Semiconductor film and producing method and equipment, and method for producing single crystal film

Abstract

A method of fabricating a single crystal thin film includes forming a non-single crystal thin film on an insulating base; subjecting the non-single crystal thin film to a first heat-treatment, thereby forming a polycrystalline thin film in which polycrystalline grains are aligned in an approximately regular pattern; and subjecting the polycrystalline thin film to a second heat-treatment, thereby forming a single crystal thin film in which the polycrystalline grains are bonded to each other. In this method, either the first heat-treatment or the second heat-treatment may be performed by irradiation of laser beams, preferably, emitted from an excimer laser. A single crystal thin film formed by this fabrication method has a performance higher than a related art polycrystalline thin film and is suitable for fabricating a device having stable characteristics. The single crystal thin film can be fabricated for a short-time by using laser irradiation as the heat-treatments.

Description

Background of the invention [0001] The present invention relates to a semiconductor thin film suitable for thin film transistors (TFTs) of liquid crystal displays, memories and other electronic devices and a production method thereof; a device for producing single crystal semiconductor thin films; and a method for producing single crystal thin films, Single crystal thin film substrate and a method of semiconductor device using the substrate. [0002] As semiconductor films such as silicon films formed on insulating substrates, there are known SOI (silicon on insulator) structures and amorphous silicon films or polysilicon films formed on glass substrates, which have actually been used in liquid crystal displays. [0003] The formation of the SOI structure often goes through various steps, including a step of sticking single-crystal silicon wafers to each other and a step of polishing them. Since the SOI structure basically uses a single-crystal silicon wafer, the substantially...

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Problems solved by technology

[0008] There is a problem with this degassing (annealing) treatment in an electric furnace in order to exclude the hydrogen contained in the film, since the substrate must be annealed, for example, at 420° C. for about 2 hours, the productivity decreases, and the substrate is degassed due to degassing. Heat from processing can deform and contaminants from the glass can diffuse in the film

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