Patent ID: 8237903

Claim:
A method for fabricating an LCD device, the method comprising: forming a gate line and a gate electrode on a substrate; sequentially forming a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, and a metal layer overlying the substrate and the gate line and the gate electrode; forming source and drain electrodes and a data line; forming a passivation layer overlying the source and drain electrodes, and forming a mask pattern on passivation layer, the mask having an opening over a portion of the data line; etching the passivation layer using the mask pattern and etching the semiconductor layer using the mask pattern and a first portion of the data line as an etch mask to form a composite layer in which the semiconductor layer and the first portion of the data line have substantially the same line width; forming contact holes in the passivation layer; forming a pixel electrode overlying the passivation layer; and forming a data protection layer covering the composite layer and overlying the data line with the passivation layer therebetween where the data line crosses over the gate line, the data protection layer formed on the same layer as the pixel electrode where the data line crosses over the gate line.