• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.701-707
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• 2004

High aspect ratio silicon structure through deep silicon etching process have become indispensable for advanced MEMS applications. In this paper, we present the results of modified Bosch process to obtain anisotropic silicon structure with conventional Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) etcher instead of the expensive Bosch process systems. In modified Bosch process, etching step ($SFsub6$) / sidewall passivation ($Csub4Fsub8$) step time is much longer than commercialized Bosch scheme and process transition time is introduced between process steps to improve gas switching and RF power delivery efficiency. To optimize process parameters, etching ($SFsub6$) / sidewall passivation ($Csub4Fsub8$) time and ion energy effects on etching profile was investigated. Etch profile strongly depends on the period of etch / passivation and ion energy. Furthermore, substrate temperature during etching process was found to be an important parameter determining etching profile. Test structures with different pattern size have been etched for the comparison of the aspect ratio dependent etch rate and the formation of silicon grass. At optimized process condition, micropatterns etched with modified Bosch process showed nearly vertical sidewall and no silicon grass formation with etch rate of 1.2 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$/ min and the size of scallop of 250 nm.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1994.11a
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• pp.205-208
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• 1994

The purpose of this study is to research and develop solid polymer electrolyte(SPE) for Li secondary battery. PEO-$LiClO_4$ electrolyte with plasticizer is very unstable. Passivation phenomena in polymer electrolyte cell was described by the SPL model. The time dependance of the impedance indicates that a passivation layer grows rapidly on the Li surface. However, the growing of passivation layer on the Li surface can be restrained by addition of zeolite to the PEO electrolyte. It suggested that addition of zeoliteto to the PEO-$LiClO_4$ electrolyte effectively controls the formation of a passivation layer on Li electrode.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.113-120
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• 2022

Quantum dots (QDs) are attractive photosensitizer candidates for application not only in solar cells but also in solar hydrogen generation. For the prepartion of highly efficient QD-sensitized photoelectrodes, it is important to reduce electron recombination at the photoanode/electrolyte interface. Here, we study on the coating condition of ZnS passivation layers on the photoanodes in QD-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). The ZnS passivation layers are coated by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method, and as the cation precursor, zinc acetate and zinc nitrate are empolyed. Due to the higher pH of cation precursor solution, the ZnS loading is improved when the zinc acetate is used, compared to the zinc nitrate. This improved loading of ZnS leads to the reduced electron recombination at the surface of photoanodes and the enhaced conversion efficiency of QDSCs from 6.07% to 7.45%.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.144-149
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• 2000

Variables affecting the passivation capability of Cu(Mg) alloy films, which were sputter deposited from a Cu (4.5 at. %) target, have been investigated. The results show that the passivation capability of a Cu(Mg) alloy film is a function of annealing temperature, $O_2$ pressure, and Mg content in the film. Increasing the annealing temperature up to $500^{\circ}C$ favors formation of a dense MgO layer on the surface which has a growth limited thickness of 150 $\AA$. Decreasing the $O_2$ pressure enhances the preferential oxidation of Mg over Cu. Furthermore, increasing the Mg content in the Cu(Mg) film promotes formation of a dense MgO layer. Vacuum pre-annealing was found to be very effective in segregating Mg to the surface, facilitating the passivation capability of the Cu(Mg) alloy film even when the Mg content is low. In the current study, self-aligned MgO layers with low resistivity and an effective passivation capability over the Cu surface, have been obtained by manipulating these factors when Cu(Mg) thin films are annealed.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.581-588
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• 2013

This paper presents a study of the process temperature dependence of $Al_2O_3$ film grown by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a passivation layer in the crystalline Si (c-Si) solar cells. The deposition rate of $Al_2O_3$ film maintained almost the same until $250^{\circ}C$, but decreased from $300^{\circ}C$. $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ was found to have the highest negative fixed oxide charge density ($Q_f$) due to its O-rich condition and low hydroxyl group (-OH) density. After post-metallization annealing (PMA), $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ had the lowest slow and fast interface trap density. Actually, $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ showed the best passivation effects, that is, the highest excess carrier lifetime (${\tau}_{PCD}$) and lowest surface recombination velocity ($S_{eff}$) than other conditions. Therefore, $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ exhibited excellent chemical and field-effect passivation properties for p-type c-Si solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.197-200
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• 2014

We investigated the influence of blistering on $Al_2O_3$/SiON stacks and $Al_2O_3$/SiNx:H stacks passivation layers. $Al_2O_3$ film provides outstanding Si surface passivation quality. $Al_2O_3$ film as the rear passivation layer of a p-type Si solar cell is usually stacked with a capping layer, such as $SiO_2$, SiNx, and SiON films. These capping layers protect the thin $Al_2O_3$ layer from an Al electrode during the annealing process. We compared $Al_2O_3$/SiON stacks and $Al_2O_3$/SiNx:H stacks through surface morphology and minority carrier lifetime after annealing processes at $450^{\circ}C$ and $850^{\circ}C$. As a result, the $Al_2O_3$/SiON stacks were observed to produce less blister phenomenon than $Al_2O_3$/SiNx:H stacks. This can be explained by the differences in the H species content. In the process of depositing SiNx film, the rich H species in $NH_3$ source are diffused to the $Al_2O_3$ film. On the other hand, less hydrogen diffusion occurs in SiON film as it contains less H species than SiNx film. This blister phenomenon leads to an increase insurface defect density. Consequently, the $Al_2O_3$/SiON stacks had a higher minority carrier lifetime than the $Al_2O_3$/SiNx:H stacks.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.262-268
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• 2009

