• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.747-752
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• 2011

Wireless technology has enabled farmers monitor and control protected production environment more efficiently. Utilization of USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network) devices also brought benefits due to reduced wiring and central data handling requirements. However, wireless communication loses signal under unfavorable conditions (e.g., blocked signal path, low signal intensity). In this paper, performance of commercial wireless communication devices were evaluated for application to protected crop production. Two different models of wireless communication devices were tested. Sensors used in the study were weather units installed outside and top of a greenhouse (wind velocity and direction, precipitation, temperature and humidity), inside ambient condition units (temperature, humidity, $CO_2$, and light intensity), and irrigation status units (irrigation flow and pressure, and soil water content). Performance of wireless communication was evaluated with and without crop. For a 2.4 GHz device, communication distance was decreased by about 10% when crops were present between the transmitting and receiving antennas installed on the ground, and the best performance was obtained when the antennas were installed 2 m above the crop canopy. When tested in a greenhouse, center of a greenhouse was chosen as the location of receiving antenna. The results would provide information useful for implementation of wireless environment monitoring system for protected crop production using USN devices.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.66-69
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• 2017

In recent year, energy harvesting technologies from the ambient environments such as light, motion, wireless waves, and temperature again a lot of attraction form research community [1-5] due to its efficient solution in order to substitute for conventional power delivery methods, especially in wearable together with on-body applications. The drawbacks of battery-powered characteristic used in commodity applications lead to self-powered, long-lifetime circuit design. Thermoelectric generator, a solid-state sensor, is useful compared to the harvesting devices in order to enable self-sustained low-power applications. TEG based on the Seebeck effect is utilized to transfer thermal energy which is available with a temperature gradient into useful electrical energy. Depending on the temperature difference between two sides, amount of output power will be proportionally delivered. In this work, we illustrated a low-input voltage energy harvesting circuit applied discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) method for getting an adequate amount of energy from thermoelectric generator (TEG) for a specific wearable application. With a small temperature gradient harvested from human skin, the input voltage from the transducer is as low as 60mV, the proposed circuit, fabricated in a $0.6{\mu}m$ CMOS process, is capable of generating a regulated output voltage of 4.2V with an output power reaching to $40{\mu}W$. The proposed circuit is useful for powering energy to battery-less systems, such as wearable application devices.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.39-44
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• 2011

In this study, we have investigated the structural and electrical characteristics of IZO thin films deposited on flexible substrate for the OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. For this purpose, PES was used for flexible substrate and IZO thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering under oxygen ambient gases (Ar, $Ar+O_2$) at room temperature. In order to investigate the influences of the oxygen, the flow rate of oxygen in argon mixing gas has been changed from 0.1sccm to 0.5sccm. All the samples show amorphous structure regardless of flow rate. The electrical resistivity of IZO films increased with increasing flow rate of $O_2$ under $Ar+O_2$. All the films showed the average transmittance over 85% in the visible range. The OLED device was fabricated with different IZO electrodes made by configuration of IZO/a-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al to elucidate the performance of IZO substrate. OLED devices with the amorphous-IZO (a-IZO) anode film show better current density-voltage-luminance characteristics than that of OLED devices with the commercial crystalline-ITO (c-ITO) anode film. It can be explained that very flat surface roughness and high work function of a-IZO anode film lead to more efficient hole injection by reduction of interface barrier height between anode and organic layers. This suggests that a-IZO film is a promising anode materials substituting conventional c-ITO anode in OLED devices.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.789-795
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• 2016

Laser-induced combustions and explosions generated by high laser irradiances were explored by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The laser used for target ablation is a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with 7 ns pulse duration at wavelength of 1064 nm laser energies from 40 mJ to 2500 mJ ($6.88{\times}10^{10}-6.53{\times}10^{11}W/cm^2$). The plasma light source from aluminum detected by the echelle grating spectrometer and coupled to the gated ICCD(a resolution (${\lambda}/{\Delta}{\lambda}$) of 5000). This spectroscopic study has been investigated for obtaining both the atomic/molecular signals of aluminum-oxygen and the calculated ambient condition such as plasma temperature and electron density. The essence of the paper is observing specific electron density ratio which can support the processes of chemical reaction and combustion between ablated aluminum plume and oxygen from air by inducing high laser energy.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2007

High voltage pulsed electric fields (PEF) is a promising technology for the nonthermal extraction of effective components from biological materials. Plant cells were ruptured with PEF at ambient or refrigerated temperature for a short treatment time of second or microsecond. Treatments of coarsely ground purple sweet potato (PSP) with PEF(30 kV/cm, 500 Hz) resulted in maximum extraction yield of 65% as compared with 45-50% for control. An increase in electric field strength (from 10kV/cm to 35kV/cm) and frequency (from 100Hz to 500Hz) resulted in increased amount of extracted pigments, but treatment time is not affected on pigment extraction. Starch granules were not detected and large intracellular spaces were visible between the cells on light and scanning election microscopy of PEF treated PSP. This result suggests that PEF have potential to use on extraction of pigments from plant cells.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.291-303
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• 2019

For cities with ancient buildings at core areas, night lighting is an effective means to demonstrate their history and culture. In this regard, night scenes of these ancient buildings are evaluated from multiple aspects, such as color rendition, brightness ratio affected by ambient light and technological realization of lighting facilities. This study builds a visual evaluation system for night scenes of ancient buildings based on three dimensions, namely ancient architecture carrier performance, visual perception and technological realization, and explains specific evaluation sub-criteria one by one. In addition, this study adopts Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to analyze the impact of each sub-criteria item on the weight of the whole evaluation system, and conducts a consistency test to show that the evaluation system meets the reasonable requirements of hierarchy setting. Moreover, relative importance of each sub-criteria item may be determined based on their corresponding weights.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.431-438
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• 2022

