Patents by Inventor Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. 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).

  • Publication number: 20130120229
    Abstract: To prevent malfunctions from occurring. A shift register, a selection circuit having a function of determining which a first pulse signal or a second pulse signal is output at the same potential level as a pulse signal input from the shift register, and a plurality of driving signal output circuits each having functions of generating and outputting a driving signal are provided. Each of the plurality of driving signal output circuits includes a latch unit, a buffer unit, and a switch unit for controlling rewriting of data stored in the latch unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2012
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130120702
    Abstract: A display device is manufactured with five photolithography steps: a step of forming a gate electrode, a step of forming a protective layer for reducing damage due to an etching step or the like, a step of forming a source electrode and a drain electrode, a step of forming a contact hole, and a step of forming a pixel electrode. The display device includes a groove portion which is formed in the step of forming the contact hole and separates the semiconductor layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2012
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130119379
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide a light-emitting device in which, even when a material with high reflectivity such as aluminum is used for an electrode, a layer containing oxygen can be formed over the electrode without increasing contact resistance and a manufacturing method thereof. According to the present invention, a feature thereof is a light-emitting element having an electrode composed of a stacked structure where a conductive film having high reflectivity such as aluminum, silver, and an alloy containing aluminum or an alloy containing silver, and a conductive film composed of a refractory metal material is provided over the conductive film, or a light-emitting device having the light-emitting element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2013
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130119376
    Abstract: To provide a highly reliable semiconductor device including a transistor using an oxide semiconductor. After a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer are formed, an island-like oxide semiconductor layer is formed in a gap between these electrode layers so that a side surface of the oxide semiconductor layer is covered with a wiring, whereby light is prevented from entering the oxide semiconductor layer through the side surface. Further, a gate electrode layer is formed over the oxide semiconductor layer with a gate insulating layer interposed therebetween and impurities are introduced with the gate electrode layer used as a mask. Then, a conductive layer is provided on a side surface of the gate electrode layer in the channel length direction, whereby an Lov region is formed while maintaining a scaled-down channel length and entry of light from above into the oxide semiconductor layer is prevented.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2012
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130119378
    Abstract: The semiconductor device includes a power element which is in an on state when voltage is not applied to a gate, a switching field-effect transistor for applying first voltage to the gate of the power element, and a switching field-effect transistor for applying voltage lower than the first voltage to the gate of the power element. The switching field-effect transistors have small off-state current.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2012
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130119380
    Abstract: A solid-state image sensor which holds a potential for a long time and includes a thin film transistor with stable electrical characteristics is provided. When the off-state current of a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer is set to 1×10?13 A or less and the thin film transistor is used as a reset transistor and a transfer transistor of the solid-state image sensor, the potential of the signal charge storage portion is kept constant, so that a dynamic range can be improved. When a silicon semiconductor which can be used for a complementary metal oxide semiconductor is used for a peripheral circuit, a high-speed semiconductor device with low power consumption can be manufactured.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2013
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130119364
    Abstract: A light-emitting device includes a transistor over a substrate and an insulating film over the transistor. The light-emitting device further includes a wiring over the insulating film and a light-emitting element. The insulating film includes a first opening and a second opening, and the wiring is electrically connected to the transistor through the first opening. The light-emitting element is provided in the second opening, and includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an organic compound layer provided between the first electrode and the second electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2013
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., Ltd
  • Publication number: 20130114330
