• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.37-42
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• 2013

The out-of-plane and in-plane angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance field was measured in NiFe thin films fabricated by magnetron sputtering. The effective magnetization was obtained from the out-of-plane angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance field, which was well agreed with calculated one. The decrease of effective magnetization with NiFe thickness was due to the surface anisotropy constant of $K_s=-0.23\;erg/cm^2$. The in-plane uniaxial anisotropy fields were obtained from the in-plane angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance field. The easy axis of in-plane uniaxial anisotropy field was rotated to the reverse direction of applied magnetic field during sample fabrication, which was explained by the antiferromagnetic NiFeO layer at sample surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.200-204
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• 2002

We fabricated TMR devices which have double oxidized tunnel barrier using plasma oxidation method to form homogeneously oxidized AlO tunnel barrier. We sputtered 10 $\AA$-bottom Al layer and oxidized it by varying oxidation time for 5, 10, 20 sec. Subsequent sputtering of 13 $\AA$ - Al was performed and the matallic layer was oxidized for 120 sec. The electrical resistance changed from 700$\Omega$ to 2700$\Omega$ with increase of oxidation time, while variation of MR ratio was little spreading 27~31% which is larger than that of TMR device of ordinary single tunnel barrier. We calculated effective barrier height and width by measuring I-V curves, from which we found the barrier height was 1.3~1.5 eV, sufficient for tunnel barrier, and the barrier width(<16.2 $\AA$) was smaller than that of directly measured value by the tunneling electron microscopy. Our results may be caused by insufficient oxidation of Al precursor into $Al_2O_3$. However, double oxidized tunnel barriers were superior to conventional single tunnel barrier in uniformity and density. We found that the external magnetic field to switch spin direction of ferromagnetic layer of pinned layer breaking ferro-antiferro exchange coupling was increased as bottom layer oxidation time increased. Our results imply that we were able to improve MR ratio and tune switching field by employing double oxidized tunnel barrier process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.403-404
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• 2013

최근 scaling down의 한계에 부딪힌 DRAM과 Flash Memory를 대체하기 위한 차세대 메모리(Next Generation Memory)에 대한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. ITRS (international technology roadmap for semiconductors)에 따르면 PRAM (phase change RAM), RRAM (resistive RAM), STT-MRAM (spin transfer torque magnetic RAM) 등이 차세대 메모리로써 부상하고 있다. 그 중 RRAM은 간단한 구조로 인한 고집적화, 빠른 program/erase 속도 (100~10 ns), 낮은 동작 전압 등의 장점을 갖고 있어 다른 차세대 메모리 중에서도 높은 평가를 받고 있다 [1]. 현재 RRAM은 주로 금속-산화물계(Metal-Oxide) 저항 변화 물질을 기반으로 연구가 활발하게 진행되고 있다. 하지만 근본적으로 공정 과정에서 산소에 의한 오염으로 인해 수율이 낮은 문제를 갖고 있으며, Endurance 및 Retention 등의 신뢰성이 떨어지는 단점이 있다. 따라서, 본 연구진은 산소 오염에 의한 신뢰성 문제를 근본적으로 해결할 수 있는 다양한 금속-질화물(Metal-Nitride) 기반의 저항 변화 물질을 제안해 연구를 진행하고 있으며, 우수한 열적 안정성($>450^{\circ}C$, 높은 종횡비, Cu 확산 방지 역할, 높은 공정 호환성 [2] 등의 장점을 가진 WN 박막을 저항 변화 물질로 사용하여 저항 변화 메모리를 구현하기 위한 연구를 진행하였다. WN 박막은 RF magnetron sputtering 방법을 사용하여 Ar/$N_2$ 가스를 20/30 sccm, 동작 압력 20 mTorr 조건에서 120 nm 의 두께로 증착하였고, E-beam Evaporation 방법을 통하여 Ti 상부 전극을 100 nm 증착하였다. I-V 실험결과, WN 기반의 RRAM은 양전압에서 SET 동작이 일어나며, 음전압에서 RESET 동작을 하는 bipolar 스위칭 특성을 보였으며, 읽기 전압 0.1 V에서 ~1 order의 저항비를 확보하였다. 신뢰성 분석 결과, $10^3$번의 Endurance 특성 및 $10^5$초의 긴 Retention time을 확보할 수 있었다. 또한, 고저항 상태에서는 Space-charge-limited Conduction, 저저항 상태에서는 Ohmic Conduction의 전도 특성을 보임에 따라 저항 변화 메카니즘이 filamentary conduction model로 확인되었다 [3]. 본 연구에서 개발한 WN 기반의 RRAM은 우수한 저항 변화 특성과 함께 높은 재료적 안정성, 그리고 기존 반도체 공정 호환성이 매우 높은 강점을 갖고 있어 핵심적인 차세대 메모리가 될 것으로 기대된다.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.369-373
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• 1998

