Sony Corporation

Other

Japan Display West Inc.

Koichi Tatsuki

Nobuhiko Umezu

Koichi Tsukihara

Shigeo Kubota

Hiroyuki Wada

Yoshio Inagaki

Tsutomu Okamoto

Goh Matsunobu

Tatsuo Fukui

Katsuya Shirai

Naoya Eguchi

Shin Hotta

Tadashi Hattori

Tetsuo Abe

Akifumi Ooshima

Koji Watanabe

Michio Oka

Hisashi Masuda

Makoto Takatoku

Toshitaka Kawashima

Hiroyuki Tamaki

Koichi Aso

Junichi Ohsako

Ayumu Taguchi

Yukiyasu Sugano

Kazutaka Habu

Yasushi Minoya

Yoshimi Hirata

Yoshiyuki Noguchi

Eiji Isomura

Makoto Uragaki

Tomohiro Ishiguro

Masataka Ebe

Yasuyuki Kato

An antireflection film capable of reliably preventing light (or laser light), which is incident on a glass substrate and which reaches a metal film, from being reflected by the metal film. The antireflection film provided between a metal film having a complex refractive index represented by N=n&#x2212;i&#xb7;kand a glass substrate having a refractive index Nincludes, from the metal film side: (A) a first dielectric layer having a refractive index N; (B) a second dielectric layer provided on the first dielectric layer and having a refractive index N; and (C) a third dielectric layer provided on the second dielectric layer and having a refractive index N, in which N&#x3c;n, N&#x3e;N, N&#x3c;N, and N&#x3e;Nhold. Accordingly, light which is incident on the glass substrate and which reaches the metal film is prevented from being reflected by the metal film.

Antireflection film

A method for crystallizing a thin film A gate insulating film formed on a substrate so as to cover a gate electrode. A light absorption layer is formed thereon through a buffer layer. Energy lines Lh are applied to the light absorption layer from a continuous-wave laser such as a semiconductor laser. This anneals only a surface side of the light absorption layer Lh and produces a crystalline silicon film obtained by crystallizing the amorphous silicon film using heat generated by thermal conversion of the energy lines Lh at the light absorption layer and heat of the annealing reaction.

Method for crystallizing thin film, method for manufacturing thin film semiconductor device, method for manufacturing electronic apparatus, and method for manufacturing display device

A gate insulating film () is formed on a substrate () so as to cover a gate electrode (), and an amorphous silicon film (semiconductor thin film) () is further formed. A light absorption layer () is formed thereon through a buffer layer (). Energy lines Lh are applied to the light absorption layer () from a continuous-wave laser such as a semiconductor laser. This oxidizes only a surface side of the light absorption layer Lh and produces a beautiful crystalline silicon film () obtained by crystallizing the amorphous silicon film () using heat generated by thermal conversion of the energy lines Lh at the light absorption layer () and heat of the oxidation reaction. This provides a method for crystallizing a thin film with good controllability at low costs achieved with simpler process.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes the steps of: modifying a semiconductor film by applying a laser beam; and forming a semiconductor device on the modified semiconductor film. In the step of modifying the semiconductor film, the laser beam and the substrate are moved relative to each other in a first direction and a second direction which is opposite to the first direction, a change in an optical characteristic between an area irradiated with the laser beam and an area which is not irradiated with the laser beam in the substrate or an optical characteristic of the irradiated area is measured in each of the first and second directions, and irradiation power of the laser beam is modulated so that the difference between a measurement result in the first direction and a measurement result in the second direction lies in a predetermined range.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device, method of manufacturing display apparatus, apparatus of manufacturing semiconductor device, and display apparatus

A light illuminating apparatus used for a laser annealing apparatus includes a first light splitting unit () and a second light splitting unit () for splitting a sole laser beam into n laser beams, and a synthesis unit () for synthesizing an m'th laser beam, radiated from the first light splitting unit (), and an m'th laser beam radiated from the second light splitting unit (), to each other, where m is an integer not less than 1 and not larger than n. The first light splitting unit () and the second light splitting unit () are formed by the same optical components and are arrayed inverted with respect to each other.

Light irradiator

According to the present invention, a laser annealing apparatus () includes a beam splitter () composed of first and second beam splitters () disposed in parallel to each other to split one laser beam into four laser beams not interfering with each other, and a reflecting mirror (). Upon the second beam splitter (), there are incident a transmitted beam from the first beam splitter () and a laser beam outgoing from the first beam splitter () and then reflected by the reflecting mirror (). The second beam splitter () provides two transmitted beams to outside, and the reflecting mirror () reflects the reflected beam from the second beam splitter () for traveling to outside. The distance between the two beam splitters (and), and the distance between the first beam splitter () and reflecting mirror (), is larger than L/(2 cos &#x3b8;) (where &#x3b8; is an incident angle and L is a coherence length).

Beam irradiator and laser anneal device

The state of a polysilicon film formed by excimer laser annealing an amorphous silicon film is to be evaluated. When the amorphous silicon film is annealed to form a polysilicon film, linearity or periodicity presents itself in the spatial structure of the film surface of the polysilicon film formed depending on the energy applied to the amorphous silicon during annealing. This linearity or periodicity is processed as an image and represented numerically from the image by exploiting the linearity or periodicity. The state of the polysilicon film is checked based on the numerical results.

