• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.688-694
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• 1999

Ti-6Al-4V-N films have been grown onto glass substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering from a Ti-6Al-4V-N alloy target at different nitrogen partial pressure, input powers and sputtering times. The influence of various sputtering conditions on structural properties of Ti-6Al-4V-N films was investigated by measuring their X-ray diffraction. The quaternary Ti-6Al-4V-N film is crystallizing in a face centered cubic TiN structure, the lattice parameter is smaller than the TiN parameter as titanium atoms of the TiN lattice are replaced by aluminum and vanadium atoms. The films show the (111) preferred orientation and the (111) peak intensity decreases as the nitrogen partial pressure is increased, but the intensity increases as the sputtering time is increased. The deposition rate and the grain size are alto related with the variation of various sputtering conditions.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.420-424
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• 2014

Aluminum-scandium nitride ($Al_{1-x}Sc_xN$) thin films with a TiN buffer layer have been fabricated on SUS430 substrate by RF reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature under 50% $N_2$/Ar. The effect of Sc-doping on the structure and piezoelectric properties of AlN films has been investigated using SEM, XRD, surface profiler and pressure-voltage measurements. The as-deposited AlN films showed polycrystalline phase, and the Sc-doped AlN film, the peak of AlN (002) plane and the crystallinity became very strong. With Sc-doping, the crystal size of AlN film was grown from ~20 nm to ~100 nm. The output signal voltage of AlN sensor showed a linear behavior between 15~65 mV, and output signal voltage of Sc-doped AlN sensor was increased over 7 times. The pressure-sensing sensitivity of AlN film was calculated about 10.6mV/MPa, and $Al_{0.88}Sc_{0.12}N$ film was calculated about 76 mV/MPa.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.252-252
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• 2009

In this work, the nanocrystalline ZnO/polycrystalline (poly) aluminum nitride (AlN)/Si structure was fabricated for humidity sensor applications based on surface acoustic wave (SAW). In this structure, the ZnO film was used as sensing material layer. These ZnO and AlN(0002) were deposited by so-gel process and a pulse reactive magnetron sputtering, respectively. These experimental results showed that the obtained SAW velocity on AlN film was about 5128 m/s at $h/\lambda$=0.0125 (h and $\lambda$ is thickness and wavelength, respectively). For ZnO sensing layers coated on AlN, films have hexagonal wurtzite structure and nanometer particle size. The crystalline size of ZnO films annealed at 400, 500, and 600 $^{\circ}C$ is 10.2, 29.1, and 38 nm, respectively. Surface of the film exhibits spongy which can adsorb steam in the air. The best quality of the ZnO film was obtained with annealing temperature at 500 $^{\circ}Cis$. The change in frequency response (127.9~127.85 MHz) of the SAW humidity sensor based on ZnO/AlN structure was measured along the change in humidity (41~69%). The structural properties of thin films wereinvestigated by XRD and SEM.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.138-143
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• 2015

Aluminum nitride, a compound semiconductor, has a Wurtzite structure; good material properties such as high thermal conductivity, great electric conductivity, high dielectric breakdown strength, a wide energy band gap (6.2eV), a fast elastic wave speed; and excellent in thermal and chemical stability. Furthermore, the thermal expansion coefficient of the aluminum nitride is similar to those of Si and GaAs. Due to these characteristics, aluminum nitride can be applied to electric packaging components, dielectric materials, SAW (surface acoustic wave) devices, and photoelectric devices. In this study, we surveyed the crystallization and preferred orientation of AlN thin films with an X-ray diffractometer. To fabricate the AlN thin film, we used the magnetron sputtering method with $N_2$, NH3 and Ar. According to an increase in the partial pressures of $N_2$ and $NH_3$, Al was nitrified and deposited onto a substrate in a molecular form. When AlN was fabricated with $N_2$, it showed a c-axis orientation and tended toward a high orientation with an increase in the temperature. On the other hand, when AlN was fabricated with $NH_3$, it showed a-axis orientation. This result is coincident with the proposed mechanism. We fabricated AlN thin films with an a-axis orientation by controlling the sputtering electric power, $NH_3$ pressure, deposition speed, and substrate temperature. According to the proposed mechanism, we also fabricated AlN thin films which demonstrated high a-axis and c-axis orientations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.93-93
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• 2008

