• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.301-311
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• 2012

Discharge property of plasma jet devices is investigated for the application to the doping processes of crystalline solar cells and others. Current-voltage characteristics are shown as the typical normal-glow discharge in the various gas pressure of plasma jets, such as in the atmospheric plasma jets of Ar-discharge, in the ambient pressure of atmospheric discharge, and in the ambient Ar-pressure of Ar-discharge. The discharge voltage of atmospheric plasma jet is required as low as about 2.5 kV while the operation voltage of low pressure below 200 Torr is low as about 1 kV in the discharge of atmospheric and Ar plasma jets. With a single channel plasma jet, the irradiated plasma current on the doped silicon wafer is obtained high as the range of 10~50 mA. The temperature increasement of wafer is normally about $200^{\circ}C$. In the result of silicon wafers doped by phosphoric acid with irradiating the plasma jets, the doping profiles of phosphorus atoms shows the possibility of plasma jet doping on solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.472-472
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• 2011

The capacitive coupled plasma (CCP) has been extensively used in the semiconductor industry because it has not only good uniformity, but also low electron temperature. But CCP source has some problems, such as difficulty in varying the ion bombardment energy separately, low plasma density, and high processing pressure, etc. In this reason, dual frequency CCP has been investigated with a separate substrate biasing to control the plasma parameters and to obtain high etch rate with high etch selectivity. Especially, in this study, we studied on the etching of $SiO_2$ by using the pulse-time modulation in the dual-frequency CCP source composed of 60 MHz/ 2 MHz rf power. By using the combination of high /low rf powers, the differences in the gas dissociation, plasma density, and etch characteristics were investigated. Also, as the size of the semiconductor device is decreased to nano-scale, the etching of contact hole which has nano-scale higher aspect ratio is required. For the nano-scale contact hole etching by using continuous plasma, several etch problems such as bowing, sidewall taper, twist, mask faceting, erosion, distortions etc. occurs. To resolve these problems, etching in low process pressure, more sidewall passivation by using fluorocarbon-based plasma with high carbon ratio, low temperature processing, charge effect breaking, power modulation are needed. Therefore, in this study, to resolve these problems, we used the pulse-time modulated dual-frequency CCP system. Pulse plasma is generated by periodical turning the RF power On and Off state. We measured the etch rate, etch selectivity and etch profile by using a step profilometer and SEM. Also the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis on the surfaces etched by different duty ratio conditions correlate with the results above.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.378-383
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• 2001

An out line of the material process with using the atmospheric pressure glow plasma is described as follows : (1) TiO powder coating with SiO$_2$ (2) Surface treatment of Fluorinated polymers and (3) Surface cleaning of electronic circuit board with using splay type.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.344-349
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• 2020

Modern thin film deposition processes require high deposition rates, low costs, and high-quality films. Atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) meets these requirements. AP-PECVD causes little damage on thin film deposition surfaces compared to conventional PECVD. Moreover, a higher deposition rate is expected due to the surface heating effect of atomic hydrogens in AP-PECVD. In this study, polycrystalline silicon thin film was deposited at a low temperature of 100℃ and then AP-PECVD experiments were performed with various plasma powers and hydrogen gas flow rates. A deposition rate of 15.2 nm/s was obtained at the VHF power of 400 W. In addition, a metal foam showerhead was employed for uniform gas supply, which provided a significant improvement in the thickness uniformity.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.12-16
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• 2002

It is confirmed that the ITO(Indium Tin Oxide) thin films can be etched by low-temperature plasma at atmospheric pressure. The etching happened deepest at a hydrogen flow rate of 4 sccm, and the etch rate was 120 /min. The etching speed corresponded to the H$\alpha$* emission intensity The etching mechanism of the ITO thin films is as follows; thin films were reduced by H$\alpha$*, and the metal compound residues were detached from the substrate by reacting on the CH* The etching was started after etching time of initial 50 sec and above the threshold temperature of 145$^{\circ}C$. The activation energy of 0.16 eV(3.75 Kcal/mole) was obtained from the Arrehenius plots.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.261-266
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• 1998

