• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.146-155
• /
• 2019

Rare earth magnets are the strongest type of permanent magnets and are integral to the high tech industry, particularly in clean energies, such as electric vehicle motors and wind turbine generators. However, the cost of rare earth materials and the imbalance in supply and demand still remain big problems to solve for permanent magnet related industries. Thus, a magnet with abundant elements and moderate magnetic performance is required to replace rare-earth magnets. Recently, $a^{{\prime}{\prime}}-Fe_{16}N_2$ has attracted considerable attention as a promising candidate for next-generation non-rare-earth permanent magnets due to its gigantic magnetization (3.23 T). Also, metastable $a^{{\prime}{\prime}}-Fe_{16}N_2$ exhibits high tetragonality (c/a = 1.1) by interstitial introduction of N atoms, leading to a high magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant ($K_1=1.0MJ/m^3$). In addition, Fe has a large amount of reserves on the Earth compared to other magnetic materials, leading to low cost of raw materials and manufacturing for industrial production. In this paper, we review the synthetic methods of metastable $a^{{\prime}{\prime}}-Fe_{16}N_2$ with film, powder and bulk form and discuss the approaches to enhance magnetocrystalline anisotropy of $a^{{\prime}{\prime}}-Fe_{16}N_2$. Future research prospects are also offered with patent trends observed thus far.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.43-48
• /
• 2019

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is used by the semiconductor industry, and is a compound that is required when manufacturing high thermal conductivity. The AlN films with c-axis orientation and thermal conductivity characteristic were deposited by using the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The AlN thin films were characterized by changing the deposition conditions. In particular, we have researched the AlN thin film deposited under optimal conditions for growth atmosphere. The epitaxial AlN films were grown on sapphire ($c-Al_2O_3$) single crystals by PLD with AlN target. The AlN films were deposited at a fixed temperature of $650^{\circ}C$, while conditions of nitrogen ($N_2$) pressure were varied between 0.1 mTorr and 10 mTorr. The quality of the AlN films was found to depend strongly on the $N_2$ partial pressure that was exerted during deposition. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the integrated intensity of the AlN (002) peak increases as a function the corresponding Full width at half maximum (FWHM) values decreases with lowering of the nitrogen partial pressure. We found that highly c-axis orientated AlN films can be deposited at a substrate temperature of $650^{\circ}C$ and a base pressure of $2{\times}10^{-7}Torr$ in the $N_2$ partial pressure of 0.1 mTorr. Also, it is noted that as the $N_2$ partial pressure decreased, the thermal conductivity increased.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.1175-1180
• /
• 2022

STI has been studied a lot as a process technology for wide area planarization according to miniaturization and high integration of semiconductor devices. In this study, as methods for improving the STI profile, wet etching of pad oxide using hydrofluorine solution and dry etching of O₂+CF₄ after STI dry etching were proposed. This process technology showed improvement in profile imbalance and leakage current between patterns according to device density compared to the conventional method. In addition, as a result of measuring the HLD thickness after CMP for a device having the same STI depth and HLD deposition, the measured value was different depending on the device density. It was confirmed that this was due to the difference in the thickness of the nitride film according to the device density after CMP and the selectivity of the slurry.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.53-64
• /
• 2023

Atomic layer etching (ALE) is a promising technique with atomic-level thickness controllability and high selectivity based on self-limiting surface reactions. ALE is performed by sequential exposure of the film surface to reactants, which results in surface modification and release of volatile species. Among the various ALE methods, thermal ALE involves a thermally activated reaction by employing gas species to release the modified surface without using energetic species, such as accelerated ions and neutral beams. In this study, the basic principle and surface reaction mechanisms of thermal ALE?processes, including "fluorination-ligand exchange reaction", "conversion-etch reaction", "conversion-fluorination reaction", "oxidation-fluorination reaction", "oxidation-ligand exchange reaction", and "oxidation-conversion-fluorination reaction" are described. In addition, the reported thermal ALE processes for the removal of various oxides, metals, and nitrides are presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.239-240
• /
• 2008