This paper presents the Raman scattering characteristics of poly (polycrystalline) 3C-SiC thin films deposited on AlN buffer layer by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) using hexamethyldisilane (MHDS) and carrier gases (Ar + $H_2$).The Raman spectra of SiC films deposited on AlN layer of before and after annealings were investigated according to the growth temperature of 3C-SiC. Two strong Raman peaks, which mean that poly 3C-SiC admixed with nanoparticle graphite, were measured in them. The biaxial stress of poly 3C-SiC/AlN was calculated as 896 MPa from the Raman shifts of 3C-SiC deposited at $1180^{\circ}C$ on AlN of after annealing.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.112-112
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• 2009

In this study, the effect of a long post-deposition thermal annealing(600 and 1000 $^{\circ}C$) on the surface acoustic wave (SAW) properties of polycrystalline (poly) aluminum-nitride (AlN) thin films grown on a 3C-SiC buffer layer was investigates. The poly-AlN thin films with a (0002) preferred orientation were deposited on the substrates by using a pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering system. Experimental results show that the texture degree of AlN thin film was reduced along the increase in annealing temperature, which caused the decrease in the electromechanical coupling coefficient ($k^2$). The SAW velocity also was decreased slightly by the increase in root mean square (RMS) roughness over annealing temperature. However, the residual stress in films almost was not affect by thermal annealing process due to small lattice mismatch different and similar coefficient temperature expansion (CTE) between AlN and 3C-SiC. After the AlN film annealed at 1000 $^{\circ}C$, the insertion loss of an $IDT/AlN/3C-SiC/SiO_2/Si$ structure (-16.44 dB) was reduced by 8.79 dB in comparison with that of the as-deposited film (-25.23 dB). The improvement in the insertion loss of the film was fined according to the decrease in the grain size. The characteristics of AlN thin films were also evaluated using Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra and X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.634-638
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• 2011

We report growth of epitaxial AlN thin films on c-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. To achieve two-dimensional growth the substrates were nitrided by nitrogen plasma prior to the AlN growth, which resulted in the formation of a two-dimensional single crystalline AlN layer. The formation of the two-dimensional AlN layer by the nitridation process was confirmed by the observation of streaky reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns. The growth of AlN thin films was performed on the nitrided AlN layer by changing the Al beam flux with the fixed nitrogen flux at 860$^{\circ}C$. The growth mode of AlN films was also affected by the beam flux. By increasing the Al beam flux, two-dimensional growth of AlN films was favored, and a very flat surface with a root mean square roughness of 0.196 nm (for the 2 ${\mu}m$ ${\times}$ 2 ${\mu}m$ area) was obtained. Interestingly, additional diffraction lines were observed for the two-dimensionally grown AlN films, which were probably caused by the Al adlayer, which was similar to a report of Ga adlayer in the two-dimensional growth of GaN. Al droplets were observed in the sample grown with a higher Al beam flux after cooling to room temperature, which resulted from the excessive Al flux.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.04b
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• pp.101-104
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• 2004

In this study AlN/Al thin films were prepared at various conditions, such as $N_2$ gas flow rate $[N_2/(N_2+Ar)]$ from 0.6 to 0.9, a substrate temperature ranging from room temperature to $300^{\circ}C$ and working pressure 1mTorr. We estimated crystallographic characteristics and c-axis preferred orientations of AlN/Al thin films as function of Al electrode surface roughfness. The optimal processing conditions for Al electrode were found at substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$, sputtering power of 100W and a working pressure of 2mTorr. In these conditions, we obtained the c-axis preferred orientation of $AlN/Al/SiO_2/Si$ thin film about 4 degree.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.26-29
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• 2006

We present the structural, magnetic, and electrical properties in the (Al,Mn)N films with various Mn concentrations grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy. X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that the (Al,Mn)N films have the wurtzite structure without secondary phases. All (Al,Mn)N films showed the ferromagnetic ordering. Particularly, ($Al_{1-x}Mn_{x}$)N film with x = 0.028 exhibited the highest magnetic moment per Mn atom at room temperature. Since all the films exhibit the insulating characteristics, the origin of ferromagnetism in (Al,Mn)N might be attributed to either indirect exchange interaction caused by virtual electron excitations from Mn acceptor level to the valence band within the samples or a percolation of bound magnetic polarons arisen from exchange interaction of localized carriers with magnetic impurities in a low carrier density regime.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.313-314
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• 2007

AlN is used a wide variety of applications such as electroacoustic devices, blue diode and metal-insulator-semiconductor structures. AlN thin films were deposited on Si substrates by rf sputter technique with low temperature process. The orientation and morphology of AlN thin films at various power in the range from 150 to 300 w was studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD), full width at half-maximum (FWHM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy were employed to characterize the deposited films. The c-axis orientation along (002) Plane at experimental results was enhanced with the increasing of the rf power from 150 to 300 w and the surface morphology of the films showed a homogeneous and nano-sized microstructure.