• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.405-410
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• 2008

Ceramics are widely used as plasma resistant materials in semiconductor industries. However, the plasma erosion resistance has not been properly evaluated in terms of microstructural changes during the exposure to plasma. In this study, microstructure developments of $Al_2O_3$ were investigated under the fluorine plasma conditions. In polycrystalline alumina, uniform erosion throughout the specimen as well as spatially distributed local erosion were observed. Local erosion was much more severe in lower purity alumina. In contrast to the polycrystalline alumina, only uniform erosion was observed in single crystalline sapphire. These specimens, however, had practically the same erosion depth, which results in the incorrectly similar plasma resistance. This implies that the plasma erosion resistance of ceramics should be evaluated in terms of the microstructural changes, as well as the conventionally accepted erosion depth.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.203-207
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• 1998

After etching Al-Cu alloy films using $SiCl_4/Cl_2/He/CHF_3$ plasma, a corrosion phenomenon on the metal surface has been studied with XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and SEM (Scanning electron microscopy). In Al-Cu alloy system, the corrosion occurs rapidly on the etched surface by residual chlorine atoms. To prevent the corrosion, the $SF_6$ plasma treatment subsequent to the etch has been carried out. A passivation layer is formed by fluorine-related compounds on etched Al-Cu alloy surface after $SF_6$ treatment, and the layer suppresses effectively the corrosion on the surface as the RF power of $SF_6$ treatment increases. The corrosion could be suppressed successfully with $SF_6$ treatment in the RF power of 150watts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.62-62
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• 2015

In this study, we study the effects of CF4 plasma treatment on the characteristics of enhancement mode (E-mode) AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The CF4 plasma is generated by inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) system. The CF4 gas is decomposed into fluorine ions by ICP-RIE and then fluorine ions will effect the AlGaN/GaN interface to inhibit the electron transport of two dimension electron gas (2DEG) and increase channel resistance. The CF4 plasma method neither like the recessed type which have to utilize Cl2/BCl3 to etch semiconductor layer nor ion implantation needed high power to implant ions into semiconductor. Both of techniques will cause semiconductor damage. In the experiment, the CF4 treatment time are 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 seconds. It was found that the devices treated 100 seconds showed best electric performance. In order to prove fluorine ions existing and CF4 plasma treatment not etch epitaxial layer, the secondary ion mass spectrometer confirmed fluorine ions truly existing in the sample which treatment time 100 seconds. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy showed that the sample treated time 100 seconds did not have etch phenomena. Atomic layer deposition is used to grow Al2O3 with thickness 10, 20, 30 and 40 nm. In electrical measurement, the device that deposited 20-nm-thickness Al2O3 showed excellent current ability, the forward saturation current of 210 mA/mm, transconductance (gm) of 44.1 mS/mm and threshold voltage of 2.28 V, ION/IOFF reach to 108. As IV concerning the breakdown voltage measurement, all kinds of samples can reach to 1450 V.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 1998

In this study, chlorine(Cl)-based gas chemistry is generally used to etching for AlCu films metallization.The corrosion phenomena of AlCu films were examined with XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), SEM 9Scanning electron microscopy), and TEM (Transmission electron microscopy). SF$_{6}$ plasma treatment sulbsequent to the etching process preventas the corrosion effectively in the pressure of 300 mTorr. It is found that the cholrine atoms on the etched surface are not substituted for fluorine atoms during SF$_{6}$ treatment, but a passivation layer on the surface by fluorine-related compounds would be formed. The passivation layer prevents the moisture penetration on the SF$_{6}$ treated surface and suppresses the corrsion sucessfully.fully.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.258-263
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• 2001

Siloxane thin films were fabricated on a silicon wafer by spin-coating using a siloxane solution made by the sol-gel process. Fluorine was doped using$ CF_4$ plasma treatment. The film was then annealed in-situ state in the nitrogen atmosphere. In order to examine the influence of annealing and fluorine doping on the siloxane thin film, thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used and the dielectric constant was determined by the high-frequency capacitance-voltage method. Stable siloxane films could be obtained by in-situ annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere after $CF_4$ plasma treatment, and the dielectric value of the film was $\varepsilon$ 2.5.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.383-386
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• 1998

After etching Al-Cu alloy films using SiC1$_4$/Cl$_2$/He/CHF$_3$ plasma, a corrosion phenomenon on the metal surface has been studied with XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and SEM (Scanning electron microscopy). In Al-Cu alloy system, the corrosion occurs rapidly on the etched surface by residual chlorine atoms. To prevent the corrosion, CHF$_3$ plasma treatment subsequent to the etched has been carried out. A passivation layer is formed by fluorine-related compounds on the etched Al-Cu surface after CHF$_3$ and SF$_{6}$ treatment, and the layer supresses effectively the corrosion on the surface as the CHF$_3$ and SF$_{6}$ treatment pressure increases. The corrosion could be suppressed successfully with CHF$_3$ and SF6 treatment in the pressure of 300mTorr.orr.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.146-150
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• 2021

