• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2000

Ferroelectric YMnO$_3$ thin films are excellent dielectric materials for high integrated ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) with metal-ferroelectric-silicon field effect transistor (MFSFET) structure. In this study, YMnO$_3$ thin films were etched with C1$_2$/Ar gas chemistries in inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The maximum etch rate of YMnO$_3$ thin films is 285 $\AA$/min under C1$_2$/Ar of 10/0, 600 W/-200 V and 15 mTorr. The selectivities of YMnO$_3$ over CeO$_2$ and $Y_2$O$_3$ are 2.85, 1.72, respectively. The results of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reflect that Y is removed dominantly by chemical reaction between Y and Cl, while Mn is removed more effective by Ar ion bombardment than chemical reaction. The results of secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) were equal to these of XPS. The etch profile of the etched YMnO$_3$ film is approximately 65$^{\circ}$and free of residues at the sidewall.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05b
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• pp.74-77
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• 2002

Ferroelectric Random Access Memory(FRAM) and MEMS applications require noble metal or refractory metal oxide electrodes. In this study, Ru thin films were etched using $O_2$+10% $CF_4$ plasma in an inductively coupled plasma(ICP) etching system. The etch rate of Ru thin films was examined as function of rf power, DC bias applied to the substrate. The enhanced etch rate can be obtained not only with increasing rf power and DC bias voltage, but also with small addition $CF_4$ gas. The selectivity of $SiO_2$ over Ru are 1.3. Radical densities of oxygen and fluorine in $CF_4/O_2$ plasma have been investigated by optical emission spectroscopy(OES). The etching profiles of Ru films with an photoresist pattern were measured by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The additive gas increases the concentration of oxygen radicals, therefore increases the etch rate of the Ru thin films and enhances the etch slope. In $O_2$+10% $CF_4$ plasma, the etch rate of Ru thin films increases up to 10% $CF_4$ but decreases with increasing $CF_4$ mixing ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.04b
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• pp.13-17
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• 2004

The PZT thin films are well-known material that has been widely studied for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM). We etched the PZT thin films by $CF_4/(Cl_2+Ar)$ plasma and investigated improvement in etching damage by $O_2$ annealing. PZT thin films were etched for 1 min in an ICP using a gas mixture of $Cl_2$(80%)/Ar (20%) with 30% $CF_4$ addition. The etching conditions were fixed at a substrate temperature of $30^{\circ}C$, an rf power of 700 W, a dc-bias voltage of -200 V and a chamber pressure of 2 Pa. To improve the ferroelectric properties of PZT thin films after etching, the samples were annealed for 10 min at various temperatures in $O_2$ atmosphere. After $O_2$ annealing, the remanent polarization, fatigue, and the leakage current were gradually recovered to the characteristics of the as-deposited film, according as the temperature increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.66-66
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• 2007

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is one of the most attractive perovskite-type materials for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) due to its higher remanant polarization and the ability to withstand higher coercive fields. We first applied the damascene process using chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to fabricate the PZT thin film capacitor to solve the problems of plasma etching including low etching profile and ion charging. The $0.8{\times}0.8\;{\mu}m$ square patterns of silicon dioxide on Pt/Ti/$SiO_2$/Si substrate were coated by sol-gel method with the precursor solution of PZT. Damascene process by CMP was performed to pattern the PZT thin film with the vertical sidewall and no plasma damage. The polarization-voltage (P-V) characteristics of PZT capacitors and the current-voltage characteristics (I-V) were examined by change of process parameters. To examine the CMP induced damage to PZT capacitor, the domain structure of the polished PZT thin film was also investigated by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM).

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2000

Recently, SrBi$_{2}$Ta$_{2}$ $O_{9}$(SBT) and Pb(Zr,Ti) $O_{3}$(PZT) were much attracted as materials of capacitor for ferroelectric random access memory(FRAM) with higher read/ write speed, lower power consumption and nonvolartility. SBT thin film has appeared as the most prominent fatigue free and low operation voltage. To highly integrate FRAM, SBT thin film has to be etched. A lot of papers have been reported over growth of SBT thin film and its characteristics. However, there are few reports about etching SBT thin film owing to difficult of etching ferroelectric materials. SBT thin film was etched in CF$_{4}$Ar plasma using magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma (MEICP) system. In order to investigate the chemical reaction on the etched surface of SBT thin films, X-ray Photoelecton spectrosocpy (XPS) and Secondary ion mass spectroscopy(SIMS) was performed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.783-787
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• 2002

In recent year, B $i_{4-}$x L $a_{x}$ $Ti_3$ $O_{12(BLT)}$ is one of promising substitute materials for the ferroelectric random access memory(FRAM) applications. But the systematic composition is still insufficient, so this experiment was carried out in ceramic ambient sintering process which has the very excellent ferroelectric property. Samples were prepared by a bulk and the purpose which was estimated with a suitability of thin films applications. The density of B $i_{3.75}$ L $a_{0.25}$ $Ti_3$ $O_{12}$ was high and the XRD pattern showed that the intensity of main peak (117) was increased at the argon ambient sintering. Controlling the quantity of oxygen, crystallization showed a thin, long plate like type, and we obtained the excellent dielectric and polarization properties at the argon atmosphere sintering. Also this sintering process was effective at the bulk sample. Argon ambient sintered sample produced higher permittivity of 154, the remanent polarization(2Pr) of 6.8 uC/$\textrm{cm}^2$ compared with that sintered in air and oxygen ambient. And this sintering process showed a possibility which could be applied to thin films process..

