Further, other than the thermal annealing process, a laser annealing process or a rapid thermal annealing process (RTA process) is applicable. [0188] Further, in this embodiment, simultaneously with the activation processing, nickel used as a catalyst in the crystallizing step, is gettered by impurity regions 423 a, 425 a, 426 a, 446 a and 447 a including a high concentration of phosphorus and a n