Method and apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, and apparatus and method for evaluating semiconductor crystals

Claim 1

A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate comprising a substrate (1), a plurality of semiconductor elements arranged in a pixel region (50) of the substrate, and a plurality of drive circuit sections (4) for driving the semiconductor elements, said method comprising the steps of: forming an amorphous semiconductor film (2) on said substrate (1); intermittently applying laser beam pulses having a cross section of predetermined dimensions, onto target surface regions (21) of said amorphous semiconductor film, thereby changing said target surface regions into island-shaped polycrystalline regions having dimensions substantially identical to said predetermined dimensions; forming the drive circuit sections (4) by using said island-shaped polycrystalline regions; and forming said semiconductor elements in said pixel region and electrically connecting said semiconductor elements to said drive circuit sections, by using parts (51) of said amorphous semiconductor film.

Claim 10

A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate comprising a substrate (1), a plurality of semiconductor elements arranged in a pixel region (50) of the substrate, and at least one shift register (41, 42) for driving the semiconductor elements, said method comprising the steps of: forming an amorphous semiconductor film (2) on said substrate (1); applying laser beam pulses onto target surface regions of said amorphous semiconductor film, thereby changing said target surface regions into a plurality of island-shaped polycrystalline regions (21); forming parts of said at least one shift register (41, 42) in said island-shaped polycrystalline regions, each part of said at least one shift register comprising transistors; and forming wiring layers (40, 51), thereby electrically connecting the parts of said at least one shift register to one another, and electrically connecting said at least one shift register to said semiconductor elements.

Claim 11

A method of evaluating a crystallized condition of a semiconductor film (2), comprising the steps of: applying a laser beam onto a reference semiconductor material in an optimal crystallized condition, detecting the laser beam reflected from said reference semiconductor material by a spectroscope (86), obtaining from the reflected laser beam first information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said reference semiconductor material, and storing the first information into a memory (94); applying a laser beam onto a target region (21) of said semiconductor material, detecting the laser beam reflected from said target region by said spectroscope, and obtaining from the reflected laser beam second information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said target region; and comparing said first information with said second information and evaluating the crystallized condition of said target region on the basis of similarity between said first information and said second information.

Claim 15

A method of forming a thin semiconductor film by crystallizing a target surface region of an amorphous semiconductor material by laser annealing, while evaluating a crystallized condition of the target surface region, said method comprising the steps of: applying a laser beam onto a reference semiconductor material in an optimal crystallized condition, detecting the laser beam reflected from said reference semiconductor material by a spectroscope (86), obtaining from the reflected laser beam first information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said reference semiconductor material, and storing the first information into a memory (94); applying a laser beam onto the target region (21) of said semiconductor material, detecting the laser beam reflected from said target region by said spectroscope, while performing laser annealing on said target region, and obtaining from the reflected laser beam second information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said target region; and comparing said first information with said second information and adjusting energy of the laser beam such that a difference between between said first information and said second information falls within a predetermined range.

Claim 22

An apparatus for forming a thin crystalline semiconductor film comprising: a processing chamber (63); means located within said processing chamber, for supporting an object (1, 20) having an amorphous semiconductor film (2); laser beam applying means (7a, 92, 93) for applying a laser beam onto a target region (21) of the amorphous semiconductor film, to thereby effecting annealing on the target region; memory means (94) for storing first information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to a reference semiconductor material; laser-beam spectrum detecting means (86) for detecting the laser beam applied onto said target region and reflected therefrom and for obtaining second information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said target region; evaluation means (90) for comparing said first information with said second information and evaluating a crystallized condition of said target region; and laser-beam energy adjusting means (91) for adjusting energy of the laser beam on the basis of the crystallized condition evaluated by said evaluation means, to thereby reducing a difference between between said first information and said second information into a predetermined range.

Claim 23

A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising the steps of: forming an amorphous semiconductor film (2) on a substrate (1); intermittently applying laser beam pulses onto target surface regions (21) of said amorphous semiconductor film, thereby changing said target surface regions into island-shaped polycrystalline regions; forming drive circuit sections (4) by using said island-shaped polycrystalline regions; and forming switching elements electrically connected to said drive circuit sections, in a pixel region which is a part of said amorphous semiconductor film; applying a laser beam onto a reference semiconductor material in an optimal crystallized condition, detecting the laser beam reflected from said reference semiconductor material by a spectroscope (86), obtaining from the reflected laser beam first information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said reference semiconductor material, and storing the first information into a memory (94); applying a laser beam onto the target region (21) of said semiconductor material, detecting the laser beam reflected from said target region by said spectroscope, and obtaining from the reflected laser beam second information which represents a band-gap spectral reflectance distribution pertaining to said target region; and comparing said first information with said second information and evaluating the crystallized condition of said target region on the basis of similarity between said first information and said second information.

Claim 24

A system for manufacturing a liquid crystal display, comprising: a plurality of processing devices (317 to 321) arranged dual in line; a loading section (307) for loading a substrate (302) into any one of said processing devices; positioning means for positioning the substrate (316); first transport means (311, 312) for transporting the substrate between said loading means and said positioning means in a non-oxidizing gas atmosphere having a pressure of at least the atmospheric pressure; second transport means (323, 324) for transporting the substrate among said processing devices in a non-oxidizing gas atmosphere having a pressure of at least the atmospheric pressure.

Claim 28

A system for manufacturing a liquid crystal display, having a cassette zone including a loading section (307), an unloading section (307), first transport means (311, 312) and positioning means (316), and a processing zone including a plurality of processing devices (317 to 321) and second transport means (322, 323), wherein at least one cassette (303) for containing a plurality of substrates (302) to be processed is located in said loading section, at least one cassette (306) for containing a plurality of substrates (305) already processed is located in said unloading section, said first transport means is located in a non-oxidizing gas atmosphere having a pressure of at least the atmospheric pressure and transports the substrates between said loading section and said positioning means, said processing devices are arranged in two rows between which said second transport means is located, and said second transport means is located in a non-oxidizing gas atmosphere having a pressure of at least the atmospheric pressure and transports the substrates among said processing devices and said positioning means.