It is an object of the present invention to manufacture a thin film transistor having a required property without complicating steps and devices. It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique for manufacturing a semiconductor device having high reliability and better electrical characteristics with a higher yield at lower cost. In the present invention, a lightly doped impurity region is formed in a source region side or a drain region side of a semiconductor layer covered with a gate electrode layer in a thin film transistor. The semiconductor layer is doped diagonally to the surface thereof using the gate electrode layer as a mask to form the lightly doped impurity region. Therefore, the properties of the thin film transistor can be minutely controlled.