Patent ID: 6887746

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a thin film transistor comprising the steps of: forming a gate electrode over a substrate; forming a gate insulator over said gate electrode; forming a semiconductor film comprising silicon over said gate electrode with the gate insulator interposed therebetween; forming a photoresist mask over a portion of said semiconductor film wherein said photoresist mask is prevented from directly contacting said portion of the semiconductor film by an insulating film interposed therebetween, said insulating film comprising silicon nitride; selectively introducing ions of an impurity into said semiconductor film to form impurity doped regions in said semiconductor film with a channel region defined below said photoresist mask; removing said photoresist mask after the introduction of said ions; and then irradiating said impurity doped regions with a light in order to anneal said impurity doped regions, wherein said portion of the semiconductor film is covered with said insulating film during the irradiation of said light.