JPH1098085A - Plasma-processing device and thin-film transistor manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress oxidation of a semiconductor surface in continuous plasma film-forming process, and to improve the characteristics of the transistor manufactured. SOLUTION: The plasma processing device comprises multiple processing sections including at least a plasma CVD processing section, where the first vacuum chamber 7 containing the first gas supply means 93 and the first power apply means 103 is provided, and a plasma sputtering processing section where the second vacuum chamber 8 including the second gas supply means 12 and the second power apply means 13 is provided, and a substrate 20 on which multiple layers are formed is transported through the multiple processing chambers, sequentially for processing. In that case, a third vacuum chamber 3, placed at least between the plasma CVD processing section and the plasma sputtering processing section, is provided for transportation of the substrate 20 in the first vacuum chamber 7 to the second vacuum chamber 8, without affecting the vacuum in the first and second vacuum chamber 7 and 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus for forming or etching an insulating substrate in a vacuum,
And a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor using the plasma processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As semiconductor chips have become faster and more highly integrated, and thin-film transistor (TFT) type liquid crystal display devices have become higher definition, semiconductor wafers and insulating substrates have been changed from batch processing to continuous processing one by one. A multi-chamber of a leaf system, that is, a system in which a plurality of vacuum processing chambers are arranged to perform an etching process for a film forming process or a patterning is mainly used.

[0003] Typical examples of an apparatus for forming an electrode, an insulating layer, or a thin film of a semiconductor chip or a thin film transistor of this type include a plasma sputtering apparatus and a plasma CVD apparatus.

Each of these apparatuses has an independent chamber, that is, a vacuum processing chamber (hereinafter, also simply referred to as a vacuum chamber), and a dedicated substrate loading chamber, a heating chamber, a film forming chamber such as a plasma sputtering chamber or a plasma CVD chamber, and the like. And a substrate transfer chamber for transferring a wafer or an insulating substrate.

In the case of forming a semiconductor layer or an electrode thin film of a thin film transistor using such an apparatus, the invention disclosed in, for example, JP-A-63-15472 is conventionally known.

In the invention disclosed in the above publication, a plurality of vacuum chambers are continuously transferred while transferring a plurality of vacuum chambers without interposing a wet film forming / patterning step such as a photolithography step between a semiconductor layer forming step and an electrode forming step. By performing film formation and patterning, surface contamination of the semiconductor layer is reduced, and deterioration of the characteristics of the thin film transistor due to contamination in the manufacturing process is prevented.

[0007]

In the above prior art, the semiconductor layer forming step and the electrode thin film forming step in the manufacturing process of the thin film transistor can be performed continuously without interruption. In forming the film, it was necessary to use separate devices, and it was impossible to transfer a wafer or an insulating substrate as a workpiece between two processes without breaking vacuum.

That is, when an insulating substrate or the like on which a semiconductor layer is formed is transferred to a vacuum chamber in the next step of forming an electrode, the substrate is placed in the atmosphere from the vacuum chamber for forming the semiconductor layer. An oxide layer is formed on the surface of the semiconductor layer while being taken out and transferred to the next vacuum chamber, which deteriorates the characteristics of the thin film transistor.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and provides good characteristics by transferring the semiconductor layer formed on an insulating substrate or the like to a vacuum chamber in the next step without forming an oxide layer on the surface of the semiconductor layer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a plasma processing apparatus capable of obtaining a thin film transistor and a method for manufacturing the thin film transistor.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to clarify the configuration of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object, description will be made by attaching reference numerals of the embodiments.

