Patents by Inventor Masashi Tsubuku

Masashi Tsubuku 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).

  • Semiconductor device
    Patent number: 10038100
    Abstract: A semiconductor device with improved electrical characteristics is provided. A semiconductor device with improved field effect mobility is provided. A semiconductor device in which the field-effect mobility is not lowered even at high temperatures is provided. A semiconductor device which can be formed at low temperatures is provided. A semiconductor device with improved productivity can be provided. In the semiconductor device, there is a range of a gate voltage where the field-effect mobility increases as the temperature increases within a range of the gate voltage from 0 V to 10 V. For example, such a range of a gate voltage exists at temperatures ranging from a room temperature (25° C.) to 120° C. In the semiconductor device, the off-state current is kept extremely low (lower than or equal to the detection limit of a measurement device) within the above temperature range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Kenichi Okazaki, Masashi Tsubuku, Satoru Saito, Noritaka Ishihara
  • Logic circuit and semiconductor device
    Patent number: 10002891
    Abstract: Exemplary semiconductor devices include eight transistors and two capacitors interconnected in specific configurations. A display device may include a driver circuit having such a semiconductor device. An electronic device may also include such a semiconductor device and an input unit, LED lamp or speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Jun Koyama, Masashi Tsubuku, Kosei Noda
  • METAL OXIDE FILM AND METHOD FOR FORMING METAL OXIDE FILM
    Publication number: 20180151596
    Abstract: A metal oxide film including a crystal part and having highly stable physical properties is provided. The size of the crystal part is less than or equal to 10 nm, which allows the observation of circumferentially arranged spots in a nanobeam electron diffraction pattern of the cross section of the metal oxide film when the measurement area is greater than or equal to 5 nm? and less than or equal to 10 n?.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2018
    Publication date: May 31, 2018
    Inventors: Masahiro TAKAHASHI, Takuya HIROHASHI, Masashi TSUBUKU, Noritaka ISHIHARA, Masashi OOTA
  • Method for operating semiconductor device
    Patent number: 9972389
    Abstract: Provided is a highly reliable semiconductor device, a semiconductor device with a reduced circuit area, a memory element having favorable characteristics, a highly reliable memory element, or a memory element with increased storage capacity per unit volume. A semiconductor device includes a capacitor and a switching element. The capacitor includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a dielectric. The dielectric is positioned between the first electrode and the second electrode. The switching element includes a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal is electrically connected to the first electrode. The following steps are sequentially performed: a first step of turning on the switching element in a first period, a second step of turning off the switching element in a second period, and a third step of turning on the switching element in a third period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masashi Tsubuku, Masashi Fujita
  • Liquid crystal display device and electronic device including the liquid crystal display device
    Patent number: 9959822
    Abstract: In a liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels in a display portion and configured to performed display in a plurality of frame periods, each of the frame periods includes a writing period and a holding period, and after an image signal is input to each of the plurality of pixels in the writing period, a transistor included in each of the plurality of pixels is turned off and the image signal is held for at least 30 seconds in the holding period. The pixel includes a semiconductor layer including an oxide semiconductor layer, and the oxide semiconductor layer has a carrier concentration of less than 1×1014/cm3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Ryo Arasawa, Jun Koyama, Masashi Tsubuku, Kosei Noda
  • Transistor and display device
    Patent number: 9954007
    Abstract: It is an object to manufacture a highly reliable display device using a thin film transistor having favorable electric characteristics and high reliability as a switching element. In a bottom gate thin film transistor including an amorphous oxide semiconductor, an oxide conductive layer having a crystal region is formed between an oxide semiconductor layer which has been dehydrated or dehydrogenated by heat treatment and each of a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer which are formed using a metal material. Accordingly, contact resistance between the oxide semiconductor layer and each of the source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer can be reduced; thus, a thin film transistor having favorable electric characteristics and a highly reliable display device using the thin film transistor can be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Toshinari Sasaki, Junichiro Sakata, Masashi Tsubuku
  • Driver circuit comprising semiconductor device
    Patent number: 9947695
    Abstract: Exemplary semiconductor devices include eight transistors and two capacitors interconnected in specific configurations. A display device may include a driver circuit having such a semiconductor device. An electronic device may also include such a semiconductor device and an input unit, LED lamp or speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Jun Koyama, Masashi Tsubuku, Kosei Noda
  • LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY DEVICE AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE INCLUDING THE LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY DEVICE
    Publication number: 20180090086
