• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.393-398
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• 1991

An experimental reactor system was devised and employed to examine catalytic coal gasification. A 4-kw tungsten halogen lamp heater combinded with a graphite sample basket coated with silicon nitride film made rapid heating and cooling possible. Also a small graphite cap on the thermocouple tip which located just beneath the sample basket helped remarkably to read real temperatures. Silicon nitride film on the basket and the cap showed very good protection against the reaction between graphite and oxidant gases during the experiments. The weight of specimen could be continuously measured without disturbance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 1991

In PECVD(Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) process, titanium nitride is thin and its adhesion is poor for the protective coatings. Therefore it has been studied that intermediate layer forms between substrate and TiN thin film. Using R.F. plasma nitriding, nitride layer was first formed, then TiN thin film coated by PECVD. The chemical composition of the coatings has been characterized using AES, EDS and their crystallographic structure by means of XRD. Mechanical properties such as microhardness and film adhesion have also been determined by vickers hardness test, scratch test and indentation test. As a result, there was no difference in chemical composition and structure between the TiN deposition only and the composite of TiN deposition on nitrided steel. It was found that nitrided substrate increased the hardness of TiN coatings and was beneficial in preventing the plastic deformation in the substrate. Therefore the effective load bearing capacity of the TiN coatings on nitrided steel was increased and their adhesion was improved as well. According to the results of this study, the processes that lead to the formation of composite layers characterized by good working properties, i.e., high microhardness, adhesion and resistance to deformation.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2020

For deposition technology using plasma, it plays an important role in improving film deposited with high ionization rate through high density plasma. Various deposition methods such as high-power impulse magnetron sputtering and ion-beam sputtering have been developed for physical vapor deposition technology and are still being studied. In this study, it is intended to control plasma using inductive coupled plasma (ICP) antennas and use properties to improve the properties of Hafnium nitride (HfN) films using ICP assisted magnetron sputtering (ICPMS). HfN film deposited using ICPMS showed a finer grain sizes, denser microstructure and better mechanical properties as ICP power increases. The best mechanical properties such as nanoindentation hardness of 47 GPa and Young's modulus of 401 GPa was obtained from HfN film deposited using ICPMS at ICP power of 200 W.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.462-466
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• 2007

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited on Si substrates by using polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layers, in which the AlN film was grown by pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering. Characteristics of grown AlN films were investigated experimentally by means of FE-SEM, X-ray diffraction, and FT-IR, respectively. The columnar structure of AlN thin films was observed by FE-SEM. X-ray diffraction pattern proved that the grown AlN film on 3C-SiC layers had highly (002) orientation with low value of FWHM (${\Theta}=1.3^{\circ}$) in the rocking curve around (002) reflections. These results were shown that almost free residual stress existed in the grown AlN film on 3C-SiC buffer layers from the infrared absorbance spectrum. Therefore, the presented results showed that AlN thin films grown on 3C-SiC buffer layers can be used for various piezoelectric fields and M/NEMS applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.367-367
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• 2008

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have been deposited on Si substrate by using reactive RF magnetron sputtering method in a gas mixture of Ar and $N_2$ at different $N_2$ concentration. It was found that $N_2$ concentration was varied in the range up to 20-100%, highly c-axis oriented film can be obtained at 50% $N_2$ with full width at half maximum (FWHM) $4.5^{\circ}$. Decrease in surface roughness from 7.5 nm to 4.6 nm found to be associated with decrease in grain size, with $N_2$ concentration; however, the AlN film fabricated at 20% $N_2$ exhibited a granular type of structure with non-uniform grains. The absorption peak was observed around 675 $cm^{-1}$ in fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It is concluded that the AlN film deposited at $N_2$ concentration of 50% exhibited the most desirable properties for the application of high-frequency surface acoustic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.463-467
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• 2008

