• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 1999.11d
• /
• pp.1102-1104
• /
• 1999

It is very essential to find out defects and remove them in the insulation at the early stage because the defects in the insulation induce PD which deteriorates the material, resulting in the breakdown. In the real application of high voltage, the interface of the different insulation is the weakest place for both electrical and mechanical aspects. In this paper, characteristics of PD caused by the artificial defects, such as metallic particles, voids and moist fibers, at the interfaces of the cable joint (PJB) were investigated using the specially designed electrode system.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.302-311
• /
• 2006

Nowadays the open-type lead-acid battery for vehicle use is being replaced with the sealed-type because it needs no maintenance and has a longer cycle life. Thus researches on this battery are being conducted very actively by many advanced battery companies. There is, however, a serious problem with the maintenance free(MF) battery that its cathode electrode has a limited cycle life due to a corrosion of grid. In this study, it was aimed to improve a corrosion resistance of the cathode grid which is commonly made of Pb-Ca alloy for a mechanical strength. For this purpose, various amounts of alloying elements such as Sn, Ag and Ba were added singly or together to the Pb-Ca alloys and investigated their corrosion behaviors. Batteries fabricated by using these alloys as cathode grids were subjected to life cycle test and their corrosion layers appeared at the interface between the grids and the active materials were carefully observed in order to clarify effects of alloying elements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.02a
• /
• pp.379-379
• /
• 2010

Recent technical advances in OLEDs (organic light emitting devices) requires more and more the improvement in low operation voltage, long lifetime, and high luminance efficiency. Inverted top emission OLEDs (ITOLED) appeared to overcome these problems. This evolved to operate better luminance efficiency from conventional OLEDs. First, it has large open area so to be brighter than conventional OLEDs. Also easy integration is possible with Si-based driving circuits for active matrix OLED. But, a proper buffer layer for carrier injection is needed in order to get a good performance. The buffer layer protects underlying organic materials against destructive particles during the electrode deposition and improves their charge transport efficiency by reducing the charge injection barrier. Hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN), a discoid organic molecule, has been used successfully in tandem OLEDs due to its high workfunction more than 6.1 eV. And it has the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level near to Fermi level. So it plays like a strong electron acceptor. In this experiment, we measured energy level alignment and hole current density on inverted OLED structures for hole injection. The normal film structure of Al/NPB/ITO showed bad characteristics while the HAT-CN insertion between Al and NPB greatly improved hole current density. The behavior can be explained by charge generation at the HAT-CN/NPB interface and gap state formation at Al/HAT-CN interface, respectively. This result indicates that a proper organic buffer layer can be successfully utilized to enhance hole injection efficiency even with low work function Al anode.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.73-86
• /
• 1990

The technique of Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) has been examined with emphasis on its inherent sensitivity to the existence of thin films or surface equivalents. A brief review of related theories like the Fresnel reflection coefficients, the effect of a multilayer upon reflectivities, together with the validity of the effective medium theory and the modelling procedure, is followed by a short description of the experimental setup of a rotating polarizer type SE as well as the necessful expressions which lead to tan and cos. Out of its numerous, successful applications, a few are exampled to convince a reader that SE can be applied to a variety of research fields related to surface, interface and thin films. Specifically, those are adsorption and/or desorption on metals or semiconductors, oxidation process, formation of passivation layers on an electrode, thickness determination, interface between semiconductor and its oxide, semiconductor heterojunctions, surface microroughness, void distribution of dielectric, optical thin films, depth profile of multilayered samples, in-situ or in-vitro characterization of a solid surface immersed in electrolyte during electrochemical, chemical, or biological treatments, and so on. It is expected that the potential capability of SE will be widely utilized in a very near future, taking advantage of its sensitivity to thin films or surface equivalents, and its nondestructive, nonperturbing characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.73-77
• /
• 2021

Inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite solar cells have demonstrated considerable improvements, reaching 25.5% of certified power conversion efficiency in 2020 from 3.8% in 2009. In normal structured perovskite solar cells, TiO2 electron-transporting materials require heat treatment process at a high temperature over 450℃ to induce crystallinity. Inverted perovskite solar cells have also been studied to exclude the additional thermal process by using [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as a non-oxide electron-transporting layer. However, the drawback of the PCBM layer is a charge accumulation at the interface between PCBM and a metal electrode. The impact of bathocuproin (BCP) buffer layer on photovoltaic performance has been investigated herein to solve the problem of PCBM. 2-mM BCP-modified perovskite solar cells were observed to exhibit a maximum efficiency of 12.03% compared with BCP-free counterparts (5.82%) due to the suppression of the charge accumulation at the PCBM-Au interface and the resulting reduction of the charge recombination between perovskite and the PCBM layer.

• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.76-80
• /
• 2001

We have fabricated YBa$_2$Cu$_3$$O_{7-x}$ (YBCO) ramp-edge Josephson junctions by modifying ramp edges of the base electrodes without depositing any artificial barrier layer. YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O/7-x//SrTiO$_3$ (YBCO/STO) films were deposited on SrTiO$_3$(100) by on-axis KrF laser deposition. After patterning the bottom YBCO/STO layer, the ramp edge was cleaned by ion-beam and then reacted with deionized water under various conditions prior to the deposition of counter-electrode layers. The top YBCO/STO layer was deposited and patterned by photolithography and ion milling. We measured current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, magnetic field modulation of the critical current at 77 K. Some showed resistively shunted junction (RSJ)-type I-V characteristics, while others exhibited flux-flow behaviors, depending on the dipping time of the ramp edge in deionized water. Junctions fabricated using optimized conditions showed fairly uniform distribution of junction parameters such as I$_{c}$R$_{n}$ values, which were about 0.16 mV at 77 K with 1$\sigma$~ 24%. We made a dc SQUID with the same deionized water treated junctions, and it showed the sinusoidal modulation under applied magnetic field at 77 K. 77 K.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.14 no.10
• /
• pp.688-695
• /
• 2004

The capacitor contact barrier(CCB) layers have been introduced in the FeRAM integration to prevent the Pt/Al reaction during the back-end processes. Therefore, the interdiffusion and intermetallic formation in $Pt(1500{\AA})/Al(3000{\AA})$ film stacks were investigated over the annealing temperature range of $100\sim500^{\circ}C$. The interdiffusion in Pt/Al interface started at $300^{\circ}C$ and the stack was completlely intermixed after annealing over $400^{\circ}C$ in nitrogen ambient for 1 hour. Both XRD and SBM analyses revealed that the Pt/Al interdiffusion formed a single phase of $RtAl_2$ intermetallic compound. On the other hand, in the presence of TiN($1000{\AA}$) barrier layer at the Pt/Al interface, the intermetallic formation was completely suppressed even after the annealing at $500^{\circ}C$. These were in good agreement with the predicted effect of the TiN diffusion barrier layer. But the conventional TiN CCB layer could not perfectly block the Pt/Al reaction during the back-end processes of the FeRAM integration with the maximum annealing temperature of $420^{\circ}C$. The difference in the TiN barrier properties could be explained by the voids generated on the Pt electrode surface during the integration. The voids were acted as the starting point of the Pt/Al reaction in real FeRAM structure.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.22 no.8
• /
• pp.390-396
• /
• 2012

Ag pastes added to Bi-oxide frits have been applied to the electrode material of Si solar cells. It has been reported that frits induce contacts between the Ag electrodes and the Si wafer after firing. During firing, the control of interfaces among Ag, the glass layer, and Si is one of the key factors for improving cell performance. Specifically, the thermo-physical properties of frits considerably influence Ag-Si contact. Therefore, the thermal properties of frits should be carefully controlled to enhance the efficiency of cells. In this study, the interface structures among Ag electrodes, glass layers, and recrystallites on an $n^+$ emitter were carefully analyzed with the thermal properties of lead-free frits. First, a cross-section of the area between the Ag electrodes and the Si wafer was studied in order to understand the interface structures in light of the thermal properties of the frits. The depth and area of the pits formed in the Si wafer were quantitatively calculated with the thermal properties of frits. The area of the glass layers between the Ag electrodes and Si, and the distribution of recrystallites on the $n^+$ emitter, were measured from a macroscopic point of view with the characteristics of the frits. Our studies suggest that the thermophysical properties should be controlled for the optimal performance of Si solar cells; our studies also show why cell performance deteriorated due to the high viscosity of frits in Ag pastes.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.88-94
• /
• 2003

Electromyogram (EMG) is the bioelectric signal induced by motor nerves. Analyzing EMG with the movement produced by muscle contraction, we can provide input commands to a computer as a man-machine interface as well as can evaluate the patient's motional abnormality. In this paper, we developed an integrated miniaturized device which acquires and transmits the surface EMG of an interested muscle. Developed system measures $60{\times}40{\times}25mm$, weighs 100g. Using an amplifier circuitry on the electrodes and the radio frequency transmission, the developed system dispenses with the use of cables among the electrodes, amplifier, and the post processing system (personal computer). The wiring used in conventional systems can be obstacle for natural motion and source of motion artifacts. In results, the developed system improves not only the signal-to-noise ration in dynamic EMG measurement, but also the user convenience. We propose a new human-computer interface as well as a dynamic EMG measurement system as a possible application of the developed system.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.23-26
• /
• 1999

The Langmuir adsorption isotherm at the $(Pt)/0.1M\;H_2SO_4$ electrolyte interface has been qualitatively analyzed using the ac impedance measurement and phase-shift method. The phase shift $(\phi)$ depends on both the cathode potential (E<0) and frequency (f) and is inversely proportional to the factional surface coverage $(\theta)$. At an intermediate frequency band (ca. $1\~100$ Hz), the phase-shift profile $(\phi\;vs.\;E)$ can be related to the fractional surface coverage $(\theta\;vs.\;E)$. The phase-shift profile $(\phi\;vs.\;E)$ can be used as an experimental method to estimate and analyze the Langmuir adsorption isotherm $(\theta\;vs.\;E)$. The equilibrium constant (K) and the standard free energy $({\Delta}G_{ads})$ of the adsorbed hydrogen atom $(H_{ads})\;and\;3\times10^{-4}$ and 20.1 kJ/mol, respectively.