1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating an integrated circuit or more concretely to a semiconductor circuit having a matrix device (including an electro-optic display and semiconductor memory) having a matrix structure and a MOS or MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) type field effect element (hereinafter generally referred to as a MOS type element) as a switching element and characterized in its dynamic operation such as a liquid crystal display device and dynamic RAM (DRAM) and a driving circuit therefor or an integrated driving circuit like an image sensor. The present invention particularly relates to a device employing a thin film semiconductor element such as a thin film semiconductor transistor or the like which is formed on an insulating surface as a MOS type element and to a device having a thin film transistor whose active layer is formed by crystal silicon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a crystalline silicon semiconductor thin film used for a thin film device such as a thin film insulated gate type field effect transistor (TFT) has been fabricated by crystallizing an amorphous silicon film formed by a plasma CVD or thermal CVD method within such an apparatus as an electric furnace for many hours of more than 24 hours at a temperature more than 600xc2x0 C. The many hours of heat treatment has been required in order to obtain sufficient characteristics such as a high field mobility and high reliability.
However, such conventional method has many problems. One of the problems is that its throughput is low and accordingly, a product cast becomes high. For example, if it takes 24 hours for the crystallization process and if it takes two minutes of processing time per sheet of substrate, 720 substrates must be processed in the same time. However, a tube furnace normally used can process 50 sheets of substrates at most in one time, and when only one apparatus (reaction tube) is used, it takes 30 minutes per sheet. That is, in order to process one sheet in 2 minutes, 15 reaction tubes must be used. It means that a scale of investment must be increased and that because the investment is greatly depreciated, it cannot but be reflected in the product cost.
Another problem lies in the temperature of the heat treatment. Normally, substrates used for fabricating a TFT are roughly divided into those composed of pure silicon oxide such as silica glass and non-alkaline boro-silicated glass such as Corning No. 7059 (hereinafter referred to as Corning 7059). Among them, the former has no problem in terms of temperature because it has an excellent heat resistance and can be handled in the same manner with the wafer process of normal semiconductor integrated circuits. However its cost is high and increases exponentially as the substrate area increases. Accordingly, it is used only for TFT integrated circuits having a relatively small area.
On the other hand, non-alkaline glass has a problem in terms of heat resistance, though its cost is sufficiently low as compare to that of silica glass. Because its strain point is generally around 550 to 650xc2x0 C., or less than 600xc2x0 C. in case of a readily available material, such problems as irreversible shrinkage and warp are caused on the substrate in a heat treatment at 600xc2x0 C. and it is remarkable in such a substrate whose diagonal distance exceeds 10 cm. From above reasons, it has been considered to be indispensable to keep the heat treatment conditions under 550xc2x0 C. and within 4 hours to reduce the cost in crystallizing silicon semiconductor films. It is then an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor fabricating method that clears such conditions and a semiconductor device fabricating method using such a semiconductor.
Lately, a study on an insulated gate type semiconductor device having a thin film active layer (or called as an active region) has been conducted. Especially, a thin film insulated gate transistor or so-called a thin film transistor (TFT) has been fervently studied. They are formed an a transparent insulating substrate to use to control each picture element and to drive its matrix in a display device such as a liquid crystal display having a matrix structure or to use as a driving circuit of an image sensor formed similarly on an insulating substrate. They are categorized as an amorphous silicon TFT or crystalline silicon (or called as polycrystalline silicon) TFT depending on a material and crystal state of a semiconductor used.
Lately, a study to use a material which presents an intermediate state between crystalline silicon and amorphous is also being conducted. Although the intermediate state is being discussed, all those which reached to some crystal state by any thermal process (such as by annealing at a temperature more than 450xc2x0 C. by irradiating strong energy such as laser light) shall be called as crystalline silicon in this specification.
A crystalline silicon TFT is used also in a monocrystal silicon integrated circuit as a so-called SOI technology and it is used as a load transistor for example in a highly integrated SRAM. In this case, however, an amorphous silicon TFT is rarely used.
Further, a very high speed operation is possible in a semiconductor circuit on an insulating substrate because there is no capacitive coupling between the substrate and wires, so that a technology to use it as a very high speed microprocessor or very high speed memory is being proposed.
Generally, a field mobility of a semiconductor in an amorphous state is small and accordingly, it cannot be used for a TFT requiring a high speed operation. Furthermore, because a field mobility of P-type is remarkably small in an amorphous silicon, a P-channel type TFT (a TFT of PMOS) cannot be fabricated and accordingly, a complementary MOS circuit (CMOS) cannot be formed by combining with a N-channel type TFT (a TFT of NMOS).