[0011] That is, a first invention of claim 1 includes a first gas supply means 9 ₃ first power applying means 10
Plasma CVD and a first vacuum chamber 7 with ₃ and
A plurality of processing units including at least a processing unit and a second plasma sputtering processing unit including a second vacuum chamber 8 having a second gas supply unit 12 and a second power application unit 13; In a plasma processing apparatus for processing a substrate on which a layer is formed by sequentially transferring the plurality of processing chambers, the first vacuum is interposed at least between the plasma CVD processing unit and the plasma sputtering processing unit. The third vacuum chamber 3 for transferring the substrate in the first vacuum chamber 7 to the second vacuum chamber 8 without breaking the vacuum in the chamber 7 and the second vacuum chamber 8 without exposing the substrate in the first vacuum chamber 7 to the atmosphere. It is characterized by having.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the plasma sputtering section is a magnetron type in which a magnet is arranged on the back surface of the target.

[0013] Further, a third aspect of the present invention provides a third aspect of the invention.
The plasma CVD processing section according to the first invention is characterized in that a high frequency power supply is used as the second power applying means.

Further, the fourth invention according to claim 4 is as follows.
In the first invention, the normal pressure of the third vacuum chamber is lower than the pressure during processing of the vacuum chamber of the plasma CVD processing unit and the vacuum chamber of the plasma sputtering processing unit.

[0015] The fifth invention according to claim 5 is as follows.
A method for manufacturing a thin film transistor, comprising: a first step of forming a silicon insulating film by a plasma processing method on an insulating substrate having a gate electrode formed thereon; and a second step of forming an i-type amorphous silicon film on the silicon insulating film. a third step of forming an n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film on the amorphous silicon film, and a third step of forming a source-drain electrode film on the n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film, the source-drain electrode film A fourth step of separating to form a source electrode film and a drain electrode film, a fifth step of separating the n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film between the source electrode film and the drain electrode film, and the i-type amorphous silicon A sixth step of etching the film to form an i-type amorphous silicon island, at least between the third step and the fourth step. The substrate in order to transfer without being exposed to the atmosphere, and carrying out without breaking the vacuum of the respective vacuum processing chambers.

In a sixth aspect of the present invention, a plasma CVD method is used in the first, second and third steps in the fifth aspect, and a plasma sputtering method is used in the fourth step. It is characterized by using.

As described above, according to the present invention, after a semiconductor layer is formed on an insulating substrate or the like, an electrode layer can be formed without exposing the surface of the semiconductor layer to the atmosphere. That is, the plasma CV
A vacuum chamber is provided between the step of forming a semiconductor layer using a D apparatus and the step of forming an electrode layer using a sputtering apparatus,
The insulating substrate or the like can be transferred without breaking the vacuum in both steps, and continuous processing can be performed.

The present invention is not limited to the manufacture of the semiconductor chip and the thin film transistor described above, but includes a plurality of film forming apparatuses or patterning apparatuses using the same vacuum chamber as the above for other electronic components. Can be applied to various fields of film formation and patterning.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to examples.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a plasma processing apparatus for a TFT substrate for a liquid crystal panel for explaining the structure of a first embodiment of a plasma film forming apparatus according to the present invention. Chamber 3, vacuum transfer chamber 4, transfer robot 4 installed in the vacuum transfer chamber, CVD 5 for insulating layer formation
Chamber, 6 a CVD chamber for forming a semiconductor layer, 7 a plasma CVD chamber for forming an n ⁺ -type semiconductor layer, 8 a plasma sputtering chamber for forming source / drain electrodes, 9 (9 ₁ , 9 ₂ ,
9 ₃ ) is a gas supply device for plasma CVD and 10 (1)
0 ₁ , 10 ₂ , 10 ₃ ) are high frequency power supplies for CVD, 11
(11 _1, 11 _2, 11 _3, 11 _4, 11 ₅₎ temperature controller, 12 is a gas supply apparatus for plasma sputtering,
Reference numeral 13 denotes a direct power supply for sputtering, and reference numeral 20 denotes an insulating substrate for TFT (hereinafter, simply referred to as a substrate) on which a gate electrode pattern as a material to be processed is formed.