The exchange anisotropy between NiO antiferromagnetic layer and NiFe ferromagnetic layer has been investigated in NiFe(10 nm)/NiO(60 nm) formed by magnetron sputtering. The NiO films were sputtered from nickel oxide using R. F. poser and NiFe, Ta were deposited using D. C. power under Ar atmosphere. Above all. we studied the exchange anisotropy of Ni-Fe/NiO bilayer, and focused especially on the effect of NiO depostion condition. Our experimental data showed that the dominant factor for determining the exchange anisotropy properties was the Ar pressure during NiO deposition. The better exchange anisotropy properties were found when the NiO film was deposited at low Ar pressure probably due to the flatten interface and the epitaxial tendency of NiO grains and NiFe grains. However, as Ar pressure increased, interfacial diffusion at NiFe/NiO interface and oxygen content of NiO film increase, and consequently reduced the exchange anisotropy. We concluded that the flatten interface and relatively low oxygen content of NiO layer are dominant factors for the enhancement of the exchange anisotropy in NiFe/NiO bilayer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.173-173
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• 2000

Multilayered films (MLF) consisting of transition metals and semiconductors have drawn a great deal of interest because of their unique properties and potential technological applications. Fe/Si MLF are a particular topic of research due to their interesting antiferromagnetic coupling behavior. although a number of experimental works have been done to understand the mechanism of the interlayer coupling in this system, the results are controversial and it is not yet well understood how the formation of an iron silicide in the spacer layers affects the coupling. The interpretation of the coupling data had been hampered by the lack of knowledge about the intermixed iron silicide layer which has been variously hypothesized to be a metallic compound in the B2 structure or a semiconductor in the more complex B20 structure. It is well known that both magneto-optical (MO0 and optical properties of a metal depend strongly on their electronic structure that is also correlated with the atomic and chemical ordering. In order to understand the structure and physical properties of the interfacial regions, Fe/Si multilayers with very thin sublayers were investigated by the MO and optical spectroscopies. The Fe/si MLF were prepared by rf-sputtering onto glass substrates at room temperature with a totall thickness of about 100nm. The thicknesses of Fe and Si sublayers were varied from 0.3 to 0.8 nm. In order to understand the fully intermixed state, the MLF were also annealed at various temperatures. The structure and magnetic properties of Fe/Si MLF were investigated by x-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnertometer, respectively. The MO and optical properties were measured at toom temperature in the 1.0-4.7 eV energy range. The results were analyzed in connection with the MO and optical properties of bulk and thin-film silicides with various structures and stoichiometries.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.111-112
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• 2009