However, a TFT formed by an amorphous semiconductor has an advantage that OFF current is small. Then it is utilized in the use in which a very high speed operation is not required, only one conductive type will do and a TFT having a high charge retaining ability is required such as transistors of an active matrix of a liquid crystal display having a small matrix scale. However, it has been difficult to use the amorphous silicon TFT for an advanced application such as a liquid crystal display having a large scale matrix. Further, it could not be used naturally for peripheral circuits of a display and for a driving circuit of an image sensor which require a high speed operation.
On the other hand, a crystalline semiconductor has a field mobility larger than that of the amorphous semiconductor and accordingly, a high speed operation is possible. For example, such a large value as 300 cm2/Vs has been obtained as a field mobility in a TFT using a silicon film re-crystallized by laser annealing. It is an extremely large value considering that a field mobility of a MOS transistor formed on a normal monocrystal silicon substrate is around 500 cm2/Vs. Whereas an operation speed of the MOS circuit on the monocrystal silicon is limited by a parasitic capacity between the substrate and wires, there is no such limit in terms of the TFT using crystallized silicon film because it is formed on the insulating substrate. Accordingly, a remarkable high speed operation is being expected to be achieved in such TFT.
Further, it is possible to form a CMOS circuit by the crystalline silicon because not only a NMOS TFT but also a PMOS TFT can be similarly obtained. For example, among liquid crystal displays in an active matrix system, one having a so-called monolithic structure in which not only the active matrix section but also peripheral circuits (such as a driver) are constructed by a CMOS crystalline silicon TFT is known. The TFT used in the aforementioned SRAM is what this point is noticed, wherein the PMOS is constructed by the TFT as a load transistor.
Furthermore, whereas it is difficult to form a source/drain region by such a self-aligning process as those used in monocrystal IC technology in a normal amorphous TFT and a parasitic capacity caused by the geometrical overlap of a gate electrode and the source/drain region causes a problem, the crystalline silicon TFT has such an advantage that a parasitic capacity can be remarkably suppressed because the self-aligning process can be adopted.
However, a leak current of the crystalline silicon TFT when no voltage is applied to the gate (non-selection time) is great as compare to that of the amorphous silicon TFT, and such countermeasures have been taken that an auxiliary capacity is provided to compensate the leak current and that two TFTs are connected in series to reduce the leak current when it is used in a liquid crystal display.
For example, a method to form an amorphous silicon and to irradiate laser selectively on it to crystallize only a peripheral circuit has been proposed for forming the peripheral circuit of polysilicon TFTs having a high mobility monolithically on the same substrate while utilizing a high OFF resistance of the amorphous silicon TFT.
Presently, however, its yield is low due to a problem of reliability of the laser irradiating process (such as a bad homogeneity of the irradiated energy within the irradiated surface), so that a method to construct a matrix by amorphous silicon TFTs and to construct driving circuits by connecting monocrystal integrated circuits by a TAB method or the like is being adopted in the end. However, this method requires a more than 0.1 mm of pixel pitch from the physical restriction in the connection and its cost becomes high.
The present invention is intended to solve such difficult problems, but it is not desirable to complicate the process and to lower its yield or to increase its cost for that end. What the present invention intends is to fabricate two kinds of TFTs, i.e. a TFT in which a high mobility is required and a TFT in which a leak current is required to be low, readily and discriminately while keeping mass-producibility and while minimizing changes of its process.
Further, it is another object of the present invention to reduce a difference between the mobility of the NMOS and of the PMOS in the CMOS circuit. The reduced difference between the NMOS and PMOS allows to increase a degree of freedom in designing the circuit.
Semiconductor circuits to which the present invention is applied are not universal. That is, the present invention is suited for an active matrix circuit for displaying images by utilizing such materials which change transmittivity or reflectivity of light by an effect of electric field, by sandwiching those materials between electrodes facing to each other and by applying the electric field between those electrodes such as a liquid crystal display; a memory device for holding memory by storing charge in capacitors such as DRAM; a circuit having a dynamic circuit such as a dynamic shift register which drives the next circuit by capacitors of MOS structure portion of MOS transistors or other capacitors; and a circuit having a digital circuit and a circuit for controlling analog signal outputs such as a driving circuit of an image sensor. The present invention is suited especially to a circuit in which dynamic circuits and static circuits are mixedly mounted.
