Semiconductor thin film forming method, production methods for semiconductor device and electrooptical device, devices used for these methods, and semiconductor device and electrooptical device

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for easily forming a polycrystalline semiconductor thin-film, such as polycrystalline silicon having high crystallinity and high quality, or a single crystalline semiconductor thin-film at inexpensive cost, the crystalline semiconductor thin-film having a large area, and to provide an apparatus for processing the method described above. In forming a polycrystalline (or single crystalline) semiconductor thin-film (), such as a polycrystalline silicon thin-film, having high crystallinity and a large grain size on a substrate (), or in forming a semiconductor device having the polycrystalline (or single crystalline) semiconductor thin-film () on the substrate (), a method comprises forming a low-crystallization semiconductor thin-film (A) on the substrate (), and subsequently heating and cooling this low-crystallization semiconductor thin-film (A) to a fusion, a semi-fusion, or a non-fusion state by flash lamp annealing to facilitate the crystallization of the low-crystallization semiconductor thin-film, whereby a polycrystalline (single crystalline) semiconductor thin-film () is obtained. A method for forming the semiconductor device and an apparatus for processing the methods are also disclosed.