• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.84-88
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• 2006

The effects of tip voltage, deflection setpoint, and tip velocity on height of $SiO_2$ line drawn by local anodization on Si wafer using scanning probe microscope were investigated. No local anodization was detected at smaller than -3 V of tip voltage. The line height increased at rate of 0.47 nm/V when the tip voltage is stronger than -3 V at $1{\mu}m/s$ tip velocity. From deflection setpoint, mechanical force between tip and substrate could be calculated and the threshold farce was $12\sim18nN$. The height of anodized $SiO_2$ lines is independent of the magnitude of force above the threshold force. The line height decreased as increasing the tip velocity and limited to 0.7 nm at -5 V tip voltage.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

Block copolymers spontaneously assemble into various nanoscale structures such as spheres, cylinders, and lamellar structures according to the relative volumn ratio of each macromolecular block and their overall molecular weights. The self-assembled structures of block copolymer have been extensively investigated for the applications such as nanocomposites, photonic crystals, nanowires, magnetic-storage media, flash memory devices. However, the naturally formed nanostructures of block copolymers contain a high density of defects such that the practical applications for nanoscale devices have been limited. For the practical application of block copolymer nanostructures, a robust process to direct the assembly of block copolymers in thin film geometry is required to be established. To exploit self-assembly of block copolymer for the nanotechnology, it is indispensible to fabricate defect-free self-assembled nanostructure over an arbitrarily large area.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2013

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is the next generation photolithography process in which the photoresist is dispensed onto the substrate in its liquid form and then imprinted and cured into a desired pattern instead of using traditional optical system. There have been considerable attentions on NIL due to its potential abilities that enable cost-effective and high-throughput nanofabrication to the display device and semiconductor industry. Although one of the current major research trends of NIL is large-area patterning, the technical difficulties to keep the uniformity of the residual layer become severer as the imprinting area increases more and more. In this paper, with the rolling type imprinting process, a mold, placed upon the $2^{nd}$ generation TFT-LCD glass sized substrate($370{\times}470mm^2$), is rolled by a rubber roller to achieve a uniform residual layer. The prediction of residual layer thickness of the photoresist by rolling of the rubber roller is crucial to design the rolling type imprinting process, determine the rubber roller operation conditions-mpressing force & feeding speed, operate smoothly the following etching process, and so forth. First, using the elasticity theory of contact problem and the empirical equation of rubber hardness, the contact length between rubber roller and mold is calculated with consideration of the shape and hardness of rubber roller and the pressing force to rubber roller. Next, using the squeeze flow theory to photoresist flow, the residual layer thickness of the photoresist is calculated with information of the viscosity and initial layer thickness of photoresist, the shape of mold pattern, feeding speed of rubber roller, and the contact length between rubber roller and mold previously calculated. Last, the effects of rubber roller operation conditions, impressing force & feeding speed, on the residual layer thickness are analyzed with consideration of the shape and hardness of rubber roller.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.4178-4184
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• 2013

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is an emerging technology enabling cost-effective and high-throughput nanofabrication. Recently, the major trends of NIL are high throughput and large area patterning. UV curable type NIL (UV NIL) can be performed at room temperature and low pressure. And one advantage of UV NIL is that it does not need vacuum, which greatly simplifies tool construction, so that vacuum oprated high-precision stages and a large vacuum chamber are no longer needed. However, one key issue in non-vacuum environment is air bubble formation problem. Namely, can the air bubbles be completely removed from the resist. In this paper, the air bubbles formation by the method of droplet application in UV NIL with non-vacuum environment are experimentally studied. The effects of the volume of droplet and the number of dispensing points on air bubble formation are investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.264-267
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• 2005

A subregional slicing method (SSM) is proposed to increase the nanofabrication efficiency of a nano-stereolithography (NSL) process based on two-photon polymerization (TPP). The NSL process can be used to fabricate 3D microstructures via the accumulation of layers of uniform thickness; hence, the precision of the final 3D microstructure depends on the layer thickness. The use of a uniform layer thickness means that, to fabricate a precise microstructure, a large number of thin slices is inevitably required. leading to long processing times. In the SSM proposed here, however, the 3D microstructure is divided into several subregions on the basis of the geometric slope, and then each of these subregions is uniformly sliced with a layer thickness determined by the geometric slope characteristics of each subregion. Subregions with gentle slopes are sliced with thin layer thicknesses, whereas subregions with steep slopes are sliced with thick layer thicknesses. Here, we describe the procedure of the SSM based on TPP, and discuss the fabrication efficiency of the method through the fabrication of a 3D microstructure.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.224-229
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• 2023

