Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Yutaka Miyata

Tetsuya Kawamura

Mamoru Furuta

Shinji Fujiwara

Takao Chikamura

Tatsuo Yoshioka

Shigeki Maegawa

Hiroshi Tsutsu

Hiroshi Sano

Sadayoshi Hotta

Seiichi Nagata

Etsuya Takeda

Kohsaku Yano

Yoshio Ohta

Takuo Shibata

Akiko Michibayashi

A method for forming a polycrystalline semiconductor thin film according to the present invention includes the steps of: forming a semiconductor thin film partially containing microcrystals serving as crystal nuclei for polycrystallization on an insulating substrate; and polycrystallizing the semiconductor thin film by laser annealing.

Method for forming polycrystalline thin film and method for fabricating

A liquid crystal display apparatus includes: a liquid crystal layer; a first substrate and a second substrate interposing the liquid crystal layer therebetween; a pixel electrode and a counter electrode respectively provided on opposing faces of the first substrate and the second substrate for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal layer; and a thin-film transistor provided on the first substrate and electrically connected to the pixel electrode, the thin-film transistor including a semiconductor layer having a source region and a drain region, wherein the pixel electrode is divided into a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode; parts of the first and second sub-pixel electrodes are overlapped via an insulating layer with each other; and at least one of the first and second sub-pixel electrodes is made of the same transparent material as a material for the semiconductor layer.

Liquid crystal display apparatus including the same transparent material

A method for fabricating an active matrix substrate for forming constituent elements such as a semiconductor layer, a passivation layer, an electrode material and other elements, uses a photoresist exposed from the reverse side of the substrate, using the gate electrode pattern made of opaque material on a transparent substrate as the mask. This method contributes to lowering the cost and improving the performance of semiconductor devices.

Method for fabricating active substrate

A laser annealing method for a semiconductor thin film for irradiating the semiconductor thin film with a laser beam having a section whose outline includes a straight-line portion, so as to change the crystallinity of the semiconductor thin film is provided, wherein the semiconductor thin film is overlap-irradiated with the laser beam while the laser beam is shifted in a direction different from a direction along the straight-line portion. A thin film semiconductor device fabricated by use of the laser annealing method is also provided.

Laser annealing method for a semiconductor thin film

A thin film on a substrate is patterned so as to include an area in which a thin film transistor is to be formed and an area of another patterned thin film or a semiconductor device, and so as to have a size larger than the total size of the areas. Next, the patterned thin film is annealed. After the annealing, a part of the inside area of the patterned thin film is patterned. The part of the thin film is used for forming a thin film transistor.

Method for processing a thin film using an energy beam

The present invention relates to a thinfilm transistor array designed to drive an active-matrix type liquid-crystal panel to be incorporated in a liquid-crystal display device, and is to offer a thinfilm transistor array solving the conventional problems of disconnections possible between the display electrodes and the drain electrodes and short-circuits possible between the display electrodes and the data wiring. By these, high-quality images can be displayed with a high reliability can be obtained together with an improved fabrication process thereof. In order to accomplish these objectives of the invention, the display electrodes of said thinfilm transistor array are disposed between the gate insulation layer and the inter-insulation layer, and the display electrodes are connected to the drain electrodes by means of a data wiring disposed through contact holes provided through the inter-insulation layer. Furthermore, the possibility of short-circuits can be minimized by insulating and isolating the display electrodes from the data wiring by means of inter-insulation layers, so that the distance between the data wiring and the display electrode can minimized and a remarkable improvement of the displayed image quality can be obtained.

Liquid-crystal display top gate thin film transistor with particular

In a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor, when impurity ions are introduced in a channel region between source and drain regions in a semiconductor layer, an insulator layer is first formed on the semiconductor layer. Then, impurity ions generated on high frequency discharge are introduced through the insulator layer into the semiconductor layer under a specified acceleration voltage. Then, the introduction depth of impurities and the amount of the impurities to be introduced in the channel region can be controlled or the threshold voltage of the thin film transistor can be controlled. This method can be applied to a large substrate.

