Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7943885?dq=4052565
Timestamp: 2014-07-28 21:04:30
Document Index: 120422506

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 2002', 'Application No. 200610006425', 'Application No. 2009', 'Application No. 200502879', 'Application No. 200204609', 'Application No. 200205715']

Patent US7943885 - Laser irradiation method and method of manufacturing semiconductor device - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign in<nobr>Advanced Patent Search</nobr>PatentsBy laser beam being slantly incident to the diffractive optics, an aberration such as astigmatism or the like is occurred, and the shape of the laser beam is made linear on the irradiation surface or in its neighborhood. Since the device has a very simple configuration, the optical adjustment is easier,...http://www.google.com/patents/US7943885?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7943885 - Laser irradiation method and method of manufacturing semiconductor deviceAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7943885 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 11/433,569Publication dateMay 17, 2011Filing dateMay 15, 2006Priority dateSep 25, 2001Also published asCN1280880C, CN1409382A, DE60233706D1, EP1304186A2, EP1304186A3, EP1304186B1, US7138306, US8686315, US20030086182, US20060215721, US20060215722, US20140113440Publication number11433569, 433569, US 7943885 B2, US 7943885B2, US-B2-7943885, US7943885 B2, US7943885B2InventorsKoichiro Tanaka, Hidekazu Miyairi, Aiko Shiga, Akihisa Shimomura, Atsuo IsobeOriginal AssigneeSemiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (104), Non-Patent Citations (15), Referenced by (1), Classifications (37) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetLaser irradiation method and method of manufacturing semiconductor deviceUS 7943885 B2Abstract By laser beam being slantly incident to the diffractive optics, an aberration such as astigmatism or the like is occurred, and the shape of the laser beam is made linear on the irradiation surface or in its neighborhood. Since the device has a very simple configuration, the optical adjustment is easier, and the device becomes compact in size. Furthermore, since the beam is slantly incident with respect to the irradiated body, the return beam can be prevented.
emitting a laser beam from a laser,
making said laser beam slantly incident with respect to a diffractive optics set so that said laser beam is slantly incident with respect to an irradiated surface,
deforming a shape of said laser beam through said diffractive optics so that said shape of said laser beam is in a linear shape on said irradiated surface, and
irradiating said laser beam in said linear shape to said irradiated surface while said laser beam in said linear shape and said irradiated surface are relatively moved.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said laser is a solid state laser, a gas laser or a metal laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said laser is one selected from YAG laser, YVO4 laser, YLF laser, YAlO3 laser, glass laser, ruby laser, alexandrite laser, Ti: sapphire laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said laser is one selected from Ar laser, Kr laser and CO2 laser.
5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said laser is one selected from helium-cadmium laser, copper vapor laser and gold vapor laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said laser beam is converted into a higher harmonic wave through a non-linear optical element.
irradiating said laser beam in said linear shape to said irradiated surface while said laser beam in said linear shape and said irradiated surface are relatively moved,
wherein a beam length w of said laser beam incident into said irradiated surface set over a substrate, a thickness d of said substrate, and an incident angle θ of said laser beam at which said laser beam is incident with respect to said irradiated surface satisfy the following expression:
θ≧arctan(w/(2�d)).
8. A method according to claim 7, wherein said laser is a solid state laser, a gas laser or a metal laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
9. A method according to claim 7, wherein said laser is one selected from YAG laser, YVO4 laser, YLF laser, YAlO3 laser, glass laser, ruby laser, alexandrite laser, Ti: sapphire laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
10. A method according to claim 7, wherein said laser is one selected from Ar laser, Kr laser and CO2 laser.
11. A method according to claim 7, wherein said laser is one selected from helium-cadmium laser, copper vapor laser and gold vapor laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
12. A method according to claim 7, wherein said laser beam is converted into a higher harmonic wave through a non-linear optical element.
making a laser beam from a laser slantly incident with respect to a diffractive optics set so that the laser beam is slantly incident with respect to the semiconductor film;
deforming a shape of the laser beam through the diffractive optics so that the shape of the laser beam is in a linear shape on the semiconductor film; and
crystallizing the semiconductor film by irradiating the laser beam in the linear shape to the semiconductor film while the laser beam in the linear shape and the semiconductor film are relatively moved.