Referring to FIG. 1, the plasma processing apparatus comprises:
It is a so-called cluster type, having a vacuum transfer chamber 3 having a transfer robot 4 in the center, around which a substrate transfer chamber 1, a heating chamber 2, a CVD chamber 5 for forming an insulating layer, and a CVD chamber for forming a semiconductor layer.
A chamber 6, a plasma CVD chamber 7 for forming an n ⁺ type semiconductor layer, and a plasma sputtering chamber 8 for forming source / drain electrodes are provided.

In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the insulating layer, the semiconductor layer, and the source / drain electrode films of the inverted staggered thin film transistor shown in FIG. 2 are continuously formed on the insulating substrate on which the gate electrode is formed.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating the structure of an inverted staggered thin film transistor constituting a TFT liquid crystal panel, wherein reference numeral 21 denotes a glass substrate as an insulating substrate;
22 is a gate electrode, 23 is an insulating layer, 24 is a semiconductor layer, 2
5 is an n ⁺ type semiconductor layer, 26 is a source electrode, and 27 is a drain electrode.

Returning to FIG. 1, the present embodiment will be described. A substrate 20 having a gate electrode 22 formed on a glass substrate 21 is loaded into a substrate loading / unloading chamber 1 and passed through a vacuum transport chamber 3.
First, it is transferred to the heating chamber 2.

The temperature controller 11 ₁ for heating the substrate 20 is installed in the heating chamber 2 to heat the substrate 20 that has been transferred from the substrate loading / unloading chamber 1.

The heated substrate 20 is maintained at the required temperature at the temperature controller 11 ₂ is transferred to the insulating layer for forming CVD chamber 5 through the vacuum transfer chamber 3, CVD gas supply device 9 ₁
From the process gas is supplied by supplying the RF power applied from the CVD high-frequency power source 10 _1, the silicon nitride film 23 on the substrate 20 is an insulating layer is formed.

Substrate 20 on which silicon nitride film 23 is formed
Is transferred to the semiconductor layer forming CVD chamber 6 through the vacuum transfer chamber 3, it is supplied with process gas from the temperature controller 11 ₃ by the CVD gas supply device while maintaining a predetermined temperature 9 ₂ C
And supplying high-frequency power applied from the VD high-frequency power source 10 _2, amorphous silicon film 24 is formed on the silicon nitride film 23 of the substrate 20.

Next, the substrate 20 is passed through the vacuum transfer chamber 3
⁺ Transferred to the plasma CVD chamber 7 for type semiconductor layer forming a plasma CV while keeping at the temperature controller 11 ₄ at a predetermined temperature
Process gas D gas supply device 9 ₃ is supplied CVD
And supplying high-frequency power applied from use high-frequency power supply 10 _3, n ⁺ amorphous silicon film 25 is formed on the semiconductor layer 24 of the substrate 20.

Then, the substrate 20 on which the n ⁺ amorphous silicon film 25 is formed is transferred to the source / drain electrode forming plasma sputtering chamber 8 through the vacuum transfer chamber 3 without breaking the vacuum of the plasma CVD chamber 7. Temperature controller 11 ₅
The processing gas is supplied from the sputtering gas supply device 12 while maintaining the temperature at a predetermined value.
3 ₃ supplies DC power to form the source and drain electrode films on n ⁺ amorphous silicon film 25 of the substrate 20. The normal pressure of the vacuum transfer chamber 3 for transferring the substrate is plasma CVD.
A vacuum state lower than the processing pressure of the chamber 7 and the plasma sputtering chamber 8 is maintained.

Substrate 2 on which source / drain electrode films are formed
Numeral 0 is carried into the substrate carry-in / carry-out room 1 through the vacuum carrying room 3 and carried out of the plasma film forming apparatus for the next step.

The substrate 2 is placed in a vacuum chamber constituting each of the above processing chambers.
The operation of transferring 0 is performed by the transfer robot 4 installed in the vacuum transfer chamber 3.