The present invention is characterized in that a crystalline silicon film is obtained by forming island film, dots, particles, clusters or lines containing a material selected from the group consisting of nickel, iron, cobalt, ruthenium, rhodium, paradium, osmium, iridium, platinum, scandium, titanium, vanadium, chrome, manganese, copper, zinc, gold and silver and a combination thereof on or under the silicon film which is in an amorphous state or in a random crystal state (e.g. a state in which portions having a good crystallinity and amorphous portions are mixed) which can be said substantially as being in an amorphous state, and by annealing it at a temperature lower than a crystallization temperature in a mere heat treatment of normal amorphous silicon for a shorter time. This annealing may be carried out in a hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen atmosphere. This annealing can be carried out by (1) heating for A hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for B hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen: (2) heating for C hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for D hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen: (3) heating for E hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for F hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen: (4) heating for G hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for H hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen: (5) heating for I hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for J hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen: (6) heating for K hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for L hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen: (7) heating for M hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen, heating for N hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for P hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen: (8) heating for Q hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen, heating for R hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for S hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen: (9) heating for T hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen, heating for U hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for V hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen: (10) heating for W hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen, heating for X hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for Y hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen (11) heating for Z hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen, heating for Axe2x80x2 hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for Bxe2x80x2 hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen: or (12) heating for Cxe2x80x2 hours in an atmosphere containing nitrogen, heating for Dxe2x80x2 hours in an atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for Exe2x80x2 hours in an atmosphere containing oxygen.
Concerning to the crystallization of silicon film, a method to form a crystalline island film as a nucleus or seed crystal and to grow it epitaxially in solid phase (for example Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-214110) has been proposed in the past. However, crystal barely grew under 600xc2x0 C. of temperature by such method. Generally silicon undergoes a process when it transfers from an amorphous state to a crystal state that molecular chains in the amorphous state are parted and after putting the parted molecules into a state that they would not couple with other molecules again, molecules are recombined into a portion of a crystal in combination with some crystalline molecules. However, energy for parting the initial molecular chains and for keeping them in the state not to couple with other molecules is great in this process and it has been blocking the crystallization reaction. In order to supply this energy, it takes several minutes with about 1000xc2x0 C. of temperature or several tens of hours with about 600xc2x0 C. of temperature. Because the time exponentially depends on the temperature (=energy), an advancement of the crystallization reaction could not be observed almost at all at less than 600xc2x0 C. or at 550xc2x0 C. for example. The concept of epitaxial crystallization in solid phase also could not give any solution to this problem.
Then the inventor of the present invention thought of lowering the blocking energy in the aforementioned process by some catalytic action which is totally different from the concept of conventional solid phase crystallization. The inventor noticed on that nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), paradium (Pd), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), platinum (Pt), scandium (Sc), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), chrome (Cr), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), gold (Au) and silver (Ag) readily couple with silicon.
For example, the inventor noticed an that in a case of nickel, it readily turns out to be nickel silicide (NiSix, 0.4xe2x89xa6xc3x97xe2x89xa62.5) and a lattice constant of nickel silicide is close to that of silicon crystal. Then, when energy and other were simulated in a ternary system of crystal silicon-nickel silicide-amorphous silicon, it was found that amorphous silicon readily reacts at the boundary with the nickel silicide and that the following reaction is brought about:
amorphous silicon (silicon A)+nickel silicide (silicon B)xe2x88x92 greater than nickel silicide (silicon A)+crystal silicon (silicon B) (silicon A and B indicate positions of silicon)
A potential of the block off this reaction is fully low and a reaction temperature is also low. This reaction formula indicates that the reaction proceeds while converting amorphous silicon into crystal silicon by nickel. It was found that the reaction actually started at less than 580xc2x0 C. and that the reaction could be observed even at 450xc2x0 C. Though it is a matter of course, the higher the temperature, the faster the speed of the advancement of reaction was. The same effect was also recognized with other metal elements described above.
According to the present invention, a crystal silicon region is expanded by forming a film, particle or cluster containing at least one of Ni, Fe, Co, Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, Au and Ag such as island, stripe, line, dot or film of nickel or other simple metal substances described above or their silicide as a starting point and by developing those metal elements from the point to surroundings along the reaction described above. By the way, oxide is not preferable as a material containing those metal elements, because oxide is a stable compound and cannot start the aforementioned reaction.
