System for Manufacturing a Thin-Film Transistor, Method of Manufacturing a Thin-Film Transistor, Method of Evaluating Polysilicon, and Apparatus for Inspecting Polysilicon

摘要

In this invention, the condition of a polysilicon film is evaluated, and a manufacture margin for the film is determined from the condition evaluated. The power of an excimer laser annealing apparatus is set based on the manufacture margin. The annealing apparatus anneals an amorphous silicon film, converting the same to a polysilicon film. The surface spatial structure of the polysilicon film thus formed exhibits linearity or periodicity, or both, depending on the energy applied to the amorphous silicon film during the annealing. The image data of the polysilicon film is processed, thereby determining the linearity and/or periodicity in numerical values, by utilizing the auto-correlation function of the surface image of the polysilicon film. A difference between the auto-correlation function of the surface image of parts of the polysilicon film, which are a source region and a drain region, and the auto-correlation function of the part of the polysilicon film, which lies above a gate electrode, is obtained. The manufacture margin of the polysilicon film is calculated from this difference.