Patents by Inventor Hongyong Zhang

Hongyong Zhang 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: 7646022
    Abstract: The present invention provides an active matrix type display device having a high aperture ratio and a required auxiliary capacitor. A source line and a gate line are overlapped with part of a pixel electrode. This overlapped region functions to be a black matrix. Further, an electrode pattern made of the same material as the pixel electrode is disposed to form the auxiliary capacitor by utilizing the pixel electrode. It allows a required value of auxiliary capacitor to be obtained without dropping the aperture ratio. Also, it allows the electrode pattern to function as a electrically shielding film for suppressing the cross-talk between the source and gate lines and the pixel electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2010
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Satoshi Teramoto
  • Patent number: 7635895
    Abstract: There is provided a method by which lightly doped drain (LDD) regions can be formed easily and at good yields in source/drain regions in thin film transistors possessing gate electrodes covered with an oxide covering. A lightly doped drain (LDD) region is formed by introducing an impurity into an island-shaped silicon film in a self-aligning manner, with a gate electrode serving as a mask. First, low-concentration impurity regions are formed in the island-shaped silicon film by using rotation-tilt ion implantation to effect ion doping from an oblique direction relative to the substrate. Low-concentration impurity regions are also formed below the gate electrode at this time. After that, an impurity at a high concentration is introduced normally to the substrate, so forming high-concentration impurity regions. In the above process, a low-concentration impurity region remains below the gate electrode and constitutes a lightly doped drain region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Yasuhiko Takemura, Toshimitsu Konuma, Hideto Ohnuma, Naoaki Yamaguchi, Hideomi Suzawa, Hideki Uochi
  • Patent number: 7636136
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Takeshi Fukunaga
  • Publication number: 20090289254
    Abstract: A TFT formed on an insulating substrate source, drain and channel regions, a gate insulating film formed on at least the channel region and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film. Between the channel region and the drain region, a region having a higher resistivity is provided in order to reduce an Ioff current. A method for forming this structure comprises the steps of anodizing the gate electrode to form a porous anodic oxide film on the side of the gate electrode; removing a portion of the gate insulating using the porous anodic oxide film as a mask so that the gate insulating film extends beyond the gate electrode but does not completely cover the source and drain regions. Thereafter, an ion doping of one conductivity element is performed. The high resistivity region is defined under the gate insulating film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2009
    Publication date: November 26, 2009
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Toshimitsu Konuma, Akira Sugawara, Yukiko Uehara, Hongyong Zhang, Atsunori Suzuki, Hideto Ohnuma, Naoaki Yamaguchi, Hideomi Suzawa, Hideki Uochi, Yasuhiko Takemura
  • Patent number: 7622335
    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 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Hideki Uochi, Toru Takayama, Takeshi Fukunaga, Yasuhiko Takemura
  • Patent number: 7602020
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Takemura, Hongyong Zhang, Satoshi Teramoto
  • Publication number: 20090231527
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus containing an image sensor, which comprises a liquid crystal display part comprising an active matrix circuit, a peripheral driver circuit for driving the active matrix circuit, and a sensor part, integrated on one substrate, wherein the sensor part is sealed and protected with a sealing part and a counter substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2009
    Publication date: September 17, 2009
    Inventors: Hongyong ZHANG, Masayuki SAKAKURA
  • Publication number: 20090207332
    Abstract: A display device using a novel semiconductor device, which includes a pixel matrix, an image sensor, and a peripheral circuit for driving those, that is, which has both a camera function and a display function, and is made intelligent, is provided and a method of manufacturing the same is also provided. One pixel includes a semiconductor device for display and a semiconductor for light reception, that is, one pixel includes semiconductor devices (insulated gate-type field effect semiconductor device) for controlling both display and light reception, so that the display device having a picture reading function is made miniaturized and compact.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2009
    Publication date: August 20, 2009
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hongyong ZHANG, Masayuki SAKAKURA, Hideaki KUWABARA
  • Patent number: 7569856
    Abstract: A TFT formed on an insulating substrate source, drain and channel regions, a gate insulating film formed on at least the channel region and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film. Between the channel region and the drain region, a region having a higher resistivity is provided in order to reduce an Ioff current. A method for forming this structure comprises the steps of anodizing the gate electrode to form a porous anodic oxide film on the side of the gate electrode; removing a portion of the gate insulating using the porous anodic oxide film as a mask so that the gate insulating film extends beyond the gate electrode but does not completely cover the source and drain regions. Thereafter, an ion doping of one conductivity element is performed. The high resistivity region is defined under the gate insulating film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshimitsu Konuma, Akira Sugawara, Yukiko Uehara, Hongyong Zhang, Atsunori Suzuki, Hideto Ohnuma, Naoaki Yamaguchi, Hideomi Suzawa, Hideki Uochi, Yasuhiko Takemura
  • Patent number: 7569433
    Abstract: In order to obtain a thin-film transistor having high characteristics using a metal element for accelerating the crystallization of silicon, a nickel element is selectively added to the surface of an amorphous silicon film (103) in regions (101) and (102) and regions (108) to (110), and a heat treatment is carried out to grow crystals (horizontal growth) in directions parallel to the substrate as indicated by arrows (104) to (107). At this point, the regions (108) to (110) having a width of 5 ?m or less serve as stopper regions so that horizontal growth starting from the regions (101) and (102) stops there. In this way, the horizontal growth regions can be formed with high controllability. Then a circuit such as a shift register can be constructed with a region having the same crystal growth form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hongyong Zhang
