser processing can be shortened.

Abstract: There is provided a configuration of an active matrix type liquid crystal display integrated with a peripheral driving circuit in which the surface area of regions excluding pixels is minimized. Further, the reliability of an apparatus having such a configuration is improved.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device such as a thin film transistor using a crystal silicon film is provided. The crystal silicon film is obtained by selectively forming films, particles or clusters containing nickel, iron, cobalt, ruthenium, rhodium, parad.ium, osmium, iridium, platinum, scandium, titanium, vanadium, chrome, manganese, copper, zinc, gold, silver or silicide thereof in a form of island, line, stripe, dot or film on or under an amorphous silicon film and using them as a starting point, by advancing its crystallization by annealing at a temperature lower than a normal crystallization temperature of an amorphous silicon. A transistor whose leak current is low and a transistor in which a mobility is high are obtained in the same time in structuring a dynamic circuit having a thin film transistor by selectively forming a cover film on a semiconductor layer which is to become an active layer of the transistor and by thermally crystallizing it thereafter.

Abstract: A silicon film provided on a blocking film 102 on a substrate 101 is made amorphous by doping Si+, and in a heat-annealing process, crystallization is started in parallel to a substrate from an area 100 where nickel serving as a crystallization-promoting, catalyst is introduced.