• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2021

The mesh mask screen, which is generally used for screen printing metallization of silicon solar cell, requires high squeegee pressure and low printing speed. These requirements are acting as a limiting factor in production yield in photovoltaic industries. In order to improve the productivity, a metal mask, which has high durability and high printing speed, has been researched. In this paper, the characteristics of each solar cell, in which electrodes were formed by using a metal mask and a mesh mask, were analyzed through recombination current density. In particular, the metal-induced recombination current density (Jom) representing the recombination of the emitter-metal interface was calculated using the shading method, and the resulting efficiency and open-circuit voltage were analyzed through the diode equation. As a result of analyzing the proportion of the metal-induced recombination current density to the total emitter recombination current density, it was analyzed that the reduction of the metal-induced recombination current density through the metal mask is an important factor in reducing the total recombination current density of the solar cell.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.14-17
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• 2002

The HDP (High Density Plasma) CVD process consists of a simultaneous sputter etch and chemical vapor deposition. As CMOS process continues to scale down to sub- quarter micron technology, HDP process has been widely used fur the gap-fill of small geometry metal spacing in inter-metal dielectric process. However, HBP CVD system has some potential problems including plasma-induced damage. Plasma-induced gate oxide damage has been an increasingly important issue for integrated circuit process technology. In this paper, thin gate oxide charge damage caused by HDP deposition of inter-metal dielectric was studied. Multiple step HDP deposition process was demonstrated in this work to prevent plasma-induced damage by introducing an in-situ top SiH$_4$ unbiased liner deposition before conventional deposition.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.549-552
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• 1998

Recently, the gate oxide damage induced by the plasma processes has been one of the most significant reliability issues as the gate oxide thickness falls below 10 nm. The process-induced damage was studied with the metal antenna test structures. In addition to the electron trapping, the hole trapping in a 10 nm thick gate oxide due to the plasma-induced charging was observed in the NMOS's with a metal antenna. The hole trapping gave rise to the decrease of the transconductance (gm) similarly to the case of the electron trapping, but to the extent much less than the electron trapping. It would be because the electrical stress that the plasma-induced charging forced to the gate oxide for the devices with the hole trapping was much smaller than for those with the electron trapping. This hypothesis was strongly supported by the measured characteristics of the Fowler-Nordheim current in the gate oxide.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.173-186
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• 2003

The transition metal cadmium is a serious occupational and environmental toxin. To inhibit cadmium-induced damage, cells respond by increasing the expression of genes that encode stress-responsive proteins. The metal-regulatory transcription factor 1 (MTF-1) is a key regulator of heavy-metal induced transcription of metallothionein-I and II and other genes in mammals and other metazoans. Transcriptional activation of genes by MTF-1 is mediated through binding to metal-responsive elements in the target gene promoters. Phosphorylation of MTF-1 plays a critical role in the cadmium-inducible transcriptional activation of metallothionein and other responses. Studies using inhibitors indicate that multiple kinases and signal transduction cascades, including those mediated by protein kinase C, tyrosine kinase and casein kinase II, are essential for cadmium-mediated transcriptional activation. In addition, calcium signaling is also involved in regulating metal-activated transcription. In several species, cadmium induces heat shock genes. Recently much progress has been made in elucidating the cellular machinery that regulates this metal-inducible gene expression. This review summarizes these recent advances in understanding the role of some known cadmium-responsive genes and the molecular mechanisms that activate metal-responsive transcription factor, MTF-1.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.195-201
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• 2009

Recent publications showed that metal nanoparticles which are made from $TiO_2,\;CeO_2,\;Al_2O_3,\;CuCl_2,\;AgNO_3$ and $ZnO_2$ induced oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory effects in cultured cells and the responses seemed to be common toxic pathway of metal nanoparticles to the ultimate toxicity in animals as well as cellular level. In this study, we compared the gene expression induced by two different types of metal oxide nanoparticles, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TNP) and cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CNP) using microarray analysis. About 50 genes including interleukin 6, interleukin 1, platelet-derived growth factor $\beta$, and leukemia inhibitory factor were induced in cultured BEAS2B cells treated with TNP 40 ppm. When we compared the induction levels of genes in TNP-treated cells to those in CNP-treated cells, the induction levels were very correlated in various gene categories (r=0.645). This may suggest a possible common toxic mechanism of metal oxide nanoparticles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.287-287
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• 2011