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a convenient term to indicate the compositions of the various forms of amorphous carbon (a-C), tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), hydrogenated amorphous carbon and tetrahedral amorphous carbon (a-C:H and ta-C:H). The a-C film with disordered graphitic ordering, such as soot, chars, glassy carbon, and evaporated a-C, is shown in the lower left hand corner. If the fraction of sp3 bonding reaches a high degree, such an a-C is denoted as tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), in order to distinguish it from sp2 a-C [2]. Two hydrocarbon polymers, that is, polyethylene (CH2)n and polyacetylene (CH)n, define the limits of the triangle in the right hand corner beyond which interconnecting C-C networks do not form, and only strait-chain molecules are formed. The DLC films, i.e. a-C, ta-C, a-C:H and ta-C:H, have some extreme properties similar to diamond, such as hardness, elastic modulus and chemical inertness. These films are great advantages for many applications. One of the most important applications of the carbon-based films is the coating for magnetic hard disk recording. The second successful application is wear protective and antireflective films for IR windows. The third application is wear protection of bearings and sliding friction parts. The fourth is precision gages for the automotive industry. Recently, exciting ongoing study [1] tries to deposit a carbon-based protective film on engine parts (e.g. engine cylinders and pistons) taking into account not only low friction and wear, but also self lubricating properties. Reduction of the oil consumption is expected. Currently, for an additional application field, the carbon-based films are extensively studied as excellent candidates for biocompatible films on biomedical implants. The carbon-based films consist of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, which are biologically harmless as well as the main elements of human body. Some in vitro and limited in vivo studies on the biological effects of carbon-based films have been studied [$2{\sim}5$].The carbon-based films have great potentials in many fields. However, a few technological issues for carbon-based film are still needed to be studied to improve the applicability. Aisenberg and Chabot [3] firstly prepared an amorphous carbon film on substrates remained at room temperature using a beam of carbon ions produced using argon plasma. Spencer et al. [4] had subsequently developed this field. Many deposition techniques for DLC films have been developed to increase the fraction of sp3 bonding in the films. The a-C films have been prepared by a variety of deposition methods such as ion plating, DC or RF sputtering, RF or DC plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD), ion implantation, ablation, pulsed laser deposition and cathodic arc deposition, from a variety of carbon target or gaseous sources materials [5]. Sputtering is the most common deposition method for a-C film. Deposited films by these plasma methods, such as plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [6], are ranged into the interior of the triangle. Application fields of DLC films investigated from papers. Many papers purposed to apply for tribology due to the carbon-based films of low friction and wear resistance. Figure 1 shows the percentage of DLC research interest for application field. The biggest portion is tribology field. It is occupied 57%. Second, biomedical field hold 14%. Nowadays, biomedical field is took notice in many countries and significantly increased the research papers. DLC films actually applied to many industries in 2005 as shown figure 2. The most applied fields are mold and machinery industries. It took over 50%. The automobile industry is more and more increase application parts. In the near future, automobile industry is expected a big market for DLC coating. Figure 1 Research interests of carbon-based filmsFigure 2 Demand ratio of DLC coating for industry in 2005. In this presentation, I will introduce a trend of carbon-based coating research and applications.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.212-217
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• 2002

The pseudo spin valve with a structure of Tl/CoFe(t $\AA$)/Cu(30 $\AA$)/NiFe(50 $\AA$)/Ta, showing giant magnetoresistance properties by utilizing coercivity difference between only two soft ferromagnetic layers were produced by d.c UHV magnetron sputtering system. In pseudo spin valve Ta/CoFe/Cu/NiFe/Ta, the magnetic and magnetoresistance properties with change of CoFe thickness were investigated. When the thickness of CoFe was 60 $\AA$, a typical MR curve of pseudo spin valve structure was obtained, showing MR ratio of 3.8 cio and the coercivity difference of 27.4 Oe with a sharp change of hard layer switching. When the CoFe thickness was varied from 20 to 100 $\AA$, coercivity difference between two layers was increased to 40 $\AA$. and decreased to 100 $\AA$ gradually. It is thought the change in coercivity of hard layer was due to the crystallinity and magnetostriction of thin CoFe layer. In order to improve the MR property in CoFe/Cu/NiFe trier layer structure, CoFe layer with change of 2-20 $\AA$ thick was inserted between Cu and NiFe. When the thickness of CoFe was 10 $\AA$, MR ratio was 6.7％, showing excellent MR property. This indicates 50 ％ higher than that of CoFe/Cu/NiFe pseudo spin valve.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.410-410
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• 2013

