January 30, 1998 (SAN JOSE) -- Tadahiro Ohmi, a professor at Tohoku University, proposed technologies for next-generation thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) production lines at the international Display Works 98 conference on electronic displays in San Jose, CA.

Ohmi had done research on super-clean technology in the field of advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology more than 10 years ago, and has been providing technical guidance to semiconductor equipment manufacturers and IC makers.

Intel Corp. has supported Ohmi's concepts and has improved its productivity by applying his design principles. Ohmi is now proposing new technologies in LCD production.

In TFT-LCD manufacturing, glass substrates are getting larger. In order to use a large glass substrate, the entire substrate must be processed uniformly. In this case, Ohmi says that low-temperature processing and uniform high-density plasma would be crucial for top-quality TFTs.

Ohmi proposed a technique called a Radial Line Slot Antenna (RLSA) to realize the high density plasma that offers such merits as high process uniformity, small ion impact energy and small footprints.

This technology is applicable to processes such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), metal etching in the process of amorphous silicon TFT-LCDs or polycrystalline silicon TFT-LCDs, Ohmi said.





(Nikkei Microdevices)