Sony Corporation

Yukiyasu Sugano

Hirofumi Sumi

Makoto Takatoku

Masumitsu Ino

Kazuhiro Hoshino

Kazuhide Koyama

Masahiro Fujino

Akihiko Asano

Takenobu Urazono

Michio Mano

Junichi Sato

Shigeo Kubota

Hiroyuki Wada

Mitsuru Taguchi

Nobuhiko Umezu

Koichi Tatsuki

Keiichi Maeda

Ayumu Taguchi

Tadashi Hattori

Shinji Minegishi

Tetsuo Abe

Yoshimi Hirata

Akifumi Ooshima

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 polycrystalline thin film of good quality is obtained by improving a crystallization process of a semiconductor thin film using laser light. After conducting a film forming step of forming a non-single crystal semiconductor thin film on a surface of a substrate, an annealing step is conducted by irradiating with laser light to convert the non-single crystal semiconductor thin film to a polycrystalline material. The annealing step is conducted by changing and adjusting the cross sectional shape of the laser light to a prescribed region. The semiconductor thin film is irradiated once or more with a pulse of laser light having an emission time width from upstand to downfall of 50 ns or more and having a constant cross sectional area, so as to convert the semiconductor thin film contained in an irradiated region corresponding to the cross sectional area to a polycrystalline material at a time. At this time, the energy intensity of laser light from upstand to downfall is controlled to apply a desired change. According to the procedures, a polycrystalline material having a large particle diameter or a uniform particle diameter can be obtained. In some cases, upon irradiation with laser light, the substrate may be maintained in a non-oxidative atmosphere, or may be heated or cooled.

Process for producing thin film semiconductor device and laser irradiation apparatus

The weight and thickness reduction of a display panel can be realized without reducing the substrate size and lowering the productivity. To produce a display panel, there are performed a panel producing step for manufacturing a display panel using substrates each having a predetermined wall thickness; and a chemical treatment step for immersing the display panel into a chemical solution and removing a fixed amount of the surface of the substrates by a chemical reaction so as to reduce the wall thickness, wherein in the panel producing step, the display panel is produced by forming an electroluminescence element on one substrate having a predetermined thickness, and in the chemical treatment step, the display panel is immersed into the chemical solution while the electroluminescence element is protected.

Method for manufacturing display panel having reduced wall thickness and display panel having reduced wall thickness

A process for forming wiring over a migration preventing layer on a semiconductor substrate including forming a contact hole in a an insulation layer of the substrate and then filling the contact hole with an aluminum based alloy. A migration preventing layer is then formed, of a material which resists migration of atoms of the aluminum based alloy, over the surface of the aluminum based alloy. A wiring layer of aluminum is then formed over the migration preventing layer. In another embodiment, the contact hole may be provided with a first layer to prevent electron migration and a second layer which is a nitride of the first layer material.

Contact hole structure in a semiconductor and formation method therefor

A method of forming a connection layer by filling an Al-based material wherein planarization of an entire surface of a substrate is achieved. 1 Al-based material 10 is deposited and filled in concave sections 4,8 formed in a substrate 1 under a high temperature, and then the surface of the Al-base material is polished with unwoven cloth or an etching liquid. 2 In a lithography process using an alignment mark for alignment on a substrate, an Al-based material is deposited and filled in a concave section in a portion other than the alignment mark for alignment under a high temperature, and then the surface of the Al-based material is polished. 3 In a process to deposit an Al-based material on a substrate and then planarize the surface of the Al-based material by polishing, an antireflection film is deposited on the Al-based material after the Al-based material is planarized.

Connection layer forming method

The present invention provides a process for fabricating a connection structure comprising a anti-reaction layer having excellent barrier properties and having improved ohmic characteristics with respect to the semiconductor substrate. Accordingly, the present invention comprises forming a first anti-reaction layer by temporarily ceasing the film deposition, and then initiating the film deposition again to form a second anti-reaction layer on the surface of the previously deposited first anti-reaction layer. A heat treatment can be applied to the structure after depositing a anti-reaction layer.

Process for fabricating connection structures

A metallization method in which a fine interconnection hole is filled with an Al-based material and in which low resistance and excellent barrier properties may be achieved simultaneously, is proposed. The present invention resides in improvement in the barrier metal structure. (a) A stack of a TiSi.sub.2 layer and a Ti layer, formed by an modified SALICIDE method, and (b) a layer of a Ti-based material rendered amorphous are used. The TiSi.sub.2 layer is formed in a self-aligned manner by reacting the silicon substrate with the Ti layer by the interposition of e.g. a thin SiO.sub.2 layer and exhibits lower sheet resistance and dense film properties as well as excellent barriering properties. The Ti layer is stacked on the TiSi.sub.2 layer for improving wettability with respect to the layer of the Al-based material. The layer of the amorphous Ti-based material is formed by N.sub.2 ion implantation into the polycrystalline TiN layer and exhibits superior barrier properties because the crystal grain boundary functioning as the Al diffusion path is destructed. Both of these layers exhibit low sheet resistance as compared to the TiON layer used heretofore as a layer of a material exhibiting excellent barrier properties, while being superior in wettability with respect to the layer of the Al-based material, so that a highly reliable contact may be formed.

Aluminum metallization method

A magnetron sputtering apparatus comprises: a wafer holder for holding a wafer thereon; a target holder for holding a target thereon, disposed opposite to the wafer holder; and a particle interceptor for intercepting some of particles ejected from the target, disposed between the wafer holder and the target holder. The diameter of the target is not less than that of the wafer and not greater than a value 1.4 times that of the wafer. Most particles fall on the surface of the wafer at small incidence angles and only few particles impinge and accumulate on the particle interceptor, so that particles deposit in a film of a uniform thickness over the surface of the wafer and are able to fall on the bottom surfaces of contact holes formed in the wafer. In a modification, the particle interceptor is moved in a plane parallel to the surface of the wafer to distribute particles uniformly over the surface of the wafer.

Magnetron sputtering apparatus

A metallization method for improving wettability and reactivity of a titanium (Ti) based barrier metal layer with respect to an aluminum (Al) based material and simultaneously achieving high barrier properties and superior step coverage, is proposed. An operation of increasing the crystal grain size of and planarizing at least a surface region of a barrier metal layer is effected simultaneously at the time of formation of a barrier metal layer. In this manner, Al migration characteristics and reactivity on a barrier metal surface are improved so that voids are not produced when an Al-based material layer is charged into small-sized connecting hole by a process sensitive to surface morphology, such as high temperature bias sputtering. By this technique, wettability of a material layer having distinctly inferior wettability with Al, while being excellent in barrier properties, such as a TiON layer, may be improved. As a smoothing operation, bias sputtering, laser irradiation and lamp annealing are proposed. Satisfactory results have been achieved on applying these to a Ti/TiON/Ti system, a Ti/TiON system or to a Ti/TiON/TiSi.sub.2 system.

A method of removing Ge particles precipitated in an Al/Ge alloy film formed over the surface of a substrate in fabricating a semiconductor device forms a Cu film over the surface of the Al/Ge alloy film in a laminate structure, subjects the laminate structure to heat treatment to make the Ge particles migrate toward the Cu film and to make the Ge particles and the Cu film interact to produce a Ge/Cu compound layer. Thus, the Ge particles precipitated in the Al/Ge alloy film are removed from the Al/Ge alloy film and, consequently, the contact resistance of the Al/Ge alloy film is reduced and the migration resistance of the Al/Ge alloy film is enhanced.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yukiyasu Sugano