• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1047-1055
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• 2006

We patterned nano-width lines on a super hard bulk diamond substrate by varying the ion beam current and ion beam sources with a dual beam field ion beam (FIB). In addition, we successfully fabricated two-dimensional nano patterns and three-dimensional nano plate modules. We prepared nano lines on a diamond and a silicon substrate at the beam condition of 30 kV, 10 pA $\sim$ 5 nA with $Ga^+$ ion and $H_2O$ assisted ion sources. We measured each of the line-width, line-depth, etched line profiles, etch rate, and aspect ratio, and then compared them. We confirmed that nano patterning was possible on both a bulk diamond and a silicon substrate. The etch rate of $H_2O$ source can be enhanced about two times than that of Ga source. The width of patterns on a diamond was smaller than that on a silicon substrate at the same ion beam power The sub-100 nm patterns on a diamond were made under the charge neutralization mode to prevent charge accumulation. We successfully made a two-dimensional, 240 nm-width text of the 300-lettered Lord's Prayer on a gem diamond with 30 kV-30 pA FIB. The patterned text image was readable with a scanning electron microscope. Moreover, three dimensional nano-thick plate module fabrication was made successfully with an FIB and a platinum deposition, and electron energy loss spectrum (EELS) analysis was easily performed with the prepared nano plate module.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.111-116
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• 2009

In this paper, a plasma-assisted patterning method for the organic layers of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and its effect on the OLED performances are reported. Oxygen plasma was used to etch the organic layers, using the top electrode consisting of lithium fluoride and aluminum as an etching mask. Although the current flow at low voltages increased for the etched OLEDs, there was no significant degradation of the OLED efficiency and lifetime in comparison with the conventional OLEDs. Therefore, this method can be used to reduce the ohmic voltage drop along the common top electrodes by connecting the top electrode with highly conductive bus lines after the common organic layers on the bus lines are etched by plasma. To further analyze the current increase at low voltages, the plasma patterning effect on the OLED performance was investigated by changing the device sizes, especially in one direction, and by changing the etching depth in the vertical direction of the device. It was found that the current flow increase at low voltages was not proportional to the device sizes, indicating that the current flow increase does not come from the leakage current along the etched sides. In the etching depth experiment, the current flow at low voltages did not increase when the etching process was stopped in the middle of the hole transport layer. This means that the current flow increase at low voltages is closely related to the modification of the hole injection layer, and thus, to the modification of the interface between the hole injection layer and the bottom electrode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.393-393
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• 2012

Optically active nanostructures such as subwavelength moth-eye antireflective structures or surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) active structures have been demonstrated to provide the effective suppression of unwanted reflections as in subwavelength structure (SWS) or effective enhancement of selective signals as in SERS. While various nanopatterning techniques such as photolithography, electron-beam lithography, wafer level nanoimprinting lithography, and interference lithography can be employed to fabricate these nanostructures, roll-to-roll (R2R) nanoimprinting is gaining interests due to its low cost, continuous, and scalable process. R2R nanoimprinting requires a master to produce a stamp that can be wrapped around a quartz roller for repeated nanoimprinting process. Among many possibilities, two different types of mask can be employed to fabricate optically active nanostructures. One is self-assembled Au nanoparticles on Si substrate by depositing Au film with sputtering followed by annealing process. The other is monolayer silica particles dissolved in ethanol spread on the wafer by spin-coating method. The process is optimized by considering the density of Au and silica nano particles, depth and shape of the patterns. The depth of the pattern can be controlled with dry etch process using reactive ion etching (RIE) with the mixture of SF6 and CHF3. The resultant nanostructures are characterized for their reflectance using UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Agilent technology, Cary 5000) and for surface morphology using scanning electron microscope (SEM, JEOL JSM-7100F). Once optimized, these optically active nanostructures can be used to replicate with roll-to-roll process or soft lithography for various applications including displays, solar cells, and biosensors.

• Solar Energy
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.125-131
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• 1999

This paper deals with a novel structure of poly-Si solar cell. A grain boundary(GB) of poly-Si acts as potential barrier and recombination center for photo-generated carriers. To reduce unwanted side effects at the GB of poly-Si, we employed physical GB removal of poly-Si using chemical solutions. Various chemical etchants such as Sirtl, Yang, Secco, and Schimmel were investigated for the preferential GB etching. Etch depth about 10 ${\mu}m$ was achieved by a Schimmel etchant. After a chemical etching of poly-Si, we used $POCl_3$ for emitter junction formation. This paper used an easy method of top electrode formation using a RF sputter grown ITO film. ITO films with thickness of 300 nm showed resistivity of $1.26{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}-cm$ and overall transmittance above 80%. Using a preferential GB etching and ITO top electrode, we developed a new fabrication procedure of poly-Si solar cells. Employing optimized process conditions, we were able to achieve conversion efficiency as high as 16.6% at an input power of 20 $mW/cm^2$. This paper investigates the effects of process parameters: etching conditions, ITO deposition factors, and emitter doping densities in a poly-Si cell fabrication procedure.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1849-1851
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• 1999

The PDP(Plasma Display Panel) barrier rib was fabricated by focused $Ar^+$ laser ($\lambda$=514nm) and Nd:YAG($\lambda$=532, 266 nm) laser irradiation. The depth of the etched groove increases with increasing a laser fluence. and decreasing a scan speed. Using the second harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser, the threshold laser fluence was $6.5mJ/cm^2$ for the sample of PDP barrier rib dried at $120^{\circ}C$. The thickness of $150{\mu}m$ of the sample on the glass was etched without any damage on the glass substrate by fluence of $19.5J/cm^2$. The barrier rib sample on hot plate was etched by Nd:YAG laser(532 nm) as increasing a temperature of the sample. In this case, the etch rate was $95{\mu}m/s$, $190{\mu}m/s$ at room temperature, $175^{\circ}C$ respectively.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.7-10
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• 2012

