• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2016

The effect of process parameters such as the growth pressure and temperature on the AlN crystal growth has been investigated. AlN crystal was grown onto 6H-SiC seed crystal using PVT (Physical Vapor Transport) method. Crystal properties and morphology of AlN crystal was changed with growth pressure and temperature. Raman analysis confirmed that AlN crystals with different orientation were successfully grown on SiC seed crystal.

• 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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• 2009.06a
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• pp.235-235
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• 2009

This paper describes the influence of a polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layer on the surface acoustic wave (SAW) properties of poly aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films by comparing the center frequency, insertion loss, the electromechanical coupling coefficient ($k^2$), andthetemperaturecoefficientoffrequency(TCF) of an IDT/AlN/3C-SiC structure with those of an IDT/AlN/Si structure, The poly-AlN thin films with an (0002)-preferred orientation were deposited on a silicon (Si) substrate using a pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering system. Results show that the insertion loss (21.92 dB) and TCF (-18 ppm/$^{\circ}C$) of the IDT/AlN/3C-SiC structure were improved by a closely matched coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and small lattice mismatch (1 %) between the AlN and 3C-SiC. However, a drawback is that the $k^2(0.79%)$ and SAW velocity(5020m/s) of the AlN/3C-SiC SAW device were reduced by appearing in some non-(0002)AlN planes such as the (10 $\bar{1}$ 2) and (10 $\bar{1}$ 3) AlN planes in the AlN/SiC film. Although disadvantages were shown to exist, the use of the AlN/3C-SiC structure for SAW applications at high temperatures is possible. The characteristics of the AlN thin films were also evaluated using FT-IR spectra, XRD, and AFM images.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.155-158
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• 2012

In this work, AlON-$Al_2O_3$ coatings were prepared on Al2021 alloy by the electrolytic plasma processing (EPP) method. The experimental electrolytes include: 2 g/l NaOH as the electrolytic conductive agent, 10 g/l $Na_2AlO_2$ as the alumina formative agent, and 0.5 g/l $NaNO_2$, $NaNO_3$, and $NH_4NO_3$ as the nitride inducing agents. The effects of different nitrogen inducing agents were studied by a combined compositional and structural analyses of the ceramic coatings carried out by Xray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the specimens EPP-treated at room temperature for 15 min under a hybrid voltage of 260 DC along with an AC 50 Hz power supply (200 V). Microhardness tests and wear tests were carried out to correlate the evolution of the microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties. Potentiodynamic polarizations and immersion corrosion tests were carried out in 3.5wt% NaCl water solutions under static conditions in order to evaluate the corrosion behavior of the coated samples. The results demonstrate that $NaNO_2$ is proven to be a good nitrogen inducing agent to produce high quality AlON-$Al_2O_3$ ceramic coatings.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 2000

High quality $Si_3N_4$ metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors were realized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Titanium nitride (TiN) adapted as a diffusion barrier reduced the interfacial reaction between $Si_3N_4$ dielectric layer and aluminum metal electrode showing neither hillock nor observable precipitate along the interface. The capacitance and the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM capacitors showed that the minimum thickness of $Si_3N_4$ layer should be limited to 500 $\AA$ under the present process, below which most of the capacitors were electrically shorted resulting in the devastation of on-wafer yield. According to the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on the cross-sectional microstructure of the capacitors, the dielectric breakdown was caused by slit-like voids formed at the interface between TiN and $Si_3N_4$ layers when the thickness of $Si_3N_4$ layer was less than 500 $\AA$. Based on the calculation of thermally-induced residual stress, the formation of voids was understood from the mechanistic point of view.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.209-215
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• 1997

Aluminum nitride(AIN) thin films were deposited by reactive single ion beam sputtering using N2 or NH3 as reactive gas. The structural, compositional and optical properties of AIN thin films were characterized by XRD, GAXRD, TEM, SEM, XPS UV/VIS spectrophotometer, and FT-IR. All the deposited AIN thin films were amorphous by the analysis fo XRD and GAXRD. However, TEM analysis showed that AIN nano-crystallites were uniformly distributed in the films. The presence of Al-N bonds were also confirmed by FT-IR and XPS analyses. The optical bandgap of AIN films increased up to 6.2 eV and the transmittance was a-bout 100% in visible range with approaching the stoichimetric composition. Irrespective of using N2 or NH3 as reactive gas, the deposited AIN thin films had very smooth surface morphologies. Their refractive index ranged from 1.6 to 1.7.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.827-831
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• 2008