Method of manufacturing thin film transistor

A laser beam is irradiated and scanned on a substrate of a liquid crystal display device of an active matrix type. Pairs of electrons and holes caused by the known internal photoelectric effect are produced by irradiation of the laser beam to electrical conductive thin films including silicon layered on the substrate, and pass through a defective part of short circuit in an intersection of the plural electrical conductive thin films, and thereby a current flowing through the intersection increases and a position of the defect determined on the basis of the scanning position of the laser beam and the increase of the current.

Defect detection and defect removal apparatus of thin film electronic

An active matrix substrate includes a transparent substrate, pairs each having an n-type thin-film transistor and a p-type thin-film transistor formed on the transparent substrate, gate bus lines and source bus lines connected to the n-type and p-type transistors for controlling the n-type and p-type transistors, and pixel-corresponding electrodes controlled by the transistor pairs respectively. Drains of an n-type transistor and a p-type transistor in each of the pairs are connected to each other via a related pixel corresponding electrode. First pulses are applied to gates of the n-type transistors. Second pulses are applied to gates of the p-type transistors. There is provided a difference in phase between the first pulses and the second pulses.

Active matrix substrate device and related method

A display device includes; a first group of bus lines for transmitting a display signal; a second group of bus lines for transmitting a scan signal and a display unit formed at an intersecting point between the first bus line and the second bus line. The first group and the second group of bus lines are formed in a matrix. The display device further includes switching elements which are selectively opened or closed, the switching elements being provided between the bus lines in the first group or in the second group. Accordingly, even when one of the bus lines is broken, a signal can be supplied from the other bus line to the broken bus line through this switching element.

Display device and a display method

In a solid-state image sensor of the type consisting of a semiconductor circuit substrate capable of charge transfer or having the switching function and a photoconductive layer or a photosensor, a pattern of light-shielding checks is formed between the surface of the semiconductor circuit substrate and a transparent electrode on the photoconductive layer or a photosensor so as to optically shield the gaps or spaces between electrodes which are provided for respective picture elements and which are connected to their associated diode regions and the photoconductive layer or photosensor, whereby blooming can be suppressed without causing a decrease in sensitivity.

Solid-state image sensor

A solid-state image sensor is formed of the combination of a semiconductor substrate having a charge transfer function and a photoconductive film. In this solid-state image sensor, blooming suppressing capability is greatly increased by controlling the following potentials to fixed potentials, that is, (1) the potential of a transparent electrode formed on the photoconductive film, (2) the channel potential of a MOS field-effect transistor formed of a charge transfer stage and a gate electrode which are formed together with a Si diode in the semiconductor substrate in which the diode is electrically connected to the photoconductive film, and (3) the barrier potential of the charge transfer stage.

Anti-blooming image sensor

This invention discloses a high efficiency solid state imager combining a semiconductor substrate having a charge transfer function and a photoelectric conversion film, wherein a high frequency transfer pulse having a frequency higher than that of a vertical transfer pulse is applied for a prescribed time during the vertical blanking period; voltages with different values are applied to a transparent electrode provided on the above-mentioned photoelectric conversion film in the first and second period of the period with the presence of the above-mentioned high frequency transfer pulse; and a voltage differing with each field is applied to the above-mentioned transparent electrode during the vertical blanking period, whereby blooming, highlight lag and flicker due to an intense light are considerably suppressed.

Solid state imager

A solid-state image sensor has a semiconductor substrate and a photoconductive film formed on the semiconductor substrate. The photoconductive film has a charge transfer function and subjects each field or group of picture elements to interlaced scanning. Flicker which otherwise results from inevitable differences between the magnitudes of setting voltages or areas of the photoconductive film portions with respect to the respective fields or groups of picture elements is significantly suppressed by changing the voltages applied to the photoconductive film portions with respect to each field or group of the interlaced picture element.

Growing community of inventors

Ikoma, Japan

Yutaka Miyata