    Abstract: In a conventional DRAM, a decrease in the capacitance of a capacitor causes an error in reading data. A plurality of memory blocks MB is connected to one bit line BL_m. Each memory block MB includes a sub bit line SBL, a plurality of memory cells, and a precharge transistor. The drain of a transistor of the memory cell is connected one of the bit line BL_m and the sub bit line SBL, whereas a capacitor of the memory cell is connected to the other one of the bit line BL_m and the sub bit line SBL. The capacitance of the sub bit line SBL is sufficiently low; thus, a potential change due to electric charges of the capacitor of the memory cell can be amplified by an amplifier circuit AMP without an error and the amplified signal can be output to the bit line.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130113044
    Abstract: It is an object to provide a semiconductor device typified by a display device having a favorable display quality, in which parasitic resistance generated in a connection portion between a semiconductor layer and an electrode is suppressed and an adverse effect such as voltage drop, a defect in signal wiring to a pixel, a defect in grayscale, and the like due to wiring resistance are prevented. In order to achieve the above object, a semiconductor device according to the present invention may have a structure where a wiring with low resistance is connected to a thin film transistor in which a source electrode and a drain electrode that include metal with high oxygen affinity are connected to an oxide semiconductor layer with a suppressed impurity concentration. In addition, the thin film transistor including the oxide semiconductor may be surrounded by insulating films to be sealed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130112955
    Abstract: Provided is a light-emitting module from which light with uniform brightness can be extracted. Further, provided is a beautiful light-emitting module in which Newton's rings are not observed. The light-emitting module includes a first substrate, a light-emitting element formed on one surface side of the first substrate, a second substrate, a conductive spacer maintaining the gap between the first substrate and the second substrate, and a space in which the light-emitting element is sealed between the first substrate and the second substrate. Further, the pressure in the space is lower than or equal to the atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, the conductive spacer is electrically connected to the second electrode in a position overlapping with a partition provided over the first substrate so as to reduce a voltage drop occurring in the second electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130112980
    Abstract: To provide a bright and highly reliable light-emitting device. An anode (102), an EL layer (103), a cathode (104), and an auxiliary electrode (105) are formed sequentially in lamination on a reflecting electrode (101). Further, the anode (102), the cathode (104), and the auxiliary electrode (105) are either transparent or semi-transparent with respect to visible radiation. In such a structure, lights generated in the EL layer (103) are almost all irradiated to the side of the cathode (104), whereby an effect light emitting area of a pixel is drastically enhanced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130112961
    Abstract: Disclosed is a novel organic semiconductor material which has a twisted quaterphenylene skeleton as a central unit and simultaneously possesses a skeleton having an electron-transporting property and a skeleton having a hole-transporting property at the terminals of the quaterphenylene skeleton. Specifically, the organic semiconductor material has a [1,1?:2?,1?:2?,1??]quaterphenyl-4-4??-diyl group, and one of the terminals of the [1,1?:2?,1?:2?,1??]quaterphenyl-4-4??-diyl group is bonded to a skeleton having an electron-transporting property such as a benzoxazole group or an oxadiazole group. A skeleton having a hole-transporting property such as diarylamino group is introduced at the other terminal. This structure allows the formation of a compound having a bipolar property, a high molecular weight, an excellent thermal stability, a large band gap, and high triplet excitation energy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130112968
    Abstract: A semiconductor device which achieves miniaturization with favorable characteristics maintained is provided. In addition, a miniaturized semiconductor device is provided with high yield. In a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor, the contact resistance between the oxide semiconductor and the source electrode or the drain electrode is reduced with miniaturization advanced. Specifically, an oxide semiconductor film is processed to be an island-shaped oxide semiconductor film whose side surface has a tapered shape. Further, the side surface has a taper angle greater than or equal to 1° and less than 10°, and at least part of the source electrode and the drain electrode is in contact with the side surfaces of the oxide semiconductor film. With such a structure, the contact region of the oxide semiconductor film and the source electrode or the drain electrode is increased, whereby the contact resistance is reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130112954
    Abstract: A novel compound which can be used as a material for a light-emitting element is provided. Specifically, a novel compound is provided which can be suitably used as a material for a light-emitting element where a phosphorescent compound enabling high emission efficiency of the light-emitting element is used as a light-emitting substance. In addition, a novel compound is provided which can be easily synthesized and inexpensively manufactured as well as having the above-described characteristics. A compound is provided in which at least one dibenzothiophenyl group or dibenzofuranyl group is directly bonded to a dibenzo[f,h]quinoxaline skeleton.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130112981