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) of AlN ceramics were carried out with ${Y_2}{O_3}$ as sintering additive at a sintering temperature $1,550{\sim}1,700^{\circ}C$. The effect of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ addition on sintering behavior and thermal conductivity of AlN ceramics was studied. ${Y_2}{O_3}$ added AlN showed higher densification rate than pure AlN noticeably, but the formation of yttrium aluminates phases by the solid-state reaction of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ and ${Al_2}{O_3}$ existed on AlN surface could delay the densification during the sintering process. The thermal conductivity of AlN specimens was promoted by the addition of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ up to 3 wt% in spite of the formation of YAG secondary phase in AlN grain boundaries because ${Y_2}{O_3}$ addition could reduced the oxygen contents in AlN lattice which is primary factor of thermal conductivity. However, the thermal conductivity rather decreased over 3 wt% addition because an immoderate formation of YAG phases in grain boundary could decrease thermal conductivity by a phonon scattering surpassing the contribution of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ addition.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.284-290
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• 2004

In this paper, two types of thin nim bulk acoustic resonator(TFBAR) ladder filters are desisted and fabricated to analyze the effects of on-wafer inductor integration. To suppress the overmode phenomenon a 1 $\mu\textrm{m}$ thick air-gap is fabricated under the TFBAR and aluminum nitride is used for piezoelectric material, while platinum is employed for the top and bottom electrodes. The Tx filter in a duplexer, which usually has a steeper skirt characteristics o the right side of the passband, is designed with four serial and two shunt resonators, namely, a 4/2 stage. Similarly, the Rx filter is devised with a 3/4 stage to create a mirrored image of the Tx filter passband characteristics. Fabricated on-wafer spiral inductors with underpass reveals the Q factor of 5～9 at 2 ㎓. Inductor integrated filters have approximately 10 to 12 ㏈ out-of-band rejection improvement, when compared to the original filters.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.94-98
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• 2014

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films with a TiN buffer layer have been fabricated on SUS430 substrate by RF reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature under 25~75% $N_2$ /Ar. The characterization of film properties were performed using surface profiler, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), and pressure-voltage measurement system. The deposition rates of AlN films were decreased with increasing the $N_2$ concentration owing to lower mass of nitrogen ions than Ar. The as-deposited AlN films showed crystalline phase, and with increasing the $N_2$ concentration, the peak of AlN(100) plane and the crystallinity became weak. Any change in the preferential orientation of the as-deposited AlN films was not observed within our $N_2$ concentration range. But in the case of 50% $N_2$ /Ar condition, the peak of (002) plane, which is determinant in pressure sensing properties, appeared. XPS depth profiling of AlN/TiN/SUS430 revealed Al/N ratio was close to stoichiometric value (45:47) when deposited under 50% $N_2/Ar$ atmosphere at room temperature. The output signal voltage of AlN sensor showed a linear behavior between 26~85 mV, and the pressure-sensing sensitivity was calculated as 7 mV/MPa.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 2018

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is used by the semiconductor industry that has requirements for high thermal conductivity. The theoretical thermal conductivity of single crystal AlN is 320W/mK. Whereas, the values measured for polycrystalline AlN ceramics range from 20 W/mK to 280 W/mK. The variability is strongly dependent upon the purity of the starting materials and non-uniform dispersibility of the sintering additive. The conventional AlN sintering additive used yttria ($Y_2O_3$), but the dispersibility of the powder in the mixing process was important. In this study, we investigated the mechanical and thermal conductivity of yttrium nitrate ($Y(NO_3)_3{\cdot}6H_2O$), as a sintering additive in order to improve the dispersibility of $Y_2O_3$. The sintering additives content was in the range of 2 to 4.5wt.%. The density of AlN gradually increased with increasing contents of sintering additive and the flexural strength gradually increased as well. The flexural strength of the sintered body containing 4 wt% of $Y_2O_3$ and $Y(NO_3)_3{\cdot}6H_2O$ was 334.1 MPa and 378.2 MPa, respectively. The thermal conductivities were 189.7W/mK and 209.4W/mK, respectively. In the case of hardness, there was only a slight difference and the average value was about 10 GPa. Therefore, densification, density and strength values were found to be proportional to its content. It was confirmed that AlN using $Y(NO_3)_3{\cdot}6H_2O$ displayed relatively higher thermal conductivity and mechanical properties than the $Y_2O_3$.