In functional materials, in situ experimental techniques as a function of external stimulus (e.g., electric field, magnetic field, light, etc.) or changes in ambient environments (e.g., temperature, humidity, pressure, etc.) are highly essential for analyzing how the physical properties of target materials are activated/evolved by the given stimulation. In particular, in situ electric-field-dependent X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements have been extensively utilized for understanding the underlying mechanisms of the emerging electromechanical responses to external electric field in various ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and electrostrictive materials. This tutorial article briefly introduces basic principles/key concepts of in situ electric-field-dependent XRD analysis using a lab-scale XRD machine. We anticipate that the in situ XRD method provides a practical tool to systematically identify/monitor a structural modification of various electromechanical materials driven by applying an external electric field.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.420-426
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• 2024

This study proposes an innovative methodology for developing flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs) capable of conforming to three-dimensional shapes, meeting the increasing demand for electronic circuits in diverse and complex product designs. By integrating a traditional flat plate-based fabrication process with a subsequent three-dimensional thermal deformation technique, we have successfully demonstrated an FPCB that maintains stable electrical characteristics despite significant shape deformations. Using a modified polyimide substrate along with Ag flake-based conductive ink, we identified optimized process variables that enable substrate thermal deformation at lower temperatures (~130℃) and enhance the stretchability of the conductive ink (ε ~30%). The application of this novel FPCB in a prototype 3D-shaped sensor device, incorporating photosensors and temperature sensors, illustrates its potential for creating multifunctional, shape-adaptable electronic devices. The sensor can detect external light sources and measure ambient temperature, demonstrating stable operation even after transitioning from a planar to a three-dimensional configuration. This research lays the foundation for next-generation FPCBs that can be seamlessly integrated into various products, ushering in a new era of electronic device design and functionality.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.327-327
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• 2009

ZnO with a large band gap (~3.37 eV) and exciton binding energy (~60 meV), is suitable for optoelectronic applications such as ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) and detectors. However, the ZnO-based p-n homojunction is not readily available because it is difficult to fabricate reproducible p-type ZnO with high hall concentration and mobility. In order to solve this problem, there have been numerous attempts to develop p-n heterojunction LEDs with ZnO as the n-type layer. The n-ZnO/p-GaN heterostructure is a good candidate for ZnO-based heterojunction LEDs because of their similar physical properties and the reproducible availability of p-type GaN. Especially, the reduced lattice mismatch (~1.8 %) and similar crystal structure result in the advantage of acquiring high performance LED devices. In particular, a number of ZnO films show UV band-edge emission with visible deep-level emission, which is originated from point defects such as oxygen vacancy, oxygen interstitial, zinc interstitial[1]. Thus, defect-related peak positions can be controlled by variation of growth or annealing conditions. In this work, the undoped ZnO film was grown on the p-GaN:Mg film using RF magnetron sputtering method. The undoped ZnO/p-GaN:Mg heterojunctions were annealed in a horizontal tube furnace. The annealing process was performed at $800^{\circ}C$ during 30 to 90 min in air ambient to observe the variation of the defect states in the ZnO film. Photoluminescence measurements were performed in order to confirm the deep-level position of the ZnO film. As a result, the deep-level emission showed orange-red color in the as-deposited film, while the defect-related peak positions of annealed films were shifted to greenish side as increasing annealing time. Furthermore, the electrical resistivity of the ZnO film was decreased after annealing process. The I-V characteristic of the LEDs showed nonlinear and rectifying behavior. The room-temperature electroluminescence (EL) was observed under forward bias. The EL showed a weak white and strong yellowish emission colors (~575 nm) in the undoped ZnO/p-GaN:Mg heterojunctions before and after annealing process, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.586-591
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• 2010

Solar cells have been more intensely studied as part of the effort to find alternatives to fossil fuels as power sources. The progression of the first two generations of solar cells has seen a sacrifice of higher efficiency for more economic use of materials. The use of a single junction makes both these types of cells lose power in two major ways: by the non-absorption of incident light of energy below the band gap; and by the dissipation by heat loss of light energy in excess of the band gap. Therefore, multi junction solar cells have been proposed as a solution to this problem. However, the $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ generation solar cells have efficiency limits because a photon makes just one electron-hole pair. Fabrication of all-silicon tandem cells using an Si quantum dot superlattice structure (QD SLS) is one possible suggestion. In this study, an $SiO_x$ matrix system was investigated and analyzed for potential use as an all-silicon multi-junction solar cell. Si quantum dots with a super lattice structure (Si QD SLS) were prepared by alternating deposition of Si rich oxide (SRO; $SiO_x$ (x = 0.8, 1.12)) and $SiO_2$ layers using RF magnetron co-sputtering and subsequent annealing at temperatures between 800 and $1,100^{\circ}C$ under nitrogen ambient. Annealing temperatures and times affected the formation of Si QDs in the SRO film. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that nanocrystalline Si QDs started to precipitate after annealing at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for one hour. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images clearly showed SRO/$SiO_2$ SLS and Si QDs formation in each 4, 6, and 8 nm SRO layer after annealing at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for two hours. The systematic investigation of precipitation behavior of Si QDs in $SiO_2$ matrices is presented.