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1553-1555
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• 1999

Recently, $SrBi_2Ta_2O_9$(SBT) and $Pb(ZrTi)O_3$(PZT) were much attracted as materials of capacitor for ferroelectric random access memory(FRAM) showing higher read/write speed, lower power consumption and nonvolartility. Bi-layered SBT thin film has appeared as the most prominent fatigue free and low operation voltage for use in nonvolatile memory. To highly integrate FRAM, SBT thin film should be etched. A lot of papers on SBT thin film and its characteristics have been studied. However, there are few reports about SBT thin film due to difficulty of etching. In order to investigate properties of etching of SBT thin film, SBT thin film was etched in $CF_4$/Ar gas plasma using magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma (MEICP) system. When $CF_4/(CF_4+Ar)$ is 0.1, etch rate of SBT thin film was $3300{\AA}/min$, and etch rate of Pt was $2495{\AA}/min$. Selectivities of SBT to Pt. $SiO_2$ and photoresist(PR) were 1.35, 0.6 and 0.89, respectively. With increasing $CF_4$ gas, etch rate of SBT thin film and $P_t$ decreased.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.223-226
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• 2004

The PZT thin films are one of well-known materials that has been widely studied for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM). We etched the PZT thin films by $CF_{4}/(Cl_{2}+Ar)$ plasma and investigated improvement in etching damage by $O_{2}$ annealing. The maximum etch rate of the PZT thin films was 157 nrn/min and that the selectivity of the PZT thin films to Pt was 3.1 when $CF_{4}(30{\%})$ was added to a $Cl_{2}(80{\%})/Ar(20{\%})$ gas mixing ratio. To improve the ferroelectric properties of PZT thin films after etching, the samples were annealed for 10 min at various temperatures in $O_{2}$ atmosphere. After $O_{2}$ annealing, the remanent polarization of the asdeposited films was $34.6{\mu}/cm^{2}$ and the sample annealed at 650, 550, and $450^{\circ}C$ was 32.8, 22.3, and $18.6{\mu}/cm^{2}$, respectively. PZT thin films with $O_{2}$ annealing at $450^{\circ}C$ retained $77{\%}$ of their original polarization at 106 cycles. Also as the annealing temperature increased, the fatigue properties improved. And the leakage current was decreased gradually and almost recovered to the as-deposited value after the annealing at $450^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.125-125
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• 2003

PZT(Pb(Zr,Ti)O3)는 우수한 강유전 특성을 가지기 때문에 FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) 소자에 응용하기 위해 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 스퍼터에 의해 증착된 PZT는 처음에 pyrochlore상으로 존재하다가 후 열처리를 통해 이력 특성을 나타내는 perovskite상으로 천이된다. 일반적인 furnace열처리 방법은 고온에서의 장시간 열처리가 요구되고 Pb-loss현상이나 TiO2와 같은 이차상의 생성 그리고 하부 Pt전극의 roughness증가 및 crack과 같은 문제점이 있다. 최근 들어 후 열처리를 RTA로 이용하는 연구가 진행되고 있는데 이는 열처리 시간이 짧기 때문에 위와 같은 문제점을 개선할 수 있었다. 하지만 RTA방법 또한 어느 정도의 thermal budget이 존재하고 추가적 장비가 필요하며 기판의 전체적 가열공정이므로 다른 CMOS공정과 compatibility가 떨어진다. 따라서 본 실험에서는 위와 같은 문제를 해결하고자 노력을 집중하였고 이를 위한 새로운 열처리 방법을 개발하였다. 즉 Pt 하부전극에 전압(전류)을 인가하여 순간적으로 고온으로 결정화시키는 새로운 공정을 모색하였는데 이와 같은 방법은 열처리를 위한 추가적인 장비가 필요없고 국부적으로 순간적인 가열이기 때문에 glass기판에도 적합하며 RTA보다 승온시간 및 열처리 시간이 짧기 때문에 thermal budget도 줄일 수 있었다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.570-573
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• 2002

Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PZT) thin films were deposited on the Pt/Ti bottom electrode by rf magnetron sputtering method from target containing 5%, 25% and 50% Pb excess for applying ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM). PZT films were deposited at $300^{\circ}C$ and then they were crystallized by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at $700^{\circ}C$. After RTA treatment, our results showed that all PZT films indicated perovskite polycrystalline structure with preferred orientation (110) and no pyrochlore phase was observed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A well-fabricated PZT film of excess Pb 25% capacitor showed a leakage current density in the order of $2.63{\times}10^{-7}A/cm^2$ at 100kV/cm, a remanent polarization of $3.385{\mu}C/cm^2$ and a coercive field of 41.32 kV/cm. The results showed that Pb excess of target affects to electrical properties of PZT thin film.