Patent ID: 7354810

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor thin film comprising: (A) forming an amorphous semiconductor film on a substrate; (B) irradiating a beam to a surface of said amorphous semiconductor film such that a predetermined region of said amorphous semiconductor film is melted and solidified to form a crystallized semiconductor film; and (C) scanning said beam in a first direction, wherein a second direction is a direction on said surface of said amorphous semiconductor film perpendicular to said first direction, wherein a length along said second direction of a cross section of said beam, as a beam length, is substantially equal to or less than two times a width along said second direction of said crystallized semiconductor film, as a crystal growth width, and wherein the crystallized semiconductor film includes at least one single-crystal region having a crystal growth length that is greater than the crystal growth width and that extends in a direction substantially parallel to the first direction.