    Abstract: In a liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels in a display portion and configured to performed display in a plurality of frame periods, each of the frame periods includes a writing period and a holding period, and after an image signal is input to each of the plurality of pixels in the writing period, a transistor included in each of the plurality of pixels is turned off and the image signal is held for at least 30 seconds in the holding period. The pixel includes a semiconductor layer including an oxide semiconductor layer, and the oxide semiconductor layer has a carrier concentration of less than 1×1014/cm3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2017
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Ryo ARASAWA, Jun KOYAMA, Masashi TSUBUKU, Kosei NODA
  • Transisitor comprising oxide semiconductor
    Patent number: 9929281
    Abstract: A transistor includes a gate, a source, and a drain, the gate is electrically connected to the source or the drain, a first signal is input to one of the source and the drain, and an oxide semiconductor layer whose carrier concentration is 5×1014/cm3 or less is used for a channel formation layer. A capacitor includes a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode is electrically connected to the other of the source and the drain of the transistor, and a second signal which is a clock signal is input to the second electrode. A voltage of the first signal is stepped up or down to obtain a third signal which is output as an output signal through the other of the source and the drain of the transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Hiroyuki Miyake, Masashi Tsubuku, Kosei Noda
  • Thin film element, semiconductor device, and method for manufacturing the same
    Patent number: 9917197
    Abstract: An object is to provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device without exposing a specific layer to moisture or the like at all. A thin film element is manufactured in such a manner that a first film, a second film, and a third film are stacked in this order; a resist mask is formed over the third film; a mask layer is formed by etching the third film with the use of the resist mask; the resist mask is removed; a second layer and a first layer are formed by performing dry etching on the second film and the first film with the use of the mask layer; a fourth film is formed to cover at least the second layer and the first layer; and sidewall layers are formed to cover at least the entire side surfaces of the first layer by performing etch back on the fourth film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takafumi Mizoguchi, Kojiro Shiraishi, Masashi Tsubuku
  • Semiconductor device
    Patent number: 9911864
    Abstract: Defects in an oxide semiconductor film are reduced in a semiconductor device including the oxide semiconductor film. The electrical characteristics of a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film are improved. The reliability of a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film is improved. A semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor layer; a metal oxide layer in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, the metal oxide layer including an In-M oxide (M is Ti, Ga, Y, Zr, La, Ce, Nd, or Hf); and a conductive layer in contact with the metal oxide layer, the conductive layer including copper, aluminum, gold, or silver is provided. In the semiconductor device, y/(x+y) is greater than or equal to 0.75 and less than 1 where the atomic ratio of In to M included in the metal oxide layer is In:M=x:y.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Noritaka Ishihara, Masashi Oota, Masashi Tsubuku, Masami Jintyou, Yukinori Shima, Junichi Koezuka, Yasuharu Hosaka, Shunpei Yamazaki
  • Metal oxide film and method for forming metal oxide film
    Patent number: 9881939
    Abstract: A metal oxide film including a crystal part and having highly stable physical properties is provided. The size of the crystal part is less than or equal to 10 nm, which allows the observation of circumferentially arranged spots in a nanobeam electron diffraction pattern of the cross section of the metal oxide film when the measurement area is greater than or equal to 5 nm? and less than or equal to 10 nm?.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Takahashi, Takuya Hirohashi, Masashi Tsubuku, Noritaka Ishihara, Masashi Oota
  • Metal oxide film and method for forming metal oxide film
    Patent number: 9871058
    Abstract: A metal oxide film including a crystal part and having highly stable physical properties is provided. The size of the crystal part is less than or equal to 10 nm, which allows the observation of circumferentially arranged spots in a nanobeam electron diffraction pattern of the cross section of the metal oxide film when the measurement area is greater than or equal to 5 nm? and less than or equal to 10 nm?.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Takahashi, Takuya Hirohashi, Masashi Tsubuku, Noritaka Ishihara, Masashi Oota
  • SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE
    Publication number: 20170373135
    Abstract: A highly reliable semiconductor device including, an oxide semiconductor is provided. Provided is a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor layer, an insulating layer in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, a gate electrode layer overlapping with the oxide semiconductor layer, and a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer electrically connected to the oxide semiconductor layer. The oxide semiconductor layer includes a first region having a crystal whose size is less than or equal to 10 nm and a second region which overlaps with the insulating layer with the first region provided therebetween and which includes a crystal part whose c-axis is aligned in a direction parallel to a normal vector of the surface of the oxide semiconductor layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Publication date: December 28, 2017
