• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.414-420
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• 1999

The oxide sacrificial layer technology is one of the key technologies in surface micromachining. However, the commonly used aqueous HF solutions, including the $NH_4F$ buffered HF solutions (BHF), are known to attack the Al metal layers during the oxide sacrificial etch. A mixed $NH_4F$/HF/glycerine aqueous solution of 4:1:2 ratio is known to have the best etch selectivity between oxide and AI, but even this sacrificial etchant has a significant etch rate for AI. This paper reports an extensive experimental study on various concentration ratios for HF, $NH_4F$ and glycerine, and develops the optimal mixture ratio for sacrificial etching. At the $NH_4F$/HF/glycerine ratio of 2:1:4, the etch selectivity between PSG and Al improves by approximately 6 times over the previously known best selectivity, to a value of 7,700. At this condition, the measured etch rate of PSG film is approximately $2.1\;{\mu}m/min$, which is sufficiently fast. The developed sacrificial etchant allows the addition of a Al metal layer in surface micromachining, without the worry of Al layer erosion during sacrificial etch.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.33-37
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• 2014

We have developed a novel passivation process employing a sacrificial gallium oxide process in order to recover the surface damage in AlGaN/GaN HFETs. Even with a conventional prepassivation process, surface damage during high temperature ohmic annealing cannot be avoided completely. Therefore, it is necessary to recover the damaged surface to avoid the characteristic degradation. In this work, a sacrificial gallium oxide process has been proposed in which the damaged surface after ohmic annealing was oxidized by oxygen plasma treatment and thereafter etched back using HCl. As a result, the leakage current was dramatically reduced and thus the subthreshold slope was significantly improved. In addition, the maximum drain current level was increased from 594 to 634 mA/mm. To verify the effects, the surface conditions were carefully investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.27-29
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• 2000

For the DLC-coaled Si-tip FEA, the modified lift off-process, by which DLC coated on both gate electrode surface and gate insulator in the gate aperture could be removed, was proposed. In the process, the Al sacrificial layer was deposited on a tilted and rotated substrate by an e-beam evaporation, and DLC film was coated on the substrate by PA-CVD method. Afterward the DLC was perfectly removed except the DLC films coated on emitter tips by etch-out of Al sacrificial layer. Current-voltage curves and current fluctuation of the DLC-coated Si-tip FEA showed that the proposed lift-off process played an important role in decreasing gate leakage current and stabilizing omission current.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.224-232
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• 2000

Aluminum metal process in surface micromachining enables to fabricate Al electrodes or Al structures, which improve electrical characteristics by reducing contact- and line-resistance or makes the whole process to be simple by using oxide as sacrificial layer. However, it is not possible to use conventional sacrificial layer etching process, because HF solution attacks aluminum as well as sacrificial oxide. The mixed solution of BHF and glycerine as an alternative shows the adequate properties to meet with this end. The exact etching properties, however, are sensitively depends on the geometry of the released structure, because the most etching process of sacrificial layer proceeds to the lateral direction in narrow space. Also, the surface roughness of aluminum affects to the etching characteristics. This paper reports experimental results on the effect of microstructure and surface roughness of aluminum to the etching properties. Considering these effects, we propose the optimized etching condition, which can be used practically for the fabrication of aluminum electrodes and microstructures by using standard surface micromachining process without modification or additional process.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.74-78
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• 2002

MEMS공정을 이용하여 폴리실리콘의 piezoresistivity를 이용한 스트레인 센서어레이를 제작하였고, 이 센서 어레이를 flexible substrate에 패키징하는 공정을 개발하였다. 실리콘 웨이퍼에 표면 가공(surface micromachining)된 센서는 폴리이미드 코팅, release-etch 방법을 통해 웨이퍼로부터 분리되어 폴리이미드를 기판으로 하는 flexible sensor array module을 완성할 수 있었다. 공정은 희생층과 절연층을 증착하고 폴리실리콘 0.5 $\mu\textrm{m}$을 증착, 도핑 및 패터닝하여 센서 어레이를 구성하였다. 이 센서어레이를 flexible substrate에 패키징 하기 위해서 폴리이미드를 코팅하여 15 $\mu\textrm{m}$의 막을 구성하였고, 100% $O_2$RIE를 이용한 선택적 식각 방법으로 via hole을 구성하였다. 이후 전기도금을 통해 회로를 구성하여 1단계 패키징(die to chip carrier)과 2단계 패키징(chip to substrate)을 웨이퍼 레벨에서 완성하였다. 희생층을 제거함으로서 웨이퍼로부터 센서어레이 모듈을 분리하였다. 제작되어진 센서 모듈은 임의의 곡면에 실장이 가능하도록 충분한 flexibility를 얻을 수 있었다.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.11d
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• pp.1137-1139
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• 1999