As semiconductor devices are scaled down for better performance and more functionality, the Cu-based interconnects suffer from the increase of the resistivity of the Cu wires. The resistivity increase, which is attributed to the electron scattering from grain boundaries and interfaces, needs to be addressed in order to further scale down semiconductor devices [1]. The increase in the resistivity of the interconnect can be alleviated by increasing the grain size of electroplating (EP)-Cu or by modifying the Cu surface [1]. Another possible solution is to maximize the portion of the EP-Cu volume in the vias or damascene structures with the conformal diffusion barrier and seed layer by optimizing their deposition processes during Cu interconnect fabrication, which are currently ionized physical vapor deposition (IPVD)-based Ta/TaN bilayer and IPVD-Cu, respectively. The use of in-situ etching, during IPVD of the barrier or the seed layer, has been effective in enlarging the trench volume where the Cu is filled, resulting in improved reliability and performance of the Cu-based interconnect. However, the application of IPVD technology is expected to be limited eventually because of poor sidewall step coverage and the narrow top part of the damascene structures. Recently, Ru has been suggested as a diffusion barrier that is compatible with the direct plating of Cu [2-3]. A single-layer diffusion barrier for the direct plating of Cu is desirable to optimize the resistance of the Cu interconnects because it eliminates the Cu-seed layer. However, previous studies have shown that the Ru by itself is not a suitable diffusion barrier for Cu metallization [4-6]. Thus, the diffusion barrier performance of the Ru film should be improved in order for it to be successfully incorporated as a seed layer/barrier layer for the direct plating of Cu. The improvement of its barrier performance, by modifying the Ru microstructure from columnar to amorphous (by incorporating the N into Ru during PVD), has been previously reported [7]. Another approach for improving the barrier performance of the Ru film is to use Ru as a just seed layer and combine it with superior materials to function as a diffusion barrier against the Cu. A RulTaN bilayer prepared by PVD has recently been suggested as a seed layer/diffusion barrier for Cu. This bilayer was stable between the Cu and Si after annealing at $700^{\circ}C$ for I min [8]. Although these reports dealt with the possible applications of Ru for Cu metallization, cases where the Ru film was prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) have not been identified. These are important because of ALD's excellent conformality. In this study, a bilayer diffusion barrier of Ru/TaCN prepared by ALD was investigated. As the addition of the third element into the transition metal nitride disrupts the crystal lattice and leads to the formation of a stable ternary amorphous material, as indicated by Nicolet [9], ALD-TaCN is expected to improve the diffusion barrier performance of the ALD-Ru against Cu. Ru was deposited by a sequential supply of bis(ethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium [Ru$(EtCp)_2$] and $NH_3$plasma and TaCN by a sequential supply of $(NEt_2)_3Ta=Nbu^t$ (tert-butylimido-trisdiethylamido-tantalum, TBTDET) and $H_2$ plasma. Sheet resistance measurements, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) analysis showed that the bilayer diffusion barriers of ALD-Ru (12 nm)/ALD-TaCN (2 nm) and ALD-Ru (4nm)/ALD-TaCN (2 nm) prevented the Cu diffusion up to annealing temperatures of 600 and $550^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, respectively. This is found to be due to the excellent diffusion barrier performance of the ALD-TaCN film against the Cu, due to it having an amorphous structure. A 5-nm-thick ALD-TaCN film was even stable up to annealing at $650^{\circ}C$ between Cu and Si. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigation combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis revealed that the ALD-Ru/ALD-TaCN diffusion barrier failed by the Cu diffusion through the bilayer into the Si substrate. This is due to the ALD-TaCN interlayer preventing the interfacial reaction between the Ru and Si.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.212-217
• /
• 2000

Dielectric thin films for TFT(thin film transistor)s, such as silicon nitride$(Si_3N_4)$ and silicon oxide$(SiO_2)$, are usually deposited at $200~300^{\circ}C$. In this study, authors have tried to form dielectric films not by deposition but by oxidation with ECR(Electron Cyclotron Resonance) oxygen plasma, to improve the interface properties was not intensionally heated during oxidation. THe oxidation was performed consecutively without breaking vacuum after the deposition of a-Si: H films on the substrate to prevent the introduction of impurities. In this study, especially pulse mode of microwave power has been firstly tried during FCR oxygen plasma formation. Compared with the case of the continuous wave mode, the oxidation with the pulsed ECR results in higher quality silicon oxide$SiO_X$ films in terms of stoichiometry of bonding, dielectric constants and surface roughness. Especially the surface roughness of the pulsed ECR oxide films dramatically decreased to one-third of that of the continuous wave mode cases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 1999.07a
• /
• pp.211-211
• /
• 1999

Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films have useful properties including high hardness, good electrical conductivity, high melting point, and chemical inertness. The applications have included wear-resistant hard coatings on machine tools and bearings, decorative coating making use of the golden color, thermal control coatings for widows, and erosion resistant coatings for spacecraft plasma probes. For all these applications as feature sizes shrink and aspect ratios grow, the issue of good step coverage becomes increasingly important. It is therefore essential to manufacture conformal coatings of TiN. The growth of TiN thin films by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is of great interest for achieving conformal deposition. The most widely used precursor for TiN is TiCl4 and NH3. However, chlorine impurity in the as-grown films and relatively high deposition temperature (>$600^{\circ}C$) are considered major drawbacks from actual device fabrication. To overcome these problems, recently, MOCVD processes including plasma assisted have been suggested. In this study, therefore, we have doposited Ti(C, N) thin films on Si(100) and D2 steel substrates in the temperature range of 150-30$0^{\circ}C$ using tetrakis diethylamido titanium (TDEAT) and titanium isopropoxide (TIP) by pulsed DC plamsa enhanced metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (PEMOCVD) method. Polycrystalline Ti(C, N) thin films were successfully grown on either D2 steel or Si(100) surfaces at temperature as low as 15$0^{\circ}C$. Compositions of the as-grown films were determined with XPS and RBS. From XPS analysis, thin films of Ti(C, N) with low oxygen concentration were obtained. RBS data were also confirmed the changes of stoichiometry and microhardness of our films. Radical formation and ionization behaviors in plasma are analyzed by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) at various pulsed bias and gases conditions. H2 and He+H2 gases are used as carrier gases to compare plasma parameter and the effect of N2 and NH3 gases as reactive gas is also evaluated in reduction of C content of the films. In this study, we fond that He and H2 mixture gas is very effective in enhancing ionization of radicals, especially N resulting is high hardness. The higher hardness of film is obtained to be ca. 1700 HK 0.01 but it depends on gas species and bias voltage. The proper process is evident for H and N2 gas atmosphere and bias voltage of 600V. However, NH3 gas highly reduces formation of CN radical, thereby decreasing C content of Ti(C, N) thin films in a great deal. Compared to PVD TiN films, the Ti(C, N) film grown by PEMOCVD has very good conformability; the step coverage exceeds 85% with an aspect ratio of more than 3.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.255-262
• /
• 1997