Due to the increasing demand for wearable devices and miniaturization of various electronic devices, the trend of nanofabrication in IT devices is underway. In order to overcome the limitations of battery size and capacity, there has been a lot of research interest in energy harvesting technology, also known as triboelectric nanogenerator. AAO(Anodic Aluminum oxide) coated with fluoride is a structure that includes an anode layer with high properties in the triboelectric series, an dielectric layer that helps transfer the triboelectrically generated charges to the electrode without loss, and the electrode. For these reasons, AAO has been a lot of research on its application to frictional energy harvesting nanogenerators. In this work, we analyzed the correlation of AAO between the surface morphology and thickness of the insulating layer by utilizing aluminum oxide, which is advantageous for the application of triboelectric nanogenerators, and adjusting the thickness of the insulating layer.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.7-7
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• 2011

Quantum beam technology has been expected to develop breakthroughs for nanotechnology during the third basic plan of science and technology (2006~2010). Recently, Green- or Life Innovations has taken over the national interests in the fourth basic science and technology plan (2011~2015). The NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science) has been conducting the corresponding mid-term research plans, as well as other national projects, such as nano-Green project (Global Research for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials science). In this lecture, the research trends in Japan and NIMS are firstly reviewed, and the typical achievements are highlighted over key nanotechnology fields. As one of the key nanotechnologies, the quantum beam research in NIMS focused on synchrotron radiation, neutron beams and ion/atom beams, having complementary attributes. The facilities used are SPring-8, nuclear reactor JRR-3, pulsed neutron source J-PARC and ion-laser-combined beams as well as excited atomic beams. Materials studied are typically fuel cell materials, superconducting/magnetic/multi-ferroic materials, quasicrystals, thermoelectric materials, precipitation-hardened steels, nanoparticle-dispersed materials. Here, we introduce a few topics of neutron scattering and ion beam nanofabrication. For neutron powder diffraction, the NIMS has developed multi-purpose pattern fitting software, post RIETAN2000. An ionic conductor, doped Pr2NiO4, which is a candidate for fuel-cell material, was analyzed by neutron powder diffraction with the software developed. The nuclear-density distribution derived revealed the two-dimensional network of the diffusion paths of oxygen ions at high temperatures. Using the high sensitivity of neutron beams for light elements, hydrogen states in a precipitation-strengthened steel were successfully evaluated. The small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) demonstrated the sensitive detection of hydrogen atoms trapped at the interfaces of nano-sized NbC. This result provides evidence for hydrogen embrittlement due to trapped hydrogen at precipitates. The ion beam technology can give novel functionality on a nano-scale and is targeting applications in plasmonics, ultra-fast optical communications, high-density recording and bio-patterning. The technologies developed are an ion-and-laser combined irradiation method for spatial control of nanoparticles, and a nano-masked ion irradiation method for patterning. Furthermore, we succeeded in implanting a wide-area nanopattern using nano-masks of anodic porous alumina. The patterning of ion implantation will be further applied for controlling protein adhesivity of biopolymers. It has thus been demonstrated that the quantum beam-based nanotechnology will lead the innovations both for nano-characterization and nano-fabrication.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2023

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has attracted much attention due to its process simplicity, excellent patternability, process scalability, high productivity, and low processing cost for pattern formation. However, the pattern size that can be implemented on metal materials through conventional NIL technologies is generally limited to the micro level. Here, we introduce a novel hard imprint lithography method, extreme-pressure imprint lithography (EPIL), for the direct nano-to-microscale pattern formation on the surfaces of metal substrates with various thicknesses. The EPIL process allows reliable nanoscopic patterning on diverse surfaces, such as polymers, metals, and ceramics, without the use of ultraviolet (UV) light, laser, imprint resist, or electrical pulse. Micro/nano molds fabricated by laser micromachining and conventional photolithography are utilized for the nanopatterning of Al substrates through precise plastic deformation by applying high load or pressure at room temperature. We demonstrate micro/nanoscale pattern formation on the Al substrates with various thicknesses from 20 ㎛ to 100 mm. Moreover, we also show how to obtain controllable pattern structures on the surface of metallic materials via the versatile EPIL technique. We expect that this imprint lithography-based new approach will be applied to other emerging nanofabrication methods for various device applications with complex geometries on the surface of metallic materials.