14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the laser is a solid state laser, a gas laser or a metal laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
15. A method according to claim 13, wherein the laser is one selected from YAG laser, YVO4 laser, YLF laser. YAlO3 laser, glass laser, ruby laser, alexandrite laser, Ti: sapphire laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
16. A method according to claim 13, wherein the laser is one selected from Ar laser, Kr laser and CO2 laser.
17. A method according to claim 13, wherein the laser is one selected from helium-cadmium laser, copper vapor laser and gold vapor laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
18. A method according to claim 13, wherein the laser beam is converted into a higher harmonic wave through a non-linear optical element.
crystallizing the semiconductor film by irradiating the laser beam in the linear shape to the semiconductor film while the laser beam in the linear shape and the semiconductor film are relatively moved,
wherein a beam length w of the laser beam incident into the semiconductor film, a thickness d of the substrate, and an incident angle θ of the laser beam at which the laser beam is incident with respect to the semiconductor film satisfy the following expression:
20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the laser beam is a solid state laser, a gas laser or a metal laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
21. A method according to claim 19, wherein the laser is one selected from YAG laser, YVO4 laser, YLF laser, YAlO3 laser, glass laser, ruby laser, alexandrite laser, Ti: sapphire laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
22. A method according to claim 19, wherein the laser is one selected from Ar laser, Kr laser and CO2 laser.
23. A method according to claim 19, wherein the laser is one selected from helium-cadmium laser, copper vapor laser and gold vapor laser of continuous oscillation or pulse oscillation.
24. A method according to claim 19, wherein the laser beam is converted into a higher harmonic wave through a non-linear optical element. Description
This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/252,828, filed Sep. 24, 2002, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,138,306.
Moreover, as for the other configuration of the invention relating to a laser irradiation device, it is a laser irradiation device having a laser and a convex lens which is slantly set to the traveling direction of the laser beam emitted from the foregoing laser and makes the shape of the foregoing laser beam on the irradiation surface or in its neighborhood in a linear shape,
it is characterized as follows: supposing that the beam width measured when a laser beam emitted from the laser via the foregoing convex lens is incident into the irradiated body formed on the substrate is w, and the thickness of the foregoing substrate is d, the foregoing laser beam is incident with respect to the foregoing irradiated body, at an incident angle θ satisfying the following expression:
Moreover, the other configuration of the invention relating to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is characterized in that, through a convex lens slantly set with respect to the traveling direction of the laser beam, a linear beam is formed on the irradiation surface or in its neighborhood. Supposing that a beam width measured when the foregoing linear beam is incident into the semiconductor film formed on the substrate is w, and the thickness of the foregoing substrate is d, the foregoing linear beam is incident with respect to the semiconductor film at the incident angle θ satisfying the following expression:
FIGS. 27A-27B are graphs showing ID-VG characteristic of a TFT with a film thickness of 66 nm in complete depression type.
FIGS. 28A-28B are graphs showing ID-VG characteristic of a TFT with a film thickness of 150 nm in partial depletion type.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment Mode In the present Embodiment Mode, a method of forming a linear beam will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.
In this case, when a flat plane which is perpendicular to the irradiated surface and which is one of the plane containing short side or the long side of a rectangle which is assumed to be a shape of the long beam is defined as incident surface, it is desired that the incident angle θ of the laser beam satisfies θ≧arctan(W/2d) where W is a length of the short side or the long side contained in the incident surface, and the thickness of the substrate having transparency with respect to the laser beam is d. This W is W=(W1+W2)/2 when W1 is a beam length 15 of a laser beam incident on the irradiated surface, and W2 is a beam length of a laser beam reflected from a back surface of the substrate 10. It is to be noted that when the locus of the laser beam is not present on the incident surface, an incident angle of a projected one of the locus on the incident surface is defined as θ. If the laser beam is incident at the incident angle θ, the reflected beam on the surface of the substrate is not interfered with the reflected beam from the back surface of the substrate to enable the irradiation of the laser beam to be conducted uniformly. Further, by setting the incident angle θ on the irradiated body to the Brewster's angle, the reflectivity is minimized to enable the laser beam to be used effectively. In the above, refractive index of the substrate is 1. In practice, the refractive index of many substrates is about 1.5. When this value is taken into consideration, a calculation value larger than the angle calculated in the above is obtained. However, because energies of both sides of the lengthwise direction of the linear beam are attenuated, interference influence is small in this part and sufficient interference attenuation effect is obtained with the above calculated value.
