• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.737-752
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• 2014

As condition-based maintenance (CBM) has risen as a new trend, there has been an active movement to apply information technology for effective implementation of CBM in power plants. This motivation is widespread in operations and maintenance, including monitoring, diagnosis, prognosis, and decision-making on asset management. Thermal efficiency analysis in nuclear power plants (NPPs) is a longstanding concern being updated with new methodologies in an advanced IT environment. It is also a prominent way to differentiate competitiveness in terms of operations and maintenance costs. Although thermal performance tests implemented using industrial codes and standards can provide officially trustworthy results, they are essentially resource-consuming and maybe even a hind-sighted technique rather than a foresighted one, considering their periodicity. Therefore, if more accurate performance monitoring can be achieved using advanced data analysis techniques, we can expect more optimized operations and maintenance. This paper proposes a framework and describes associated methodologies for in-situ thermal performance analysis, which differs from conventional performance monitoring. The methodologies are effective for monitoring, diagnosis, and prognosis in pursuit of CBM. Our enabling techniques cover the intelligent removal of random and systematic errors, deviation detection between a best condition and a currently measured condition, degradation diagnosis using a structured knowledge base, and prognosis for decision-making about maintenance tasks. We also discuss how our new methods can be incorporated with existing performance tests. We provide guidance and directions for developers and end-users interested in in-situ thermal performance management, particularly in NPPs with large steam turbines.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.5 no.1 s.14
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• pp.45-49
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• 2006

In this paper, a new method that monitors the quantity of particles using ion-counter in vacuum environment is introduced. In-situ particle monitoring (ISPM) system is composed by Gerdien type ion-counter (house-made), DC power supply and electrometer. The ion-counter applied by positive voltage detects only positive charged particles. Therefore the particles to be detected should be in known charge state for further data analysis. ion-counter is installed at the exhaust line of process equipment where the pressure loss is structurally low. ISPM system performance has been verified with SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer) system. The correlation coefficient is above 0.98 at the particle size range of $20{\sim}300nm$ in diameter with identified charge distribution under $0.1{\sim}10.0$ Torr.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2013

Advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology requires methods to maximize tool efficiency and improve product quality by reducing process variability. Real-time plasma process monitoring and diagnosis have become crucial for fault detection and classification (FDC) and advanced process control (APC). Additional sensors may increase the accuracy of detection of process anomalies, and optical monitoring methods are non-invasive. In this paper, we propose the use of a chromatic data acquisition system for real-time in-situ plasma process monitoring called the Plasma Eyes Chromatic System (PECS). The proposed system was initially tested in a six-inch research tool, and it was then further evaluated for its potential to detect process anomalies in an eight-inch production tool for etching blanket oxide films. Chromatic representation of the PECS output shows a clear correlation with small changes in process parameters, such as RF power, pressure, and gas flow. We also present how the PECS may be adapted as an in-situ plasma arc detector. The proposed system can provide useful indications of a faulty process in a timely and non-invasive manner for successful run-to-run (R2R) control and FDC.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2005

A series of column experiments was conducted to develop a monitoring system for in-situ and realtime measurement of ozone transport in unsaturated porous media using a fiber optic sensor. The calibration of the fiber optic transflection dip probe (FOTDP) system was successfully carried out at various ozone concentrations using a column with length of 30 cm and diameter of 5 cm packed with glass beads, which don't react with gaseous ozone. The breakthrough curves (BTCs) of ozone were obtained by converting the normalized intensity into ozone concentration. The FOTDP system worked well for in-situ monitoring of gas phase ozone at various water saturations and in presence of soil organic matter (SOM). However, the FOTDP system did not measure the ozone concentration at more than 70% water saturation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.767-775
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• 2022

Metal additive manufacturing (AM), also known as metal three-dimensional (3D) printing, produces 3D metal products by repeatedly adding and solidifying metal materials layer by layer. During the metal AM process, products experience repeated local melting and cooling using a laser or electron beam, resulting in product defects, such as warpage, cracks, and internal pores. Such defects adversely affect the final product. This paper proposes the in situ monitoring-based warpage prediction of metal AM products with experimental feature extraction. The temperature profile of the metal AM substrate during the process was experimentally collected. Time-domain features were extracted from the temperature profile, and their relationships to the warpage mechanism were investigated. The standard deviation showed a significant linear correlation with warpage. The findings from this study are expected to contribute to optimizing process parameters for metal AM warpage reduction.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.27-31
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• 2021

VI probe, which is one of various in-situ plasma monitoring sensor, is frequently used for in-situ process monitoring in mass production environment. In this paper, we correlated the plasma etch results with VI probe data with the small amount of gas flow rate changes to propose usefulness of the VI probe in real-time process monitoring. Several different sized contact holes were employed for the etch experiment, and the etched profiles were measured by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Although the shape of etched hole did not show satisfactory relationship with VI probe data, the chamber status changed along the incremental/decremental modification of the amount of gas flow was successfully observed in terms of impedance monitoring.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2007

Bioventing is commonly used for petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) spills. This process provides better subsurface oxygenation, thus stimulating degradation by indigenous microorganisms. Therefore soil vapor monitoring points (VMPs) are extremely important in determining the potential effectiveness of bioventing and in long-term monitoring of bioventing progress. In this study in-situ soil gas monitoring well (GMW) was developed and presented the pilot test results which recover the contaminated site by bioventing method. The result of application was successful and it was expected that GMW developed could be applied to the evaluation procedure of bioventing effectiveness and long-term remediation potential.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.182-182
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• 2012

Plasma etching is used in various semiconductor processing steps. In plasma etcher, optical- emission spectroscopy (OES) is widely used for in-situ endpoint detection. However, the sensitivity of OES is decreased if polymer is deposited on viewport or the proportion of exposed area on the wafer is too small. Because of these problems, the object is to investigate the suitability of using plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) and self plasma optical emission spectrocopy (SPOES) with statistical approach for in-situ endpoint detection. The endpoint was determined by impedance signal variation from I-V monitor (VI probe) and optical emission signal from SPOES. However, the signal variation at the endpoint is too weak to determine endpoint when $SiO_2$ and SiNx layers are etched by fluorocarbon on inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etcher, if the proportion of $SiO_2$ and SiNx area on Si wafer are small. Therefore, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) is applied to them for increasing sensitivity. For verifying this method, detected endpoint from impedance monitoring is compared with optical emission spectroscopy.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

To enter next process control, numerous approaches, including run-to-run (R2R) process control and fault detection and classification (FDC) have been suggested in semiconductor manufacturing industry as a facilitation of advanced process control. This paper introduces a novel type of optical plasma process monitoring system, called plasma eyes chromatic system (PECSTM) and presents its potential for the purpose of fault detection. Qualitatively comparison of optically acquired signal levels vs. process parameter modifications are successfully demonstrated, and we expect that PECSTM signal can be a useful indication of onset of process change in real-time for advanced process control (APC).

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.11-16
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• 2009

Better understanding of in-situ mechanical behavior of pavement foundations is very important to predict long-term effects on the system performance of transport infrastructure. In order to do that, resilient stiffness characterization of geomaterals is needed to properly adopt such mechanistic analysis under both traffic and environmental loadings. In this paper, in situ monitoring data from KHC test road was used to analyze the non-linearity of stress conditions under traffic and moisture loadings. Then, the predicted non-linear response using finite element method with a selected constitutive model of foundation geomaterials are verified with the field data.