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have been deposited on Au electrodes by using reactive RF magnetron sputtering method in a gas mixture of Ar and $N_2$ at different substrate temperature. It was found that substrate temperature was varied in the range up to $400^{\circ}C$, highly c-axis oriented film can be obtained at $300^{\circ}C$ with full width at half maximum (FWHM) $3.1^{\circ}$. Increase in surface roughness from 3.8 nm to 5.9 nm found to be associated with increase in grain size, with substrate temperature; however, the AlN film fabricated at $400^{\circ}C$ exhibited a granular type of structure with non-uniform grains. The Al 2p and N 1s peak in the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectrum confirmed the formation of Al-N bonds. The XPS spectrum also indicated the presence of oxynitrides and oxides, resulting from the presence of residual oxygen in the vacuum chamber. It is concluded that the AlN film deposited at substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ exhibited the most desirable properties for the application of high-frequency surface acoustic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2012

The Hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H) using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is widely used in photovoltaic industry as an antireflection coating and passivation layer. In the high temperature firing process, the $SiN_x:H$ film should not change the properties for its use as high quality surface layer in crystalline silicon solar cells. Initially PECVD-$SiN_x:H$ film trends were investigated by varying the deposition parameters (temperature, electrode gap, RF power, gas flow rate etc.) to optimize the process parameter conditions. Then by varying gas ratios ($NH_3/SiH_4$), the hydrogenated silicon nitride films were analyzed for its optical, electrical, chemical and surface passivation properties. The $SiN_x:H$ films of refractive indices 1.90~2.20 were obtained. The film deposited with the gas ratio of 3.6 (Refractive index=1.98) showed the best properties in after firing process condition. The single crystalline silicon solar cells fabricated according to optimized gas ratio (R=3.6) condition on large area substrate of size $156{\times}156mm$ (Pseudo square) was found to have the conversion efficiency as high as 17.2%. Optimized hydrogenated silicon nitride surface layer and high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells fabrication sequence has also been explained in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.50-50
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• 2007

We report the effect of the film thickness on electrical properties of Ti(N) film resistors. The applications of titanium nitride thin film resistor in $\Pi$-type attenuators are also characterized. As film thickness decreases from 100 to 30 nm, temperature coefficient of resistance significantly decreases from -60 to -148 ppm/K, while sheet resistance increases from 37 to $270\;{\Omega}/{\square}$. The characterizations of 20dB-attenuators using thin film resistors are improved in comparison with those using thick film resistors. The $\Pi$-type attenuators using Ti(N) thin film resistors exhibit a attenuation of -19.94 dB and voltage standing wave ratio of 1.16 at a frequency of 2.7 GHz.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.139-144
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• 2013

c-BN(cubic boron nitride) is known to have extremely high hardness next to diamond, as well as very high thermal and chemical stability. The c-BN in the form of film is useful for wear resistant coatings where the application of diamond film is restricted. However, there is less practical application because of difficult control of processing variables for synthesis of c-BN film as well as unclear mechanism on formation of c-BN. Therefore, in the present study, the structural characterization of c-BN thin film were investigated using $B_4C$ target in r.f. magnetron sputtering system as a function of processing variables. c-BN films were coated on Si(100) substrate using $B_4C$ (99.5% purity). The mixture of nitrogen and argon was used for carrier gas. The deposition processing conditions were changed with substrate bias voltage, substrate temperature and base pressure. Fourier transform infrared microscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to analyze crystal structures and chemical binding energy of the films. In the case of the BN film deposited at room temperature, c-BN was formed in the substrate bias voltage range of -400 V~ -600 V. Less c-BN fraction was observed as deposition temperature increased and more c-BN fraction was observed as base pressure increased.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2005

Silicon nitride cantilevers integrated with silicon heaters and piezoelectric sensors were developed for the scanning probe microscope (SPM) based data storage application. These nitride cantilevers are expected to have better mechanical stability and uniformity of initial bending than the previously developed silicon cantilevers. Data bits of 40 nm in diameter were recorded on PMMA film and the sensitivity of the piezoelectric sensor was 0.615 fC/nm, meaning that indentations less than 20 nm in depth can be detected. For high speed operation, $128{\times}128$ cantilever array was developed.