• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.98-98
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• 1999

Highly transparent and conducting tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) films were deposited on polycarbonate substrate by ion-assited deposition. Low substrate temperature (<10$0^{\circ}C$) was maintained during deposition to prevent the polycarbonate substrate from be deformed. The influence of ion beam energy, ion current density, and tin doping, on the structural, electrical and optical properties of deposited films was investigated. Indium oxide and tin-doped indium oxide (9 wt% SnO2) sources were evaporated with assisting ionized oxygen in high vacuum chamber at a pressure of 2$\times$10-5 torr and deposition temperature was varied from room temperature to 10$0^{\circ}C$. Oxygen gas was ionized and accelerated by cold hallow-cathode type ion gun at oxygen flow rate of 1 sccm(ml/min). Ion bea potential and ion current of oxygen ions was changed from 0 to 700 V and from 0.54 to 1.62 $\mu$A. The change of microstructure of deposited films was examined by XRD and SEM. The electrical resistivity and optical transmittance were measured by four-point porbe and conventional spectrophotometer. From the results of spectrophotometer, both the refractive index and the extinction coefficient were derived.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.141-150
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• 2002

Titanium oxide thin films were deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering(RMS) with Ar ion-beam assistance using end-Hall ion source at low oxygen partial pressure and long target-to-substrate distance. The optical and structural properties of deposited films were investigated by the measurement of measured transmittance and reflectance, atomic force microscope(AFM), and X-ray diffraction(XRD). The results show that the Ax ion-beam assisted RMS for titanium oxide thin films induces the higher packing density, lower absorption, and smoother surface than the conventional RMS, suggesting that it can be employed in deposition of optical dielectric coatings.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.95.1-95.1
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• 2010

Transparent conducting ZnO films were deposited to apply DSSC Substrate on glass substrates at $500^{\circ}C$ by ionbeam-assisted deposition. Crystallinity, microstructure, surface roughness, chemical composition, electrical and optical properties of the films were investigated as a function of deposition parameters such as ion energy, and substrate temperature. The microstructure of the polycrystalline ZnO films on the glass substrate were closely related to the oxygen ion energy, arrival ratio of oxygen to Zinc Ion bombarded on the growing surface. The main effect of energetic ion bombardment on the growing surface of the film may be divided into two categories; 1) the enhancement of adatom mobility at low energetic ion bombardment and 2) the surface damage by radiation damage at high energetic ion bombardment. The domain structure was obtained in the films deposited at 300 eV. With increasing the ion energy to 600 eV, the domain structure was changed into the grain structure. In case of the low energy ion bombardment of 300 eV, the microstructure of the film was changed from the grain structure to the domain structure with increasing arrival ratio. At the high energy ion bombardment of 600 eV, however, the only grain structure was observed. The electrical properties of the deposited films were significantly related to the change of microstructure. The films with the domain structure had larger carrier concentration and mobility than those with the grain structure, because the grain boundary scattering was reduced in the large size domains compared with the small size grains. The optical transmittance of ZnO films was dependent on a surface roughness. The ZnO films with small surface roughness, represented high transmittance in the visible range because of a decreased light surface scattering. By varying the ion energy and arrival ratio, the resistivity and optical transmittance of the films were varied from $1.1{\times}10^{-4}$ to $2.3{\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}cm$ and from 80 to 87%, respectively. The ZnO film deposited at 300 eV, and substrate temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ had the resistivity of $1.1{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ and optical transmittance of 85% in visible range. As a result of experiments, we provides a suggestition that ZnO thin Films can be effectively used as the DSSC substrate Materials.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.147-151
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• 2000

We deposited the ion assisted ${Ta_2}{O_5}$ films and conventional thermal evaporated ${Ta_2}{O_5}$ films by using electron beam gun, and measured the optical properties and mechanical properties of the fabricated films according to the evaporation conditions. In the case of the TazOs films by oxygen ion assisted deposition with the anode voltage of 120 V, and current density of $50~500\muA/cm^2$, the refractive index exhibited 2.15 which was higher than the conventionally deposited film index 1.94 and the tensile stress exhibited $5.0\times10^8 dyne/cm^2$ which was lower than $7.0\times10^8 dyne/cm^2$. This properties coincided with the optical and mechanical properties of the films deposited at the elevated substrate temperature of $230^{\circ}C$. In the case of the argon ion assisted films the tensile stress was decreased but the absorption existed at the short wavelength in the visible spectral region. And all the fabricated films were found to be amorphous by the X-ray diffraction analysis. lysis.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2002

We studied the optical and structural properties of conventional and ion-beam-assisted-deposition (IBAD) Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films which were evaporated by an electron beam gun. The vacuum-to-air spectral shift and the cross sectional SEM images of the Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films were investigated. The results show that the IBAD Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films have a higher packing density than the conventional Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films. The average refractive index of IBAD Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films was increased, while the extinction coefficient was decreased compared with the conventional films. As the oxygen flow was increased, the average refractive index and extinction coefficient of the conventional and IBAD films decreased. Both the conventional and IBAD Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films showed inhomogeneity in refractive index, and the degree of inhomogeneity of the IBAD Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films became larger as the ion current density was increased. All Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films were found to be amorphous by x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and hence the crystal structure of Nb$_2$O$_{5}$ films was not changed by IBAD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.157-157
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• 2015

Recently, the growing interest in organic microelectronic devices including OLEDs has led to an increasing amount of research into their many potential applications in the area of flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates. However, these organic devices require a gas barrier coating to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency OLEDs require an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2day$. The Key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required ($1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2day$) is the suppression of defect sites and gas diffusion pathways between grain boundaries. In this study NBAS process was introduced to deposit enhanced film density single gas barrier layer with a low WVTR. Fig. 1. shows a schematic illustration of the NBAS apparatus. The NBAS process was used for the $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure films deposition, as shown in Fig. 1. The NBAS system is based on the conventional RF magnetron sputtering and it has the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source and metal reflector. $Ar^+$ ion in the ECR plasma can be accelerated into the plasma sheath between the plasma and metal reflector, which are then neutralized mainly by Auger neutralization. The neutral beam energy is controlled by the metal reflector bias. The controllable neutral beam energy can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to nanocrystal phase of various grain sizes. The $Al_2O_3$ films can be high film density by controllable Auger neutral beam energy. we developed $Al_2O_3$ high dense barrier layer using NBAS process. We can verified that NBAS process effect can lead to formation of high density nano-crystal structure barrier layer. As a result, Fig. 2. shows that the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ high dense barrier layer shows excellent WVTR property as a under $2{\times}10^{-5}g/m^2day$ in the single barrier layer of 100nm thickness. Therefore, the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ high dense barrier layer is very suitable in the high efficiency OLED application.