• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.274-285
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• 2019

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), which is a material removal process involving chemical surface reactions and mechanical abrasive action, is an essential manufacturing process for obtaining high-quality semiconductor surfaces with ultrahigh precision features. Recent rapid growth in the industries of digital devices and semiconductors has accelerated the demands for processing of various substrate and film materials. In addition, to solve many issues and challenges related to high integration such as micro-defects, non-uniformity, and post-process cleaning, it has become increasingly necessary to approach and understand the processing mechanisms for various substrate materials and abrasive particle behaviors from a tribological point of view. Based on these backgrounds, we review recent CMP R&D trends in this study. We examine experimental and analytical studies with a focus on substrate materials and abrasive particles. For the reduction of micro-scratch generation, understanding the correlation between friction and the generation mechanism by abrasive particle behaviors is critical. Furthermore, the contact stiffness at the wafer-particle (slurry)-pad interface should be carefully considered. Regarding substrate materials, recent research trends and technologies have been introduced that focus on sapphire (${\alpha}$-alumina, $Al_2O_3$), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN), which are used for organic light emitting devices. High-speed processing technology that does not generate surface defects should be developed for low-cost production of various substrates. For this purpose, effective methods for reducing and removing surface residues and deformed layers should be explored through tribological approaches. Finally, we present future challenges and issues related to the CMP process from a tribological perspective.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.53-58
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• 2010

In this study, we have investigated the effect of the ambient gases on the characteristics of IZO thin films for the OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. For this purpose, IZO thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering under various ambient gases (Ar, $Ar+O_2$ and $Ar+H_2$) at $150^{\circ}C$. In order to investigate the influences of the oxygen and hydrogen, the flow rate of oxygen and hydrogen in argon mixing gas has been changed from 0.1sccm to 0.5sccm, respectively. All the samples show amorphous structure regardless of ambient gases. The electrical resistivity of IZO film increased with increasing flow rate of $O_2$ under $Ar+O_2$ while under $Ar+H_2$ atmosphere the electrical resistivity showed minimum value near 0.5sccm of $H_2$. All the films showed the average transmittance over 85% in the visible range. The OLED device was fabricated with different IZO substrates made by configuration of IZO/${\alpha}$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al to elucidate the performance of IZO substrate. OLED devices with the amorphous-IZO (a-IZO) anode film show better current densityvoltage-luminance characteristics than that of OLED devices with the commercial crystalline-ITO (c-ITO) anode film. It can be explained that very flat surface roughness and high work function of a-IZO anode film lead to more efficient hole injection by reduction of interface barrier height between anode and organic layers. This suggests that a-IZO film is a promising anode materials substituting conventional c-ITO anode in OLED devices.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 1993

Thin films of soft magnetic Fe-Hf-C alloys with nanoscale crystallites were investigated in this study. The films were fabricated by an RF diode magnetron sputtering apparatus and subsequently annealed in vacuum. The soft magnetic properties of the films were observed to differ depending on the different substrates such as Corning 7059, $CaTiO_3$ and $Al_2O_3-TiC$ with various underlayer(Cr, $SiO_2$) thickness. This results may be due to the interdiffusion between the substrate and the magnetic layer and/or between the underlayer and the magnetic layer, rather than the microstructural change such as grain size. The Fe-Hf-C films with high permeability up to 4000(at 1 MHz) and saturation magnetization up to 16 kG were obtained in the vicinity of phase boundary between the crystalline and amorphous state when the size of ${\alpha}-Fe$ grains is about 5 nm. And also the films were found to have thermal stability up to $600^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.203-207
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• 2009

We have investigated the effect of ambient gases on the structural, electrical, and optical characteristics of ITO thin films intended for use as anode contacts in OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. These ITO thin films are deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering under different ambient gases (Ar, Ar+$O_2$, and Ar+$H_2$) at $300{^{\circ}C}$. In order to investigate the influences of the oxygen and hydrogen, the flow rate of oxygen and hydrogen in argon mixing gas has been changed from 0.5 sccm to 5 sccm and from 0.01 sccm to 0.25 sccm, respectively. The intensity of the (400) peak in the ITO thin films increased with increasing $O_2$, flow rate whilst the (400) peak was nearly invisible in an atmosphere of Ar+$H_2$. The electrical resistivity of the ITO thin films increased with increasing $O_2$ flow rate, whereas the electrical resistivity decreased sharply under an Ar+$H_2$ atmosphere and was nearly similar regardless of the $H_2$ flow rate. The change of electrical resistivity with changes in the ambient gas composition was mainly interpreted in terms of the charge carrier mobility rather than the charge carrier concentration. All the films showed an average transmittance of over 80% in the visible range. The OLED device was fabricated with different ITO substrates made with the configuration of ITO/$\alpha$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al in order to elucidate the performance of the ITO substrate. Current density and luminance of OLED devices with ITO thin films deposited in Ar+$H_2$ ambient gas is the highest among all the ITO thin films.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.7-11
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• 2008

ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) thin films have been extensively studied for OLED devices because they have high transparent properties in the visible wavelength and a low electrical resistivity. These ITO films are deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering under different ambient gases (Ar, Ar+$O_2$ and Ar+$H_2$) at $300^{\circ}C$. In order to investigate the influences of the oxygen and hydrogen, the flow rate of oxygen and hydrogen in argon has been changed from 0.5sccm to 5sccm and from 0.01sccm to 0.25sccm respectively. The resistivity of ITO film increased with increasing flow rate of $O_2$ under Ar+$O_2$ while it is nearly constant under Ar+$H_2$. And the peak of ITO films obtained (222) and (400) orientations and the average transmittance was over 80% in the visible range. The OLED device fabricated with different ITO substrates made by configuration of ITO/$\alpha$-NPD/Alq3/LiF/Al to elucidate the performance of ITO substrate for OLED device.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.347-351
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• 2003

II-Ⅵ ZnO compound semiconductor thin films were grown on $\alpha$-Al$_2$O$_3$(0001) single crystal substrate by radical beam assisted molecular beam epitaxy and the optical properties were investigated. Zn(6N) was evaporated using Knudsen cell and O radical was assisted at the partial pressure of 1$\times$10$^{4}$ Torr and radical beam source of 250-450 W RF power. In $\theta$-2$\theta$ x-ray diffraction analysis, ZnO thin film with 500 nm thickness showed only ZnO(0002)and ZnO(0004) peaks is believed to be well grown along c-axis orientation. Photoluminescence (PL) measurement using He-Cd ($\lambda$=325 nm) laser is obtained in the temperature range of 9 K-300 K. At 9 K and 300 K, only near band edge (NBE) is observed and the FWHM's of PL peak of the ZnO deposited at 450 RF power are 45 meV and 145 meV respectively. From no observation of any weak deep level peak even at room temperature PL, the ZnO grains are regarded to contain very low defect density and impurity to cause the deep-level defects. The peak position of free exciton showed slightly red-shift as temperature was increased, and from this result the binding energy of free exciton can be experimentally determined as much as $58\pm$0.5 meV, which is very closed to that of ZnO bulk. By van der Pauw 4-point probe measurement, the grown ZnO is proved to be n-type with the electron concentration($n_{e}$ ) $1.69$\times$10^{18}$$cm^3$, mobility($\mu$) $-12.3\textrm{cm}^2$/Vㆍs, and resistivity($\rho$) 0.30 $\Omega$$\cdot$cm.