• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.462-466
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• 2007

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited on Si substrates by using polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layers, in which the AlN film was grown by pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering. Characteristics of grown AlN films were investigated experimentally by means of FE-SEM, X-ray diffraction, and FT-IR, respectively. The columnar structure of AlN thin films was observed by FE-SEM. X-ray diffraction pattern proved that the grown AlN film on 3C-SiC layers had highly (002) orientation with low value of FWHM (${\Theta}=1.3^{\circ}$) in the rocking curve around (002) reflections. These results were shown that almost free residual stress existed in the grown AlN film on 3C-SiC buffer layers from the infrared absorbance spectrum. Therefore, the presented results showed that AlN thin films grown on 3C-SiC buffer layers can be used for various piezoelectric fields and M/NEMS applications.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.551-556
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• 2013

AlN films with c-axis orientation and thermal conductivity characteristics were deposited by using Pulsed Laser Deposition and the films were characterized by changing the deposition conditions. In particular, we investigated the optimal conditions for the application of a heat sinking plane AlN thin film. Epitaxial AlN films were deposited on sapphire ($c-Al_2O_3$) single crystals by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with an AlN target. AlN films were deposited at a fixed pressure of $2{\times}10^{-5}$ Torr, while the substrate temperature was varied from 500 to $700^{\circ}C$. According to the experimental results of the growth temperature of the thin film, AlN thin films were confirmed with a highly c-axis orientation, maximum grain size, and high thermal conductivity at $650^{\circ}C$. The thermal conductivity of the AlN thin film was found to increase compared to bulk AlN near the band gap value of 6.2 eV.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2011

The sheet resistance (Rs) of undoped GaN films on AlN/c-plane sapphire substrate was investigated in which the AlN films were grown by R. F. magetron sputtering method. The Rs was strongly dependent on the AlN layer thickness and semi-insulating behavior was observed. To clarify the effect of crystalline property on Rs, the crystal structure of the GaN films has been studied using x-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy. A compressive strain was introduced by the presence of AlN nucleation layer (NL) and was gradually relaxed as increasing AlN NL thickness. This relaxation produced more threading dislocations (TD) of edge-type. Moreover, the surface morphology of the GaN film was changed at thicker AlN layer condition, which was originated by the crossover from planar to island grains of AlN. Thus, rough surface might produce more dislocations. The edge and mixed dislocations propagating from the interface between the GaN film and the AlN buffer layer affected the electric resistance of GaN film.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.307-315
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• 2016

The properties of AlTiN films by a cathodic arc deposition process have been studied. Oblique angle deposition has been applied to deposit AlTiN films. AlTiN films have been deposited on stainless steel (SUS304) and cemented carbide (WC) at a substrate temperature of $500^{\circ}C$. AlTiN films were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, glow-discharge light spectroscopy, micro-vickers hardness, and nanoindenter. When applying a current of 50 A to the cathodic arc source, it showed that the density of macroparticle of AlTiN films was 5 lower than other deposition conditions. With the increase of the bias voltage applied to the substrate up to -150 V, the density of macroparticle was decreased. The change of the $N_2$ flow rate during coating process made no influence on the film properties. For the multi-layered films, the film prepared at oblique angle of $60^{\circ}$ showed the highest hardness of 28 GPa and $H^3/E^2$ index of 0.18. AlTiN films have been shown a good oxidation resistance up to $800^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.199-205
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• 1999

The quaternary Ti-Al-V-N films have been grown on glass substrates by reactive dc and rf magnetron sputter deposition from a Ti-6Al-4V target in mixed Ar-$N_2$ discharges. The Ti-Al-V-N films were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction(XRD), electron probe microanalysis(EPMA) and scratch tester. Both XRD and EPMA results indicated that the Ti-Al-V-N films were of single B1 NaCl phase having columnar structure with the (111) preferred orientation. Scratch tester results showed that the adhesion strength of Ti-Al-V-N films which treated with substrate heating and vacuum annealing was superior to that of as-deposited film. The good adhesion strength was also achieved in the double-layer structure of Ti-Al-V-N/Ti-Al-V/Glass.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.525-531
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• 1996

