• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05c
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• pp.83-87
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• 2002

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) silicon nitride ($SiN_X$) is widely used as a gate dielectric material for the hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) thin film transistors (TFT's). We investigated $SiN_X$ films were deposited PECVD at low temperature ($300^{\circ}C$). The reaction gases were used pure nitrogen and a helium diluted of silane gas(20% $SiH_4$, 80% He). Experimental investigations were carried out with the variation of $N_2/SiH_4$ flow ratios from 3 to 50 and the rf power of 200 W. This article presents the $SiN_X$ gate dielectric studies in terms of deposition rate, hydrogen content, etch rate and C-V, leakage current density characteristics for the gate dielectric layer of thin film transistor applications. Electrical properties were analyzed through high frequency (1MHz) C-V and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The thickness and the refractive index on the films were measured by ellipsometry and chemical bonds were determined by using an FT-IR equipment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.322.1-322.1
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• 2014

Many research groups have studied tandem or multi-junction cells to overcome this low efficiency and degradation. In multi-junction cells, band-gap engineering of each absorb layer is needed to absorb the light at various wavelengths efficiently. Various absorption layers can be formed using multi-junctions, such as hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H), amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) and microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c$-Si:H), etc. Among them, ${\mu}c$-Si:H is the bottom absorber material because it has a low band-gap and does not exhibit light-induced degradation like amorphous silicon. Nevertheless, ${\mu}c$-Si:H requires a much thicker material (>2 mm) to absorb sufficient light due to its smaller light absorption coefficient, highlighting the need for a high growth rate for productivity. ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H has a much higher absorption coefficient than ${\mu}c$-Si:H at the low energy wavelength, meaning that the thickness of the absorption layer can be decreased to less than half that of ${\mu}c$-Si:H. ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H films were prepared using 40 MHz very high frequency PECVD method at 1 Torr. SiH4 and GeH4 were used as a reactive gas and H2 was used as a dilution gas. In this study, the ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H layer for triple solar cells applications was performed to optimize the film properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.293-293
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• 2010

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted considerable attention as possible routes to device miniaturization due to their excellent mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties. These properties show great potential for devices such as field emission displays, CNT based transistors, and bio-sensors. The metals such as nickel, cobalt, gold, iron, platinum, and palladium are used as the catalysts for the CNT growth. In this study, diamond-like carbon (DLC) was used for CNT growth as a nonmetallic catalyst layer. DLC films were deposited by a radio frequency (RF) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) method with a mixture of methane and hydrogen gases. CNTs were synthesized by a hot filament plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (HF-PECVD) method with ammonia (NH3) as a pretreatment gas and acetylene (C2H2) as a carbon source gas. The grown CNTs and the pretreated DLC filmswere observed using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) measurement, and the structure of the grown CNTs was analyzed by high resolution transmission scanning electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Also, using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurement, we confirmed that only the carbon component remained on the substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.242.2-242.2
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• 2014

Plasma-polymer thin films (PPTF) have been deposited on a Si(100) wafer and glass under several conditions such as different RF power by using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. Ethylcyclohexane, ammonia gas, hydrogen and argon were utilized as organic precursor, doping gas, bubbler gas and carrier gases, respectively. PPTFs were grown up with RF (ratio frequency using 13.56 MHz) powers in the range of 20~60 watt. PPTFs were characterized by FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared), FE-SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), AFM (Atomic Force Microscope), Contact angle and Probe station. The result of FT-IR measurement showed that the PPTFs have high cross-link density nitrogen doping ratio was also changed with a RF power increasing. AFM and FE-SEM also showed that the PPTFs have smooth surface and thickness. Impedance analyzer was utilized for the measurements of C-V curves having different dielectric constant as RF power.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2016

Thin films synthesized by plasma processes have been widely applied in a variety of industrial sectors. The structure control of thin film is one of prime factor in most of these applications. It is well known that the structure of this film is closely associated with plasma parameters and species of plasma which are electrons, ions, radical and neutrals in plasma processes. However the precise control of structure by plasma process is still limited due to inherent complexity, reproducibility and control problems in practical implementation of plasma processing. Therefore the study on the fundamental physical properties that govern the plasmas becomes more crucial for molecular scale control of film structure and corresponding properties for new generation nano scale film materials development and application. The thin films are formed through nucleation and growth stages during thin film depostion. Such stages involve adsorption, surface diffusion, chemical binding and other atomic processes at surfaces. This requires identification, determination and quantification of the surface activity of the species in the plasma. Specifically, the ions and neutrals have kinetic energies ranging from ~ thermal up to tens of eV, which are generated by electron impact of the polyatomic precursor, gas phase reaction, and interactions with the substrate and reactor walls. The present work highlights these aspects for the controlled and low-temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapour disposition (PECVD) of Si-based films like crystalline Si (c-Si), Si-quantum dot, and sputtered crystalline C by the design and control of radicals, plasmas and the deposition energy. Additionally, there is growing demand on the low-temperature deposition process with low hydrogen content by PECVD. The deposition temperature can be reduced significantly by utilizing alternative plasma concepts to lower the reaction activation energy. Evolution in this area continues and has recently produced solutions by increasing the plasma excitation frequency from radio frequency to ultra high frequency (UHF) and in the range of microwave. In this sense, the necessity of dedicated experimental studies, diagnostics and computer modelling of process plasmas to quantify the effect of the unique chemistry and structure of the growing film by radical and plasma control is realized. Different low-temperature PECVD processes using RF, UHF, and RF/UHF hybrid plasmas along with magnetron sputtering plasmas are investigated using numerous diagnostics and film analysis tools. The broad outlook of this work also outlines some of the 'Grand Scientific Challenges' to which significant contributions from plasma nanoscience-related research can be foreseen.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.9 no.1_2
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• pp.31-35
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• 2008

DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) films have predominant tribological properties like a high hardness, low friction and high chemical resistance; therefore, DLC films are applied in a wide range of industrial fields. This paper evaluated the characteristics of DLC films deposited on bearing steel with different hardness by RF-PECVD (Radio Frequency - Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) method. Si-interlayer was deposited on bearing steel to improve adhesion strength by RF-Sputtering method. The DLC film structures were analyzed with Raman spectra and Gaussian function. Adhesion strength of DLC films was measured with a scratch tester. Friction and wear test were carried out with a ball-on -disc type to investigate the tribological characteristics. Experimental results showed that DLC films deposited on bearing steel under same deposition condition have typical structure DLC films regardless of hardness of bearing steel. Adhesion strength of DLC film is increased with a hardness of bearing steel. Friction coefficient of DLC film showed lower at the high hardness of bearing steel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.149-149
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• 2010

The double-layer antireflection (DLAR) coatings have significant advantages over single-layer antireflection (SLAR) coatings. This is because they will be able to cover a broad range of the solar spectrum which would enhance the overall performance of solar cells. Moreover films deposited at high frequency are expected to show excellent and UV-stable passivation in the refractive index that we adopted. In this work, we present a novel DLAR coating using SiNx:H thin films with refractive indices 1.9 and 2.3 as the top and bottom layers. This approach is cost effective when compared to earlier DLAR coatings with two different materials. SiNx:H films were deposited by Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique using $SiH_4$, $NH_3$ and $N_2$ gases with flow rates 20~80sccm, 200sccm and 85 sccm respectively. The RF power, plasma frequency and substrate temperature for the deposition were 300W, 13.56 MHz and $450^{\circ}C$, respectively. The optimum thickness and refractive indices values for DLAR coatings were estimated theoretically using Macleod simulation software as 82.24 nm for 1.9 and 68.58 nm for 2.3 respectively. Solar cells were fabricated with SLAR and DLAR coatings of SiNx:H films and compared the cell efficacy. SiNx:H> films deposited at a substrate temperature of $450^{\circ}C$ and that at 300 W power showed best effective minority carrier lifetime around $50.8\;{\mu}s$. Average reflectance values of SLAR coatings with refractive indices 1.9, 2.05 and 2.3 were 10.1%, 9.66% and 9.33% respectively. In contrast, optimized DLAR coating showed a reflectance value as low as 8.98% in the wavelength range 300nm - 1100nm.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.650-656
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• 1995

High frequency SAW filters for cellular communications were fabricated by metallizing 36$^{\circ}$Y-X LiTaO$_3$piezoelectric substrate with IIDT type electrodes. It was found that the center frequency of the filter was lowered than as designed. In order to overcome such a drawback and enable a fine tuning of its center frequency, dielectric SiN$_{x}$ thin films were deposited on LiTaO$_3$substrate by PECVD as passivation layer and then frequency responses were also characterized. As a result, the center frequency of the filter could be shifted to a higher frequency with increasing the thickness of SiN$_{x}$ film, because SAW velocity increased with increasing the ratio of the thickness of dielectric thin film to wavelength. The insertion loss of the filter, however, became larger with increasing the thickness of SiN$_{x}$ film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.26-26
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• 2014

식품포장재용 SiNx 박막을 합성하였다. SiNx 박막은 박막이 투명하고 낮은 투습도를 가지고 있어 식품포장재뿐 아니라 유기소자디스플레이에서도 활발히 연구되고 있다. 이 연구에서는 SiNx 박막을 PECVD를 통한 저온 공정으로 PET 기판 위에 합성하여 높은 투과도를 가지며 낮은 투습도를 갖는 박막을 합성하였다. 박막 합성 중의 플라즈마 특성을 알아보기 위해 Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES)를 통한 플라즈마 진단을 하였으며, 박막의 특성을 알아보기 위해 FT-IR, UV-visible, MOCON 테스트 등을 하였으며, $7.6{\times}10^{-3}g/m^2/day$의 투습도를 갖는 것을 확인하였다.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.339-343
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• 1999

This paper reports the characteristics of poly-Si TFT unitary CMOS circuits fabricated with various techniques, in order to investigate the optimum process conditions. The active films were deposited by PECVD and LPCVD using $SiH_4\; and\; Si_2H_6$ as source gas, and annealed by SPC and ELA methods. The impurity doping of the oource and drain electrodes was performed by ion implantation and ion shower. In order to investigate the AC characteristics of the poly-Si TFTs processed with various methods, we have examined the current driving characteristics of the polt-Si TFT and the frequency characteristics of 23-stage CMOS ring oscillators. Ithas been observed that the circuits fabricated using $Si_2H_6$ with low-temperature process of ELA exhibit high switching speed and current driving performances, thus suitable for real application of large area electronics.