A surface treating method and apparatus include operating a quasi-continuous wave fiber laser and pre-scan shaping the laser beam such that an instantaneous spot beam has predetermined geometrical dimensions, intensity profile, and power; operating a scanner at an optimal angular velocity and angular range to divide the pre-scan beam into a plurality of sub-beams deflected towards the surface being processed; guiding the sub-beams through a post-scan optical assembly to provide the spot beam with predetermined geometrical dimensions, power, and angular velocity and range, which are selected such that the instantaneous spot beam is dragged in a scan direction over a desired length at a desired scan velocity, which allow the treated surface to be exposed for a predetermined exposure duration and have a predetermined fluence distribution providing the treated surface with a quality comparable to that of the surface processed by an excimer laser or a burst-mode fiber laser.

A semiconductor device production system using a laser crystallization method is provided which can avoid forming grain boundaries in a channel formation region of a TFT, thereby preventing grain boundaries from lowering the mobility of the TFT greatly, from lowering ON current, and from increasing OFF current. Rectangular or stripe pattern depression and projection portions are formed on an insulating film. A semiconductor film is formed on the insulating film. The semiconductor film is irradiated with continuous wave laser light by running the laser light along the stripe pattern depression and projection portions of the insulating film or along the major or minor axis direction of the rectangle. Although continuous wave laser light is most preferred among laser light, it is also possible to use pulse oscillation laser light in irradiating the semiconductor film.

Provided is a method of manufacturing a display, a display, and a liquid crystal television that can improve productivity and make a grain size uniform. A method of manufacturing a display includes: (A) deriving, when a laser beam is applied to an aSi film 18 provided on a substrate 11 to thereby polycrystallize the aSi film 18 and form a pSi film 14, a relationship between energy density of the laser beam and a grain size of the pSi film 14; (B) selecting a predetermined range of the energy density in the derived relationship; and (C) irradiating a first area including the aSi film 18 with a laser beam at energy density in the selected range of the energy density to thereby polycrystallize the aSi film 18 and form the pSi film 14.

A laser annealing apparatus 100 includes a laser irradiation device 10 to emit a plurality of laser beams LB toward an irradiation region R1 of a stage 20, the laser irradiation device including: a laser device to emit a laser beam LA; and a convergence unit that includes a microlens array 34 having a plurality of microlenses 34A arranged in m rows and n columns and a mask 32 having a plurality of apertures 32A, the convergence unit 30 receiving the laser beam from the laser device to form respective convergence points of the plurality of laser beams within the irradiation region R1. The plurality of laser beams are p rows and q columns of laser beams formed by p rows and q columns of microlenses (p<m or q<n) among the m rows and n columns of microlenses. The laser irradiation device further includes a disturbance mechanism to alter the relative positioning between the convergence unit 30 and the irradiation region R1 so that, from among the m rows and n columns of microlenses, at least two different sets of p rows and q columns of microlenses are selectable.

A laser annealing apparatus, a fabrication method of a polysilicon thin film, and a fabrication method of a thin film transistor are provided. The laser annealing apparatus includes: a laser generator, an optical system and an annealing chamber. The laser generator is configured to emit a laser beam, and the laser beam is guided to the annealing chamber via the optical system. The optical system includes a beam splitter, the beam splitter decomposes the laser beam into a first beam and a second beam, an energy density of the first beam is greater than an energy density of the second beam, and the first beam and the second beam are guided into the annealing chamber for laser annealing.

A laser irradiation device includes a light source that generates a laser beam, a projection lens that irradiates a predetermined region of an amorphous silicon thin film, mounted on each of a plurality of thin-film transistors on a glass substrate moving in a predetermined direction, with the laser beam, and a projection mask pattern provided on the projection lens and has a plurality of columns each including a predetermined number of opening portions and provided parallel to the predetermined direction, in which the projection lens emits the laser beam through the projection mask pattern, and the projection mask pattern is configured such that at least some of the predetermined number of opening portions are not on a straight line parallel to the predetermined direction in each of the plurality of columns.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor film capable of forming a semiconductor film with high crystalline quality using a solid-state laser is provided. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor film according to the present disclosure includes the steps of (a) irradiating an amorphous semiconductor film with a first pulsed laser beam emitted from a solid-state laser, and then after the step (a), (b) irradiating the semiconductor film with a second pulsed laser beam including intensity lower than that of the first pulsed laser beam.

Provided is a laser annealing device provided with an irradiation unit in which a plurality of lens arrays each comprising one or more lenses are arranged at a first interval, wherein, while scanning a substrate having: a plurality of first area arrays each of which comprises one or more areas to be irradiated and which are arranged at the first interval; and a plurality of second area arrays which are arranged apart from the first area arrays toward one side in a direction orthogonal to the first area arrays by a second interval smaller than the first interval, the irradiation unit irradiates the areas to be irradiated with a laser beam through the one or more lenses. At least one type of area array, in one pixel unit row that comprises a plurality of area arrays including the first and second area arrays, is irradiated with a laser by use of a lens array different from the ones used for the other types of area arrays.

To provide a laser annealing device capable of performing annealing whereby electron mobility is different depending on the part, a mask, a thin film transistor, and a laser annealing method. A laser annealing device of the present invention is provided with a mask in which a plurality of openings are formed along the scanning direction, moves a substrate in the scanning direction, and irradiates the substrate with laser light via the openings. The openings respectively have first opening regions, which are aligned in the scanning direction, and which have a same shape, and some of the openings among the openings respectively have second opening regions continuous to the first opening regions in the predetermined direction with respect to the first opening regions.

A laser irradiation device includes a light source that generates laser light; and a laser head including cylindrical lenses that receive the laser light and generate a thin line laser beam parallel to a moving direction of a substrate, wherein the laser head irradiates a predetermined region of the substrate covered with an amorphous silicon thin film with the thin line laser beam and forms a polysilicon thin film in the predetermined region.