Patent ID: 7056626

Claim:
A crystallization apparatus, which includes an illumination system that illuminates a phase shift mask to irradiate a polycrystalline semiconductor film or an amorphous semiconductor film with a light beam that has a light intensity distribution of an inverse peak pattern that has a minimum light intensity in an area corresponding to a phase shift portion of the phase shift mask to produce a crystallized semiconductor film, comprising: an optical member to form on a predetermined plane a light intensity distribution of a concave pattern, which has a light intensity that is minimum in an area corresponding to the phase shift portion and increases toward the circumference of that area to a maximum based on the light from the illumination system, the phase shift mask receiving the light intensity distribution from the optical member; and an image-forming optical system to set a surface of the polycrystalline semiconductor film or the amorphous semiconductor film or its conjugate plane and the predetermined plane to an optical conjugate relationship.