Patent ID: 7144793

Claim:
A method of producing a crystalline semiconductor material, comprising: (a) a first step of forming a starting material on a substrate, wherein said starting material is selected from the group consisting of amorphous semiconductor material and polycrystalline semiconductor material; (b) a second step of forming a first crystalline material comprising crystal grains preferentially grown in the {100} orientation with respect to the vertical direction of the substrate by uniformly heat-treating said starting material by a plurality of times; (c) a third step of forming a second crystalline material by heat-treating said first crystalline material by a plurality of times so as to form, on said first crystalline material, a high temperature region and a low temperature region, wherein: (i) the temperature of said low temperature region is lower than the temperature of said high temperature region; and (ii) the temperature of said low temperature region is such as to partially melt said crystal grains having said specific face orientation with respect to the vertical direction of the surface of said substrate.