The present invention relates to a semiconductor device fabrication method and an electronic device fabrication method. Crystallization methods that re-crystallize silicon that is deposited on a substrate by CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) or the like include a solid phase grown method that uses high temperature thermal processing at 600 to 1000° C., a laser annealing method that performs excimer laser irradiation, and a thermal plasma jet method (Japanese Patent Application Nos. H11-145148 and Crystallization of Si Thin Film Using Thermal Plasma Jet and Its Application to Thin-Film Transistor Fabrication, S. Higashi, AM-LCD '04 Technical Digest Papers, p. 179) that has thermal plasma as its heat source).
Further, methods that are used as methods of forming an oxide film as an insulation film on a re-crystallized silicon film include thermal oxidation film methods (dry oxygen oxidation, wet oxidation, steam oxidation, and hydrogen combustion oxidation), CVD (TEOS, PECVD), and sputtering and so forth).
A method that processes an oxide film by means of high-pressure steam annealing is known as a method for improving the film quality of the oxide film thus formed (Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Nos. H6-13407, H11-135492, and H4-284630, for example).
However, in the solid phase growth method using thermal processing mentioned above, because the substrate is heated to a maximum temperature of 600 to 1000° C., a low-cost glass substrate cannot be used. Further, the thermal load on the substrate is large and bending and cracking and so forth of the substrate readily occurs. In addition, crystallization takes a long time and productivity is limited. Moreover, although, with laser annealing, a glass substrate of low heat resistance can be used, high-cost equipment is required and there is a tendency for variations in the element characteristic to increase. Further, the thermal plasma jet method is also costly.
On the other hand, the present inventor targeted research on thermal processing by applying the flame of a gas burner that has a mixed gas of hydrogen and oxygen as its fuel (See Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-329205, for example) as a semiconductor device fabrication method that is able to reduce the thermal load on the substrate and perform thermal processing of a large-area substrate and intensely studied processes and conditions and so forth for obtaining a favorable semiconductor device in the course of this research.