We investigated the properties of inorganic diatomic films like silicon oxide ($SiO_2$) and zinc oxide (ZnO) and their composite films are packed as a passivation layer around Ca cells on glass substrates by using an electron-beam evaporation technique and rf-magnetron sputtering method. When these Ca cells are exposed to an ambient atmosphere, the water vapor penetrating through the passivation layers is adsorbed in the Ca cells, resulting in a gradual progress of transparency in the Ca cells, which can be represented by changes of the optical transmittance in the visible range. Compared with the saturation times for the Ca cells to become completely transparent in the atmosphere, the protection effects against permeation of water vapor are estimated for various passivation films. The thin composite films consist of$SiO_2$ and ZnO are found to show a superior protection effect from water vapor permeation compared with diatomic inorganic films like $SiO_2$ and ZnO. Also, this inorganic thin composite films are also found that their protection effect against permeation of water vapor can be significantly enhanced by choosing their suitable composition ratio and deposition method, in addition, the main factors affecting the permeation of water vapor through the oxide films are found to be the polarizability and the packing density.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.160-160
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• 2010

Organic electronic devices require a passivation layer to ensure sufficient lifetime. Specifically, flexible organic electronic devices need a barrier layer that transmits less than $10^{-6}\;g/m^2/day$ of water and $10^{-5}\;g/m^2/day$ of oxygen. To increase the lifetime of organic electronic device, therefore, it is indispensable to protect the organic materials from water and oxygen. Severe groups have reported on multi-layerd barriers consisting inorganic thin films deposited by plasma enhenced chemical deposition (PECVD) or sputtering. However, it is difficult to control the formation of granular-type morphology and microscopic pinholes in PECVD and sputtering. On the contrary, atomic layer deoposition (ALD) is free of pinhole, highly uniform, conformal films and show good step coverage. In this study, the passivation layer was deposited using single-process PEALD. The passivation layer, in our case, was a bilayer system consisting of $Al_2O_3$ films and a $TiO_2$ buffer layer on a poly (ether sulfon) (PES) substrate. Because the deposition temperature and plasma power have a significant effect on the properties of the passivation layer, the characteristics of the $Al_2O_3$ films were investigated in terms of density under different deposition temperatures and plasma powers. The effect of the $TiO_2$ buffer layer also was also addressed. In addition, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and organic light-emitting diode (OLEDs) lifetime were measured after forming a bilayer composed of $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ on a PES substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.462-462
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• 2014

The effect of rear passivation for passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) using ozone and H2O oxidant of atomic layer deposited (ALD) Al2O3 was studied by post-annealing in N2 and forming gas ambients. Rear surface of PERC solar cell was passivated by Al2O3 grown by ALD with ozone and H2O oxidant. Al2O3 grown by ALD with ozone oxidant has been known to have many advantages, such as lower interface defects, low leakage current density. Its passivation quality is better than Al2O3 with H2O. Al2O3 layer with 10 nm and 20 nm thickness was grown at $150^{\circ}C$ with ozone oxidant and at $250^{\circ}C$ with H2O oxidant. And then each samples were post-annealled at $450^{\circ}C$ in N2 ambients and at $850^{\circ}C$ in forming gas ambients. The passivation quality was investigated by measuring the minority carrier lifetime respectively. We examined atomic layer deposited Al2O3 such as growth rate, film density, thickness, negative fixed charge density at AlOx/Si interface, and reflectance. The influences of process temperature and heat treatment were investigated using Sinton (WCT-120) by Quasi-Steady State Photoconductance (QSSPC) mode. Ozone-based ALD Al2O3 film shows the best carrier lifetime at lower deposition temperature than H2O-based ALD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.211-211
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• 2012

The electrical loss of the photo-generated carriers is dominated by the recombination at the metal- semiconductor interface. In order to enhance the performance of the solar cells, many studies have been performed on the surface treatment with passivation layer like SiN, SiO2, Al2O3, and a-Si:H. In this work, Al2O3 thin films were investigated to reduce recombination at surface. The Al2O3 thin films have two advantages, such as good passivation properties and back surface field (BSF) effect at rear surface. It is usually deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. However, ALD process is a very expensive process and it has rather low deposition rate. In this study, the ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering method was used to deposit Al2O3 thin films. For optimization of the properties of the Al2O3 thin film, various fabrication conditions were controlled, such as ICP RF power, substrate bias voltage and deposition temperature, and argon to oxygen ratio. Chemical states and atomic concentration ratio were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In order to investigate the electrical properties, Al/(Al2O3 or SiO2,/Al2O3)/Si (MIS) devices were fabricated and characterized using the C-V measurement technique (HP 4284A). The detailed characteristics of the Al2O3 passivation thin films manufactured by ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique will be shown and discussed.