TFT-LCD ARRAY SUBSTRATE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20110068341A1
• Filed: 09/16/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beijing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd. (BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Beijing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd. (BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: LI, Wei, RHEE, Jeong Hun
• Granted Patent: US 8,735,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 257/59
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13439 characterised by their electrical, optical, physical properties; materials therefor; method of making
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1368 in which the switching element is a three-electrode device G02F1/136277 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/12 the substrate being other than a semiconductor body, e.g. an insulating body
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/124 with a particular composition, shape or layout of the wiring layers specially adapted to the circuit arrangement, e.g. scanning lines in LCD pixel circuits wiring structures per se H01L23/52
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/458 for thin film silicon, e.g. source or drain electrode

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention relates to a TFT-LCD array substrate comprising a substrate, a gate line and a data line formed on the substrate, a pixel electrode and a thin film transistor formed in a pixel region defined by the gate line and the data line, wherein the thin film transistor comprises a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a transparent drain electrode, and the transparent drain electrode is electrically connected with the pixel electrode.

Claims

1. A thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) array substrate comprising:

a substrate,

a gate line and a data line formed on the substrate, and

a pixel electrode and a thin film transistor formed in a pixel region defined by the gate line and the data line,

wherein the thin film transistor comprises a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a transparent drain electrode, and the transparent drain electrode is electrically connected with the pixel electrode.

2. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 1, wherein the transparent drain electrode and the pixel electrode are provided in the same layer.

3. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 1, wherein the transparent drain electrode and the pixel electrode are in an integral structure.

4. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 1, wherein the gate electrode is formed on the substrate, and a gate insulating layer is formed on the gate electrode, an active layer is formed on the gate insulating layer and located over the gate electrode, a TFT channel region is provided in the active layer, the source electrode is formed on the active layer, a passivation layer is formed on the above patterns and provided with a passivation layer via hole, and the transparent drain electrode is connected with the active layer through the passivation layer via hole.

5. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 2, wherein the gate electrode is formed on the substrate, and a gate insulating layer is formed on the gate electrode, an active layer is formed on the gate insulating layer and located over the gate electrode, a TFT channel region is provided in the active layer, the source electrode is formed on the active layer, a passivation layer is formed on the above patterns and provided with a passivation layer via hole, and the transparent drain electrode is connected with the active layer through the passivation layer via hole.

6. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 3, wherein the gate electrode is formed on the substrate, and a gate insulating layer is formed on the gate electrode, an active layer is formed on the gate insulating layer and located over the gate electrode, a TFT channel region is provided in the active layer, the source electrode is formed on the active layer, a passivation layer is formed on the above patterns and provided with a passivation layer via hole, the transparent drain electrode is connected with the active layer through the passivation layer via hole.

7. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 4, wherein the thin film transistor further comprises a metal drain electrode, the metal drain electrode is formed on the active layer and located at a side of the TFT channel region, and provided opposite to the source electrode which is located at the other side of the TFT channel region.

8. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 7, wherein the transparent drain electrode is located at a side of the metal drain electrode which is remote from the TFT channel region.

9. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 7, wherein the metal drain electrode and the source electrode are provided in the same layer, and the metal drain electrode is covered with the passivation layer.

10. The TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 1, wherein the thin film transistor further comprises a metal drain electrode, and the metal drain electrode is electrically connected with the transparent drain electrode.

11. A manufacturing method of a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) array substrate, comprising:

Step 1, depositing a gate metal film on a substrate and forming patterns including a gate line and a gate electrode by a patterning process;

Step 2, forming patterns including an active layer, a data line, a source electrode and a passivation layer via hole in a passivation layer with on the substrate after step 1, wherein the passivation layer via hole exposes the surface of the active layer in the drain electrode region; and

Step 3, depositing a transparent conductive film on the substrate after step 2 and forming patterns of a transparent drain electrode and a pixel electrode which are in an integral structure and connected with each other.

12. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 11, wherein the step 2 comprises:

Step 201, depositing a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor film, a doped semiconductor film and a source/drain metal film on the substrate after step 1, forming patterns including the active layer, the data line and the source electrode by a patterning process with a three-tone mask, and exposing the doped semiconductor film in the drain electrode region, wherein the active layer includes the semiconductor film and the doped semiconductor film; and

Step 202, depositing a passivation layer on the substrate after step 201, and forming the pattern of the passivation layer via hole by a patterning process, wherein the passivation layer via hole comprises the drain electrode region.

13. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 12, wherein the step 201 comprising:

depositing the gate insulating layer, the semiconductor film, the doped semiconductor film, and the source/drain metal film sequentially;

applying a layer of photoresist on the source/drain metal film;

exposing the photoresist with the three-tone mask and forming the photoresist, after development, into a photoresist-completely-remained region, a photoresist-completely-removed region, a first photoresist-partially-remained region and a second photoresist-partially-remained region, wherein the photoresist-completely-remained region corresponds to a region where the patterns of the data line and the source electrode are located;

the first photoresist-partially-remained region corresponds to a region where a pattern of a TFT channel region is located;

the second photoresist-partially-remained region corresponds to a drain electrode region; and

the photoresist-completely-removed region corresponds to a region other than the above regions;

in the photoresist-completely-removed region, first etching away the source/drain metal film by a wet etching process, and then etching away the doped semiconductor film and the semiconductor film by a dry etching process; and

forming the pattern of the TFT channel region by an ashing process and a etching process.

14. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 13, wherein forming the pattern of the TFT channel region by an ashing process and an etching process comprising:

by the ashing process, the photoresist in the first photoresist-partially-remained region is removed so as to expose the source/drain metal film in the region;

etching away the source/drain metal film and the doped semiconductor film in the first photoresist-partially-remained region by a second dry etching process, partially etching the semiconductor film in the region in the thickness direction so as to expose the semiconductor film, and at the same time, etching away the remaining photoresist and the source/drain metal film in the second photoresist-partially-remained region so as to expose the doped semiconductor film; and

removing the remaining photoresist.

15. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 14, wherein the thickness of the photoresist in the photoresist-completely-remained region is 25000 Å

to 30000 Å

, the thickness of the first photoresist-partially-remained region is 3000 Å

to 6000 Å

, and the thickness of the second photoresist-partially-remained region is 12000 Å

to 18000 Å

.

16. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 13, wherein forming the pattern of the TFT channel region by an ashing process and an etching process comprising:

by a first ashing process, removing the photoresist in the first photoresist-partially-remained region so as to expose the source/drain metal film in this region;

by a second dry etching, etching away the source/drain metal film and the doped semiconductor film in the first photoresist-partially-remained region and partially etching the semiconductor film in the region in the thickness direction so as to expose the semiconductor film;

by a second ashing process, removing the photoresist in the second photoresist-partially-remained region so as to expose the source/drain metal film in the region;

by a third wet etching process, etching away the source/drain metal film in the second photoresist-partially-remained region so as to expose the doped semiconductor film; and

removing the remaining photoresist.

17. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 11, wherein the step 2 comprises:

Step 211, depositing a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor film, a doped semiconductor film and a source/drain metal film sequentially on the substrate after step 1, and forming patterns including the active layer, the data line, the source electrode and the metal drain electrode by a patterning process with a half tone or grey tone mask, wherein the active layer comprises the semiconductor film and the doped semiconductor film; and

Step 212, depositing a passivation layer on the substrate after step 211, and forming the pattern of the passivation layer via hole by a patterning process, wherein the passivation layer via hole comprises a part or all of the metal drain electrode region, and the metal drain electrode in the passivation layer via hole is etched away so as to expose the surface of the doped semiconductor layer of the active layer.

18. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 17, wherein the step 211 comprising:

depositing the gate insulating layer, the semiconductor film, the doped semiconductor film, and the source/drain metal film sequentially;

applying a layer of photoresist on the source/drain metal film;

exposing the photoresist by using a half tone or grey tone mask and forming the photoresist, after development, into a photoresist-completely-remained region, a photoresist-completely-removed region, and a photoresist-partially-remained region, wherein the photoresist-completely-remained region corresponds to a region where the patterns of the data line, the source electrode and the metal drain electrode are located;

the photoresist-partially-remained region corresponds to a region where the pattern of the TFT channel region is located; and

the photoresist-completely-removed region corresponds to a region other than the above regions;

in the photoresist-completely-removed region, first etching away the source/drain metal film by a wet etching process, and then etching away the doped semiconductor film and the semiconductor film by a dry etching process;

by an ashing process, removing the photoresist in the photoresist-partially-remained region so as to expose the source/drain metal film in the region;

by a second etching process, etching away the source/drain metal film and the doped semiconductor film in the photoresist-partially-remained region and partially etching the semiconductor film in the thickness direction so as to expose the semiconductor film; and

removing the remaining photoresist.

19. The manufacturing method of the TFT-LCD array substrate of claim 17, wherein the step 212 comprises:

depositing the passivation layer;

applying a layer of photoresist on the passivation layer;

exposing the photoresist by using a half tone or grey tone mask and forming the photoresist, after development, into a photoresist-completely-remained region, a photoresist-completely-removed region, and a photoresist-partially-remained region, wherein the photoresist-completely-removed region corresponds to a region where the pattern of the passivation layer via hole is located;

the photoresist-completely-remained region corresponds to a region where the patterns of a gate connecting line via hole and a data connecting line via hole are located; and

the photoresist-completely-remained region corresponds to a region other than the above regions;

by a first etching process, forming a pattern of passivation layer via hole and at the same time etching away the metal drain electrode in the passivation layer via hole so as to expose the surface of the doped semiconductor layer of the active layer in the passivation layer via hole;

by an ashing process, removing the photoresist in the photoresist-partially-remained region so as to expose the passivation layer in this region;

by a second etching process, forming the pattern of the gate connecting line via hole in a gate line pad region and the pattern of the data connecting line via hole in a data line pad region; and

removing the remaining photoresist.