Appeal No. 2002-0128
Application No. 08/878,588
crystalizes and forms thin film transistors arranged with a
specific pitch in a lateral direction. More particularly, the
laser annealing treatment involves moving a laser beam, formed in
a band shape, relative to the insulating substrate in a lateral
direction with a specific movement pitch to form partially
overlapping irradiated regions. According to Appellants
(specification, pages 10-13), in order to ensure that the
overlapping irradiated regions where crystal defects are likely
to occur are not formed in the active layers of the transistors,
the laser beam is moved at a movement pitch in the lateral
direction which is set at value which is equal to or an integer
multiple of the arrangement pitch of the transistors.
Claim 1 is illustrative of the invention and reads as
follows:
1. A process of fabricating a thin film semiconductor
device, comprising the steps of:
forming a semiconducting thin film on the surface of an
insulating substrate to spread in both a longitudinal
direction and a lateral direction;
laser-annealing the semiconductor thin film by
intermittently irradiating a pulsed laser beam formed in a
band-shape along the longitudinal direction of the
insulating substrate to cause crystallizing of the
semiconducting thin film; and
2
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