Embodiments Embodiment 1 In the present Embodiment, an example in which a linear beam is formed by the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3.
Embodiment 2 In the present Embodiment, an example in which the irradiation of the laser beam is performed using a plurality of laser beams will be described below with reference to FIG. 4. As lasers 111 a-111 c, YAG lasers are used, these are converted into the second higher harmonic wave by a non-linear optical element. Then, after the respective laser beams emitted from the lasers 111 a-111 c travel via mirrors 112 a-112 c, these are slantly incident with respect to the convex lenses 113 a-113 c. By slantly being incident, the focal position is shifted by an aberration such as astigmatism or the like, a linear beam can be formed on the irradiation surface or in its neighborhood. Moreover, it is desirable that an aspherical lens is used for the convex lens. It should be noted that abeam expander between the lasers 111 a-111 c and the mirrors 112 a-112 c or between the mirrors 112 a-112 c and the convex lenses 113 a-113 c is set and may be expanded into the desired sizes in both of longer direction and shorter direction, respectively. Moreover, the mirror may not be set, or a plurality of the mirrors may be set.
Embodiment 3 In the present Embodiment, an example in which the irradiation of the laser beams are carried out from both sides of the irradiated body using a plurality of lasers will be described below with reference to FIG. 5.
Embodiment 4 In the present Embodiment, an example in which the irradiation of the laser beams is carried out by utilizing a plurality of lasers and superimposing these on the surface of the irradiated body will be described below with reference to FIG. 6.
It should be noted that beam expanders between the lasers 131 a, 131 b and the convex lenses 133 a, 133 b are set and may be expanded into the desired sizes in both of longer direction and shorter direction, respectively. Moreover, the mirror may not be set, or a plurality of the mirrors may be set.
Embodiment 5 A method of manufacturing an active matrix substrate is explained in this embodiment using FIGS. 8 to 11. A substrate on which a CMOS circuit, a driver circuit, and a pixel portion having a TFT pixel and a holding capacity are formed together is called active matrix substrate for convenience.
First, a substrate 400 made from glass such as barium borosilicate glass or aluminum borosilicate glass is used in this embodiment. Note that substrates such as quartz substrates, silicon substrates, metallic substrates, and stainless steel substrates having an insulating film formed on the substrate surface may also be used as the substrate 400. Further, aplastic substrate having heat resisting properties capable of enduring the processing temperatures used in this embodiment may also be used. Because this invention can easily form a linear beam with a uniform energy distribution, it is possible that annealing the large area substrate is conducted effectively by using a plurality of linear beams.
In this embodiment, plasma CVD method is used to form an amorphous silicon film with a thickness of 50 nm, and then the thermal crystallization method using metallic elements, which promote crystallization, and laser crystallization method are used for the amorphous silicon film. Nickel is used as a metal element, and is introduced onto the amorphous silicon film by a solution coating method. Then heat treatment is conducted at 500� C. for five hour, whereby obtaining a first crystalline silicon film. Subsequently, the laser beam shot from a continuous oscillation YVO4 laser with output 10 W is converted into the second higher harmonic wave by a nonlinear optical element and then a linear laser beam is formed and irradiated by one of the optical system shown in Embodiments 1 thorough 4 or by the optical system combined these embodiments, whereby obtaining a second crystalline silicon film. Irradiating the laser beam to the first crystalline silicon film, and changing the first crystalline silicon film to the second crystalline silicon film improve the crystallinity of the second crystalline silicon film. At this moment, about 0.01 to 100 MW/cm2 (preferably 0.1 to 10 MW/cm2) is necessary for the energy density. The stage is relatively moved to the laser beam at a speed of about 0.5 to 2000 cm/s, and it irradiates, and then the crystalline silicon film is formed. When the excimer laser of pulse oscillation is used, it is preferable that 300 Hz of frequency and 100 to 1000 mj/cm2 (typically, 200 to 800 mj/cm2) of laser energy density are used. At this moment, laser beam may be overlapped by 50 to 98%.