  • Patent number: 7564057
    Abstract: A semiconductor device of having an insulating film comprising aluminum nitride and oxygen provided over a rear surface of a substrate. A transistor is provided over the insulating film. The transistor has at least a channel formation region comprising crystalline silicon, a gate insulating film adjacent to the channel formation region, and a gate electrode adjacent to the channel formation region with the gate insulating film interposed therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Hongyong Zhang, Yasuhiko Takemura
  • Publication number: 20090152631
    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 ?m or less in width, and allowing the metal to react with silicon.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 11, 2009
    Publication date: June 18, 2009
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yasuhiko TAKEMURA, Hongyong ZHANG, Satoshi TERAMOTO
  • Patent number: 7542103
    Abstract: An auxiliary capacitor for a pixel of an active matrix type liquid crystal display is provided without decreasing the aperture ratio. A transparent conductive film for a common electrode is formed under a pixel electrode constituted by a transparent conductive film with an insulation film provided therebetween. Further, the transparent conductive film for the common electrode is maintained at fixed potential, formed so as to cover a gate bus line and a source bus line, and configured such that signals on each bus line are not applied to the pixel electrode. The pixel electrode is disposed so that all edges thereof overlap the gate bus line and source bus line. As a result, each of the bus lines serves as a black matrix. Further, the pixel electrode overlaps the transparent conductive film for the common electrode to form a storage capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Naoaki Yamaguchi, Yasuhiko Takemura
  • Patent number: 7528912
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus containing an image sensor, which comprises a liquid crystal display part comprising an active matrix circuit, a peripheral driver circuit for driving the active matrix circuit, and a sensor part, integrated on one substrate, wherein the sensor part is sealed and protected with a sealing part and a counter substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Masayuki Sakakura
  • Patent number: 7525158
    Abstract: A TFT formed on an insulating substrate source, drain and channel regions, a gate insulating film formed on at least the channel region and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film. Between the channel region and the drain region, a region having a higher resistivity is provided in order to reduce an Ioff current. A method for forming this structure comprises the steps of anodizing the gate electrode to form a porous anodic oxide film on the side of the gate electrode; removing a portion of the gate insulating using the porous anodic oxide film as a mask so that the gate insulating film extends beyond the gate electrode but does not completely cover the source and drain regions. Thereafter, an ion doping of one conductivity element is performed. The high resistivity region is defined under the gate insulating film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshimitsu Konuma, Akira Sugawara, Yukiko Uehara, Hongyong Zhang, Atsunori Suzuki, Hideto Ohnuma, Naoaki Yamaguchi, Hideomi Suzawa, Hideki Uochi, Yasuhiko Takemura
  • Patent number: 7525615
    Abstract: A display device using a novel semiconductor device, which includes a pixel matrix, an image sensor, and a peripheral circuit for driving those, that is, which has both a camera function and a display function, and is made intelligent, is provided and a method of manufacturing the same is also provided. One pixel includes a semiconductor device for display and a semiconductor for light reception, that is, one pixel includes semiconductor devices (insulated gate-type field effect semiconductor device) for controlling both display and light reception, so that the display device having a picture reading function is made miniaturized and compact.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Masayuki Sakakura, Hideaki Kuwabara
  • Publication number: 20090101910
    Abstract: A gate-insulated thin film transistor is disclosed. One improvement is that the thin film transistor is formed on a substrate through a blocking layer in between so that it is possible to prevent the transistor from being contaminated with impurities such as alkali ions which exist in the substrate. Also, a halogen is added to either or both of the blocking lay r and a gate insulator of the transistor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2008
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Shunpei Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 7517738
    Abstract: The formation of contact holes and a capacitor is performed in a semiconductor integrated circuit such as an active matrix circuit. An interlayer insulator having a multilayer (a lower layer is silicon oxide; an upper layer is silicon nitride) each having different dry etching characteristic is formed. Using a first mask, the silicon nitride corresponding to the upper layer in the interlayer insulator is etched by dry etching. This etching is completed by using the silicon oxide corresponding to the lower layer as an etching stopper. A pattern is formed using a second mask to form selectively the silicon oxide corresponding to the lower layer. Thus a first portion that the silicon oxide and the silicon nitride are etched and a second portion that only silicon nitride is etched are obtained. The first portion is used as a contact hole. A capacitor is formed in the second portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hongyong Zhang
  • Patent number: 7510917
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongyong Zhang, Masayuki Sakakura
  • Patent number: 7507615
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing thin film field effect transistors is described. The channel region of the transistors is formed by depositing an amorphous semiconductor film in a first sputtering apparatus followed by thermal treatment for converting the amorphous phase to a polycrystalline phase. The gate insulating film is formed by depositing an oxide film in a second sputtering apparatus connected to the first apparatus through a gate valve. The sputtering for the deposition of the amorphous semiconductor film is carried out in an atmosphere comprising hydrogen in order to introduce hydrogen into the amorphous semiconductor film. On the other hand the gate insulating oxide film is deposited by sputtering in an atmosphere comprising oxygen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2009
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Hongyong Zhang, Takashi Inushima, Takeshi Fukada