• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.800-809
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• 2008

Scanning Thermal Microscope (SThM) is the tool that can map out temperature or the thermal property distribution with the highest spatial resolution. Since the local temperature or the thermal property of samples is measured from the extremely small heat transferred through the nanoscale tip-sample contact, improving the sensitivity of SThM probe has always been the key issue. In this study, we develop a new design and fabrication process of SThM probe to improve the sensitivity. The fabrication process is optimized so that cantilevers and tips are made of thermally grown silicon dioxide, which has the lowest thermal conductivity among the materials used in MEMS. The new design allows much higher tip so that heat transfer through the air gap between the sample-probe is reduced further. The position of a reflector is located as far away as possible to minimize the thermal perturbation due to the laser. These full $SiO_2$ SThM probes have much higher sensitivity than that of previous ones.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.347-348
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• 2007

On-chip micro humidity sensor, using $CN_x$ films for the sensing material, was designed, simulated, and fabricated with Op amp based readout circuit and diode temperature sensors. To compensate the temperature and other gases, two methods were applied. One is wheatstone-bridge with reference FET that eliminates other undesirable chemical species, and the other is a diode temperature sensor to compensate the temperature effect. $CN_x$ film can be a new humidity sensing material, and has a strong potential to adapt to smart sensors or multi-sensors using MEMS or nano-technology. A particular design technology for integration of sensors and systems together was proposed that whole fabrication process could be achieved by a standard CMOS process.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.477-482
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• 2006

In this study, a micro vapor compressor has been designed, fabricated and tested. The micro vapor compressor was made of silicon substrates and fabricated by micromachining process. The compressor is driven by a piezoelectric actuator which is widely used in microfluidic systems because of its strong force and rapid response. The actuator is a bimorph structure which consists of a silicon membrane and a piezoelectric ceramic film. A simulation work was conducted on the performance characteristics of the compressor. The simulation investigated the flow rate variation under various back pressure conditions. Experimental works were carried out on the operation of a compressor and the test results were compared with the simulation results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.84-89
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• 2021

Indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent electrodes, which are used to manufacture organic light-emitting diodes, are used in light-emitting surface electrodes of display EL panels such as cell phones and TVs, liquid crystal panels, transparent switches, and plane heating elements. ITO is a major component that consists of indium and tin and is advantageous in terms of obtaining sheet resistance and light transmittance in a thin film. However, the optical performance of devices decreases with an increase in its thickness. A digital holography system was constructed and measured for the step measurement of the ITO thin film, and the reliability of the technique was verified by comparing the FE-SEM measurement results. The error rate of the step difference measurement was within ±5%. This result demonstrated that this technique is useful for applications in advanced MEMS and NEMS industrial fields.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.203-207
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• 2021

This study presents the development of dielectric constant sensors to measure lubricant properties. The lubricant oil sensor is used to measure oil properties and machine conditions. Various condition monitoring methods are applied to diagnose machine conditions. Machine condition monitoring using oil sensors has advantage over other machine condition monitoring methods. The fault conditions can be noticed at the early stages by the detection of wear particles using oil sensors. Therefore, it provides an early warning in the failure procedure. A variety of oil sensors are applied to check the machine condition. Among all oil sensors, only one sensor can measure the tendency of several properties such as acidity and water content. A dielectric constant sensor is also used to measure various oil properties; therefore, it is very useful. The dielectric constant is the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor using that material as a dielectric to that of a similar capacitor using vacuum as its dielectric. The dielectric constant has an effect on water content, contaminants, base oil, additive, and so forth. In this study, the dielectric constant sensor is fabricated using MEMS process. In the fabrication process, the shape, gap of the electrode array, and thickness of the insulation material are considered to improve the sensitivity of the sensor.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.137-144
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• 2023

Micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) and precision machines require excellent friction and wear characteristics to improve energy efficiency generated during sliding motion. In this study, DLC thin film with high hardness and low friction was deposited on STS304 substrate material by CVD method, and dot-shaped convex and concave micropatterns were fabricated by photolithography process. The diameter of the pattern was 20 ㎛, the pitch was 40 ㎛, and a pattern having a mesh type arrangement was fabricated and an abrasion test was performed. The results of the wear test on the micro pattern confirmed that the friction coefficient characteristics were improved compared to STS 304 and DLC thin films. In addition, in this result, the micro-pattern showed 11.4% more improved friction coefficient than the DLC thin film. The friction coefficient characteristics for convex and concave patterns of the same size showed almost similar results.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.163-170
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• 2002

This paper proposes a $10\;{\mu}m$ thick oxide air-bridge structure which can be used as a substrate for RF circuits. The structure was fabricated by anodic reaction, complex oxidation and micromachining technology using TMAH etching. High quality films were obtained by combining low temperature thermal oxidation ($500^{\circ}C$, 1 hr at $H_2O/O_2$) and rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) process ($1050^{\circ}C$, 2 min). This structure is mechanically stable because of thick oxide layer up to $10\;{\mu}m$ and is expected to solve the problem of high dielectric loss of silicon substrate in RF region. The properties of the transmission line formed on the oxidized porous silicon (OPS) air-bridge were investigated and compared with those of the transmission line formed on the OPS layers. The insertion loss of coplanar waveguide (CPW) on OPS air-bridge was (about 2dB) lower than that of CPW on OPS layers. Also, the return loss of CPW on OPS air-bridge was less than about -20 dB at measured frequency region for 2.2 mm. Therefore, this technology is very promising for extending the use of CMOS circuitry to higher RF frequencies.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.72-78
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• 2003

To observe the effect of excitation coil pitch on the micro fluxgate magnetic sensor, two sensors are fabricated using multi layer board process and the pitch distance of excitation coil are $260\;{\mu}m$ and $520\;{\mu}m$, respectively. The fluxgate sensor consists of five PCB stack layers including one layer of magnetic core and four layers of excitation and pick-up coils. The center layer as magnetic core is made of a Co-based amorphous magnetic ribbon with extremely high DC permeability of ${\sim}100,000$ and has a rectangular-ring shape to minimize the magnetic flux leakage. Four outer layers as excitation and pick-up coils have a planar solenoid structure and are made of copper foil. In case of the fluxgate sensor having the excitation coil pitch of $260\;{\mu}m$, excellent linear response over the range of $-100\;{\mu}T$ to $+100\;{\mu}T$ is obtained with sensitivity of 780 V/T at excitation sine wave of $3V_{p_p}$ and 360 kHz. The chip size of the fabricated sensing element is $7.3\;{\times}\;5.7\;mm^2$. The very low power consumption of ${\sim}8\;mW$ is measured. This magnetic sensor is very useful for various applications such as: portable navigation systems, telematics, VR game and so on.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2012

This paper describes the manufacturing process of tilting pad gas bearing with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 0.5-1 mm for power MEMS (Micro Electomechanical Systems) applications. The bearing compacts with nanopowder feedstock were prepared by Ni-metal mold with 2-mold system using LIGA process. The effect of the manufacturing conditions on sintering properties of nanopowder gas bearing was investigated. In this work, Fe-45 wt%Ni nanopowder with an average diameter of 30-50 nm size was used as starting material. After mixing the nanopowder and the wax-based binders, the amount of powder was controlled to obtain the certain mixing ratio. The nanopowder bearing compacts were sintered with 1-2 hr holding time under hydrogen atmospheres and under temperatures of $600^{\circ}C$ to $1,000^{\circ}C$. Finally, the critical batch of mixed powder system was found to be 70% particle fraction in total volume. The maximum density of the sintered bearing specimen was about 94% of theoretical density.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.851-856
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• 2012

The design process of a micro-probe tip is very complicated and expensive. To avoid these problems, in this study, we used element (FE) analysis. To simplify design process. A new pre-probe tip (cobra-needle type) made of Ni and Co was designed by FE analysis. Experimental results were compared with those obtained by FE analysis to verify the reliability of the analysis. The contact force and over drive were respectively found to be 12.5 gf(Contact Force) and $100{\mu}m$(Over drive). We propose the new designed probe tip. Material of new designed probe tip is NiCo. Values of Property are 1~2 gf(Contact Force) and $100{\mu}m$(Over drive).