• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.533-534
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• 2006

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.32-42
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• 2004

Recently, plasma surface-cleaning or surface-etching techniques have been focused in respect of the decontamination of spent or used nuclear parts and equipment. In this study the removal rate of metallic cobalt surface is experimentally investigated via its surface etching rate with a $CF_4-o_2$mixed gas plasma. Experimental results reveal that a mixed etchant gas with about 80% $CF_4$-20% $O_2$ (molar) gives the highest reaction rate and the rate reaches 0.06 ${\mu}m$/min at $380^{\circ}C$ and ion-assisted etching dramatically enhances the surface reaction rate. With a negative 300 V DC bias voltage applied to the substrate, the surface reaction initiation temperature lowers and the rate increases about 20 times at $350^{\circ}C$ and up to 0.43 ${\mu}m$/min at $380^{\circ}C$, respectively. Surface morphology analysis confirms the etching rate measurements. Auger spectrum analysis clearly shows the adsorption of fluorine atoms on the reacted surface. From the current experimental findings and the results discussed in previous studies, mechanistic understanding of the surface reaction, fluorination and/or fluoro-carbonylation reaction, is provided.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.195-198
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• 2015

Gas-assisted etching (GAE) with focused ion beam (FIB) was applied to prepare plan-view specimens of Cu thin-layer on a silicon substrate for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). GAE using $XeF_2$ gas selectively etched the silicon substrate without volume loss of the Cu thin-layer. The plan-view specimen of the Cu thin film prepared by FIB milling with GAE was observed by scanning electron microscopy and $C_S$-corrected high-resolution TEM to estimate the size and microstructure of the TEM specimen. The GAE with FIB technique overcame various artifacts of conventional FIB milling technique such as bending, shrinking and non-uniform thickness of the TEM specimens. The Cu thin film was uniform in thickness and relatively larger in size despite of the thickness of <200 nm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11b
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• pp.300-315
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• 2005

Recently plasma surface-cleaning or surface-etching techniques have been focused in the respect of decontamination of spent or used nuclear parts and equipment. In this study decontamination rate of metallic cobalt surface was experimentally investigated via its surface etching rate with a $CF_4-O_2$ mixed gas plasma and metallic surface wastes of cobalt oxides were simulated and decontaminated with $NF_3$ - Ar mixed gas plasma. Experimental results revealed that a mixed etchant gas with about $80{\%}\;CF_4-20{\%}\;O_2$ gives the highest reaction rate of cobalt disk and the rate reaches with a negative 300 DC bias voltage up to $0.43\;{\mu}m$/min at $380^{\circ}C$ and $20{\%}\;NF_3-80\%$ Ar mixed gas gives $0.2\;{\mu}m$/min of reaction rate of cobalt oxide film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.408-408
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• 2012

It is well known that magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is nonvolatile memory devices using ferromagnetic materials. MRAM has the merits such as fast access time, unlimited read/write endurance and nonvolatility. Although DRAM has many advantages containing high storage density, fast access time and low power consumption, it becomes volatile when the power is turned off. Owing to the attractive advantages of MRAM, MRAM is being spotlighted as an alternative device in the future. MRAM consists of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and complementary metal- oxide semiconductor (CMOS). MTJ stacks are composed of various magnetic materials. FePt thin films are used as a pinned layer of MTJ stack. Up to date, an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) method of MTJ stacks showed better results in terms of etch rate and etch profile than any other methods such as ion milling, chemical assisted ion etching (CAIE), reactive ion etching (RIE). In order to improve etch profiles without redepositon, a better etching process of MTJ stack needs to be developed by using different etch gases and etch parameters. In this research, influences of $O_2$ gas on the etching characteristics of FePt thin films were investigated. FePt thin films were etched using ICPRIE in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mix. The etch rate and the etch selectivity were investigated in various $O_2$ concentrations. The etch profiles were studied in varying etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage, and gas pressure. TiN was employed as a hard mask. For observation etch profiles, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.62-65
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• 2001

$SrBi_2Ta_2O_{9}$ thin films were etched in inductively coupled $Cl_{2}$/$CF_{4}$/Ar plasma. The maximum etch rate was 1060 $\AA\textrm{m}$/min in $Cl_{2}$/$CF_{4}$/Ar (80). The chemical reactions on the etched surface were studied with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The etching of SBT thin films in $Cl_{2}$/$CF_{4}$/Ar were etched by chemically assisted reactive ion etching. The small addition of $Cl_2$ into $CF_4$(20)/Ar(80) plasma will decrease the fluorine radicals and the increase Cl radical.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2012

c-BN films were deposited on SKH-51 steels by electron assisted hot filament CVD method and microstructure development was studied processing parameters such as bias voltage, temperature, etching and phase transformation at boundary layer between BN compound and steel to develop a high performance wear resistance tools. A negative bias voltage higher than 200V at substrate temperature of $800^{\circ}C$ and gas pressure of 20 torr in B2H6-NH3-H2 gas system was one of optimum conditions to produce c-BN films on the SKH-51 steels. Thin layer of hexagonal boron nitride phase was observed at the interface between c-BN layer and substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.286-291
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• 2003

(Pb,Sr)TiO$_3$(PST) thin films have attracted great interest as new dielectric materials of capacitors for Gbit dynamic random access memories. In this study, inductively coupled CF$_4$/Ar plasma was used to etch PST thin films. The maximum etch rate of PST thin films was 740 $\AA$/min at a CF$_4$(20 %)/Ar(80 %) 9as mixing ratio, an RF power of 800 W, a DC bias voltage of -200 V, a total gas flow of 20 sccm, and a chamber pressure of 15 mTorr. To clarify the etching mechanism, the residue on the surface of the etched PST thin films was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that Pb was mainly removed by physically assisted chemical etching. Sputter etching was effective in the etching of Sr than the chemical reaction of F with Sr, while Ti can almost removed by chemical reaction.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.445-448
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• 2011

In this study, the etching characteristics of $Al_2O_3$ thin films were investigated using an ICP (inductively coupled plasma) of $BCl_3$/Ar gas mixture. The etch rate of $Al_2O_3$ thin films as well as the $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$ etch selectivity were measured as functions of $BCl_3$/Ar mixing ratio (0~100% Ar) at a constant gas pressure (10 mTorr), total gas flow rate (40 sccm), input power (800 W) and bias power (100 W). The behavior of the $Al_2O_3$ etch rate was shown to be quite typical for ion-assisted etch processes with a dominant chemical etch pathway. To analyze the etching mechanism using DLP (double langmuir probe), OES (optical emission spectroscopy) and surface analysis using XPS (x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) were carried out.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.116-119
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• 2010

The etching characteristics of zinc oxide (ZnO) were investigated, including the etch rate and the selectivity of ZnO in a $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma. It was found that the ZnO etch rate, the RF power, and the gas pressure showed non-monotonic behaviors with an increasing Cl2 fraction in the $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma, a gas mixture of $Cl_2$(3 sccm)/$BCl_3$(16 sccm)/Ar (4 sccm) resulted in a maximum ZnO etch rate of 53 nm/min and a maximum etch selectivity of 0.89 for ZnO/$SiO_2$. We used atomic force microscopy to determine the roughness of the surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the plasmas. Due to the relatively low volatility of the by-products formed during etching with $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma, ion bombardment and physical sputtering were required to obtain the high ZnO etch rate. The chemical states of the etched surfaces were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This data suggested that the ZnO etch mechanism was due to ion enhanced chemical etching.