ITRS(international technology roadmap for semiconductors)에 따르면 MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor)의 CD(critical dimension)가 45 nm node이하로 줄어들면서 poly-Si/SiO2를 대체할 수 있는 poly-Si/metal gate/high-k dielectric이 대두되고 있다. 일반적으로 metal gate를 식각시 정확한 CD를 형성시키기 위해서 plasma를 이용한 RIE(reactive ion etching)를 사용하고 있지만 PIDs(plasma induced damages)의 하나인 PICD(plasma induced charging damage)의 발생이 문제가 되고 있다. PICD의 원인으로 plasma의 non-uniform으로 locally imbalanced한 ion과 electron이 PICC(plasma induced charging current)를 gate oxide에 발생시켜 gate oxide의 interface에 trap을 형성시키므로 그 결과 소자 특성 저하가 보고되고 있다. 그러므로 본 연구에서는 이에 차세대 MOS의 metal gate의 식각공정에 HDP(high density plasma)의 ICP(inductively coupled plasma) source를 이용한 중성빔 시스템을 사용하여 PICD를 줄일 수 있는 새로운 식각 공정에 대한 연구를 하였다. 식각공정조건으로 gas는 HBr 12 sccm (80%)와 Cl2 3 sccm (20%)와 power는 300 w를 사용하였고 200 eV의 에너지로 식각공정시 TEM(transmission electron microscopy)으로 TiN의 anisotropic한 형상을 볼 수 있었고 100 eV 이하의 에너지로 식각공정시 하부층인 HfO2와 높은 etch selectivity로 etch stop을 시킬 수 있었다. 실제 공정을 MOS의 metal gate에 적용시켜 metal gate/high-k dielectric CMOSFETs의 NCSU(North Carolina State University) CVC model로 effective electric field electron mobility를 구한 결과 electorn mobility의 증가를 볼 수 있었고 또한 mos parameter인 transconductance (Gm)의 증가를 볼 수 있었다. 그 원인으로 CP(Charge pumping) 1MHz로 gate oxide의 inteface의 분석 결과 이러한 결과가 gate oxide의 interface trap양의 감소로 개선으로 기인함을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2000

This research employed a senescence-accelerated mouse(SAM) to explore the possibility that differences exits among the major antioxidants, superoxid dismutase(SOD), in terms of ability to protect such animal treated with Cu, Fe and Mn. To assess the antioxidants function of metal ions on SAM-R/1 and SAM-P/8 were administered with Cu, Fe and Mn orally. The effect of metal ions on SAM towards reversing oxygen sensitivity was determined as a bioassays of SOD in the mouse liver. The data show that the SOD activity was induced by each metal ions in both SAM-R/1 and SAM-P/8. It suggested that induced SOD by each metal ions may protect against oxidative mediated stress. Finally, overall data lead to the possibility of metal ions as an antioxidants or each metal ions act producer of oxygen radicals in the liver of SAM-R/1 and SAM-P/8.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.350-355
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• 2009

The crysralline silicon solar cell where the solar cell market grows rapidly is occupying of about 85% or more high efficiency and low cost endeavors many crystalline solar cells. The fabricaion process of high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells necessitate complicated fabrication processes and Ti/Pd/AG contact, This metal contacts have only been used in limited areas in spite of their good srability and low contact resistance because of expensive materials and process. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed solar cells formed by using Ag paste suffer from loe fill factor and high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and light-induced electro plating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Copper and Silver can be plated by electro & light-induced plating method. Light-induced plating makes use the photovoltaic effect of solar cell to deposit the metal on the front contact. The cell is immersed into the electrolytic plating bath and irradiated at the front side by light source, which leads to a current density in the front side grid. Electroless plated Ni/ Electro&light-induced plated Cu/ Light-induced plated Ag contact solar cells result in an energy conversion efficiency of 16.446 % on 0.2~0.6${\Omega}$ cm, $20{\times}20mm^2$, CZ(Czochralski) wafer.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.202-204
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• 2009

Erosion is a common failure mode of materials frequently encountered in plant and power industry. Although the erosion resistance of Fe-base alloy has been inferior to the other expensive materials, it is expected that the strain-induced martensitic transformation can impart high erosion resistance to Fe-base alloy. The key technology to develop Fe-base metal cored welding wire for erosion resistant overlay welding may include the strain-induced metallurgy for hardening rate control and the welding flux metallurgy for dilution control. Sophisticated studies showed that the strain-induced martensitic transformation behavior was related to the critical strain energy which was dependent on the alloy composition. Dilution and bead shape of overlay weld were proved to be affected by metal transfer mode during gas tungsten arc welding and elements in welding fluxes. It was considered that the highly erosion resistant Fe-base overlay weld could be achieved by precise control of alloy composition to have proper level of critical strain energy for energy absorption and welding flux formulation to have small amount of deoxidizing metallic elements for dilution.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.4021-4026
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• 2011

Functions of the luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) and its induced release by divalent metal ions have received great attention because this neurotransmitter subsequently regulates the secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH). Metal-LHRH complexes were synthesized by addition of various Cu(II),Ni(II),Zn(II) ions into LHRH in order to understand how the induced release of LHRH is possible. The degree of complexation was monitored by $^1H$, $^{13}C$-NMR chemical shifts, and final products were identified by Mass spectrometry. Solutionstate structure determination of Zn(II)-LHRH out of metal-complexes was accomplished by using NMR and NMR-based distance geometry (DG). Interproton distance information from nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy was utilized for structure determination. Structure obtained in this study has a cyclic conformation exhibiting a specific ${\alpha}$-helical turn with residue numbers His[2]-Leu[7] out of 10 amino acids. Comparison of chemical shifts and EPR studies of Ni(II),Cu(II)-LHRH complexes exhibit that these metal complexes have 4-coordination geometry.