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Masahiro TAKAHASHI, Takuya HIROHASHI, Masashi TSUBUKU, Masashi OOTA
  • SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE
    Publication number: 20170358683
    Abstract: An object is to provide a memory device including a memory element that can be operated without problems by a thin film transistor with a low off-state current. Provided is a memory device in which a memory element including at least one thin film transistor that includes an oxide semiconductor layer is arranged as a matrix. The thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer has a high field effect mobility and low off-state current, and thus can be operated favorably without problems. In addition, the power consumption can be reduced. Such a memory device is particularly effective in the case where the thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer is provided in a pixel of a display device because the memory device and the pixel can be formed over one substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2017
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Masashi TSUBUKU, Kosei NODA, Kouhei TOYOTAKA, Kazunori WATANABE, Hikaru HARADA
  • SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE
    Publication number: 20170352746
    Abstract: A change in electrical characteristics is suppressed and reliability in a semiconductor device using a transistor including an oxide semiconductor is improved. Oxygen is introduced into a surface of an insulating film, and then, an oxide semiconductor, a layer which is capable of blocking oxygen, a gate insulating film, and other films which composes a transistor are formed. For at least one of the first gate insulating film and the insulating film, three signals in Electron Spin Resonance Measurement are each observed in a certain range of g-factor. Reducing the sum of the spin densities of the signals will improve reliability of the semiconductor device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Inventors: Shunpei YAMAZAKI, Akihisa SHIMOMURA, Yasumasa YAMANE, Yuhei SATO, Tetsuhiro TANAKA, Masashi TSUBUKU, Toshihiko TAKEUCHI, Ryo TOKUMARU, Mitsuhiro ICHIJO, Satoshi TORIUMI, Takashi OHTSUKI, Toshiya ENDO
  • Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
    Patent number: 9837513
    Abstract: When a transistor having bottom gate bottom contact structure is manufactured, for example, a conductive layer constituting a source and a drain has a three-layer structure and two-step etching is performed. In the first etching process, an etching method in which the etching rates for at least the second film and the third film are high is employed, and the first etching process is performed until at least the first film is exposed. In the second etching process, an etching method in which the etching rate for the first film is higher than that in the first etching process and the etching rate for a “layer provided below and in contact with the first film” is lower than that in the first etching process is employed. The side wall of the second film is slightly etched when a resist mask is removed after the second etching process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: Semicinductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinya Sasagawa, Hitoshi Nakayama, Masashi Tsubuku, Daigo Shimada
  • Semiconductor device comprising a plurality of N-channel transistors wherein the oxide semiconductor layer comprises a portion being in an oxygen-excess state
    Patent number: 9837442
    Abstract: An object is to improve reliability of a semiconductor device. A semiconductor device including a driver circuit portion and a display portion (also referred to as a pixel portion) over the same substrate is provided. The driver circuit portion and the display portion include thin film transistors in which a semiconductor layer includes an oxide semiconductor; a first wiring; and a second wiring. The thin film transistors each include a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer. In the thin film transistor in the driver circuit portion, the semiconductor layer is sandwiched between a gate electrode layer and a conductive layer. The first wiring and the second wiring are electrically connected to each other in an opening provided in a gate insulating film through an oxide conductive layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Junichiro Sakata, Masayuki Sakakura, Yoshiaki Oikawa, Kenichi Okazaki, Hotaka Maruyama, Masashi Tsubuku
  • Semiconductor film and semiconductor device
    Patent number: 9829533
    Abstract: An oxide semiconductor film having high stability with respect to light irradiation or a semiconductor device having high stability with respect to light irradiation is provided. One embodiment of the present invention is a semiconductor film including an oxide in which light absorption is observed by a constant photocurrent method (CPM) in a wavelength range of 400 nm to 800 nm, and in which an absorption coefficient of a defect level, which is obtained by removing light absorption due to a band tail from the light absorption, is lower than or equal to 5×10?2/cm. Alternatively, a semiconductor device is manufactured using the semiconductor film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masashi Tsubuku, Ryosuke Watanabe
  • Metal oxide film and method for forming metal oxide film
    Patent number: 9831274
    Abstract: A metal oxide film including a crystal part and having highly stable physical properties is provided. The size of the crystal part is less than or equal to 10 nm, which allows the observation of circumferentially arranged spots in a nanobeam electron diffraction pattern of the cross section of the metal oxide film when the measurement area is greater than or equal to 5 nm? and less than or equal to 10 nm?.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Takahashi, Takuya Hirohashi, Masashi Tsubuku, Noritaka Ishihara, Masashi Oota