(Ti1-xAlx)N films were deposited on high speed steel and silicon substrates by reactive sputtering in mixed $Ar-N_2$ discharges. Crystalline phases and microhardness of ($Ti_1_xAl_x$)N films were investigated with variation of the film composition and substrate RF bias voltage. With Al content x of about 0.6, crystalline phase of ( $Ti_1_xAl_x$N films was changed from single-phase NaCl structure to two phase mixture of NaCl and wurtzite structures: Microhardness of ($Ti_1_xAl_x$)N films was largely improved by applying RF bias voltage above 50 V during deposition. Hardness of ($Ti_1_xAl_x$)N films reached a maximum value for Al content x of about 0.4, and 1900 kg/$mm^2$ was obtained for 1$\mu m$-thick ($Ti_{0.6}Al_{0.4}$)N films.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07c
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• pp.1577-1579
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• 2003

AlN thin films are prepared on Si (111) substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. Two-step deposition method is proposed to obtain AlN thin films with high c-axis (002)-TC value and low surface roughnesses. For all the deposited AlN films, the c-axis (002)-orientation, surface mophology, and roughness are characterized in terms of deposition conditions FEAR devices with Al/AlN/Mo/Si(111) configuration are also fabricated. From the frequency response characteristics, the return loss and electromechanical coupling contant($k_t{^2}$) are estimated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.331-337
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• 2010

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films containing various amounts of Co content have been deposited by using a two-facing targets type sputtering (TFTS) system. The deposited films were also annealed successively and isothermally at different temperatures. Annealing treatment can control the physical properties as well as the microstructure of AlN films with Co particles. High magnetization and high resistivity are obtainable in AlN films containing dispersed Co particles. The coercivity of the films does not depend on annealing time, but it increases with increasing annealing temperature due to the increase of the grain size. A high saturation magnetization of 46 kG and resistivity of 2200 ${\mu}{\Omega}$-cm was obtained for AlN films containing 25 at% Co.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.304-304
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• 2014

Quaternary Ti-Al-Si-N films were deposited on WC-Co substrates by a hybrid deposition system of arc ion plating (AIP) method for Ti-Al source and DC magnetron sputtering technique for Si incorporation. The synthesized Ti-Al-Si-N films were revealed to be composites of solid-solution (Ti,Al)N crystallites and amorphous $Si_3N_4$ by instrumental analyses. The Si addition in Ti-Al-N films affected the refinement and uniform distribution of crystallites by percolation phenomenon of amorphous silicon nitride, similarly to Si effect in TiN film. As the Si content increased up to about 9 at.%, the hardness of Ti-Al-N film steeply increased from 30 GPa to about 50 GPa. The highest microhardness value (~50 GPa) was obtained from the Ti-Al-Si-N film having the Si content of 9 at.%, the microstructure of which was characterized by a nanocomposite of $nc-(Ti,Al)N/a-Si_3N_4$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.969-973
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• 2012

AlN thin films were deposited on p-type Si(100) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering method. This study showed the change of the preferential orientation of AlN thin films deposition with the change of the deposition conditions such as sputtering pressure and Ar/N2 gas ratio in chamber. It was identified by X-ray diffraction patterns that AlN thin film deposited at low sputtering pressure has a (002) orientation, however its preferred orientation was changed from the (002) to the (100) orientation with increasing sputtering pressure. Also, it was observed that the properties of AlN thin films such as thickness, grain size and surface roughness were largely dependent on Ar/$N_2$ gas ratio and a high quality thin film could be prepared at lower nitrogen concentration. AlN thin films were investigated relationship between preferential orientation and deposition condition by using XRD, FE-SEM and PFM.