Plasma information based virtual metrology (PI-VM) that predicts wafer-to-wafer etch rate variation after wet cleaning of plasma facing parts was developed. As input parameters, plasma information (PI) variables such as electron temperature, fluorine density and hydrogen density were extracted from optical emission spectroscopy (OES) data for etch plasma. The PI-VM model was trained by stepwise variable selection method and multi-linear regression method. The expected etch rate by PI-VM showed high correlation coefficient with measured etch rate from SEM image analysis. The PI-VM model revealed that the root cause of etch rate variation after the wet cleaning was desorption of hydrogen from the cleaned parts as hydrogen combined with fluorine and decreased etchant density and etch rate.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2018

Samples of anodic oxide film used in semiconductor and display manufacturing processes were prepared at different electrolyte temperatures to investigate the corrosion resistance. The anodic oxide film was grown on aluminum alloy 6061 by using a sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) electrolyte of 1.5 M at $0^{\circ}C$, $5^{\circ}C$, $10^{\circ}C$, $15^{\circ}C$, and $20^{\circ}C$. The insulating properties of the samples were evaluated by measuring the breakdown voltage, which gradually increased from 0.43 kV ($0^{\circ}C$) to 0.52 kV ($5^{\circ}C$), 1.02 kV ($10^{\circ}C$), and 1.46 kV ($15^{\circ}C$) as the electrolyte temperature was increased from $0^{\circ}C$ to $15^{\circ}C$, but then decreased to 1.24 kV ($20^{\circ}C$). To evaluate the erosion of the film by fluorine plasma, the plasma erosion and the contamination particles were measured. The plasma erosion was evaluated by measuring the breakdown voltage after exposing the film to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ and $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasmas. With exposure to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ plasma, the breakdown voltage of the film slightly decreased at $0^{\circ}C$, by 0.41 kV; however, the breakdown voltage significantly decreased at $20^{\circ}C$, by 0.83 kV. With exposure to $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasma, the breakdown voltage of the film slightly decreased at $0^{\circ}C$, by 0.38 kV; however, the breakdown voltage significantly decreased at $20^{\circ}C$, by 0. 77 kV. In addition, for the entire temperature range, the breakdown voltage decreased more when sample was exposed to $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasma than to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ plasma. The decrease of the breakdown voltage was lower in the anodic oxide film samples that were grown slowly at lower temperatures. The rate of breakdown voltage decrease after exposure to fluorine plasma was highest at $20^{\circ}C$, indicating that the anodic oxide film was most vulnerable to erosion by fluorine plasma at that temperature. Contamination particles generated by exposure to the $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ and $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasmas were measured on a real-time basis. The number of contamination particles generated after the exposure to the respective plasmas was lower at $5^{\circ}C$ and higher at $0^{\circ}C$. In particular, for the entire temperature range, about five times more contamination particles were generated with exposure to $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasma than for exposure to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ plasma. Observation of the surface of the anodic oxide film showed that the pore size and density of the non-treated film sample increased with the increase of the temperature. The change of the surface after exposure to fluorine plasma was greatest at $0^{\circ}C$. The generation of contamination particles by fluorine plasma exposure for the anodic oxide film prepared in the present study was different from that of previous aluminum anodic oxide films.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2021

High reliability thin film transistors are important factors for next-generation displays. The reliability of transparent a-IGZO semiconductors is being actively studied for display applications. A plasma treatment can fill the oxygen vacancies in the channel layer and the channel layer/insulating layer interface so that the device can work stably under a bias voltage. This paper studies the effect of plasma treatment on the performance of a-IGZO TFT devices. The influence of different plasma gases on the electrical parameters of device and its working reliability are reviewed. The article mentions argon, fluorine, hydrogen and several ways of processing in the atmosphere. Among these methods, F (fluorine) plasma treatment can maximize equipment reliability. It is expected that the presented results will form a basis for further research to improve the reliability of a-IGZO TFT.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.16-21
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• 1999

After etching Al-Cu alloy films using SiCl4/Cl_2/He/CHF3 mixed gas plasma, the corrosion phenomenon at the grain boundary of the etched surface and a passivation layer on the etched surface with an SF6 plasma treatment subsequent to the etching were studied. In Al-Cu alloy system, corrosion occurs rapidly on the etched surface by residual chlorine atoms, and it occurs dominantly at the grain boundaries rather than the crystalline surfaces. To prevent corrosion, the SF6 gas plasma treatment subsequent to etching was carried out. The passivation layer is composed of fluorine-related compounds on the etched Al-Cu surface after the SF6 treatment, and it suppresses effectively corrosion on the surface as the SF6 treatment pressure increases. Corrosion could be suppressed successfully with the SF6 treatment at a total pressure of 300 mTorr. To investigate the reason why corrosion could be suppressed with the SF6 treatment, behaviors of chlorine and fluorine were studied by various analysis techniques. It was also found that the residual chlorine incorporated at the grain boundary of the etched surface accelerated corrosion and could not be removed after the SF6 plasma treatment.