• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.354-354
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• 2007

Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films are widely used for hard coatings due to their superior hardness. In this paper, we wanted see how the films properties are changed according to DC power. TiN thin films were deposited by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering method using TiN compound target on silicon substrates. The films structural properties are examined by X-ray Diffractions (XRD) and tribological properties are measured by nano-indentation, nano-scratch tester, nano-stress tester. Especially in DC power of 150 W, the maximum hardness and the minimum residual stress of TiN film exhibited about 25 GPa and 1 GPa, respectively. And also, the critical load of TiN film prepared by magnetron sputtering method were measured over 30 N.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.393-400
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• 2012

In recent years, nano-structured thin film systems are often applied in industries such as MEMS/NEMS device, optical coating, semiconductor or like this. Thin films are used for many and varied purpose to provide resistance to abrasion, erosion, corrosion, or high temperature oxidation and also to provide special magnetic or dielectric properties. Quite a number of articles to evaluate the characterization of thin film structure such as film density, film grain size, film elastic properties, and film/substrate interface condition were reported. Among them, the evaluation of film adhesive to substrate has been of great interest. In this study, we fabricated the polymeric thin film system with different adhesive conditions to evaluate the adhesive condition of the thin film. The nano-structured thin film system was fabricated by spin coating method. And then V(z) curve technique was applied to evaluate adhesive condition of the interface by measuring the surface acoustic wave(SAW) velocity by scanning acoustic microscope(SAM). Furthermore, a nano-scratch technique was applied to the systems to obtain correlations between the velocity of the SAW propagating within the system including the interface and the shear adhesive force. The results show a good correlation between the SAW velocities measured by acoustic spectroscope and the critical load measured by the nano-scratch test. Consequently, V(z) curve method showed potentials for characterizing the adhesive conditions at the interface by acoustic microscope.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.142-148
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• 2012

This study presents the assessment results of adhesive properties on the interface between a silicon wafer and nano-scale polymer thin film pattern through UAFM images by using the contact resonance frequency of the cantilever. For the experiment, we varied surface treatment processes for the silicon wafer and fabricated a 300nm polymer thin film pattern through lithography. Images from the optical microscope were used to compare the produced test specimens for adhesive condition and the critical load value from the nano scratch test was used to verify the adhesive condition of the nano pattern. Each test specimen resulted in a $1{\mu}m{\times}1{\mu}m$ surface image and subsurface adhesive image. Adhesive condition was evaluated by image contrast differences on the interface according to the changing amplitudes and phases of contact resonance frequency.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.257-263
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• 2012

CrN/AlN multilayer coatings with various bilayer periods in the range of 1.8 to 7.4 nm were synthesized using a closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering method. Their crystalline structure, chemical compositions and mechanical properties have been investigated with Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, atomic force microscopy, nanoindentation, scratch tests. The properties of the multilayer coatings varied strongly depending upon the magnitude of the bilayer period. The multilayer coating with a bilayer period of 1.8 nm showed the maximum hardness and an elastic modulus of approximately 37.6 and 417 GPa, respectively, which was 1.54 times higher than the hardness predicted by the rule of mixture from the CrN and AlN coatings. The hardness of the multilayer coating increased as the bilayer period decreased, i.e. as the rotation speed increased. The Hall-Petch type relationship, hardness being related to (1/periodicity)$^{-1/2}$, suggested by Lehoczky was confirmed for the CrN/AlN multilayer coatings with bilayer period close to the 5-10 nm range. With decreasing bilayer period, the surface morphology of the films became rougher and the critical load of films for adhesion strength gradually decreased.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.281-289
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• 2016

The effect of nitrogen on the electrochemical corrosion and nanomechanical behaviors of martensitic stainless steel was examined using potentiodynamic polarization and nanoindentation test methods. The results indicate that partial replacement of carbon with nitrogen effectively improved the passivation and pitting corrosion resistance of conventional high-carbon and high- chromium martensitic steels. Post-test observation of the samples after a potentiodynamic test revealed a severe pitting attacks in conventional martensitic steel compared with nitrogen- containing martensitic stainless steel. This was shown to be due to (i) microstructural refinement results in retaining a high-chromium content in the matrix, and (ii) the presence of reversed austenite formed during the tempering process. Since nitrogen addition also resulted in the formation of a $Cr_2N$ phase as a process of secondary hardening, the hardness of the nitrogen- containing steel is slightly higher than the conventional martensitic stainless steel under tempered conditions, even though the carbon content is lowered. The added nitrogen also improved the wear resistance of the steel as the critical load (Lc2) is less, along with a lower scratch friction coefficient (SFC) when compared to conventional martensitic stainless steel such as AISI 440C.