Next, an example of a method of forming each layer of a thin film transistor using the above-described plasma film forming apparatus and an example of a patterning method thereof will be described.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are schematic process diagrams illustrating an example of a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor according to the present invention, wherein steps (a) to (d) of FIG. 3 are steps (e) of FIG. To (f), and further to steps (g) to (h) in FIG. Steps (b) to (e) in FIG. 4 are the film forming steps of each layer of the thin film transistor described in FIG.
Step (f) of FIG. 4 shows a source / drain patterning step.

First, the glass substrate 21 on which the gate electrode 22 is formed as shown in FIG. 3A is loaded into the substrate loading / unloading chamber 1, which is a vacuum chamber, and the vacuum chamber is evacuated to a vacuum transfer chamber. The pressure is reduced to the same degree of vacuum as in Step 3. In this state, the substrate 20 is transferred to the heating chamber 2 which is a vacuum chamber by the transfer robot 4 installed in the vacuum transfer chamber 3, and the temperature is adjusted to 300 ° C. by the temperature controller 11.
Heat each time.

(B) The insulating layer forming CVD chamber 5 is maintained at the same vacuum level as the vacuum transfer chamber 3, the substrate 20 is taken out of the heating chamber 2, and is passed through the vacuum transfer chamber 3.
And transferred to, 3000C substrate temperature at the temperature controller 11 ₂
Keep in time. Then, each per minute of monosilane and ammonia and nitrogen from the CVD gas supply device 9 ₁ 50 cc, 2
Introduced into the CVD chamber at a flow rate of 00 cc and 500 cc,
The internal pressure is maintained at 1 Torr.

[0036] In this state, the silicon nitride film 23 as an insulating layer on ,, substrate 20 a 13.56MHz radio frequency power applied from the CVD high-frequency power source 10 ₁ to 2kW supplied to generate plasma for 2 minutes to about It is formed to a thickness of 300 nm.

[0037] (c) after venting of the CVD chamber 5 for forming an insulating layer, a substrate 20 is transferred to the CVD chamber 6 for the semiconductor layer formed is taken out to the vacuum transfer chamber 3, C 260 and the substrate temperature at the temperature controller 11 ₃ Keep in time. Then, the CVD gas supply device 9
₂ , monosilane and hydrogen were introduced at a flow rate of 200 cc / min each, and the internal pressure of the CVD chamber 6 for forming a semiconductor layer was increased to 1 Ton.
rr.

[0038] than CVD for the high-frequency power supply 10 ₂ 13.56
A high frequency power of 200 MHz is supplied at 200 W to generate plasma for 5 minutes, and an amorphous silicon film 24 is
It is formed to a thickness of 50 nm.

(D) After the inside of the semiconductor layer forming CVD chamber 6 is evacuated, the substrate 20 is taken out into the vacuum transfer chamber 3 and transferred to the plasma CVD chamber 7 for forming an n ⁺ type semiconductor layer.

The 200 degree and the substrate temperature at the temperature controller 11 ₄
Every time the keeping, the plasma CVD gas supply device 9 ₃ each per minute of monosilane and phosphine and hydrogen than 100 cc, 2c
c, a flow rate of 100 cc, and the internal pressure of the plasma CVD chamber 7 for forming an n ⁺ type semiconductor layer is maintained at 1 Torr.

[0041] than CVD for the high-frequency power supply 10 ₃ 13.56
A high-frequency power of 150 MHz is supplied to generate plasma for 1 minute, and an n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film 25 is formed on the substrate 20.
Is formed to a thickness of about 20 nm.

Next, as shown in (e) in FIG. 4, n ⁺
After evacuating the gas in the plasma CVD chamber 7 for forming the semiconductor layer, the substrate 20 is taken out to the vacuum transfer chamber 3 without breaking the vacuum of the plasma CVD chamber 7, and further, the plasma sputtering chamber for forming the source / drain electrodes. Transfer to 8. The Celsius 150 substrate temperature at the temperature controller 11 ₅
Keep in time. At this time, the normal pressure of the vacuum transfer chamber 3 is maintained at a vacuum degree lower than the processing pressure of the plasma CVD chamber 7 and the plasma sputtering chamber 8.