Dimensions (line/space) of circuits in IC substrates for high-end chips (e.g. CPU, etc.) are anticipated to decrease as small as $10{\mu}m/10{\mu}m$ in 2014. Since current etch-based circuit-patterning processes are not able to address the urgent requirement from industry, laser-based circuit patterning processes are under active research in which UV laser is used to engrave embedded circuits patterns into IC substrates. In this paper, we used a nanosecond UV laser to directly fabricate embedded circuit patterns into IC substrates with/without ceramic powders. In experiments, we engraved embedded circuit patterns with dimensions (width/depth) of abut $10{\mu}m/10{\mu}m$ and $6{\mu}m/6{\mu}m$ into the IC substrates. Due to the recoil pressure occurring during ablation, the circuit patterning of the IC substrates with ceramic powders showed the higher ablation rate.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.69-69
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• 2003

최근 trench capacitor, isolation trench, micro-electromechanical system(MEMS), micro-opto-electromechanical system(MOEMS)등의 다양한 기술에 적용될 고종횡비(HAR) 실리콘 식각기술연구가 진행되어 지고 있다. 이는 기존의 습식식각시 발생하는 결정방향에 따른 식각률의 차이에 관한 문제와 standard reactive ion etching(RIE) 에서의 낮은 종횡비와 식각률에 기인한 문제점들을 개선하기 위해 고밀도 플라즈마를 이용한 건식식각 장비를 사용하여 고종횡비(depth/width), 높은 식각률을 가지는 이방성 트랜치 구조를 얻는 것이다. 초기에는 주로 HBr chemistry를 이용한 연구가 진행되었는데 이는 식각률이 낮고 많은양의 식각부산물이 챔버와 시편에 재증착되는 문제가 발생하였다. 또한 SF6 chemistry의 사용을 통해 식각률의 향상은 가져왔지만 화학적 식각에 기인한 local bowing과 같은 이방성 식각의 문제점들로 인해 최근까지 CHF3, C2F6, C4F8, CF4등의 첨가가스를 이용하여 측벽에 Polymer layer의 식각보호막을 형성시켜 이방성 구조를 얻는 multi_step 공정이 일반화 되었다. 이에 본 연구에서는 SF6 chemistry와 소량의 02/HBr의 첨가가스를 이용한 single_step 공정을 통해 공정의 간소화 및 식각 프로파일을 개선하여 최적의 HAR 실리콘 식각공정 조건을 확보하고자 하였다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.634-640
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• 1998

A well- shaped trench was investigated in view of the defect distribution along trench sidewall and bottom using high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The trench was formed by HBr plasma and additive gases in magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching system. Adding $0_2$ and other additive gases into HBr plasma makes it possible to eliminate sidewall undercut and lower surface roughness by forming the passivation layer of lateral etching, resulted in the well filled trench with oxide and polysilicon by subsequent deposition. The passivation layer of lateral etching was mainly composed of $SiO_xF_y$ $SiO_xBr_y$ confirmed by chemical analysis. It also affects the generation and distribution of lattice defects. Most of etch induced defects were found in the edge region of the trench bottom within the depth of 10$\AA$. They are generally decreased with the thickness of residue layer and almost disappeared below the uni¬formly thick residue layer. While the formation of crystalline defects in silicon substrate mainly depends on the incident angle and energy of etch species, the region of surface defects on the thickness of residue layer formed during trench etching.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1805-1810
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• 2010

We present a simple, cost-effective, and fast fabrication process for three-dimensional (3D) microstructures; this process is based on multi-step electrochemical etching of metal foils which facilitates the mass production of 3D microstructures. Compared to electroplating, this process maintains uniform and well-controlled material properties of the microstructure. In the experimental study, we perform single-step electrochemical etching of aluminum foils for the fabrication of 2D cantilever arrays. In the single-step etching, the depth etch rate and bias etch rate are measured as $1.50{\pm}0.10 {\mu}m/min$ and $0.77{\pm}0.03 {\mu}m/min$, respectively. Using the results of single-step etching, we perform two-step electrochemical etching for 3D microstructures with probe tips on cantilevers. The errors in height and lateral fabrication in the case of the fabricated structures are $15.5{\pm}5.8% $ and $3.3{\pm}0.9%$, respectively; the surface roughness is $37.4{\pm}9.6nm$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.11 no.4 s.33
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• pp.81-86
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• 2004

A new method to improve the wet etching characteristics is described. The anisotropic wet-etching of (100) Si with megasonic wave has been studied in KOH solution. Etching characteristics of p-type (100) 6 inch Si have been explored with and without megasonic irradiation. It has been observed that megasonic irradiation improves the characteristics of wet etching such as an etch uniformity and surface roughness. The etching uniformity on the whole wafer with and without megasonic irradiation were less than ${\pm}1\%$ and more than $20\%$, respectively. The initial root-mean-square roughness($R_{rms}$) of single crystal silicon is 0.23 nm. It has been reported that the roughnesses with magnetic stirring and ultrasonic agitation were 566 nm and 66 nm, respectively. Comparing with the results, etching with megasonic irradiation achieved the Rrms of 1.7 nm on the surface after the $37{\mu}m$ of etching depth. Wet etching of silicon with megasonic irradiation can maintain nearly the original surface roughness after etching process. The results have verified that the megasonic irradiation is an effective way to improve the etching characteristics such as etch uniformity and surface roughness.