• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.171-171
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• 2012

Neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBa-CVD) process has been developed as a nove,l room temperature deposition process for the light-soaking free nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films including intrinsic and n-type doped thin film. During formation of nc-Si thin films by the NBa-CVD process with silicon reflector at room temperature, the energetic particles enhance doping efficiency and crystalline phase in nc-Si thin films without additional heating at substrate. The effects of incident NB energy controlled by the reflector bias have been confirmed by Raman spectra analysis. Additionally, TEM images show uniform nc-Si grains which imbedded amorphous phase without incubation layer. The nc-Si films by the NBa-CVD are hardly degenerated by light soaking; the degradations of photoconductivity were just a few percents before and after light irradiation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.408-413
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• 2016

The dielectric thin films applied to multi-colored semitransparent thin film solar cells have been extensively studied. In this work, we prepared GeSbTe and GeTe chalcogenide thin films using magnetron sputtering, and investigated their optical and phase-change properties to replace the dielectric films. The changes of surface morphology, sheet resistance, and X-ray diffraction of the Te-based chalcogenide films support the fact that the amorphous stability of GeTe films is superior to that of GeSbTe films. While both amorphous GeSbTe and GeTe films thinner than 30 nm have optical transparency between 5% and 60%, GeTe films transmit more visible light than GeSbTe films. It is confirmed by computer simulation that the color of semitransparent silicon thin film solar cells can be adjusted with the addition of GeSbTe or GeTe films. Since it is possible to adjust the contrast of the solar cells by exploiting the phase-change property, the two kinds of chalcogenide films are anticipated to be used as an optical layer in semitransparent solar cells.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07b
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• pp.1116-1118
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• 2005

We studied laser crystallization of amorphous silicon films prepared at ultra low temperatures ($<150^{\circ}C$). Amorphous silicon films having a low content of hydrogen were deposited by using catalytic chemical vapor deposition method. Influence of process parameters on the hydrogen content was investigated. Laser crystallization was performed dispensing with the preliminary dehydrogenation process. Crystallization took place at a laser energy density value as low as $70\;mJ/cm^2$, and the grain size increased with increasing the laser energy. The ELA crystallization of Catalytic CVD a-Si film is a promising candidate for Poly-Si TFT in active-matrix flexible display on plastic substrates.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.297-300
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• 2005

The characteristics of polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) fabricated using sputter deposited amorphous silicon (a-Si) precursor films are investigated. The a-Si films were deposited on flexible polymer substrates using argon-helium mixture gases to minimize the argon incorporation into the film. The precursor films were then laser annealed by using a XeCl excimer laser and a four-mask-processed poly-Si TFT was fabricated with fully self-aligned top gate structure. The fabricated pMOS TFT showed field-effect mobility of $32.4cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ and on/off ratio of $10^6$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.272-275
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• 2019

We investigated the electrical characteristics of amorphous silicon-zinc-tin-oxide (a-SZTO) thin films deposited by RF-magnetron sputtering at room temperature depending on the deposition time. We fabricated a thin film transistor (TFT) with a bottom gate structure and various channel thicknesses. With increasing channel thickness, the threshold voltage shifted negatively from -0.44 V to -2.18 V, the on current ($I_{on}$) and field effect mobility (${\mu}_{FE}$) increased because of increasing carrier concentration. The a-SZTO film was fabricated and analyzed in terms of the contact resistance and channel resistance. In this study, the transmission line method (TLM) was adopted and investigated. With increasing channel thickness, the contact resistance and sheet resistance both decreased.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.104-111
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• 2001

B-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) thin films were prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition in a gas mixture of $SiH_4, CH_4,\;and\; B_2H_6$. Physical and chemical properties of a-SiC:H films grown with varing the ratio of $B_2H_6/(SiH_4+CH_4)$ were characterized with various analysis methods including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), UV absorption CH_4spectroscopy and electrical conductivity measurements. With the B-doping concentration, the doping efficiency and the micro-crystallinity were decreased and the film became amorphous when $B_2H_6/(SiH_4{plus}CH_4)$ was over $5{\times}10^{-3}$. The addition of $B_2H_6$ gas during deposition decreased the H content in the film by lowering the quantity of Si-C-H bonds. Consequently, the optical band gap and the activation energy of a-SiC:H films were decreased with increasing the B-doping level.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07d
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• pp.1333-1336
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• 1998

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) films which were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical deposition(PECVD) have been recrystallized by the two-step rapid thermal annealing(RTA) employing the halogen lamp. The a-Si:H films evolve hydrogen explosively during the high temperature crystallzation step. In result, the recrystallized polycrystalline silicon(poly-Si) films have poor surface morphology. In order to avoid the hydrogen evolution, the films have undergone the dehydrogenation step prior to the crystallization step Before the RTA process, the active area of thin film transistors (TFT's) was patterned. The prepatterning of the a-Si:H active islands may reduce thermal damage to the glass substrate during the recrystallization. The computer generated simulation shows the heat propagation from the a-Si:H islands into the glass substrate. We have fabricated the poly-Si TFT's on the silicon wafers. The maximun ON/OFF current ratio of the device was over $10^5$.

• 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 $nc-(Ti,Al)N/a-Si_3N_4$.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.313-320
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• 2011

100 nm-thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon $({\alpha}-Si:H)$ films were deposited on a glass and glass/30 nm Ni substrates by inductively-coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) at temperatures ranging from 100 to $550^{\circ}C$. The sheet resistance, microstructure, phase transformation and surface roughness of the films were characterized using a four-point probe, AFM (atomic force microscope), TEM (transmission electron microscope), AES (Auger electron spectroscopy), HR-XRD(high resolution X-ray diffraction), and micro-Raman spectroscopy. A nano-thick NiSi phase was formed at substrate temperatures >$400^{\circ}C$. AFM confirmed that the surface roughness did not change as the substrate temperature increased, but it increased abruptly to 6.6 nm above $400^{\circ}C$ on the glass/30 nm Ni substrates. HR-XRD and micro-Raman spectroscopy showed that all the Si samples were amorphous on the glass substrates, whereas crystalline silicon appeared at $550^{\circ}C$ on the glass/30 nm Ni substrates. These results show that crystalline NiSi and Si can be prepared simultaneously on Ni-inserted substrates.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.115-118
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• 2017

Highly photosensitive and wide bandgap amorphous silicon oxide (a-$SiO_x$:H) films were developed at low temperature ranges ($100{\sim}150^{\circ}C$) with employing plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition by optimizing $H_2/SiH_4$ gas ratio and $CO_2$ flow. Photosensitivity more than $10^5$ and wide bandgap (1.81~1.85 eV) properties were used for making the a-$SiO_x$:H thin film solar cells, which exhibited a high open circuit voltage of 0.987 V at the substrate temperature of $100^{\circ}C$. In addition, a power conversion efficiency of 6.87% for the cell could be improved up to 7.77% by employing a new n-type nc-$SiO_x$:H/ZnO:Al/Ag triple back-reflector that offers better short circuit currents in the thin film photovoltaic devices.