• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.310-317
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• 2023

Small-film-type ion sensors are garnering considerable interest in the fields of wearable healthcare and home-based monitoring systems. The performance of these sensors primarily relies on electrode capacitance, often employing nanocomposite materials composed of nano- and sub-micrometer particles. Traditional techniques for enhancing capacitance involve the creation of nanoparticles on film electrodes, which require cost-intensive and complex chemical synthesis processes, followed by additional coating optimization. In this study, we introduce a simple one-step electrochemical method for fabricating gold nanoparticles on a carbon nanotube (Au NP-CNT) electrode surface through cyclic voltammetry deposition. Furthermore, we assess the improvement in capacitance by distinguishing between the electrical double-layer capacitance and diffusion-controlled capacitance, thereby clarifying the principles underpinning the material design. The Au NP-CNT electrode maintains its stability and sensitivity for up to 50 d, signifying its potential for advanced ion sensing. Additionally, integration with a mobile wireless data system highlights the versatility of the sensor for health applications.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.17-19
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• 2010

In this work, the optimized process condition of chemical solution deposition which is used to planarize the surface of the metal tape (which is used to grow IBAD-MgO texture template) was investigated. $Y_2O_3$ films were dip-coated on the surface of the unpolished metal tape as the seed and barrier layer. The effects of $Y_2O_3$ concentration of the solution (0.5wt.%, 1.3wt.%, 2.8wt.%, 5.6wt.%) and the number of coatings on the surface morphology and barrier capability against the diffusion from the metal tape were examined. The surface morphology and the thickness of the film were observed using the scanning electron microscope and the atomic force microscope. The presence of elements in metal tape on the film surface was analyzed using the auger electron spectroscopy. The $Y_2O_3$ film thickness increases with increasing the $Y_2O_3$ concentration in the solution, and the surface became smoother with increasing the number of coating cycles. The best result was obtained from the $Y_2O_3$ film coated 4 cycles using 2.8wt.% solution.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.380-391
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• 2014

Plants as well as crops are damaged by a combination of the hot and dry winds that has been a major factor in the reduction of crop production. A means to protect them from damaging conditions is to consider a coating material. In this study, we established laboratory screening methods to find a coating material to protect a crop from rapid transpiration caused by various factors. In a test measuring the weight loss of kidney bean seedlings for 6 days, Avion treatments decreased its weight loss (P=0.05). Owing to long-time spend in completing this assay, we performed a more simple method using a cobalt chloride paper strip, which changes from blue to red colors under water condition. Beewax, guagum, paraffin liquid, soybean oil, and PE-635 gave a waterproofing effect above 37 and 43% at 0.5 and 1 h after treatment, respectively. However, these tested materials did not show significant waterproofing results at 2 h. Although the methods produced reasonable results, a screening method to obtain more objective data is needed. An alternative is to use an instrument that can detect the transpiration of crop leaves. In a preliminary test using barley leaves, a portable photosynthesis system showed transpiration inhibition of 2% soybean oil and 10 times-diluted Avion under field conditions. In another test using the leaves of maize seedlings and apricot tree, 2% liquid paraffin and plant oils such as apricot oil, linseed oil, olive oil, and soybean oil showed significant transpiration inhibition (P=0.05). Especially, paraffin liquid and soybean oil selected from above tests gave good transpiration inhibitory effects against rice at 2%. In addition, the mixture of 2% soybean oil and a spreader showed more elevated inhibition results comparing with soybean oil or the spreader alone indicating that the spreader may be attributed to more uniform diffusion of the hydrophobic material onto the leaf surface of maize seedlings. The hydrophobic material coated physically the stomata and cuticle layers on leaf surfaces of rice. These hydrophobic materials screened in this study are expected to be used as plant coating materials.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.254-259
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• 2003