In developing the high density memory device, the etching of fine pattern is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, definition of ultra fine line and space pattern and minimization of damage and contamination are essential process. Also, the high density plasma in low operating pressure is necessary. The candidates of high density plasma sources are electron cyclotron resonance plasma, helicon wave plasma, helical resonator, and inductively coupled plasma. In this study, planar type magnetized inductively coupled plasma etcher has been built. The density and temperature of Ar plasma are measured as a function of rf power, flow rate, external magnetic field, and pressure. The oxide etch rate and selectivity to polysilicon are measured as the above mentioned conditions and self-bias voltage.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.201-207
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• 2017

An electron-excited temperature ($T_{ex}$) is not determined by the Boltzmann plots only with the spectral data of $4p{\rightarrow}4s$ in an Ar-plasma jet operated with a low frequency of several tens of kHz and the low voltage of a few kV, while $T_{ex}$ can be obtained at least with the presence of a high energy-level transition ($5p{\rightarrow}4s$) in the high-voltage operation of 8 kV. The optical intensities of most spectra that are measured according to the voltage and the measuring position of the plasma column increase or decay exponentially at the same rate as that of the intensity variation; therefore, the excitation temperature is estimated by comparing the relative optical-intensity to that of a high voltage. In the low-voltage range of an Ar-jet operation, the electron-excitation temperature is estimated as being from 0.61 eV to 0.67 eV, and the corresponding radical density of the Ar-4p state is in the order of $10^{10}{\sim}10^{11}cm^{-3}$. The variation of the excitation temperature is almost linear in relation to the operation voltage and the position of the plasma plume, meaning that the variation rates of the electron-excitation temperature are 0.03 eV/kV for the voltage and 0.075 eV/cm along the plasma plume.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.43-43
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• 2010

We have characterized the parametric and functional properties of live cell and cancer cell according to plasma treatment conditions using Atmospheric Pressure (AP) Plasma with uniquely designed low temperature arc-free unit. AP plasma system showed very highly efficient capabilities of reacting and interfacing directly with live and cancer cells. The parametric results with the types of gases, applied power, applied gap, and process times on cells will be presented in accordance with functional studies of the works. The growth of cancer cells is directly influenced by AP plasma exposure with evaluating plasma conditions in several human cancer cells and understanding how plasma exposure alters molecular signaling pathways. The cells exhibit a slower or faster growth rates compared with untreated cells, depending on the cell types. These results strongly support the conclusion that alterations in one or more of each gene are responsible, at least in part, for plasma-induced apoptosis in cancer cells. In addition, it also will be presented that AP plasma has an important role for the improvement of sensor performance due to excellent interface property between enzyme and metal electrode for bio sensor manufacturing process.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.261-263
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• 1993

The effects of the magnetic field and gas pressure on the etching characteristics were investigated in the axial magnetic field enhanced RIE system. This system has many advantages compared with the conventional RIE system ; the capability of operating at low pressure, low self-bias voltage, high electron density and high etch rate in the low pressure, but also has disadvantages such as the nonconformity of plasma density which intensifies as the magnitude of magnetic field increases. To overcome this problem we made some grooved anode and tried to find the optimal pressure and B-field strength.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.23-29
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• 2013

Furnace and laser is currently the most important doping process. However furnace is typically difficult appling for selective emitters. Laser requires an expensive equipment and induces a structural damage due to high temperature using laser. This study has developed a new atmospheric pressure plasma source and research atmospheric pressure plasma doping. Atmospheric pressure plasma source injected Ar gas is applied a low frequency (a few 10 kHz) and discharged the plasma. We used P type silicon wafers of solar cell. We set the doping parameter that plasma treatment time was 6s and 30s, and the current of making the plasma is 70 mA and 120 mA. As result of experiment, prolonged plasma process time and highly plasma current occur deeper doping depth and improve sheet resistance. We investigated doping profile of phosphorus paste by SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy) and obtained the sheet resistance using generally formula. Additionally, grasped the wafer surface image with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) to investigate surface damage of doped wafer. Therefore we confirm the possibility making the selective emitter of solar cell applied atmospheric pressure plasma doping with phosphorus paste.