Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same

Abstract

When a crystalline semiconductor thin film formed by using a catalytic element for facilitating crystallization is subjected to a heat treatment in an atmosphere containing a halogen element at a temperature exceeding 700° C., a crystal structure in which crystal grain boundaries do not substantially exist can be obtained. In the present invention, the foregoing crystalline semiconductor thin film is formed on a crystallized glass substrate which is inexpensive and has high heat resistance, so that an inexpensive semiconductor device can be provided.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a semiconductor device using a crystalline semiconductor thin film formed on a substrate having an insulating surface. [0003] Incidentally, in the present specification, any of a thin film transistor (hereinafter referred to as a TFT), a semiconductor circuit, an electrooptical device, and an electronic equipment are included in the category of the semiconductor device. That is, any device capable of functioning by using semiconductor characteristics will be referred to as the semiconductor device. [0004] Thus, the semiconductor device recited in claims of the present application includes not only a single component, such as a thin film transistor, but also a semiconductor circuit or an electrooptical device formed by integrating such single components, and further, an electronic equipment having those as parts. [0005] 2. Description of the Related Art [0006] In recent years, attenti...

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Benefits of technology

[0033] Then, in the present invention, a crystallized glass having a distortion point of not lower than 750° C. (typically 950 to 1100° C., preferably 1000 to 1050° C.) and having high heat resistance is used as a substrate. Since the crystallized glass can be made thinner than quartz, the cost of manufacture of a liquid crystal module or the like can be kept inexpensive. Moreover, because of the glass substrate, it is possible to make the substrate large, and it is also possible to design a reduction in costs by formation of plural products from one substrate according to multiple-face taking.

[0034] Further, the coefficient of thermal expansion can be easily changed by adjusting the constituents of the crystallized glass. Thus, it is easy to select the coefficient of thermal expansion near the coefficient of thermal expansion of the crystalline semiconductor thin film.

[0035] The present inventors aim at obtaining a system-on-panel, and realizing an inexpensive and high performance electronic equipment. For the purpose of actively using the merits, it is greatly more effective to use the inexpensive crystallized glass than the expensive quartz substrate.

[0037] Since the side surface of the crystallized glass has a very small area on the whole, even if the side surface is exposed, a serious problem does not occur. However, it is needless to say that it is most preferable to completely cover the front surface, the side surface, and the back surface with the insulating film to completely prevent the outflow of the constituents.

Problems solved by technology

However, the quartz substrate has a high unit cost, so that the quartz substrate has problems of increasing the cost of manufacture, and further, increasing the cost of a product.

Thus, in recent years, attention has been paid to a low temperature polysilicon film formed on an inexpensive glass substrate, and the research of the high temperature polysilicon film has been gradually declined.

Moreover, since it is difficult to make the quartz substrate large, the use of a TFT using the high temperature polysilicon is limited to a liquid crystal display device with a size of about 1 to 2 inches in diagonal for a projection type projector or the like.

That is, there is a problem that such a TFT can not be used for display devices of the several tens inch class, such as a display for a note-sized personal computer.

However, even if a driving circuit is constructed by using such TFTs, the circuit does not still reach the state in which the required performance is completely satisfied.

Particularly, in the present circumstances, it is impossible to construct a high speed logic circuit requiring an extremely high speed operation ranging from megahertz to gigahertz by conventional TFTs.

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