• Applied Microscopy
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.79-82
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• 2014

Aluminum nitride (AlN) powder was easily synthesized by the direct nitridation of Al melt containing ~20 wt.% Mg catalyst and the nitriding behavior was investigated by thermodynamic calculation and through observations of electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The addition of Mg catalyst decreased the nitriding temperature below $1,000^{\circ}C$, which is comparable to the high nitriding temperature of $1,400^{\circ}C$ required in carbothermal method. It was caused by a significant increase of the solubility of nitrogen gas due to the increase of Mg catalyst in Al melt. The dissolved nitrogen gas met Mg catalyst and was transformed into metastable $Mg_3N_2$. Finally the metastable phase reacted with Al to AlN.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.544-548
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• 2014

Aluminum nitride was synthesized using a carbothermal method from mesoporous alumina having a high surface area (> $1,000m^2/g$) as an aluminum source and CNTs (carbon nano tubes) as a carbon source. In this case the mesoporous alumina was used as the starting material instead of ${\alpha}-Al_2O_3$ with the expectation that the mesopores in mesoporous alumina act as channels for N2 gas and elimination of CO generated as by-product. It is also expected that the synthetic temperature should be lower compared to the use of ${\alpha}-Al_2O_3$ as a starting material due to its high surface area. The crystallinity of the produced aluminum nitride was studied by XRD and FT-IR, and the microstructure was investigated by FE-SEM. Also the purity of the aluminum nitride was analyzed through N/O determinator and ICP analysis.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2023

In this study, aluminum nitride (AlN) reinforced aluminum (Al) matrix composites are fabricated via plasma arc melting under a nitrogen atmosphere. Within a minute of the chemical reaction between Al and N, dispersed AlN with the shape of transient and lamellar layers is in situ formed in the Al matrix. The composite contains 10 vol.% AlN reinforcements with low thermal resistance and strong bonding at the interfaces, which leads to the unique combination of thermal expansivity and conductivity in the resulting composites. The coefficient of thermal expansion of the composite can be further reduced when Si was alloyed into the Al matrix, which proposes the potential of the in situ Al matrix composites for thermal management applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.463-467
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• 2008

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have been deposited on Au electrodes by using reactive RF magnetron sputtering method in a gas mixture of Ar and $N_2$ at different substrate temperature. It was found that substrate temperature was varied in the range up to $400^{\circ}C$, highly c-axis oriented film can be obtained at $300^{\circ}C$ with full width at half maximum (FWHM) $3.1^{\circ}$. Increase in surface roughness from 3.8 nm to 5.9 nm found to be associated with increase in grain size, with substrate temperature; however, the AlN film fabricated at $400^{\circ}C$ exhibited a granular type of structure with non-uniform grains. The Al 2p and N 1s peak in the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectrum confirmed the formation of Al-N bonds. The XPS spectrum also indicated the presence of oxynitrides and oxides, resulting from the presence of residual oxygen in the vacuum chamber. It is concluded that the AlN film deposited at substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ exhibited the most desirable properties for the application of high-frequency surface acoustic devices.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.567-577
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• 2019

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has versatile and intriguing properties, such as wide direct bandgap, high thermal conductivity, good thermal and chemical stability, and various functionalities. Due to these properties, AlN thin films have been applied in various fields. However, AlN thin films are usually deposited by high temperature processes like chemical vapor deposition. To further enlarge the application of AlN films, atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been studied as a method of AlN thin film deposition at low temperature. In this mini review paper, we summarize the results of recent studies on AlN film grown by thermal and plasma enhanced ALD in terms of processing temperature, precursor type, reactant gas, and plasma source. Thermal ALD can grow AlN thin films at a wafer temperature of $150{\sim}550^{\circ}C$ with alkyl/amine or chloride precursors. Due to the low reactivity with $NH_3$ reactant gas, relatively high growth temperature and narrow window are reported. On the other hand, PEALD has an advantage of low temperature process, while crystallinity and defect level in the film are dependent on the plasma source. Lastly, we also introduce examples of application of ALD-grown AlN films in electronics.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.699-704
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• 2017

Recently, the use of an aluminum nitride(AlN) buffer layer has been actively studied for fabricating a high quality gallium nitride(GaN) template for high efficiency Light Emitting Diode(LED) production. We confirmed that AlN deposition after $N_2$ plasma treatment of the substrate has a positive influence on GaN epitaxial growth. In this study, $N_2$ plasma treatment was performed on a commercial patterned sapphire substrate by RF magnetron sputtering equipment. GaN was grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD). The surface treated with $N_2$ plasma was analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) to determine the binding energy. The XPS results indicated the surface was changed from $Al_2O_3$ to AlN and AlON, and we confirmed that the thickness of the pretreated layer was about 1 nm using high resolution transmission electron microscopy(HR-TEM). The AlN buffer layer deposited on the grown pretreated layer had lower crystallinity than the as-treated PSS. Therefore, the surface $N_2$ plasma treatment on PSS resulted in a reduction in the crystallinity of the AlN buffer layer, which can improve the epitaxial growth quality of the GaN template.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.367-367
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• 2008

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have been deposited on Si substrate by using reactive RF magnetron sputtering method in a gas mixture of Ar and $N_2$ at different $N_2$ concentration. It was found that $N_2$ concentration was varied in the range up to 20-100%, highly c-axis oriented film can be obtained at 50% $N_2$ with full width at half maximum (FWHM) $4.5^{\circ}$. Decrease in surface roughness from 7.5 nm to 4.6 nm found to be associated with decrease in grain size, with $N_2$ concentration; however, the AlN film fabricated at 20% $N_2$ exhibited a granular type of structure with non-uniform grains. The absorption peak was observed around 675 $cm^{-1}$ in fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It is concluded that the AlN film deposited at $N_2$ concentration of 50% exhibited the most desirable properties for the application of high-frequency surface acoustic devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.483-484
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• 2012

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2005

The effect of additive composition, using AlN and $Er_{2}O_{3}$ as sintering additives, on the mechanical properties of liquid-phase-sintered, and subsequently annealed SiC ceramics was investigated. The microstructures developed were quantitatively analyzed by image analysis. The average thickness of SiC grains increased with increasing the $Er_{2}O_{3}/(AlN + Er_{2}O_{3})$ ratio in the additives whereas the aspect ratio decreased with increasing the ratio. The mechanical properties versus $Er_{2}O_{3}/(AlN + Er_{2}O_{3})$ ratio curve had a maximum; i.e., there was a small composition range at which optimum mechanical properties were realized. The best results were obtained when the ratio ranged from 0.4 to 0.6. The flexural strength and fracture toughness of the SiC ceramics were $550\~650\;MPa$ and $5.5\~6.5$ MPa${\cdot}m^{1/2}$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2024

Superhydrophobic surfaces have been expected to be able to provide considerable performance improvements and introduce innovative functions across diverse industries. However, representative methods for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces include etching the substrate or attaching nanosized particles, but they have been limited by problems such as applicability to only a few materials or low adhesion between particles and substrates, resulting in a short lifetime of superhydrophobic properties. In this work, we report a novel coating technique that can achieve superhydrophobicity by electrophoretic deposition of aluminum nitride (AlN) nanopowders and their self-bonding to form a surface structure without the use of binder resins through a hydrolysis reaction. Furthermore, by using a water-soluble adhesive as a temporary shield for the electrophoretic deposited AlN powders, hierarchical aluminum hydroxide structures can be strongly adhered to a variety of electrically conductive substrates. This binder-free technique for creating hierarchical structures that exhibit strong adhesion to a variety of substrates significantly expands the practical applicability of superhydrophobic surfaces.