An upper surface diagram of the pixel portion of the active matrix substrate manufactured in this embodiment is shown in FIG. 11. Note that the same reference symbols are used for portions corresponding to those in FIGS. 8 to 11. A chain line A-A′ in FIG. 10 corresponds to a cross sectional diagram cut along a chain line A-A′ within FIG. 11. Further, a chain line B-B′ in FIG. 10 corresponds to a cross sectional diagram cut along a chain line B-B′ within FIG. 11.
Embodiment 6 A process of manufacturing a reflection type liquid crystal display device from the active matrix substrate manufactured in Embodiment 5 is explained below in this embodiment. FIG. 12 is used in the explanation.
Embodiment 7 In this embodiment, an example of manufacturing the light emitting device by using a manufacturing method of TFT that is used for forming an active matrix substrate. In this specification, the light emitting device is the general term for the display panel enclosed a light emitting element formed on the substrate between the aforesaid substrate and the cover member, and to the aforesaid display module equipped TFT with the aforesaid display panel. Incidentally, the light emitting element has a layer including a compound in which an electroluminescence can be obtained by applying an electric field (a light emitting layer), an anode, and a cathode. Meanwhile, the electroluminescence in organic compound includes the light emission (fluorescence) upon returning from the singlet-excited state to the ground state and the light emission (phosphorescence) upon returning from the triplet-excited state to the ground state, including any or both of light emission.
Embodiment 8 In this embodiment, an example of performing crystallization of a semiconductor film by using an optical system will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 17.
Embodiment 9 Present embodiment will be described an example of conducting a crystallization of a semiconductor film in the different method from Embodiment 8 with reference to FIGS. 1 and 18.
Embodiment 10 Present embodiment will be described an example of conducting crystallization of a semiconductor film by using an optical system of the present invention and manufacturing TFT by using the semiconductor film with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 19 and FIG. 20.
Next, the mask 35 made of resist is removed and a silicon oxynitride film with a thickness of 50 nm (compositional ratio: Si=32.8%, O=63.7%, H=3.5%) is formed as a first interlayer insulating film 37 by plasma CVD method.
Embodiment 11 In this embodiment, an example of conducting crystallization of a semiconductor film by a different method from in Embodiment 10, and manufacturing TFT by using the semiconductor film will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 21A to 21C, 22A to 22B, and 23A to 23B.
Embodiment 12 In Embodiments 10 and 11, an example in which a TFT is manufactured by crystallization methods different from each other is shown. In the present Embodiment 12, difference between the crystallinities is considered from the TFT characteristics.
Embodiment 13 Various semiconductor devices (active matrix type liquid crystal display device, active matrix type light emitting device or active matrix type EC display device) can be formed by applying the present invention. Specifically, the present invention can be embodied in electronic equipment of any type in which such an electro-optical device is incorporated in a display portion.
Embodiment 14 In the present Embodiment, an example in which a linear beam is formed using a diffractive optics (diffraction grating) instead of the convex lens used in Embodiment 1 will be described below with reference to FIG. 24.
It should be noted that a beam expander is set between the laser 401 and the mirror 402, or between the mirror 402 and the diffractive optics 403, and may be expanded into the desired sizes in both of the longer direction and the shorter direction, respectively. Moreover, the mirror may not be set, or a plurality of mirrors may be set.
Since in the present invention, the optical system for forming the linear beam has a very simple configuration, it is easy to make a plurality of laser beams linear beams having the same shape on the irradiation surface. Therefore, since the same annealing is carried out in any region where any linear beam irradiates, the whole surface of the irradiated body reaches to have a uniform physical property and the throughput is enhanced. It should be noted that in Embodiments 2-4, as in the present Embodiment, the diffractive optics could be used instead of the convex lens.
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