Semiconductor device which relieves internal stress and prevents cracking

• US 5,144,391 A
• Filed: 02/20/1991
• Issued: 09/01/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwata, Hiroshi, Noguchi, Shigeru, Ishida, Satoshi, Sano, Keiichi, Nakayama, Shoichiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Hille, Rolf
• Assistant Examiner(s): FAHMY, WAEL M
• Application Number:
  US07/658,386
• Time in Patent Office: 559 Days
• Field of Search: 357/23.7, 357/4, 357/23.15, 357/54, 357/23-26, 357/2
• US Class Current: 257/190
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/42384 for thin film field effect transistors, e.g. characterised by the thickness or the shape of the insulator or the dimensions, the shape or the lay-out of the conductor

Abstract

A semiconductor device according to the present invention comprises a semiconductor thin film, and first and second insulator films formed in such arrangement that the semiconductor thin film being sandwiched therebetween. First and second graded layers each containing a constitutent element of the semiconductor thin film and impurities and having a content of the impurities decreased in the direction of the semiconductor thin film are interposed between the semiconductor thin film and the respective insulator films, thereby to relax internal stress produced in the junction interfaces of the semiconductor thin film and the insulator films and to prevent cracking from occurring in the junction interfaces.

Claims

1. A semiconductor device for relieving stress and preventing cracking, comprising:

a semiconductor thin film;

first and second insulator films provided in such arrangement that said semiconductor thin film is sandwiched therebetween and each contains a constituent element of said semiconductor thin film; and

means for relieving internal stress and preventing cracking, said relieving and preventing means including first and second multilayered graded layers each having a plurality of respective insulating thin films each containing the constituent element of said semiconductor thin film and a constituent element of said insulator films deposited therein so that a content of the constituent element of the insulator films in said insulating thin films decreases in the direction of said semiconductor thin film, said first and second multilayered graded layers each being interposed between said semiconductor thin film and a respective one of said insulator films.

2. The device as in claim 1, wherein said semiconductor thin film is silicon.

3. The device as in claim 1, wherein the insulating thin films constituting each of said multilayered graded layers comprise a plurality of 8 to 14 insulating thin films, the total thickness of each of said multilayered graded layers being 600 to 1100 Å

.

4. The device as in claim 1, wherein said semiconductor device is a thin film transistor.

5. The device as in claim 4, wherein said semiconductor thin film is composed of silicon.

6. The device as in claim 5, wherein said semiconductor device is a thin film transistor, said semiconductor film being amorphous silicon, said first insulator film being SiN_x, said second insulator film being a passivation film made of SiN_x, said first and second multilayered graded layers each being SiN_x, and each of the insulating thin films constituting each of said multilayered graded layers having a content of nitrogen which decreases in the direction of said semiconductor thin film.

7. The device as in claim 6, wherein said semiconductor thin film has a thickness d1 where 100 Å

<

d1<

3μ

, each of said insulator films having a thickness d2 where 1000 Å

<

d2<

10μ

.

8. The device as in claim 6, wherein the insulating thin films constituting each of said multilayered graded layers comprise a plurality of 8 to 14 insulating thin films, and each of said multilayered graded layers have a total thickness of 600 to 1100 Å

.

9. The device as in claim 6, wherein each of the insulating thin films constituting each of said multilayered graded layers have X values of nitrogen density which gradually decrease from 1.33 to 0 in the direction of said semiconductor thin film.

10. The device as in claim 1, wherein said semiconductor device is a static RAM, said semiconductor thin film being polysilicon, said first and second insulator films being SiO₂, said first and second multilayered graded layers being SiO_x, and each of the insulating thin films constituting each of said first and second multilayered graded layers having a content of oxygen which decreases in the direction of said semiconductor thin film.