The crystal silicon expanded from a specific point has a structure close to monocrystal with good continuity of crystallinity, though it differs from the conventional solid phase epitaxial growth, so that it is convenient in using for semiconductor devices such as a TFT. However, an infinite number of crystallization starting points existed when a material containing the aforementioned metals for accelerating the crystallization such as nickel was provided homogeneously on a substrate and due to that, it was difficult to obtain a film having a good crystallinity.
A better result was obtained when a concentration of hydrogen was less in the amorphous silicon film as the starting material of this crystallization. However, because hydrogen was released as the crystallization advanced, no such a clear correlation was seen between a concentration of hydrogen within a silicon film obtained and that in the amorphous silicon film as the starting material. The concentration of hydrogen within the crystal silicon of the present invention was typically more than 0.01 atomic percent and less than 5 atomic percent.
Although Ni, Fe, Co, Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, Au and Ag are used in the present invention, these materials are not generally preferable for silicon as a semiconductor material and it is necessary to remove them. In terms of nickel, because nickel silicide which reached the end of the crystallization as a result of the aforementioned reaction is easily resolved in hydrofluoric acid or hydrochloric acid or dilution of them, nickel can be reduced from the substrate by means of a treatment by those acids. Further, those metal elements can be positively reduced by treating at 400 to 600xc2x0 C. in an atmosphere containing chlorine such as hydrogen chloride, various methane chlorides (CH3Cl, CH2Cl2, CHCl3), various ethane chlorides (C2H5Cl, C2H4Cl2, C2H3Cl3, C2H2Cl4, C2HCl5) or various ethylene chlorides (C2H3Cl, C2H2Cl2, C2HCl3) after the end of the crystallization process. Especially, trichloroethylene (C2HCl3) is a material which can be easily used. A concentration of Ni, Fe, Co, Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, Au and Ag in the silicon film of the present invention was typically more than 0.005 atomic percent and less than 1 atomic percent.
In using the crystal silicon film fabricated according to the present invention for a semiconductor element such as a TFT, it is not preferable to provide the semiconductor element on the end of the crystallization (it is also a portion where the crystallization started from a plurality of starting points hit each other) because a large grain boundary (a portion where crystallinity is discontinued) exists and the concentration of metal elements which accelerate the crystallization such as nickel is high there as it is obvious from the description above. Accordingly, a pattern of a coating film containing the metal elements which become the starting point of the crystallization and accelerate it such as nickel and a pattern of the semiconductor element must be optimized in forming the semiconductor element utilizing the present invention.
In the present invention, roughly there are two methods for patterning the metal elements which accelerate the crystallization. A first method is to selectively form a film or the like of those metals before forming an amorphous silicon film and a second method is to selectively form a film or the like of those metals after forming the amorphous silicon film.
The first method can be implemented by using a normal photolithographic means or lift-off means. The second method is complicated more or less. That is, if the film or the like of the metals which accelerate the crystallization is formed adhering to the amorphous silicon film, the metal and the amorphous silicon partially react each other producing silicide when forming the film. Therefore, It is necessary to fully etch such silicide layer when patterning after forming the metal film or the like.
In the second method, the lift-off method is relatively easily carried out. In this case, organic materials such as photoresist or non-organic materials such as silicon oxide or silicon nitride may be used as a masking material. A processing temperature must be taken into consideration in selecting the masking material. Further, because a masking action differs depending on materials, a full attention needs to be paid on it. Especially, a film of silicon oxide or silicon nitride formed by various CVD methods has many pinholes and the crystallization may advance from an unexpected section if the film is not fully thick.
Generally, patterning is implemented after forming the coating film using those masking materials to selectively expose the surface of amorphous silicon. Then the metal film or the like which accelerates the crystallization is formed.
What must be taken care of in the present invention is the concentration of metal elements within the silicon film. Although nothing is better than that its amount is small, it is also important for the amount to be always kept constant. It is because a considerable fluctuation in the degree of crystallization is brought about per lot in the manufacturing site if the amount of the metal element fluctuates significantly. It becomes more difficult to reduce the fluctuation of the amount especially when the amount of the metal element is required to be less.
In the first method, because the metal film or the like selectively formed is coated by the amorphous silicon film, it cannot be taken out later to adjust its amount. In terms of the amount of metal element required in the present invention, the thickness of the metal film or the like is so thin as several to several tens angstrom, so that it is difficult to form the film with a good reproducibility.