저가의 우수한 성능을 갖는 적외선 영상표시 소자 구현에 적합한 마이크로 볼로미터를 MEMS 기술을 사용하여 제작하였다. 작은 열질량을 갖는 마이크로미터 단위의 열적고립 구조(thermal isolation structure) 제작은 폴리이미드(PI2611)를 희생층으로 사용하여 최종적으로 ashing공정 단계에서 폴리이미드를 제거하여 마이크로 볼로미터 구조를 완성하였다. 이 때의 구조층으로는 PECVD 질화실리콘($SiN_x$) 박막, 감지층으로 산화바나듐($VO_x$) 박막을 사용하였다. 본 연구에서는 폴리이미드 패턴 형성시 건식식각 공정조건 변수에 따라서 패턴의 기울기를 조절하여 폴리이미드 측면에서 발생되는 불 균일한 박막 증착과 패터닝 문제를 개선하였다. 또한 저응력의 질화실리콘 박막을 사용하여 잔류응력에 의한 열적고립 구조의 뒤틀림 현상을 완화하였다.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.28-31
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• 2011

In this paper, a new set of structural and sacrificial material that is diamond like carbon (DLC)/photoresist for high performance piezoelectric RF-MEMS switches which are actuated in d33 mode is suggested. To avoid curing problem of photoresist sacrificial layer, DLC structure layer is deposited at room temperature by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) method. And lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric layer is deposited on structure layer directly at room temperature by rf magnetron sputtering system and crystallized by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) equipment. Particular attention is paid to the annealing of PZT film in order to crystallize into perovskite and the variation of mechanical properties of DLC layer as a function of annealing temperature. The DLC layer shows good performance for structure layer in aspect to Young's modulus and hardness. The fabrication becomes much simpler and cheaper with use of a photoresist.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.725-730
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• 1996

The key process in silicon surface micromachining is the selective etching of a sacrificial layer to release the silicon microstructure. The newly developed anhydrous HF/$CH_3$OH gas phase etching of TEOS (teraethylorthosilicate) sacrificial layers onto the polysilicon and the nitride substrates was employed to release the polysilicon microstructures. A residual product after TEOS etching onto the nitride substrate was observed on the surface, since a SiOxNy layer is formed on the TEOS/nitride interface. The polysilicon microstructures are stuck to the underlying substrate because SiOxNy layer does not vaporize. We found that the only sacrificial etching without any residual product and stiction is TEOS etching onto the polysilicon substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.258-258
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• 2011

최근 유연 기판을 이용한 태양전지 및 TFT 등 전자소자 개발에 관한 연구가 주목받고 있다. 본 연구에서는 공정 시 유리한 유리기판상 전자소자 제작 후 폴리이미드막 박리를 통한 유연전자 소자 구현을 목적으로 한다. 폴리이미드막 박리를 목적으로 희생층으로서 a-Si:H을 사용하였다. 유리기판상에 60 nm 두께의 a-Si : H을 ICP (Induced coupled plasma) 공정으로 증착한 후 a-Si : H층 상부에 30 ${\mu}m$ 두께로 폴리이미드를 코팅하여 Hot plate와 furnace에서 열처리를 거쳤다. 이후 각기 다른 파장을 갖는 레이저의 파워를 가변하며 유리 기판 후면에 조사하였다. 실험 결과 355 nm UV 레이저로 가공한 경우 희생층으로 사용 된 a-Si : H층 내에 존재하는 수소가 레이저 빛 에너지에 의해 결합이 끊어지면서 유리기판과 폴리이미드막이 분리됨을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.195-195
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• 2010

본 연구에서 제작한 u-bolometer 은 적외선을 흡수하는 멤브레인이 a-Si 위에 Ti 메탈로 이루어져 있다. 이 u-bolometer 는 MEMS 센서로써 3차원 공진 구조를 제작하기 위해서는 희생층을 제거하는 공정이 필수적이며 이 희생 층으로 Polyimide를 사용하고 있는 공정에서 Plasma Ashing 공정은 더욱더 필수적이다. 이 Ashing 공정은 O2 플라즈마를 이용하며 이때 흡수물질인 Ti 레이어가 플라즈마에 의해 면저항과 흡수율의 특성이 어떻게 변화되는지 플라즈마 공정 전후를 분석한 결과 면저항의 변화가 나타났으며 uniformity도 높게 변화하였다. 또한 적외선 흡수율이 약 5% 차이가 나타나는 것을 확인 할 수 있었다.