• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.283-288
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• 2008

We observed the in-situ stress behavior of Cu and Ag thin films during deposition using a thermal evaporation method. Multi-beam curvature measurement system was used to monitor the evolution of in-situ stress in Cu and Ag thin films on 100 Si(100) substrates. The measured curvature was converted to film stress using Stoney formula. To investigate the effects of the deposition rates on the stress evolution in Cu and Ag thin films, Cu and Ag films were deposited at rates ranging from 0.1 to $3.0{\AA}/s$ for Cu and from 0.5 to $4.0{\AA}/s$ for Ag. Both Cu and Ag films showed a unique three stress stages, such as 'initial compressive', 'a tensile maximum' and followed by 'incremental compressive' stress. For both Cu and Ag films, there is no remarkable effect of deposition rate on the thickness and average stress at the tensile maximum. There is, however, a definite decrease in the incremental compressive stress with increasing deposition rate.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.429-435
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• 2009

In this study, we investigated microstructure and the CO gas sensing properties of Ag-CuO-$SnO_2$ thin films prepared by co-evaporation and subsequently thermal oxidation at air atmosphere. The sensitivity of a Cu-Sn films, thermally oxidized at $600^{\circ}C$, is strongly affected by the amount of Cu. At Cu:7 wt%-Sn:93 wt%, the film exhibited a maximum sensitivity of ${\sim}2.3$ to CO gas of 1000 ppm at $300^{\circ}C$. In contrast, the sensitivity of a Sn-Ag film did not change significantly with the amount of Ag. An enhanced sensitivity of ${\sim}3.7$ was observed in the film with a composition of Ag:3 wt%-Cu:4 wt%-Sn:93 wt%, when thermally oxidized at $600^{\circ}C$. In addition, this thin film shows a response time of ${\sim}80$ sec and a recovery time of ${\sim}450$ sec to 1000 ppm CO gas. The results demonstrate that the CO sensitivity of the Ag-CuO-$SnO_2$ thin films may be closely associated with coexistence of $SnO_2$ and SnO phase, decrease in average particle size, and a porous microstructure. We also suggest that co-evaporation and followed by thermal oxidation is a very simple and effective method to prepare oxide gas sensor thin films.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.257-263
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• 2006

We have investigated the effect of silver added to Cu films on the microstructure evolution, resistivity, surface morphology, stress relaxation temperature, and adhesion properties of Cu(Ag) alloy thin films deposited on Mo glue layer upon annealing. In addition, pure Cu films deposited on Mo has been annealed and compared. The results show that the silver in Cu(Ag) thin films control the grain growth through the coarsening of its precipitates upon annealing at $300^{\circ}C{\sim}600^{\circ}C$ and the grain growth of Cu reveals the activation energy of 0.22 eV, approximately one third of activation energy for diffusion of Ag dopant along the grain boundaries in Cu matrix (0.75 eV). This indicates that the grain growth can be controlled by Ag diffusion along the grain boundaries. In addition, the grain growth can be a major contributor to the decreased resistivity of Cu(Ag) alloy thin films at the temperature of $300^{\circ}C{\sim}500^{\circ}C$, and decreases the resistivity of Cu(Ag) thin films to $1.96{\mu}{\Omega}-cm$ after annealing at $600^{\circ}C$. Furthermore, the addition of Ag increases the stress relaxation temperature of Cu(Ag) thin films, and thus leading to the enhanced resistance to the void formation, which starts at $300^{\circ}C$ in the pure Cu thin films. Moreover, Cu(Ag) thin films shows the increased adhesion properties, possibly resulting from the Ag segregating to the interface. Consequently, the Cu(Ag) thin films can be used as a metallization of advanced TFT-LCDs.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 2006

Recent ULSI and multilevel structure trends in microelectronic devices minimize the line width down to less than $0.25{\mu}m$, which results in high current densities in thin film interconnections. Under high current densities, an EM(electromigration) induced failure becomes one of the critical problems in a microelectronic device. This study is to improve thin film interconnection materials by investigating the EM characteristics in Ag, Cu, Au, and Al thin films, etc. EM resistance characteristics of Ag, Cu, Au, and Al thin films with high electrical conductivities were investigated by measuring the activation energies from the TTF (Time-to-Failure) analysis. Optical microscope and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) analysis were used for the failure analysis in thin films. Cu thin films showed relatively high activation energy for the electromigration. Thus Cu thin films may be potentially good candidate for the next choice of advanced thin film interconnection materials where high current density and good EM resitance are required. Passivated Al thin films showed the increased MTF(Mean-time-to-Failure) values, that is, the increased EM resistance characteristics due to the dielectric passivation effects at the interface between the dielectric overlayer and the thin film interconnection materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.535-538
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• 2000