The source / drain electrode forming sputtering chamber 8 is a magnetron sputtering type film forming apparatus using a magnet, and a chromium target having substantially the same area with respect to the substrate 20 is installed.

Argon gas is introduced from the sputtering gas supply device 12 into the source / drain electrode forming sputtering chamber 8 at a flow rate of 100 cc / min, and the internal pressure of the sputtering chamber 8 is maintained at 0.01 Torr.

A DC power of 1500 W is supplied from the direct power supply 13 for sputtering to generate plasma for 2 minutes, and a chromium film 270 serving as a source / drain electrode is formed on the substrate 20 to a thickness of about 100 nm.

Finally, the sputtering chamber 8 for forming source / drain electrodes is evacuated to take out the substrate 20 into the vacuum transfer chamber 3, which is transferred to the substrate loading / unloading chamber 1, and the inside of the substrate loading / unloading chamber 1. Substrate 2 while returning pressure to atmospheric pressure
Cool 0. After cooling, the substrate 20 is transferred to the substrate loading / unloading chamber 1
And passed to a subsequent process such as patterning.

(F) FIGS. 3 (b) to 4 (e)
The substrate 20 on which various film forming processes are performed is formed by first removing the chromium film 270 above the gate electrode 22 by a photolithography technique and a process such as wet etching to form a source electrode 26 and a drain electrode 27. I do.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5 (g), n ⁺
The amorphous silicon film 25 and a part of the underlying amorphous silicon film 24 are removed by dry etching or the like.

(H) Then, the amorphous silicon film is etched to form an amorphous silicon island.

Through the above steps, a large number of TFTs are formed on the glass substrate 21.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the gate voltage-drain current characteristics showing the characteristics of the TFT formed in this embodiment in comparison with the characteristics of the TFT formed in the prior art.

5A shows the characteristics of the TFT of this embodiment, and FIG. 5B shows the characteristics of the conventional TFT.

As is clear from the comparison between the characteristic curves (a) and (b), the formation of the source / drain electrodes without exposing the n-type semiconductor layer to the atmosphere after the formation of the n-type semiconductor layer is favorable. Gate voltage-drain current characteristics can be obtained. On the other hand, once the semiconductor layer is exposed to the atmosphere after the formation of the n-type semiconductor layer, an oxide layer is formed on the surface of the semiconductor layer, the contact resistance increases, and the drain current decreases as shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of gate voltage-drain current characteristics showing characteristics of the TFT when the pressure of the vacuum transfer chamber formed in this embodiment is changed.

When the vacuum transfer chamber is opened to the atmosphere, the degree of vacuum is increased from 10 Torr to 0.1 Torr to 0.001 Torr.
When r is changed to 0.0005 Torr, as shown in the gate voltage-drain current characteristic curve in the figure, as the degree of vacuum in the vacuum transfer chamber 3 increases (the pressure decreases), the drain current increases. It can be seen that the characteristics are improved. This is because the thickness of the formed oxide film changes with the degree of vacuum.

As a result, the normal degree of vacuum in the vacuum transfer chamber was set to 0.
When the pressure is less than 001 Torr, good characteristics are exhibited. In other words, it has been found that the pressure needs to be at least equal to or lower than the processing pressure of the film formation chamber.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, a TFT having good gate voltage-drain current characteristics can be formed on a glass substrate.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a plasma processing apparatus for a TFT substrate for a liquid crystal panel for explaining the structure of a second embodiment of the plasma film forming apparatus according to the present invention. 1 shows a structural example of a plasma processing apparatus.