The same also applies to the second method. However, there is a room of improvement in the second method as compare to the first method because the metal film or the like which accelerate the crystallization exists on the surface in this method. That is, a fully thick metal film is formed and a heat treatment (pre-annealing) is implemented at a temperature lower than an annealing temperature before annealing to react a part of the amorphous silicon film and the metal film and to produce silicide. Then the metal film which did not react is etched. Although it depends on a metal used, there is no problem particularly in terms of Ni, Fe, Co, Ti and Cr because there is an etchant in which an etching rate of the metal film and the silicide is fully large.
In this case, a thickness of the silicide layer obtained is determined by the temperature and time of the heat treatment (pre-annealing) and the thickness of the metal layer has almost nothing to do with it. Due to that, the very small amount of metal element introduced in the amorphous silicon film can be controlled.
The present invention also utilizes that there is a difference in degrees of crystallization when the surface of semiconductor is covered by a coating film (cover film) of silicon oxide or silicon nitride and when not covered when crystallizing a crystalline silicon TFT in a temperature at 450 to 1000xc2x0 C. or preferably at 500 to 800xc2x0 C. in an atmosphere containing oxygen, hydrogen or nitrogen. Such atmosphere can be an atmosphere containing oxygen, atmosphere containing hydrogen, atmosphere containing nitrogen, atmosphere containing oxygen and hydrogen, atmosphere containing oxygen and nitrogen, atmosphere containing hydrogen and nitrogen or atmosphere containing oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. The aforementioned crystallization can be carried out by (1) heating for A hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for B hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen: (2) heating for C hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for D hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen: (3) heating for E hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for F hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen: (4) heating for G hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for H hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen: (5) heating for I hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for J hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen: (6) heating for K hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for L hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen: (7) heating for M hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen, heating for N hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for P hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen: (8) heating for Q hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen, heating for R hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for S hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen: (9) heating for T hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen, heating for U hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for V hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen: (10) heating for W hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen, heating for X hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen and then heating for Y hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen: (11) heating for Z hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen, heating for Axe2x80x2 hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen and then heating for Bxe2x80x2 hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen: or (12) heating for Cxe2x80x2 hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen, heating for Dxe2x80x2 hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen and then heating for Exe2x80x2 hours in the atmosphere containing oxygen. It is particularly preferable (4) to heat for G hours in the atmosphere containing hydrogen and then to heat for E hours in the atmosphere containing nitrogen, (5) to heat for I hours (4 hours for example) in the atmosphere containing nitrogen and then to heat for J hours (1 hour for example) in the atmosphere containing oxygen, or (6) to heat for K hours (4 hours for example) in the atmosphere containing nitrogen and then to heat for L hours (1 hour for example) in the atmosphere containing hydrogen. Generally the crystallinity is good and as a natural consequence, a TFT having a high mobility can be obtained when the cover film exists. However, generally its leak current becomes significant. On the other hand, the one having no cover film has an advantage that the leak current is low, though the crystallinity is not good and its mobility is low because it turns out be amorphous state depending on temperature.
This characteristic is considered to be governed by the existence of hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen within the atmosphere infiltrated to the active layer. This crystallization may be carried out by implementing it in nitrogen for example and then in hydrogen or oxygen. Thus TFTs having different characteristics may be formed on the same substrate in the same time and in the same process. For example, the former high mobility TFT can be used as a driving circuit of a matrix and the latter low leak current TFTs can be used as TFTs in the matrix portion.
Or a mobility in the NMOS can be relatively reduced as compare to that in the PMOS and a difference between the both can be almost eliminated in the optimum condition by not providing the cover film on the NMOS region and providing it on the PMOS region in the CMOS circuit.
The temperature of the thermal crystallization is an important parameter and the crystallinity of a TFT is determined by the temperature in the present invention. Generally, the temperature of thermal annealing is restricted by a substrate and other materials. As far as the restriction of a substrate material is concerned, a thermal annealing of up to 1100xc2x0 C. is possible when silicon and silica are used as a substrate. However, it is desirable to anneal at less than 650xc2x0 C. of temperature in a case of Corning 7059 glass which is a typical non-alkaline glass. However, it must be set considering characteristics required for each TFT, other than the substrate, in the present invention from the aforementioned reasons. When the annealing temperature is high, generally a growth of crystal of TFT advances, the mobility is increased and the leak current increases. Accordingly, the annealing temperature should be 450 to 1000xc2x0 C. or preferably 500 to 800xc2x0 C. in order to obtain TFTs having different characteristics on the same substrate like the present invention.