Polysilicon evaluating method, polysilicon inspection apparatus and method for preparation of thin film transistor

A polysilicon film evaluation apparatus is provided which enables objective automatic evaluation of the status of a polysilicon film, as formed to a high accuracy in a contact-free fashion. To this end, there is provided a polysilicon film evaluation apparatus including a stage on which to set a substrate W carrying a polysilicon film, an optical system for observation with the visible light for illuminating the visible light on a substrate W on the stage to photograph a surface image of the polysilicon film on the substrate W to effect auto-focusing, an optical system for observation with UV light for illuminating the UV light on the substrate on the stage to acquire a surface image of the polysilicon film of the substrate, auto-focused using the optical system for observation with the visible light, and an evaluating unit for evaluating the linearity and periodicity of a spatial structure of the film surface of the polysilicon film, from a surface image of the polysilicon film obtained by the optical system for observation with UV light, to evaluate the status of the polysilicon film based on the results of evaluation of the linearity and periodicity.

Apparatus for evaluating polysilicon film

In a method of fabricating a thin film transistor through conversion of an amorphous silicon film into a polysilicon film to be an active layer of the thin film transistor by a laser annealing treatment, a laser annealing apparatus comprising a plurality of semiconductor laser devices arranged performs the laser annealing treatment by irradiating the surface of the amorphous silicon film with laser light uniformized in the light intensity of the laser light radiated onto the surface of the amorphous silicon film, whereby the crystal grain diameter of the polysilicon film obtained through recrystallization is uniformized, and it is possible to obtain a thin film transistor with transistor characteristics enhanced by using the polysilicon film as the active layer.

Laser annealing apparatus and method of fabricating thin film transistor

A method of evaluating a state of a polysilicon film objectively, accurately, automatically, and in a non-contact manner is provided. The method includes the steps of picking up a surface of a polysilicon film formed by excimer laser annealing, dividing the picked-up image into meshes each having a specific size, calculating a contrast in each of the meshes, extracting a highest contrast value and a lowest contrast value in the picked-up image, calculating a contrast ratio therebetween, and judging an average grain size of the polysilicon film on the basis of the contrast ratio.

Method and system for evaluating polysilicon, and method and system for fabricating thin film transistor

An ultraviolet optical device includes optical parts on which an ultraviolet ray is irradiated. Some or all of the optical parts are arranged in an envelope having a gas inlet port and a gas output port. In the envelope ( ), a dry gas having an amount of moisture (as volume fraction) of 5,000 &lsqb;ppm&rsqb; or less and led from the gas inlet port ( ) is sprayed on an optical part in which at least a deterioration in optical characteristics is especially a problem, so that an improvement in the secular change of the optical part can be achieved.

Ultraviolet optical device having an optical part with a gas sprayed thereon

Disclosed is a method for the growth of a single crystal having excellent crystallinity, uniform quality in the inside thereof and hence excellently uniform optical properties, the method enabling an improvement in yields. The invention resides in a method for the growth of a single crystal of &bgr;-type barium borate (&bgr;-BaB,O,), the method comprising heating a crucible,indirectly to grow a &bgr;-BaB,O,single crystal,from a melt of barium borate (BaB,O,) contained in the crucible and using no flux by using a seed crystal,of &bgr;-BaB,O,.

Method for single crystal growth and growth apparatus

A laser beam generating apparatus comprising a first laser beam source oscillating in a near infrared-ray region of, for example, an Nd:YAG laser to generate a laser beam, a second higher harmonic wave generator for generating, from the laser beam emitted from the first laser beam source, a second higher harmonic wave having a half wavelength of the laser beam emitted from the first laser beam source, a splitter for splitting the second higher harmonic wave, a second laser beam source which is supplied with a part of the second higher harmonic wave thus split is input to a Ti:Sapphire laser to be excited and oscillated, thereby generating a laser beam of substantially 700 nm in wavelength, a fourth higher harmonic wave generator for generating a fourth higher harmonic wave from the remaining part of the second higher harmonic wave thus split, a sum frequency mixing composed of a BBO crystal device to which the laser beam of substantially 700 nm in wavelength and the fourth higher harmonic wave are input, and a controller for controlling the temperature of the BBO crystal device to substantially 100K or less, thereby generating a laser beam of substantially 193 nm in wavelength as an output of the sum frequency mixing.

Laser beam generating apparatus and method

By polishing an optical device such as .beta.-BBO crystals using a liquid suspension comprising a fine powder of silicon oxide and a liquid lubricant of saturated hydrocarbon, satisfactory mirror face polishing can be applied to the optical device, without deteriorating the surface property while reducing occurrence of fine optical defects.

Polishing method, method of manufacturing an optical device, and a

An apparatus for generating ultraviolet laser radiation according to the present invention includes a laser light source and a frequency conversion device made of a nonlinear optical crystal on which laser light irradiated from the laser light source is made incident and which converts a frequency of the incident laser light to thereby irradiate the ultraviolet radiation. A protective film which prevents oxygen and water content from permeating thereinto is deposited on at least an output end surface, from which ultraviolet radiation is irradiated, of the nonlinear optical crystal. Therefore, it is possible to prevent characteristics of the frequency conversion device from being lowered due to change of a property thereof resulting from increased output power of laser light and to increase a lifetime thereof.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Koichi Tatsuki