    Abstract: In order to realize a semiconductor device of enhanced TFT characteristics, a semiconductor thin film is selectively irradiated with a laser beam at the step of crystallizing the semiconductor thin film by the irradiation with the laser beam. By way of example, only driver regions (103 in FIG. 1) are irradiated with the laser beam in a method of fabricating a display device of active matrix type. Thus, it is permitted to obtain the display device (such as liquid crystal display device or EL display device) of high reliability as comprises the driver regions (103) made of crystalline semiconductor films, and a pixel region (102) made of an amorphous semiconductor film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2012
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130107154
    Abstract: To provide a circuit used for a shift register or the like. The basic configuration includes first to fourth transistors and four wirings. The power supply potential VDD is supplied to the first wiring and the power supply potential VSS is supplied to the second wiring. A binary digital signal is supplied to each of the third wiring and the fourth wiring. An H level of the digital signal is equal to the power supply potential VDD, and an L level of the digital signal is equal to the power supply potential VSS. There are four combinations of the potentials of the third wiring and the fourth wiring. Each of the first transistor to the fourth transistor can be turned off by any combination of the potentials. That is, since there is no transistor that is constantly on, deterioration of the characteristics of the transistors can be suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2012
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130105784
    Abstract: It is an object to form a high quality gate insulating film which is dense and has a strong insulation resistance property, and to propose a high reliable organic transistor in which a tunnel leakage current is little. One mode of the organic transistor of the present invention has a step of forming the gate insulating film by forming the conductive layer which becomes the gate electrode activating oxygen (or gas including oxygen) or nitrogen (or gas including nitrogen) or the like using dense plasma in which density of electron is 1011 cm?3 or more, and electron temperature is a range of 0.2 eV to 2.0 eV with plasma activation, and reacting directly with a portion of the conductive layer which becomes the gate electrode to be insulated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130105865
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a base insulating film including silicon, an oxide semiconductor film over the base insulating film, a gate insulating film over the oxide semiconductor film, a gate electrode which is in contact with the gate insulating film and overlaps with at least the oxide semiconductor film, and a source electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the oxide semiconductor film. The oxide semiconductor film includes a region in which a concentration of silicon distributed from the interface with the base insulating film toward an inside of the oxide semiconductor film is lower than or equal to 1.0 at. %. A crystal portion is included at least in the region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2012
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130105805
    Abstract: A pixel TFT formed in a pixel region is formed on a first substrate by a channel etch type reverse stagger type TFT, and patterning of a source region and a drain region, and patterning of a pixel electrode are performed by the same photomask. A driver circuit formed by using TFTs having a crystalline semiconductor layer, and an input-output terminal dependent on the driver circuit, are taken as one unit. A plurality of units are formed on a third substrate, and afterward the third substrate is partitioned into individual units, and the obtained stick drivers are mounted on the first substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2012
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
  • Publication number: 20130105732
    Abstract: A liquid crystal composition with which generation of an alignment defect in a polymer/liquid crystal composite exhibiting a polymer-stabilized blue phase can be reduced is provided. The liquid crystal composition includes a liquid crystal material exhibiting a blue phase; and a liquid crystalline monomer. In the liquid crystalline monomer, the chain length (the sum of carbon atoms and oxygen atoms) of an oxyalkylene group represented as Y in the following general formula (G1) is n (2?n?11). The liquid crystalline monomer has a lower phase transition temperature from a nematic phase to an isotropic phase (TNI) than liquid crystalline monomers including the oxyalkylene groups whose chain lengths are (n?1) and (n+1). In (G1), X represents a mesogenic skeleton; Y represents an oxyalkylene group (including carbon and oxygen), and includes hydrogen or fluorine; and Z1 and Z2 individually represent an acryloyl group or a methacryloyl group.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2012
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.