One such example of the present invention is that in a display section of an active matrix circuit of a liquid crystal display or the like, polysilicon TFTs are used as switching transistors and that no cover film is provided in the active matrix region when crystallizing an active layer and on the other hand the cover film is provided on the peripheral circuit region to turn the former into low leak current TFTs and the latter into high mobility TFTs.
FIG. 8(A) shows a conceptual drawing of a device having a display circuit section (active matrix) and a driving circuit (peripheral circuit) therefor as described above. In the figure, a display device is shown in which a data driver 101 and gate driver 102 are arranged, an active matrix 103 having TFTs is arranged in the middle and those driver sections and the active matrix are connected through gate lines 105 and data lines 106 an an insulating substrate 107. The active matrix 103 is an aggregate of picture element cells 104 having a NMOS or PMOS TFT (PMOS in the figure).
For a CMOS circuit of the driver section, a concentration of impurities such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon in the active layer is desirable to be less than 1018 cmxe2x88x923 or preferably less than 1017 cmxe2x88x923 in order to obtain a high mobility. As a result, a threshold voltage of the TFT was 0.5 to 2 V in the NMOS and xe2x88x920.5 to xe2x88x923 V in the PMOS for example and a mobility was 30 to 150 cm2/Vs in the NMOS and 20 to 100 cm2/Vs in the PMOS.
On the other hand, an auxiliary capacity could be reduced and further be totally eliminated in the active matrix section by using single or a plurality of elements in series having as low as about 1 pA of leak current with 1 V of drain voltage.
A second example of the present invention relates to a semiconductor memory. A semiconductor memory device by means of monocrystal ICs has already reached to its limit in terms of speed. Although it is necessary to increase a current capacity of transistors in order to operate it in a higher speed, it causes a further increase of power consumption and it cannot but be dealt by increasing driving voltage so long as a capacity of capacitors cannot be increased further for a DRAM which carries out memory operations by storing charge in the capacitors.
One reason why it is said that monocrystal ICs have reached its speed limit is because a large loss is brought about by a capacity of the substrate and wires. It is possible to drive in fully high speed without increasing power consumption if an insulator is used for the substrate. From such a reason, an IC having a SOI (semiconductor on insulator) structure has been proposed.
A circuit arrangement of the DRAM is almost the same with that of the aforementioned liquid crystal display device in a case of 1 Tr/cell structure and in a DRAM having a structure other than that (for example 3 Tr/cell structure), no cover film is provided in a memory bit section when crystallizing an active layer and on the other hand, a cover film is provided on a region of a driving circuit because it is required to operate in fully high speed in the same manner with the case of the aforementioned liquid crystal display device to turn the former into low leak current TFTs and the later into high leak current TFTs.
The basic block structure of such semiconductor memory device is the same with that shown in FIG. 8A. For example, in the DRAM, the reference numeral (101) can be a column decoder, (102) a row decoder, (103) a memory elements section, (104) a unit memory bit, (105) bit lines, (106) word lines, and (107) an (insulating) substrate.
A third application example of the present invention is a driving circuit for an image sensor or the like. FIG. 8(B) shows an example of a one bit circuit of an image sensor, wherein a flip-flop circuit 108 and a buffer circuit 109 are normally constructed by a CMOS circuit and are required to respond in such high speed that they can follow up high speed pulses applied to a scan line. On the other hand, a TFT 110 in a signal output stage plays a role of a dam that discharges a charge accumulated in a capacitor by a photodiode to a data line by receiving a signal from the shift register sections 108 and 109.
Such TFT 110 is required not only to respond in high speed but also to have less leak current. Accordingly, the region of the circuits 108 and 109 is crystallized by providing a cover film to turn it into a high mobility TFT and the region of the TFT 110 on the other hand is crystallized without providing cover film to turn it into a low leak current TFT in such a circuit.
In the present invention, silicon oxide, silicon nitride or silicon oxinitride (SiNxOy) may be used as the cover film. Although the thicker the cover film, the better the covering ability is, the thickness must be determined considering a mass-producibility and covering ability thereof because it takes a time to form a thick film. Though the covering ability differs depending on a quality of film, typically the thickness must be more than 20 nm for a silicon oxide film and more than 10 nm for a silicon nitride film. The thickness is desired to be 20 to 200 nm for both of the silicon oxide film and the silicon nitride film when considering mass-producibility and reliability.
The above and other advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in the following description and the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout several views.