Titanium nitride (TiN) films were prepared by reactive sputter deposition in mixed gas of Ar+$N_2$. The volume percentage of $N_2$ in the working gas was chosen so as to grow stoichiometric TiN films and the substrate temperature during film growth was set from room temperature to $700^{\circ}C$. Stoichiometric $Ti_{0.5}N){0.5}$ films with (111) texture were grown at temperatures over $600^{\circ}C$, while films prepared at temperatures below $600^{\circ}C$ showed N-rich TiN. The composition X and y in the $Ti_xN_y$ films determined by XPS and RBS varied within 5% with the substrate temperature. The sheet resistance of the TiN films decreases as the substrate temperature increased. TiN film prepared at $600^{\circ}C$ showed 14.5$\Omega\Box$, and it decreased to 8.9$\Omega\Box$ after the sample was annealed at $700^{\circ}C$, 30 sec in Ar-gas ambient by RTA. By far, high quality stoichiometric TiN films by reactive sputtering in the mixed gas ambient could be prepared at substrate temperature over $600^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.185-189
• /
• 2012

We report plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy of $In_XGa_{1-X}N$ films on c-plane sapphire substrates. Prior to the growth of $In_XGa_{1-X}N$ films, GaN film was grown on the nitride c-plane sapphire substrate by two-dimensional (2D) growth mode. For the growth of GaN, Ga flux of $3.7{\times}10^{-8}$ torr as a beam equivalent pressure (BEP) and a plasma power of 150 W with a nitrogen flow rate of 0.76 sccm were fixed. The growth of 2D GaN growth was confirmed by $in-situ$ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) by observing a streaky RHEED pattern with a strong specular spot. InN films showed lower growth rates even with the same growth conditions (same growth temperature, same plasma condition, and same BEP value of III element) than those of GaN films. It was observed that the growth rate of GaN is 1.7 times higher than that of InN, which is probably caused by the higher vapor pressure of In. For the growth of $In_xGa_{1-x}N$ films with different In compositions, total III-element flux (Ga plus In BEPs) was set to $3.7{\times}10^{-8}$ torr, which was the BEP value for the 2D growth of GaN. The In compositions of the $In_xGa_{1-x}N$ films were determined to be 28, 41, 45, and 53% based on the peak position of (0002) reflection in x-ray ${\theta}-2{\theta}$ measurements. The growth of $In_xGa_{1-x}N$ films did not show a streaky RHEED pattern but showed spotty patterns with weak streaky lines. This means that the net sticking coefficients of In and Ga, considered based on the growth rates of GaN and InN, are not the only factor governing the growth mode; another factor such as migration velocity should be considered. The sample with an In composition of 41% showed the lowest full width at half maximum value of 0.20 degree from the x-ray (0002) omega rocking curve measurements and the lowest root mean square roughness value of 0.71 nm.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.243-249
• /
• 2011

To reduce manufacturing costs of crystalline silicon solar cells, silicon wafers have become thinner. In relation to this, the properties of the aluminium-back surface field (Al-BSF) are considered an important factor in solar cell performance. Generally, screen-printing and a rapid thermal process (RTP) are utilized together to form the Al-BSF. This study evaluates Al-BSF formation on a (111) textured back surface compared with a (100) flat back surface with variation of ramp up rates from 18 to $89^{\circ}C$/s for the RTP annealing conditions. To make different back surface morphologies, one side texturing using a silicon nitride film and double side texturing were carried out. After aluminium screen-printing, Al-BSF formed according to the RTP annealing conditions. A metal etching process in hydrochloric acid solution was carried out to assess the quality of Al-BSF. Saturation currents were calculated by using quasi-steady-state photoconductance. The surface morphologies observed by scanning electron microscopy and a non-contacting optical profiler. Also, sheet resistances and bulk carrier concentration were measured by a 4-point probe and hall measurement system. From the results, a faster ramp up during Al-BSF formation yielded better quality than a slower ramp up process due to temperature uniformity of silicon and the aluminium surface. Also, in the Al-BSF formation process, the (111) textured back surface is significantly affected by the ramp up rates compared with the (100) flat back surface.