Patent · US Expired

Method of manufacturing an electronic device using thermally stable mask

US5705413A · kind A · utility

43Cited by
8References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 8, 1996
Grant dateJan 6, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 8, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10D86/60

Abstract

Thin-film circuit elements (M1,M2,M3,R) of a large-area electronic device such as an image sensor or flat panel display are formed with different crystallinity portions (1a,1b) of a semiconductor film (1). Highly crystalline portions (1a) are formed by exposure to an energy beam (25), for example from an excimer laser, while amorphous or low-crystalline portions (1b) are masked by a masking pattern of thermally-stable absorbent or reflective inorganic material (21) on an insulating barrier layer (20). The barrier layer (20) of, for example, silicon oxide has a sufficient thickness (t.sub.b) to mask the amorphous or low-crystallinity film portions (1b) from heating effects in the inorganic material, such as for example heat diffusion and/or impurity diffusion from the inorganic material (21). This type of masking pattern (20,21) in accordance with the invention is stable and versatile, permitting fabrication of interposed small-area components of different crystallinity in a thin-film circuit and capable of use for masking further processing treatments in earlier and/or later stages in the manufacture, for example an ion implantation (35).

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.