In the fabrication process of transparent conducting thin films of the ATO (antimony-doped tin oxide) on a soda lime glass substrate by a sol-gel dip coating method, the effects of the $SiO_2$ buffer layer formed on the substrate and $N_2$ annealing treatment were investigated by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) analysis. Optical transmittance and electrical resistivity of the 400 nm-thick ATO thin films which were deposited on $SiO_2$ buffer layer/soda lime glass and then annealed under nitrogen atmosphere were 84 % and $5.0\times 10^{-3}\Omega \textrm{cm}$ respectively. The XPS analysis confirmed that a $SiO_2$ buffer layer inhibited Na ion diffusion from the substrate, resulting in prohibiting the formation of a secondary phase such as $Na_2SnO_3$ and SnO and increasing Sb ion concentration and ratio of $Sb^{5+}/Sb^{3+}$ in the film. And it was also found that $N_2$ annealing treatment leads to the reduction of $Sn^{4+}$as well as $Sb^{5+}$ however the reduction of $Sn^{4+}$ is more effective and therefore consequently results in decrease in the electrical resistivity to produce an excellent electrical properties of the film.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.356-363
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• 2010

For this paper, we investigated the area specific resistance (ASR) of commercially available ferritic stainless steels with different chemical compositions for use as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) interconnect. After 430h of oxidation, the STS446M alloy demonstrated excellent oxidation resistance and low ASR, of approximately 40 $m{\Omega}cm^2$, of the thermally grown oxide scale, compared to those of other stainless steels. The reason for the low ASR is that the contact resistance between the Pt paste and the oxide scale is reduced due to the plate-like shape of the $Cr_2O_3$(s). However, the acceptable ASR level is considered to be below 100 $m{\Omega}cm^2$ after 40,000 h of use. To further improve the electrical conductivity of the thermally grown oxide on stainless steels, the Co layer was deposited on the stainless steel by means of an electroless deposition method; it was then thermally oxidized to obtain the $Co_3O_4$ layer, which is a highly conductive layer. With the increase of the Co coating thickness, the ASR value decreased. For Co deposited STS444 with 2 ${\mu}m$hickness, the measured ASR at $800^{\circ}$ after 300 h oxidation is around 10 $m{\Omega}cm^2$, which is lower than that of the STS446M, which alloy has a lower ASR value than that of the non-coated STS. The reason for this improved high temperature conductivity seems to be that the Mn is efficiently diffused into the coating layer, which diffusion formed the highly conductive (Mn,Co)$_3O_4$ spinel phases and the thickness of the $Cr_2O_3$(S), which is the rate controlling layer of the electrical conductivity in the SOFC environment and is very thin

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.450-455
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• 2002

Cu-cored Sn-Ag solder balls were fabricated by coating pure Sn and Ag on Cu balls. The melting behavior and the solderability of the BGA joint with the Ni/Au coated Cu pad were investigated and were compared with those of the commercial Sn-Ag and Sn-Ag-Cu balls. DSC analyses clarified the melting of Cu-cored solders to start at a rather low temperature, the eutectic temperature of Sn-Ag-Cu. It was ascribed to the diffusion of Cu and Ag into Sn plating during the heating process. After reflow soldering the microstructures of the solder and of the interfacial layer between the solder and the Cu pad were analyzed with SEM and EPMA. By EDX analysis, formation of a eutectic microstructure composing of $\beta$-Sn, Ag$_3$Sn, ad Cu$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ phases was confirmed in the solder, and the η'-(Au, Co, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ reaction layer was found to form at the interface between the solder and the Cu pad. By conducting shear tests, it was found that the BGA joint using Cu-cored solder ball could prevent the degradation of joint strength during aging at 423K because of the slower growth me of η'-(Au, Co, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ reaction layer formed at the solder, pad interface. Furthermore, Cu-cored multi-component Sn-Ag-Bi balls were fabricated by sequentially coating the binary Sn-Ag and Sn-Bi solders on Cu balls. The reflow property of these solder balls was investigated. Melting of these solder balls was clarified to start at the almost same temperature as that of Sn-2Ag-0.75Cu-3Bi solder. A microstructure composing of (Sn), Ag$_3$Sn, Bi and Cu$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ phases was found to form in the solder ball, and a reaction layer containing primarily η'-(Au, Co, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ was found at the interface with Ni/Au coated Cu pad after reflow soldering. By conducting shear test, it was found that the BGA joints using this Cu-core solder balls hardly degraded their joint shear strength during aging at 423K due to the slower growth rate of the η'-(Au, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ reaction layer at the solder/pad interface.he solder/pad interface.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.199-209
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• 1994

