• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.486-493
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• 2010

This article introduces a novel ultra wideband(UWB) bandpass filter(BPF) with sharp roll-off characteristics in stripline structure. The UWB characteristic is basically obtained from capacitive coupled cross resonator. The resonator has ${\lambda}/2$ length. And at the center of the resonator, two stubs are loaded, one is a ${\lambda}/8$ short-circuited stub and the other is a ${\lambda}/8$ open-circuited stub. The two stubs provide two attenuation poles at lower and upper cutoff frequencies. For input and output lines, two identical capacitively coupled lines have been installed to suppress the unwanted signals in the lower and upper stopbands. The filter has been designed for the U.S. UWB band(3.1~10.6 GHz) with two transmission zeros at 2.4 and 11.1 GHz. The filter has been realized with Low Temperature Core-fired Ceramic(LTCC) green tape which has the dielectric constant of 7.8. Measurement results agree well with HFSS simulation results. Insertion loss less than 0.7 dB and return loss better than 14 dB in the pass band have been measured. The group delay in the center frequency is 0.27 ns and the group delay variation within pass band is less than 0.5 ns. The size of the filter is $6{\times}18{\times}0.6\;mm^3$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.78-84
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• 2009

In this paper, ZnO:Al thin film was deposited on polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by capacitively coupled r. f. magnetron sputtering method from a ZnO target mixed with 2wt[%] Al2O3 to investigate the possible application of ZnO:Al film as a transparent conducting electrode for film typed DSCs. The effect of substrate bias on the electrical properties and film structure were studied. The results showed that a positive bias applied to the substrate during sputtering contributed to an improvement of electrical properties of the film by attracting electrons in the plasma to bombard the growing films. These bombardments provided additional energy to the growing ZnO:Al film on the substrate, resulting in significant variations in film structure and electrical properties. Electrical resistivity of the film decreases significantly as the positive bias increases up to +30[V] However, as the positive bias increases over +30[V], the resistivity decreases. The transmittance varies little as the substrate bias is increased from 0 to +60[V], and as r. f. powers increases from 160[W] to 240[W]. The film with electrical resistivity as low as $1.8{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm]$ and optical transmittance of about 87.8[%] were obtained for 1,012[nm] thick film deposited with a substrate bias of +30[V].

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.146-147
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• 2011

Processing a large area substrate for liquid crystal display (LCD) or solar panel applications in a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) reactor is becoming increasingly challenging because of the size of the substrate size is no longer negligible compared to the wavelength of the applied radio frequency (RF) power. The situation is even worse when the driving frequency is increased to the Very High Frequency (VHF) range. When the substrate size is still smaller than 1/8 of the wavelength, one can obtain reasonably uniform process results by utilizing with methods such as tailoring the precursor gas distribution by adjustingthrough shower head hole distribution or hole size modification, locally adjusting the distance between the substrate and the electrode, and shaping shower head holes to modulate the hollow cathode effect modifying theand plasma density distribution by shaping shower head holes to adjust the follow cathode effect. At higher frequencies, such as 40 MHz for Gen 8.5 (2.2 m${\times}$2.6 m substrate), these methods are not effective, because the substrate is large enough that first node of the standing wave appears within the substrate. In such a case, the plasma discharge cannot be sustained at the node and results in an extremely non-uniform process. At Applied Materials, we have studied several methods of modifying the standing wave pattern to adjusting improve process non-uniformity for a Gen 8.5 size CCP reactor operating in the VHF range. First, we used magnetic materials (ferrite) to modify wave propagation. We placed ferrite blocks along two opposing edges of the powered electrode. This changes the boundary condition for electro-magnetic waves, and as a result, the standing wave pattern is significantly stretched towards the ferrite lined edges. In conjunction with a phase modulation technique, we have seen improvement in process uniformity. Another method involves feeding 40 MHz from four feed points near the four corners of the electrode. The phase between each feed points are dynamically adjusted to modify the resulting interference pattern, which in turn modulate the plasma distribution in time and affect the process uniformity. We achieved process uniformity of <20% with this method. A third method involves using two frequencies. In this case 40 MHz is used in a supplementary manner to improve the performance of 13 MHz process. Even at 13 MHz, the RF electric field falls off around the corners and edges on a Gen 8.5 substrate. Although, the conventional methods mentioned above improve the uniformity, they have limitations, and they cannot compensate especially as the applied power is increased, which causes the wavelength becomes shorter. 40 MHz is used to overcome such limitations. 13 MHz is applied at the center, and 40 MHz at the four corners. By modulating the interference between the signals from the four feed points, we found that 40 MHz power is preferentially channeled towards the edges and corners. We will discuss an innovative method of controlling 40 MHz to achieve this effect.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.478-478
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• 2012

