• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.6-6
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• 2010

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)를 포함한 Transparent Conduction Oxide (TCO)는 LCD, OLED와 같은 Display, 그리고 Solar Cell 등 광신호와 전기신호간 변환이 필요한 모든 Device에 반드시 필요한 핵심 물질로, 특히 고특성 Display의 투명전극에서 요청되는 95% 이상의 투과도와 $15\;{\Omega}/{\square}$ 이하의 면저항 특성을 동시에 만족할 수 있는 기술은 현재까지 Plasma Sputtering 공정으로 $160^{\circ}C$ 이상에서 증착된 ITO 박막이 유일하다. 그러나, 최근 차세대 기술로서 Plastic Film을 기반으로 하는 Flexible Display 및 Flexible Solar Cell 구현에 대한 요구가 급증하면서, Plastic Film 기판위에 Plasma Damage이 없이 상온에 가까운 저온 ($100^{\circ}C$ 이하)에서 특성이 우수한 ITO 투명전극을 형성 할 수 있는 기술의 확보가 중요한 현안이 되고 있다. 지난 10년 동안 $100^{\circ}C$이하 저온에서 고특성의 ITO 또는 TCO 박막을 얻기위한 다양한 연구와 구체적인 공정이 활발히 연구되어 왔으나, ITO의 결정화 온도 (통상 $150{\sim}180^{\circ}C$)이하에서 증착된 ITO박막은 비정질 상태의 물성적 특성을 보여 원하는 전기적, 광학적 특성확보가 어려웠다. 본 논문에선 기본적으로 절연체 특성을 가져야 하는 산화물인 TCO가 반도체 또는 도체의 물리적 특성을 보여주는 기본원리의 고찰을 토대로, 재료학적 특성상 Crystalline 구조를 보여야 하는 ITO (Complex Cubic Bixbyte Structure)가 Plasma Sputtering 공정으로 저온에서 증착될 때 비정질 구조를 갖게 되는 원인을 규명하고, 이를 바탕으로 저온에서 증착된 ITO가 Crystalline 구조를 유지 할 수 있게 하고, Stress Control에 유리한 Nano-Crystalline 박막을 형성하면서 Crystallinity를 임의로 조절 할 수 있는 새로운 기술인 Magnetic Field Shielding Sputtering (MFSS) 공정과 최근 성과를 소개한다. 한편, 또 다른 새로운 저온 TCO 박막형성 기술로서, 유기반도체와 같은 Process Damage에 매우 취약한 유기물 위에 Plasma Damage 없이 TCO 박막을 직접 형성할 수 있는 Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering (NBAS) 기술의 원리를 설명하고, 본 공정을 적용한 Top Emission OLED 소자의 결과를 소개한다. 또한, 고온공정이 수반되는 Solar Cell용 투명전극의 경우, 통상의 TCO박막이 고온공정을 거치면서 전기적 특성이 열화되는 원인을 규명하고, 이에 대한 근본적 해결 방법으로 ITO 박막의 Dopant인 Tin (Sn) 원자의 활성화를 증가시킨 Inductively Coupled Plasma Assisted DC Magnetron Sputtering (ICPDMS)의 원리와 박막의 물성적 특성과 내열 특성을 소개한다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.117-117
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• 2000