$PbTiO_3$ thin films were prepared on soda-lime-silica slide glasses, Si-wafer and sapphire substrate by the dip-coating of precursor solution. As starting materials, titanium tetra iso-propoxide and lead acetate trihydrate were used. Then acetylacetone was added to prepare stable sol. The effect of the parameters such as viscosity and composition of sol were investigated. The optical transmittance at visible range, refractive index, IR spectra were measured in varying compositions, thickness and heat treatment temperature. The crystallization of $PbTiO_3$ films were measured by using XRD and SEM. Diffusion of compositions from slide glass to thin film were investigated by using EDX, too. These sols not precipitated for 20 days. Transmittance of $PbTiO_3$ films at visible range were decreased with the increase of thickness and heat treatment temperatures, and were exhibited flat spectra. Pyrochlore type appeared in the films on slide glass and perovskite type appeared in the films on Si-wafer or sapphire at $600^{\circ}C$. Perovskite crystals transformed to $PbTi_3O_7$ phase at $800^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.2075-2082
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• 2006

This paper presents modeling and optimization techniques for hish efficiency solar cell process on single-crystalline float zone (FZ) wafers. Among a sequence of multiple steps of fabrication, the followings are the most sensitive steps for the contact formation: 1) Emitter formation by diffusion; 2) Anti-reflection-coating (ARC) with silicon nitride using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD); 3) Screen-printing for front and back metalization; and 4) Contact formation by firing. In order to increase the performance of solar cells in terms of efficiency, the contact formation process is modeled and optimized using neural networks and genetic algorithms, respectively. This paper utilizes the design of experiments (DOE) in contact formation to reduce process time and fabrication costs. The experiments were designed by using central composite design which consists of 24 factorial design augmented by 8 axial points with three center points. After contact formation process, the efficiency of the fabricated solar cell is modeled using neural networks. Established efficiency model is then used for the analysis of the process characteristics and process optimization for more efficient solar cell fabrication.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.251-252
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• 2012

Recently, the growing interest in organic microelectronic devices including OLEDs has led to an increasing amount of research into their many potential applications in the area of flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates. However, these organic devices require a gas barrier coating to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency OLEDs require an extremely low Water Vapor Transition Rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day. The Key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required ($1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day) is the suppression of defect sites and gas diffusion pathways between grain boundaries. In this study, we developed an $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer using a Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering (NBAS) process. The NBAS system is based on the conventional RF magnetron sputtering and neutral beam source. The neutral beam source consists of an electron cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma source and metal reflector. The Ar+ ions in the ECR plasma are accelerated in the plasma sheath between the plasma and reflector, which are then neutralized by Auger neutralization. The neutral beam energies were possible to estimate indirectly through previous experiments and binary collision model. The accelerating potential is the sum of the plasma potential and reflector bias. In previous experiments, while adjusting the reflector bias, changes in the plasma density and the plasma potential were not observed. The neutral beam energy is controlled by the metal reflector bias. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to nano-crystal phase of various grain sizes within a single inorganic thin film. These NBAS process effects can lead to the formation of a nano-crystal structure barrier layer which effectively limits gas diffusion through the pathways between grain boundaries. Our results verify the nano-crystal structure of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ single gas barrier layer through dielectric constant measurement, break down field measurement, and TEM analysis. Finally, the WVTR of $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer was measured to be under $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day therefore we can confirm that NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer is suitable for OLED application.

• Clean Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2007

Direct coating of catalyst layer on the $Nafion^{(R)}$ membrane has been optimized in the process of fabrication of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) to enhance the performance of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). In this method, the contact resistance at the interface of the catalyst layer and the membrane was found to be low. The effect of catalyst loading, thickness of membrane and the gas diffusion layer (GDL) with or without the presence of micro-porous layer (MPL) on the performance of the MEA was also investigated. The MEA fabricated by the above-mentioned method exhibited a performance of $147\;mW/cm^2$ and $100\;mW/cm^2$ at $80^{\circ}C$ and $60^{\circ}C$, respectively, with the catalysts loading of $4\;mg/cm^2$.