In the figure, 3 ₁ , 3 ₂ , 3 ₃ are vacuum transfer chambers, 4 ₁ , 4 ₂ , 4 ₃ are vacuum transfer chambers 3 ₁ , 3 ₂ , 3 ₃
The transfer robot installed in the inside, 31 is a substrate loading room, 32
Denotes a substrate unloading chamber, 33 denotes a transfer buffer chamber, and the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 denote the same functional parts. The illustration of the CVD gas supply device 9, the high frequency power supply for CVD 10, the temperature controller 11, the gas supply device 12 for sputtering, and the direct power supply 13 for sputtering is omitted.

This embodiment has three vacuum transfer chambers in which transfer robots are installed, a buffer chamber 33 for transferring a substrate, and a substrate loading chamber 31 for loading and unloading substrates, respectively. This embodiment is different from the above-described embodiment in that a substrate unloading chamber 32 is provided.

Glass substrate 2 serving as liquid crystal panel substrate 20
1 is carried into the substrate carrying-in chamber 31, and hereinafter, the vacuum carrying chamber 3 ₁
→ Heating chamber 2 → Vacuum transfer chamber 3 ₂ → Insulating layer forming CVD chamber 5
→ vacuum transfer chamber 3 ₂ → semiconductor layer formation CVD chamber 6 → vacuum transfer chamber 3 ₂ → the buffer chamber 33 → the vacuum transfer chamber 3 ₃ → n ⁺ -type semiconductor layer forming CVD chamber 7 → vacuum transfer chamber 3 ₃ → Source Sputtering chamber 8 for forming drain electrode → vacuum transfer chamber 3 ₃
→ The film is transferred in the order of the substrate unloading chamber 32 and a required film forming process is performed.

When a TFT was formed in this plasma processing apparatus under the same conditions as in the above embodiment, a TFT having the same good characteristics as those shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 could be obtained.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a TFT having good gate voltage-drain current characteristics can be formed on a glass substrate.

FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view for explaining a structural example of a color liquid crystal display device to which the present invention is applied, wherein 20 is an upper frame, 20a is a display window, 21 is a color liquid crystal panel,
2a, 22b, 22c are printed circuit boards, 23a, 2
3b is a spacer, 24 is a light shielding sheet, 25 is a light guide, 2
6 is a backlight lamp, 27 is a lamp cover, 28 is an intermediate mold, 29 is a lower frame, 30 is a cut and raised piece, and 31 is a cutout hole.

The color liquid crystal panel 21 is manufactured by using the plasma film forming apparatus described in the above embodiment.
Printed circuit boards 22a, 22b, 22c on which driving ICs and the like are mounted are mounted around the periphery. Note that these driving ICs and the like can be directly mounted on a glass substrate.

A light guide 25 is laminated on the back surface of the color liquid crystal panel 21, and a backlight lamp 26 is provided on one side thereof.
Is provided, and the lamp cover 27 and the light shielding sheet 24 prevent the light of the backlight lamp 26 from leaking to the color liquid crystal display element 21 side.

Spacers 23a and 23b are interposed between the color liquid crystal panel 21 and the upper frame 20, and the light guide 25
And backlight lamp 26 and color liquid crystal panel 21
Is attached to the intermediate frame 28, and the cut-and-raised pieces 30 formed in the upper frame 20 are inserted into the cutout holes 31 formed in the lower frame 29 and fixed to assemble an integrated color liquid crystal display device.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a laptop personal computer as an example of an electronic apparatus incorporating the color liquid crystal display device according to the present invention.

This laptop personal computer comprises a main body 45 and a monitor 41, and the monitor 41 is equipped with a liquid crystal display device using a color liquid crystal display device according to the present invention. 42 is a brightness volume, 43 is a contrast volume, and 44 is a switch for inverting the display background and image.

According to the laptop computer to which the present invention is applied, a high-quality image display can be obtained.

[0071]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since no oxide layer is formed on the surface of the semiconductor layer,
The contact resistance between the semiconductor layer and the electrode can be reduced, and the drain current and the effective mobility of the thin film transistor can be increased.