높은 광학적 투과성과 전기전도성을 갖는 ITO film은 solar cell같은 optoelectronic device나 휴대용 소형 TV, flat panel display 등의 투명전극으로 그 응용 분야가 광범위하여 많은 연구가 수행되어져 왔다. 기판으로서 유리를 사용할 때 생기는 활용범위 제한을 극복하고자 최근 유기물 위에 증착이 가능한 저온 증착방법에 대한 연구가 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 그 가운데 이온빔과 같은 energetic한 beam을 이용한 박막의 제조는 기판을 플라즈마 발생지역으로부터 분리시켜 이온빔의 flux 및 에너지, 입사각 등의 자유로운 조절을 통해 상온에서도 우수한 성질의 박막형성 가능성이 제시되어 지고 있다. ITO박막을 형성하는 방법 중 스프레이법이나 CVD법과 같은 화학적 증착방법은 증착시 350-50$0^{\circ}C$의 고온이 필요하고 현재 가장 많이 응용되어 지고 있는 sputter법은 15$0^{\circ}C$정도의 가열이 필요하므로 앞으로 응용가능성이 매우 커서 많은 연구가 진행중인 플라스틱과 아크릴 같은 flexible 한 기판위 증착에 적용이 불가능하다. 본 실험에서는 IBAD(Ion Beam Assisted Deposition)법을 이용하여 저온 ITO film을 유리와 유기막위에 증착하는 연구를 수행하였다. 유기막위에 증착된 ITO는 보다 가볍고 충격에 강하고 유리에 못지 않은 투과성을 가지고 있으나 현재 film의 quality 향상에 대한 요구가 증대되어 지고 있는 실정이다. 따라서, 본 실험에서는 dual oxygen ion gun의 조건변화에 따른 ITO film의 특성변화를 관찰하였다. 고정된 증？율에 한 개 ion gun에 ion flux를 고정시킨 후 또 다른 ion gun에서 발생하는 oxygen radical의 영향을 조사하였으며 oxygen radical의 rf power에 따른 변화는 OES(Optical emission spectroscopy)를 사용하였다. 너무 적은 oxygen ion beam flux나 oxygen radical은 film의 전도도 및 투과도를 저하시켰고 반면 너무 과도한 flux의 증가 시는 전도도는 감소하였고 투과도는 증가하는 경향을 보였다. 기판에 도달하는 oxygen ion flux는 faraday cup을 이용하여 측정하였으며 증착된 ITO film은 XPS, UV-spectrometer, 4-point probe를 이용하여 분석하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.448-448
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• 2007

OLED has many advantages of low voltage operation, self radiation, light weight, thin thickness, wide view angle and fast response time to overcome existing liquid crystal display (LCD)'s weakness. Therefore, It draws attention as promising display and has already developed for manufactured goods. Also, OLED is regarded as a only substitute of flexible display with a thin display. However, Indium tin oxide(ITO) thin film for electrode of OLED shows a low electrical properties and is impossible to deposit at high thermal condition because electrical characteristics of ITO is getting worse. One of the ways to realize an improved flexible OLED is to use high internal efficiency electrodes, which have higher work function than those single layer of ITO films of the same thickness. The high internal efficiency electrodes film is developed with structure of nickel oxide for bottom Emission Type of OLED.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.316-316
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• 2008

Using an evaporation method, $SiO_2$ was deposited as a buffer layer between a flexible PET substrate and a ITO film deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and electro-optical properties were investigated with thickness variance of $SiO_2$ layers. After coating a $SiO_2$ layer and a ITO film, the ITO/$SiO_2$/PET was heated up to $200^{\circ}C$ and the resistivity and the transmittance were measured by hall effect measurement system and UV/VIS/NIR spectroscopy. As a result of depositing a $SiO_2$ buffer layer, the resistivity increased and the transmittance and adhesion property were enhanced than ITO films with no buffer layers and the resistivity was lowered as $SiO_2$ thickness increased from 50 $\AA$ to 100 $\AA$. It was found that the transmittance was independent of annealing temperature variance in $150^{\circ}C{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ and the resistivity decreased as the temperature increased and especially decreasing rate of the resistivity was higher as the buffer layer thickness was thinner. So under optimized depositing of $SiO_2$ buffer layers and post-annealing of ITO/$SiO_2$/PET, ITO films with enhanced adhesion, electro-optical properties can obtained.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2022

