This technology is a method of producing thin-film semiconductor material using laser irradiation and continuous motion of the substrate.
Thin-film silicon semiconductor materials are indispensable to modern electronics, but production of these materials can be slow and inconsistent using conventional methods. Laser irradiation has previously been proposed to convert thin amorphous silicon film into polycrystalline film, but this production method had numerous drawbacks, including non-uniform grain sizes in the microstructure and low throughput rates during manufacturing.
This technology transforms amorphous silicon into high-quality thin-film crystalline silicon by sequential irradiation of the substrate with a high-energy laser. Using this approach, the technology can produce large-grained uniformly micro-structured polycrystalline silicon in an accelerated manner. This technology could be used to improve the manufacturing efficiency and output of polycrystalline silicon thin-films and has broad applications in the production of LED displays, solar cells, and other advanced electronic devices.
This technology has been demonstrated on films as thin as 250 Å.
Patent Issued (US 6,368,945)
Patent Issued (US 6,908,835)
Patent Issued (US 6,563,077)
IR M00-055
Licensing Contact: Greg Maskel