Recently, there are many researches in order to increase the deposition rate (D/R) and improve film uniformity and quality in the deposition of microcrystalline silicon thin film. These two factors are the most important issues in the fabrication of the thin film solar cell, and for the purpose of that, several process conditions, including the large area electrode (more than 1.1 X 1.3 (m2)), higher pressure (1 ~ 10 (Torr)), and very high frequency regime (VHF, 40 ~ 100 (MHz)), have been needed. But, in the case of large-area capacitively coupled discharges (CCP) driven at frequencies higher than the usual RF (13.56 (MHz)) frequency, the standing wave and skin effects should be the critical problems for obtaining the good plasma uniformity, and the ion damage on the thin film layer due to the high voltage between the substrate and the bulk plasma might cause the defects which degrade the film quality. In this study, we will propose the new concept of the large-area multi-electrode (a new multi-electrode concept for the large-area plasma source), which consists of a series of electrodes and grounds arranged by turns. The experimental results with this new electrode showed the processing performances of high D/R (1 ~ 2 (nm/sec)), controllable crystallinity (~70% and controllable), and good uniformity (less than 10%) at the conditions of the relatively high frequency of 40 MHz in the large-area electrode of 280 X 540 mm2. And, we also observed the SEM images of the deposited thin film at the conditions of peeling, normal microcrystalline, and powder formation, and discussed the mechanisms of the crystal formation and voids generation in the film in order to try the enhancement of the film quality compared to the cases of normal VHF capacitive discharges. Also, we will discuss the relation between the processing parameters (including gap length between electrode and substrate, operating pressure) and the processing results (D/R and crystallinity) with the process condition map for ${\mu}c$-Si:H formation at a fixed input power and gas flow rate. Finally, we will discuss the potential of the multi-electrode of the 3.5G-class large-area plasma processing (650 X 550 (mm2) to the possibility of the expansion of the new electrode concept to 8G class large-area plasma processing and the additional issues in order to improve the process efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.6-13
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• 2006

Tin doped indium oxide(ITO) and Al doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) films, which are widely used as a transparent conductor in optoelectronic devices, were prepared by using the capacitively coupled DC magnetron sputtering method. ITO and ZnO:Al films with the optimum growth conditions showed each resistivity of $1.67{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm],\;2.2{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm]$ and transmittance of 89.61[%], 90.88[%] in the wavelength range of the visible spectrum. The two types of 5 inch-PDP cells with ZnO:Al and ITO transparent electrodes were made under the same manufacturing conditions. The PDP cell with ZnO:Al film was optimally operated in the mixing gas rate of Ne(base)-Xe(8[%]), and at gas pressure of 400[Torr]. It also shows the average measured brightness of $836[cd/m^2]$ at voltage range of $200{\sim}300$[V]. Luminous efficiency, one of the key parameter for high brightness and low power consumption, ranges from 1.2 to 1.6[lm/W] with increasing frequency of ac power supplier from 10 to 50[Khz]. The brightness and luminous efficiency are lower than those with ITO electrode by about 10[%]. However, these values are considered to be enough for the normal operation of PDP TV.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2009

There has been a rapid progress for flexible polymer-based MEMS(Microelectromechanical Systems) technology. Polycarbonate (PC) and Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA), so-called acrylic, have many advantages for optical, non-toxic and micro-device application. We studied dry etching of PC and PMMA as a function of % gas ratio in the $O_2/SF_6/CH_4$ temary plasma. A photoresist pattern was defined on the polymer samples with a mask using a conventional lithography. Plasma etching was done at 100 W RIE chuck power and 10 sccm total gas flow rate. The etch rates of PMMA were typically 2 times higher than those of PC in the whole experimental range. The result would be related to higher melting point of PC compared to that of PMMA. The highest etch rates of PMMA and PC were found in the $O_2/SF_6$ discharges among $O_2/SF_6$, $O_2/CH_4$ and $SF_6/CH_4$ and $O_2/SF_6/CH_4$ plasma composition (PC: ${\sim}350\;nm/min$ at 5 sccm $O_2/5$ sccm $SF_6$, PMMA: ${\sim}570\;nm/min$ at 2.5 sccm $O_2/7.5$ sccm $SF_6$). PC has smoother surface morphology than PMMA after etching in the $O_2/SF_6/CH_4$ discharges. The surface roughness of PC was in the range of 1.9$\sim$3.88 nm. However, that of PMMA was 17.3$\sim$26.1 nm.