The effect of the structure of an ITO nanoparticle film sensor on its performance was studied. A printed ITO film (P-ITO film) was fabricated on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, and the contact resistance of the electrode and sensor response change were clarified according to the detection position. The contact resistance between Ag and P-ITO was observed to be -204.4 Ω using the transmission line method (TLM), confirming that a very good ohmic contact is possible. In addition, we confirmed that the contact position of the analyte had a significant influence on the response of the sensor. Based on these results, the performance of the four types of sensors was compared. Consequently, we observed that 1) optimizing the resistance of the printed film, 2) optimizing the electrode structure and analyte input position, and 3) optimizing the electrode area are very important for fabricating a metal oxide nanoparticle (MONP) sensor with optimal performance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.563-568
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• 2012

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were prepared using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method, magnets were equipped near the target in the sputter to bring the plasma near the target. The effect of magnetic field that brings the plasma near the substrate was compared with that of substrate heating. The effect of substrate heating on the grain size of the ITO thin film was larger than that of the magnetic field. However, the grain size of the ITO thin film was larger when the magnetic field was applied near the substrate during the sputtering process than when the substrate was not heated and the magnetic field was not applied. If stronger magnetic field is applied near the substrate during sputtering, it can be expected that the ITO thin film with good electrical conductivity and high transparency is obtained at low substrate temperature. When magnetic field of 90 Gauss was applied near the substrate during sputtering, the mobility of the ITO thin film increased from 15.2 $cm^2/V.s$ to 23.3 $cm^2/V.s$, whereas the sheet resistivity decreased from 7.68 ${\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ to 5.11 ${\Omega}{\cdot}cm$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.53-57
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• 2017

The most representative transparent electrode in the modern society is ITO (Indium Tin Oxide). ITO is widely used in general for touch panels and displays due to its high electrical and optical properties. However, in general, mechanical deformation causes deterioration and destruction of device properties because ITO is basically vulnerable to mechanical deformation. Therefore, the in-depth understanding on the stability of ITO film during various mechanical deformations is necessary. In this study, the reliability and mechanical properties ITO sample having different length, width, and area were investigated. The electrical stability was estimated according to electrical resistance change. The stability was dropped as the sample length, and width increased and the sample area decreased. The electrical stability of ITO film was correlated with twisting strain including tensile, compressive and shear stress.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.415-416
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• 2010

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 2007

The ITO thin films were prepared by facing targets sputtering (FTS) system on polycarbonate (PC) substrate. The ITO thin films were deposited with a film thickness of 100 nm at room temperature. As a function of sputtering conditions, electrical and optical properties of prepared ITO thin films were measure. The electrical and optical characteristics of the ITO thin films were evaluted by Hall Effect Measurement (EGK) and UV/VIS spectrometer (HP), respectively. From the results, the ITO thin films was deposited with a resistivity $8{\times}10^{4}\;{\Omega}-cm$ and transmittance over 80 %.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.56-56
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• 2018

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) have attracted attention due to their high electrical conductivity and optical transparency in the visible region. Consequently, TCOs have been widely used as electrode materials in various electronic devices such as flat panel displays and solar cells. Previous studies on TCOs focused on their electrical and optical performances; there have been numerous attempts to improve these properties, such as chemical doping and crystallinity enhancement. Recently, due to rapidly increasing demand for flexible electronics, the academic interest in the mechanical stability of materials has come to the fore as a major issue. In particular, long-term stability under bending is a crucial requirement for flexible electrodes; however, research on this feature is still in the nascent stage. Hydrogen-incorporated amorphous In-Sn-O (a-ITO) thin films were fabricated by introducing hydrogen gas during deposition. The hydrogen concentration in the film was determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry and was found to vary from $4.7{\times}10^{20}$ to $8.1{\times}10^{20}cm^{-3}$ with increasing $H_2$ flow rate. The mechanical stability of the a-ITO thin films dramatically improved because of hydrogen incorporation, without any observable degradation in their electrical or optical properties. With increasing hydrogen concentration, the compressive residual stress gradually decreased and the subgap absorption at around 3.1 eV was suppressed. Considering that the residual stress and subgap absorption mainly originated from defects, hydrogen may be a promising candidate for defect passivation in flexible electronics.