Further, by performing CVD and sputtering in the same facility, the total number of apparatuses and the occupied floor area can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a plasma processing apparatus for a TFT substrate for a liquid crystal panel, illustrating a configuration of a first embodiment of a plasma film forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of an inverted staggered thin film transistor forming the TFT liquid crystal panel.

FIG. 3 is a schematic process diagram illustrating an example of a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic process drawing following FIG. 3 for explaining an example of the method for manufacturing a thin film transistor according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic process drawing following FIG. 4 for explaining an example of the method for manufacturing a thin film transistor according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of gate voltage-drain current characteristics showing characteristics of a TFT formed in an example of the present invention in comparison with characteristics of a TFT formed in a conventional technique.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of gate voltage-drain current characteristics showing characteristics of the TFT when the pressure of the vacuum transfer chamber formed in the example of the present invention is changed.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a plasma processing apparatus for a TFT substrate for a liquid crystal panel, illustrating a configuration of a second embodiment of the plasma film forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a developed perspective view illustrating a structural example of a color liquid crystal display device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a laptop personal computer as an example of an electronic device incorporating the color liquid crystal display device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate loading / unloading chamber 2 Heating chamber 3 Vacuum transfer chamber 4 Transfer robot 5 Insulating layer forming CVD chamber 6 Semiconductor layer forming CVD chamber 7 Plasma CVD chamber for forming n ⁺ type semiconductor layer 8 Source / drain electrode forming plasma sputtering chamber _{9 (9 1, 9 2,} 9 3) CVD gas supply apparatus _{10 (10 1, 10 2,} 10 3) CVD high-frequency power supply 11 (11 _1, 11 _2, 11 _3, 11 _4, 11 ₅ ) Temperature controller 12 Gas supply device for sputtering 13 Direct power supply for sputtering 20 Insulating substrate for TFT.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H01L 29/786 H01L 29/78 627B 21/336

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A plasma CVD processing section having a first vacuum chamber having a first gas supply means and a first power application means, and a plasma CVD processing section having a second gas supply means and a second power application means. A plasma processing apparatus comprising a plurality of processing units including at least a sputtering processing unit provided with two vacuum chambers and sequentially forming a plurality of layers on the processing substrates by sequentially transferring the processing substrates through the plurality of processing chambers. Exposing a substrate in the first vacuum chamber to the atmosphere without breaking the vacuum in the first vacuum chamber and the second vacuum chamber at least between the plasma CVD processing section and the plasma sputtering processing section; A plasma processing apparatus, comprising: a third vacuum chamber for maintaining a vacuum state for transfer to the second vacuum chamber without the vacuum chamber. 2. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plasma sputtering processing section is of a magnetron type in which a magnet is arranged on the back surface of the target. 3. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plasma CVD processing section uses a high frequency power supply as said first power applying means. 4. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a normal pressure of said third vacuum chamber is lower than a pressure during processing of said first vacuum chamber and said second vacuum chamber. 5. A first step of forming a silicon insulating film by a plasma processing method on an insulating substrate having a gate electrode formed thereon,
A second step of forming an i-type amorphous silicon film on the silicon insulating film, the third step and the source-drain on n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film for forming the n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film on the amorphous silicon film A third step of forming an electrode film; and a fourth step of separating the source / drain electrode film to form a source electrode film and a drain electrode film.
A fifth step of separating the n ⁺ -type amorphous silicon film between the source electrode film and the drain electrode film; and a sixth step of etching the i-type amorphous silicon film to form an i-type amorphous silicon island A method for transporting the substrate without exposing at least the third step and the fourth step to the atmosphere without exposing the substrate to the atmosphere without breaking the vacuum of each vacuum processing chamber. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein a plasma CVD method is used in the first, second and third steps, and a plasma sputtering method is used in the fourth step.