• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.175-180
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• 2010

Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films are widely used for optoelectronic applications. Among TCO materials, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been studied extensively for its high optical transmission and electrical conduction. In this study, the effects of $O_2$ plasma pretreatment on the properties of Ga-doped ZnO films (GZO) on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate were studied. The $O_2$ plasma pretreatment process was used instead of conventional oxide buffer layers. The $O_2$ plasma treatment process has several merits compared with the oxide buffer layer treatment, especially on a mass production scale. In this process, an additional sputtering system for oxide composition is not needed and the plasma treatment process is easily adopted as an in-line process. GZO films were fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering process. To improve surface energy and adhesion between the PEN substrate and the GZO film, the $O_2$ plasma pre-treatment process was used prior to GZO sputtering. As the RF power and the treatment time increased, the contact angle decreased and the RMS surface roughness increased significantly. It is believed that the surface energy and adhesive force of the polymer surfaces increased with the $O_2$ plasma treatment and that the crystallinity and grain size of the GZO films increased. When the RF power was 100W and the treatment time was 120 sec in the $O_2$ plasma pretreatment process, the resistivity of the GZO films on the PEN substrate was $1.05\;{\times}\;10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$, which is an appropriate range for most optoelectronic applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.108-109
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• 2009

In this study we investigated the characteristics of GZOB thin film on $O_2$ plasma treated Polycarbonate substrate using DC magnetron sputtering method. In our experiments results, GZOB thin film on $O_2$ plasma treated Polycarbonate substrate showed low resistivity than As-grown GZOB thin film, and visible transmission of 85% with a thickness 400 nm. Compared with As-Grown the electrical properties of GZOB were relatively improved by $O_2$ plasma treated substrate. From these results, we could confirm the suitable GZOB thin films for transparent electrode.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.309-312
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• 2007

Sputter deposition followed by surface treatment was studied using reactive RF plasma as a method for preparing titanium oxide($TiO_{2}$) films on indium tin oxide(ITO) coated glass substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs). Anatase structure $TiO_{2}$ films deposited by reactive RF magnetron sputtering under the conditions of $Ar/O_{2}$(5%) mixtures, RF power of 600W and substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ were surface-treated by inductive coupled plasma(ICP) with $Ar/O_{2}$ mixtures at substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$, and thus the films were applied to the DSSCs, The $TiO_{2}$ Films made on these exhibited the BET specific surface area of 95, the pore volume of $0.3cm^{2}$ and the TEM particle size of ${\sim}25$ nm. The DSSCs made of this $TiO_{2}$ material exhibited an energy conversion efficiency of about 2.25% at $100mW/cm^{2}$ light intensity.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.29-34
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• 2003

Ferroelectric YMnO$_3$ thin films were etched with Ar/C1$_2$ and CF$_4$/C1$_2$ Plasma. The maximum etch rate of YMnO$_3$ thin film was 300 $\AA$/min at a Cl$_2$/Ar gas mixing ratio of 8/2, an RF power of 800 W, a do bias of-200 V, a chamber pressure of 15 mTorr, and a substrate temperature of 3$0^{\circ}C$. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, yttrium was not only etched by chemical reactions with Cl atoms, but also assisted by Ar ion bombardments in Ar/C1$_2$ plasma. In CF$_4$/C1$_2$ plasma, yttrium formed nonvolatile YF$_{x}$ compounds and remained on and the etched surface of YMnO$_3$. Manganese etched effectively by forming volatile MnCl$_{x}$ and MnF$_{y}$. From the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the (0004) diffraction peak intensity of the YMnO$_3$ thin film etched in Ar/Cl$_2$ plasma shows lower than that in CF$_4$/Cl$_2$ plasma. It indicates that the crystallinty of the YMnO$_3$ thin film is more easily damaged by the Af ion bombardment than the changes of stoichiometry due to nonvolatile etch by-products.cts.s.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.44.2-44.2
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• 2009

Polycrystalline materials suchas yttria and alumina have been applied as a plasma resisting material for the plasma processing chamber. However, polycrystal line material may easily generate particles and the particles are sources of contamination during the plasma enhanced process. Amorphous material can be suitable to prevent particle generation due to absence of grain-boundaries. We manufactured nitrogen-containing $SiO_2-Al_2O_3-Y_2O_3$ based glasses with various contents of silicon and fixed nitrogen content. The thermal properties, mechanical properties and plasma etching rate were evaluated and compared for the different composition samples. The plasma etching behavior was estimated using XPS with depth profiling. From the result, the plasma etching rate highly depends on the silicon content and it may results from very low volatile temperature of SiF4 generated during plasma etching. The silicon concentration at the plasma etched surface was very low besides the concentration of yttrium and aluminum was relatively high than that of silicon due to high volatile temperature of fluorine compounds which consisted with aluminum and yttrium. Therefore, we conclude that the samples having low silicon content should be considered to obtain low plasma etching rate for the plasma resisting material.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.35-35
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• 2001

