• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.242-243
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• 2007

Highly transparent conducting aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited on Corning glass substrate using an Nd:YAG pulsed laser deposition technology. AZO thin films deposited with 650nm thickness showed the best electrical properties of the electrical resistivity of $4.6{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}{\cdot}cm]$, a carrier concentration of $9.3{\times}10^{20}[cm^{-3}]$, and a carrier mobility of $31[cm^2/V{\cdot}s]$. Besides, the optical transmittance spectra in visible region (200-800nm) of AZO thin films show an high average transmittance over 90%.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.1349-1350
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• 2007

Epitaxial thin films of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) have been deposited on commercial corning glass using an Nd:YAG pulsed laser deposition technology. The structural, electrical and optical properties of these films were investigated as a function of oxygen pressure. The experimental results show that the electrical resistivity of films deposited at 5 mTorr with substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ were $4.633{\times}10^{-4}$. The average transmission of AZO thin films in the visible range were over 90%.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.653-659
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• 2009

We have investigated the channel protection layer (PL) effect on the performance of an oxide thin film transistor (TFT) with a staggered top gate ZnO TFT and Al-doped zinc tin oxide (AZTO) TFT. Deposition of an ultra-thin PL on oxide semiconductor films enables TFTs to behave well by protecting the channel from a photo-resist (PR) stripper which removes the depleted surface of the active layer and increases the carrier amount in the channel. In addition, adopting a PL prevents channel contamination from the organic PR and results in high mobility and small subthreshold swings. The PL process plays a critical role in the performance of oxide TFTs. When a plasma process is introduced on the surface of an active layer during the PL process, and as the plasma power is increased, the TFT characteristics degrade, resulting in lower mobility and higher threshold voltage. Therefore, it is very important to form an interface using a minimized plasma process.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.07a
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• pp.1262-1263
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• 2008

Recently film-typed dye sensitized solar cell(DSC) attracts much attention with increasing applications for its flexibility and transparency. The ZnO:Al thin film, which serves mainly as transparent conducting electrode, Aluminium-doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) thin film has emerged as one of the most promising transparent conducting films since it is inexpensive, mechanically stable, and highly resistant to deoxidation. In this paper ZnO:Al thin film was deposited on the polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by the capacitively coupled r. f. magnetron sputtering method. The effects of gas pressure and r. f. discharge power on the morphological, electrical and optical properties of ZnO:Al thin film were studied. Especially the variation in substrate thickness after sputtering and surface morphology of the substrate were investigated and clarified. The results showed that the film deposited on the PET substrate at r. f. discharge power of 180 W showed the minimum resistivity of about $1.5{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$ and a transmittance of about 93%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.408-411
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• 2003

Al doped Zinc Oxide(ZnO:Al) films, which is widely used as a transparent conductor in optoelectronic devices such as solar cell, liquid crystal display, plasma display panel, thermal heater, and other sensors, were prepared by using the capacitively coupled DC magnetron sputtering method. The influence of the substrate temperature, working gas pressure, discharge power and doping amounts of Al on the electrical, optical and morphological properties were investigated experimentally. The effect of bias voltage on the electrical properties of ZnO thin film were also studied. Films with lowest resistivity of $5.4{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}-cm$ have been achieved in case of films deposited at 1mtorr, $400^{\circ}C$ with a substrate bias of +10V for 840nm in film thickness.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2010

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of significant importance for their applications in various devices, such as light-emitting diodes, thin-film solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, liquid crystal displays, and so on. In order for TCOs to contribute to the performance improvement of these devices, TCOs should have high transmittance and good electrical properties simultaneously. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO. However, indium is toxic and scarce in nature. Thus, ZnO has attracted a lot of attention because of the possibility for replacing ITO. In particular, group III impurity-doped ZnO showed the optoelectronic properties comparable to those of ITO electrodes. Al-doped ZnO exhibited the best performance among various doped ZnO films because of the high substitutional doping efficiency. However, in order for the Al-doped ZnO to replace ITO in electronic devices, their electrical and optical properties should further significantly be improved. In this connection, different ways such as a variation of deposition conditions, different deposition techniques, and post-deposition annealing processes have been investigated so far. Among the deposition methods, RF magnetron sputtering has been extensively used because of the easiness in controlling deposition parameters and its fast deposition rate. In addition, when combined with post-deposition annealing in a reducing ambient, the optoelectronic properties of Al-doped ZnO films were found to be further improved. In this presentation, we deposited Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$ = 98:2 wt%) thin films on the glass and sapphire substrates using RF magnetron sputtering as a function of substrate temperature. In addition, the ZnO samples were annealed in different conditions, e.g., rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at $900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 1 min, tube-furnace annealing at $500^{\circ}C$ in $N_2:H_2$=9:1 gas flow for 1 hour, or RTA combined with tube-furnace annealing. It is found that the mobilities and carrier concentrations of the samples are dependent on growth temperature followed by one of three subsequent post-deposition annealing conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.261.2-261.2
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• 2013