We have investigated the photoinduced anisotropy in chalcogenide $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}$ thin films, non-doped and photodoped by Ag and Cu. The films were exposed by the linearly polarized He-Ne laser light( $\lambda$=632.8nm). The Ag and Cu photodoping resulted in reducing the time of saturation photoinduced linearly dichroism. Also photoinduced linearly dichroism was increased up to maximum 184% by Ag photodoping and 138% by Cu photodoping, respectively. As the result of this study, the linearly dichroism can be interesting for different applications of photoinduced anisotropy. In addition, it will offer lots of information for the photodoping mechanism and analysis of chalcogenide thin film.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2020

Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks have been adopted as a front electrode in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells due to their low cost and compatibility with the solution process. When an AgNW network is applied to a CIGS thin film solar cell, reflection loss can increase because the CdS layer, with a relatively high refractive index (n ~ 2.5 at 550 nm), is exposed to air. To resolve the issue, we apply solution-processed ZnO nanorods to the AgNW network as an anti-reflective coating. To obtain high performance of the optical and electrical properties of the ZnO nanorod and AgNW network composite, we optimize the process parameters - the spin coating of AgNWs and the concentration of zinc nitrate and hexamethylene tetramine (HMT - to fabricate ZnO nanorods. We verify that 10 mM of zinc nitrate and HMT show the lowest reflectance and 10% cell efficiency increase when applied to CIGS thin film solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.575-579
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• 2016

The metal mesh films with thickness of 1.0, 1.5, $2.0{\mu}m$ were prepared by photolithography using Ag, Al, and Cu metals. Every metal films were showed C(111) preferred orientation and Ag showed the lowest resistivity and followed by Al and Cu. The transmittance of almost films were higher than 90%. But, the Ag film with thickness of $2.0{\mu}m$ was delaminated during photolithography process due to low adhesion. So, Cu and Ti metal films were introduced under Ag film to improve adhesion property. The Cu film showed higher adhesion properties compared to Ti film. Furthermore, the Ti films that deposited on Ag film showed higher acid resistance.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.143-147
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• 2000

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.1169-1174
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• 2011

CdTe thin-film solar cell technology is well known that it can theoretically improve its conversion efficiency and manufacturing costs compared to the conventional silicon solar cell technology, due to its optical band gap energy (about 1.45eV) for solar energy absorption, high light absorption capability and low cost requirements for producing solar cells. Although the prior studies obtained the high light absorption, CdTe thin film solar cell has not been come up to the sufficient efficiency yet. So, doping method was selected for the improvement of the electrical characteristics in CdTe solar cells. Some elements including Cu, Ag, Cd and Te were generally used for the p-dopant as substitutional acceptors in CdTe thin film. In this study, the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film was immersed in $AgNO_3$ solution for ion exchange method to dope Ag ions. The effects of immersion temperature and Ag-concentration were investigated on the optical properties and electrical characteristics of CdTe thin film by using Auger electron spectroscopy depth-profile, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and a Hall effect measurement system. The best optical and electrical characteristics were sucessfully obtained by Ag doping at high temperature and concentration. The larger and more uniform diffusion of Ag ions made increase of the Ag ion density in CdTe thin film to decrease the series resistance as well as mede the faster diffusion of light by the metal ions to enhance the light absorption.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.57-64
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• 2007

New Chip-on-glass technology to attach an Si chip directly on the glass substrate of LCD panel was studied with local heating method of the Si chip by using thin film heater fabricated on the Si chip. Square-shaped Cu thin film heater with the width of $150\;{\mu}m$, thickness of $0.8\;{\mu}m$, and total length of 12.15 mm was sputter-deposited on the $5\;mm{\times}5\;mm$ Si chip. With applying current of 0.9A for 60 sec to the Cu thin film heater, COG bonding of a Si chip to a glass substrate was successfully accomplished with reflowing the Sn-3.5Ag solder bumps on the Si chip.