agnesium Oxide (MgO) with a NaCI structure is well known to exhibit high secondary electron emission, excellent high temperature chemical stability, high thermal conductance and electrical insulating properties. For these reason MgO films have been widely used for a buffer layer of high $T_c$ superconducting and a protective layer for AC-plasma display panels to improve discharge characteristics and panel lifetime. Up to now MgO films have been synthesized by lE-beam evaporation, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD), however there have been some limitations such as low film density and micro-cracks in films. Therefore magnetron sputtering process were emerged as predominant method to synthesis high density MgO films. In previous works, we designed and manufactured unbalanced magnetron source with high power density for the deposition of high quality MgO films. The magnetron discharges were sustained at the pressure of O.lmtorr with power density of $110W/\textrm{cm}^2$ and the maximum deposition rate was measured at $2.8\mu\textrm{m}/min$ for Cu films. In this study, the syntheses of MgO films were carried out by unbalanced magnetron sputtering with various $O_2$ partial pressure and specially target power densities, duty cycles and frequency using pulsed DC power supply. And also we investigated the plasma states with various $O_2$ partial pressure and pulsed DC conditions by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES). In order to confirm the relationships between plasma states and film properties such as microstructure and secondary electron emission coefficient were analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction(XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy(TEM) and ${\gamma}-Focused$ Ion Beam (${\gamma}-FIB$).

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.14-21
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• 2004

In this research, we accomplished in order to improving color fastness of sublimation for Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-iodine polarized film. The poor iodine sublimation problem has greatly improved by $O_2$ low temperature plasma treatment. We obtained the followings: (1) plasma treatment has contributed in adhesive ability via peel strength, AFM image and roughness were investigated, But the improvement in adhesive strength was not linearly proportional to the treatment time. (2) $O_2$ plasma treated PVA-iodine polarized film was good enough as to maintain the transmittance and polarization even after iodine cone. of 0.05mol/L and dipping time of 50sec. (3) $O_2$ low temperature plasma treated PVA-iodine polarized film has obtain high durability because of good adhesive strength.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.326-329
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• 2002

In this paper, we investigated a feasibility of cerium oxide(CeO$_2$) films as a buffer layer of MFIS(metal ferroelectric insulator semiconductor) type capacitor. CeO$_2$ layer were Prepared by two step process of a low temperature film growth and subsequent RTA (rapid thermal annealing) treatment. By app1ying an ultra thin Ce metal seed layer and N$_2$ Plasma treatment, dielectric and interface properties were improved. It means that unwanted SiO$_2$ layer generation was successfully suppressed at the interface between He buffer layer and Si substrate. The lowest lattice mismatch of CeO$_2$ film was as low as 1.76% and average surface roughness was less than 0.7 m. The Al/CeO$_2$/Si structure shows breakdown electric field of 1.2 MV/cm, dielectric constant of more than 15.1 and interface state densities as low as 1.84${\times}$10$\^$11/ cm$\^$-1/eV$\^$-1/. After N$_2$ plasma treatment, the leakage current was reduced with about 2-order.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.639-643
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• 2014

Hydrophilic $SiO_2$ layers were obtained by the atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment. Superhydrophobic $SiO_2$ layers were first deposited by the electrospray deposition method. The electrospunable solution that was prepared based on the solgel method was sprayed on Si (100) substrates. The surface of the electrosprayed $SiO_2$ layers consisted of the agglomeration of nano-sized grains, which led to a very high roughness and revealed a very high contact angle to water droplets over $162^{\circ}$. After having been exposed to the atmospheric $Ar/O_2$ plasma, the observed superhydrophobicity of the $SiO_2$ layers were greatly changed: a dramatic variation of the water contact angle from $162^{\circ}$ to $3^{\circ}$, namely realization of superhydrophillicity. Interestingly, the surface microstructure was almost preserved. According to the XPS analysis, it is more likely that thanks to the plasma exposure, the surface of $SiO_2$ layers will be cleaned in terms of organic species that are hydrophobic-inducing, consequently leading to the hydrophilic nature observed for the plasma-exposed $SiO_2$ layers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2011

The cause of the thickness non-uniformity in the large area deposition of $SiO_2$ films by PECVD(Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) was investigated by the plasma diagnostics. The spatial distribution of the plasma species in the chamber was obtained with DLP(Double Langmuir Probe) and the new-designed probe-type QMS(Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer). From the relationship between the spatial distribution of the plasma species and the depositing rate of the $SiO_2$ films, it was conformed that the non-uniform deposition of $SiO_2$ films was related with the spatial distribution of the oxygen radical density and electron temperature.