The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 14, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 02, 1997
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A thin-film transistor of the reversed stagger type is provided with a gate electrode, first and second gate insulating films, a semiconductor layer, separated contact layers, and source electrodes and drain electrodes, all of which are stacked on a substrate. Upon manufacturing the thin-film transistor of this type, a gap section is pattered in a single contact-material layer. In this case, the contact-material layer is patterned by carrying out etching by the use of the source electrode and drain electrode as direct masks or by the use of a resist pattern that was used for forming the respective electrodes. Upon patterning a gap section in the contact-material layer between the source electrode and the drain electrode, no dedicated resist pattern is required; therefore, it is possible to reduce the number of the processes as compared with conventional manufacturing methods. Consequently, it becomes possible to reduce the production cost of thin-film transistors and also to improve the yield of desired products.