에너지 갭이 큰 ZnO 반도체는 빛 투과율이 우수하여 투명성이 좋으며 화학적으로 안정된 구조를 가지고 있어 전자소자 및 광소자 응용에 대단히 유용하다. 일반적으로 화학 기상증착, 전자빔증착과 전기화학증착법을 사용하여 ZnO 나노 구조를 제작하고 있다. 여러 가지 증착 방법 중에서 전기화학증착방법은 낮은 온도와 진공 공정이 필요하지 않으며 대면적 공정이 가능하고 빠른 성장 속도로 나노구조를 효과적으로 성장할 수 있는 장점을 가지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 전기화학증착법을 이용하여 Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) 기판위에 Al 도핑된 ZnO 나노세선 성장시키고 성장시간에 따라 형성한 ZnO 나노세선의 구조적 성질을 조사하였다. ZnO 나노세선을 성장하기 위하여 zinc nitrate와 potassium chloride를 각각 0.1 M을 용해한 용액을 사용하였다. 전기화학증착방법을 사용하여 제작한 ITO 기판 위에 성장시킨 ZnO 나노세선 위에 전극을 제작하고 전류-전압 특성을 측정하였다. Al-doped ZnO 나노세선의 성장되는 조건을 Al 농도별로 0 wt%, 1 wt%, 2 wt% 및 5 wt% 씩 증가시키면서 ZnO 나노세선의 구조적 특성을 분석하였다. X-선회절 (X-ray diffraction; XRD) 실험 결과를 통해 ZnO 나노세선이 성장함을 확인하였고, 성장 시간이 길어짐에 따라 (101) 성장방향의 XRD 피크의 세기가 증가하였다. 전기화학증착시 Al 도핑 농도 증가에 따라 ZnO 나노세선의 지름이 200 nm에서 300 nm로 변화하는 것을 주사전자현미경으로 관측하였다. 이 실험 결과는 전기화학증착방법을 사용하여 제작한 ZnO 나노세선의 Al 도핑 농도에 따른 구조적 특성들을 최적화하여 소자제작에 응용하는데 도움이 됨을 보여주고 있다.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1096_1097
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• 2009

Aluminium doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) thin film, which is mainly used as a transparent conducting electrode in electronic devices, has many advantages compared with conventional indium tin oxide(ITO). In this paper in order to investigate the possible application of ZnO:Al thin films as a transparent conducting electrode for flexible film-typed dye sensitized solar cell (FT-DSCs), ZnO:Al and ITO thin films were prepared on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by r. f. magnetron sputtering method. Specially one-inched FT-DSCs using either a ZnO:Al or ITO electrode were also fabricated separately under the same manufacturing conditions. Some properties of both the FT-DSCs with ZnO:Al and ITO transparent electrodes, such as conversion efficiency, fill factor, and photocurrent were measured and compared with each other. The results showed that by doping the ZnO target with 2 wt% of $Al_2O_3$, the film deposited at discharge power of 200W resulted in the minimum resistivity of $2.2\times10^{-3}\Omega/cm$ and at ransmittance of 91.7%, which are comparable with those of commercially available ITO. Two types of FT-DSCs showed nearly the same tendency of I-V characteristics and the same value of conversion efficiencies. Efficiency of FT-DSCs using ZnO:Al electrode was around 2.6% and that of fabricated FT-DSCs using ITO was 2.5%. This means that ZnO:Al thin film can be used in FT-DSCs as a transparent conducting layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.36-43
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• 2008

In this parer aluminium-doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) conducting layer was deposited on polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by r. f. magnetron sputtering method. The effects of gas pressure and r. f. sputtering power on the structural and electrical properties of ZnO:Al thin film were investigated experimentally. Especially the effect of position of PET substrate on the electrical properties of the film was studied and fixed to improve the electrical properties and also to increase the deposition rate. The results show that the structural and electrical properties of ZnO:Al thin film were strongly influenced by the gas pressure and sputtering power. The minimum resistivity of $1.1{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm]$ was obtained at 5[mTorr] of gas pressure, and 18D[W] of sputtering power. The deposition rate of ZnO:Al film at 5[mTorr] of gas pressure was 248[nm/min]. and is higher by around 3 times compared to that at 25[mTorr].

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05b
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• pp.62-65
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• 2002

Transparent conducting aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films (ZnO:Al) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (Coming 1737) substrate as a variation of the deposition condition. After deposition, the smooth ZnO:Al films were etched in diluted HCl (0.5%) to examine the electrical and surface morphology properties as a variation of the time. The most important deposition condition of surface-textured ZnO films by chemical etching is the processing pressure and the substrate temperature. In low pressures (0.9mTorr) and high substrate temperatures $({\leq}300^{\circ}C)$, the surface morphology of films exhibits a more dense and compact film structure with effective light-trapping to apply the silicon thin film solar cells.