V Technology Co., Ltd.

Makoto Hatanaka

Michinobu Mizumura

Koichi Kajiyama

Tetsuya Kiguchi

Kazushige Hashimoto

Toshinari Arai

Yoshikatsu Yanagawa

Koichi Kajimaya

Kouichi Kajiyama

The present invention provides a thin film transistor including a gate electrode, a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a semiconductor layer, which are laminated on a substrate. The semiconductor layer is a polysilicon thin film. The polysilicon thin film in regions corresponding to the source electrode and the drain electrode has a smaller crystal grain size than that of the polysilicon thin film in a channel region between the source electrode and the drain electrode.

Thin film transistor, manufacturing process for thin film transistor, and laser annealing apparatus

The present invention relates to an exposure device which forms an image of a pattern on a mask onto a substrate with microlens arrays to expose the substrate, and reduces a size of an lighting unit which emits an exposure light. Microlens arrays include plural microlenses which are arranged two-dimensionally and arranged in a direction intersecting a movement direction. Lighting unit includes an LD array bar in which plural laser diodes are arranged, and lighting optical system which transforms plural emitted lights emitted from the plural laser diodes into an exposure flux having a slit form. The slit form spreads across plural pieces of the microlenses, and which, with respect to the movement direction, is limited in an area not reaching a microlens arranged in an adjacent row in the movement direction, and illuminates plural microlenses arranged in a row with an exposure light by the exposure light flux.

Exposure device and lighting unit

A light-exposure device is provided with a microlens array on which is arranged with a prescribed regularity a plurality of microlenses on which exposure light transmitted through a light source and a mask is introduced to resolve an upright equal-magnification image on a substrate. Upon reaching a prescribed position, the substrate is irradiated with pulsed laser light from the light source, and the substrate is successively exposed, and after the entire area of the exposure region of the substrate is exposed, a relative positional relationship between the microlens array and the mask is successively switched in a vertical direction by an amount of a horizontal pitch of the microlenses, and a subsequent exposure is performed. Exposure with high precision and high resolution can thereby be performed with a short exposure cycle time.

Light-exposure device

A member having an arbitrary shape having a closed curve can be easily subjected to laser processing within a short time. A lens and a laser processing apparatus equipped with the lens are for cutting a material to be cut into a member having an arbitrary shape having a closed curve and include a convex cylindrical lens which is molded to have a closed path so that a line that connects vertices of a cylindrical surface of the convex cylindrical lens has the same form as the arbitrary shape having the closed curve.

Lens and laser processing apparatus equipped with the lens

A microlens array is a stacked body of four unit microlens arrays, and the optical axis of a portion of the unit microlens arrays can be shifted from the optical axis of the other unit microlens arrays. In a scanning exposure apparatus, a CCD line camera detects an image on a substrate, and using a first-layer pattern on the substrate as a reference pattern, in a case in which a mask exposure pattern does not match the reference pattern, shifts the optical axis of the microlenses to adjust the magnification of a projection pattern using the microlens array. This makes it possible to adjust the exposure position using the microlens array so that even when the exposure pattern deviates from the reference pattern, the deviation can be detected during exposure and an exposure pattern misregistration can be prevented, enabling the precision of the exposure pattern to be enhanced in an overlay exposure.

Scanning exposure apparatus using microlens array

In a laser lighting device, a fly's eye lens and a condenser lens are disposed in an optical path of pulsed laser light emitted from a light source, and an electro-optical crystal element for continuously changing the deflection direction of the pulsed laser light with respect to the incident light and allowing the deflected light to pass therethrough is disposed in a position between the light source and the fly's eye lens or between the fly's eye lens and the condenser lens. The electro-optical crystal element is formed, for example, of a pair of electrodes and an optical crystal material disposed between the electrodes, and a voltage is applied between the electrodes to produce an electric field that changes the refractive index of the electro-optical crystal element. As a result, non-uniform illumination due to interference fringes produced by light having passed through the fly's eye lens can be reduced.

Laser lighting device

Exposure apparatus includes photomasks on which a mask pattern having the same shape as that of an exposure pattern exposed onto a surface of a TFT substrate held on a stage is formed, lens assemblies in which unit lens groups in each of which a plurality of convex lenses are arranged in a normal direction to the photomasks so that same-size erect images of mask patterns formed on the photomasks can be formed on the surface of the TFT substrate are arranged in a plane parallel with the photomasks and the surface of the TFT substrate held on the stage, and moving device that moves the lens assemblies in a plane parallel with the masks and the surface of TFT substrate held on the stage.

Exposure apparatus

A scanning exposure apparatus uses a plurality of microlens arrays to project a mask exposure pattern onto a substrate. A CCD line camera detects an image on the substrate at this time, and using a first-layer pattern on the substrate as a reference pattern, detects whether or not the mask exposure pattern matches the reference pattern. In a case in which the patterns do not match, the microlens array is tilted from a direction that is parallel to the substrate, and the mask exposure pattern is made to match the reference pattern by using the microlens array to adjust the exposure area on the substrate. When the exposure pattern deviates from the reference pattern, it is thereby possible to detect the deviation during exposure and to prevent an exposure pattern misregistration, thereby enhancing the precision of the exposure pattern in an overlay exposure.

In this microlens array, unitary microlens arrays are respectively stacked onto an upper surface and lower surface of a glass plate, and each of the unitary microlens arrays is supported by an upper plate and a lower plate. Marks for alignment are formed on each of the unitary microlens arrays and on the glass plate, and the unitary microlens arrays and the glass plate are stacked onto each other aligned by these marks. This makes it possible to prevent ununiform exposure in scanning exposure using a plurality of microlens arrays.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Makoto Hatanaka