Next-generation nonvolatile memory (NVM) has attracted increasing attention about emerging NVMs such as ferroelectric random access memory, phase-change random access memory, magnetic random access memory and resistance random access memory (RRAM). Previous studies have demonstrated that RRAM is promising because of its excellent properties, including simple structure, high speed and high density integration. Many research groups have reported a lot of metal oxides as resistive materials like TiO2, NiO, SrTiO3 and ZnO [1]. Among them, the ZnO-based film is one of the most promising materials for RRAM because of its good switching characteristics, reliability and high transparency [2]. However, in many studies about ZnO-based RRAMs, there was a problem to get lower current level for reducing the operating power dissipation and improving the device reliability such an endurance and an retention time of memory devices. Thus in this paper, we investigated that highly reproducible bipolar resistive switching characteristics of W doped ZnO RRAM device and it showed low resistive switching current level and large ON/OFF ratio. This may be caused by the interdiffusion of the W atoms in the ZnO film, whch serves as dopants, and leakage current would rise resulting in the lowering of current level [3]. In this work, a ZnO film and W doped ZnO film were fabricated on a Si substrate using RF magnetron sputtering from ZnO and W targets at room temperature with Ar gas ambient, and compared their current levels. Compared with the conventional ZnO-based RRAM, the W doped ZnO ReRAM device shows the reduction of reset current from ~$10^{-6}$ A to ~$10^{-9}$ A and large ON/OFF ratio of ~$10^3$ along with self-rectifying characteristic as shown in Fig. 1. In addition, we observed good endurance of $10^3$ times and retention time of $10^4$ s in the W doped ZnO ReRAM device. With this advantageous characteristics, W doped ZnO thin film device is a promising candidates for CMOS compatible and high-density RRAM devices.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.471-478
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• 2010

Thin films play an important role in many technological applications including microelectronic devices, magnetic storage media, MEMS and surface coatings. It is well known that a thin film's material properties can be very different from the corresponding bulk properties and thus there has been a strong need for the development of a reliable test method to measure the mechanical properties of a thin film. We have developed an alternative and convenient test method to overcome the limitations of previous membrane deflection experiment and uniaxial tensile test by adopting a white light interferometer having sub-nanometer out-of-plane displacement resolution. The freestanding aluminium specimens are tested to verity the effectiveness of the test method developed and get the tensile properties. The specimens are 0.5 rum wide, $1{\mu}m$ thick and fabricated through MEMS processes including sputtering. 1 to 5 specimens are fabricated on Si dies. The membrane deflection experiments are carried out by using a homemade tester consisted of a motor-driven loading tip, a load cell, and 6 DOF alignment stages. The test system is compact enough to set it up beneath a commercial white light interferometric microscope. The white light fringes are utilized to align a specimen with the tester. The Young's modulus and yield point stress of the aluminium film are 62 GPa and 247 MPa, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.437-444
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• 2000

We investigated the effect of substrate temperature, chemical composition and post-deposition heat-treatment on the crystal structure and electrical transport of $La_{1-x}Sr_xMnO_{3-{\delta}}$(0.19${\leq}x{\leq}$0.31) thin films. As-prepared $La_{1-x}Sr_xMnO_{3-{\delta}}$ films grown at $500^{\circ}C$ by sputter techniques were found to have the pseudo-tetragonal system(a/c=0.97) and a highly preferential <001> orientation. The films were changed to be of the cubic system by post-deposition annealing at around $900^{\circ}C$. A main target of $La_{0.67}Sr_{0.33}MnO_3$ as well as auxliary targets of $La_{0.3}Sr_{0.7}MnO_3$ ceramics were co-sputtered to control the chemical composition of the film. The Sr content(x) of the film ranged from 0.19 to 0.31, depending on the number of the auxiliary target. When x increased from 0.19 to 0.31, the electrical resistivity of the film decreased and the transition temperature between metal and semiconductor shifted to higher temperature. With a magnetic field of 0.18 T, the magneto-resistance ratio (MR(%) = (${\rho}_o-{\rho}_H/{\rho}_H$) of the $La_{0.69}Sr_{0.31}MnO_3$ thin film was about 390%.