Xerox Corporation

Applied Materials, Inc.

Applied Komatsu Technology, Inc.

Chuang-Chuang Tsai

William Reid Harshbarger

Robert M Robertson

Takako Takehara

Ronald T Fulks

William W Yao

Yvonne LeGrice

Regina Qiu

A thin film layer can be formed on a glass substrate by preheating the substrate, depositing an amorphous silicon precursor layer on the substrate at a first temperature, and annealing the substrate in a thermal processing chamber at a second temperature sufficiently higher than the first temperature to substantially reduce the hydrogen concentration in the precursor layer. The preheating and annealing steps can occur in the same thermal processing chamber. Then the precursor layer is converted to a polycrystaline silicon layer by laser annealing.

Method of annealing large area glass substrates

A sensor device includes a sensing element and a thin film transistor (TFT), and the TFT's channel leads include semiconductor channel leads formed in a layer of microcrystalline silicon (.mu.c-Si). The sensing element is formed in a semiconductor layer that includes silicon-based material and is over the .mu.c-Si layer. Each of the semiconductor channel leads has a structure that prevents formation of bubbles at the lower and upper sides of the .mu.c-Si layer during production of the sensing element. The TFT's channel can be formed in a layer of intrinsic silicon-based material under the .mu.c-Si layer and the .mu.c-Si layer can be a deposited doped layer; or the TFT's channel can be formed in an intrinsic .mu.c-Si layer in which the leads are formed by implanting a dopant. The .mu.c-Si layer can include a sufficiently small amount of hydrogen to prevent formation of bubbles; it can include crystalline grain structures permitting hydrogen to dissipate at a sufficient rate to prevent formation of bubbles; or it can have interfaces sufficiently stable to prevent formation of bubbles.

Sensor with doped microcrystalline silicon channel leads with bubble

In producing a sensor device with a sensing element and a thin film transistor, a semiconductor layer with microcrystalline silicon (.mu.c-Si) is produced in which semiconductor channel leads are formed. The .mu.c-Si has a structure that prevents formation of bubbles at the sides of the semiconductor layer during subsequent production of a sensing element in a silicon-based layer. The semiconductor layer can be a deposited doped layer of .mu.c-Si, or a layer of intrinsic .mu.c-Si can be doped. The .mu.c-Si layer can be deposited with a sufficiently small amount of hydrogen to prevent formation of bubbles; it can be deposited with crystalline grain structures permitting hydrogen to dissipate at a sufficient rate to prevent formation of bubbles; or its interfaces can be formed with sufficiently stability to prevent formation of bubbles.

Producing a sensor with doped microcrystalline silicon channel leads

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Chuang-Chuang Tsai