• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.32A no.3
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• pp.68-77
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• 1995

Characteristics of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma thermal oxide grown at low-temperature have been investigated. The effects of several process parameters such as substrate temperature, microwave power, gas flow rate, and process pressure on the growth rate of the oxide have been also investigated. It was found that the plasma density, reactive ion species, is strongly related to the growth rate of ECR plasma oxied. It was also found that the plasma density increases with microwave power while it decreases with decreasing O2 flow rate. The oxidation time dependence of the oxide thichness showed parabolic characteristics. Considering ECR plasma thermal oxidation at low-temperature, the linear as well as parabolic rate constants calculated from fitting data by using the Deal-Grove model was very large in comparison with conventional thermal oxidation. The ECR plasma oxide grown on (100) crystalline-Si wafer exhibited good electrical characteristics which are comparable to those of thermal oxide: fixed oxide charge(N$_{ff}$)= 7${\times}10^{10}cm^{-2}$, interface state density(N$_{it}$)=4${\times}10^[10}cm^{-2}eV^{-1}$, and breakdown field > 8MV/cm.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2001

Plasma nitrocarburising and post oxidation were performed on SM45C steel using a plasma nitriding unit. Nitrocarburising was carried out with various methane gas compositions with 4 torr gas pressure at $570^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours and post oxidation was carried out with 100% oxygen gas atmosphere with 4 torr at different temperatures for various times. It was found that the compound layer produced by plasma nitrocarburising consisted of predominantly ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ and a small proportion of ${\gamma}-Fe_4(N,C)$. With increasing methane content in the gas mixture, ${\varepsilon}$ phase compound layer was favoured. In addition, when the methane content was further increased, cementite was observed in the compound layer. The very thin oxide layer on top of the compound layer was obtained by post oxidation. The formation of Oxide phase was initially started from the magnetite($Fe_3O_4$) and with increasing oxidation time, the oxide phase was increased. With increasing oxidation temperature, oxide phase was increased. However the oxide layer was split from the compound layer at high temperature. Corrosion resistance was slightly influenced by oxidation times and temperatures.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.373-379
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• 2002

We investigated the evolution of magnetoresistance and magnetic property of tunneling magnetoresistive(TMR) device with microstructure and plasma oxidation time. TMR devices have potential applications for non volatile MRAM and high density HDD reading head. We prepared the tunnel magnetoresistance(TMR) devices of Ta($50{\AA}$)/NiFe($50{\AA}$)/IrMn($150{\AA}$)/CoFe($50{\AA}$)/Al($13{\AA}$)-O/CoFe($40{\AA}$)/FiFe($400{\AA}$)/Ta(($50{\AA}$) structure which have $100{\times}100\mu\textrm{m}^2$ junction area on $2.5{\times}2.5\textrm{cm}^2$ Si/$SiO_2$(($1000{\AA}$) substrates by an inductively coupled plasma(ICP) magnetron sputter. We fabricated the insulating layer using an ICP plasma oxidation method by with various oxidation time from 30 sec to 360 sec, and measured resistances and magnetoresistance(MR) ratios of TMR devices. We found that the oxidized sample for oxidation time of 80 sec showed the highest MR radio of 30.31 %, while the calculated value regarding inhomogeneous current effect indicated 25.18 %. We used transmission electron microscope(TEM) to investigate microstructural evolution of insulating layer. Comparing the cross-sectional TEM images at oxidation time of 150 sec and 360 sec, we found that the thickness and thickness variation of 360 sec-oxidized insulating layer became 30% and 40% larger than those of 150 sec-oxidized layer, repectively. Therefore, our results imply that increase of thickness variation with oxidation time may be one of the major treasons of the MR decrease.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.40-45
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• 2008

We developed small molecular organic nonvolatile $4F^2$ memory cells using metal layer evaporation followed by $O_2$ plasma oxidation. Our memory cells sandwich an upper ${\alpha}$-NPD layer, Al nanocrystals surrounded by $Al_2O_3$, and a bottom ${\alpha}$-NPD layer between top and bottom electrodes. Their nonvolatile memory characteristics are excellent: the $V_{th},\;V_p$ (program), $V_e$ (erase), memory margin ($I_{on}/I_{off}$), data retention time, and erase and program endurance were 2.6 V, 5.3 V, 8.5 V, ${\approx}1.5{\times}10^2,\;1{\times}10^5s$, and $1{\times}10^3$ cycles, respectively. They also demonstrated symmetrical current versus voltage characteristics and a reversible erase and program process, indicating potential for terabit-level nonvolatile memory.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.308-311
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• 2008

Oxide layers were prepared on Al2021 alloys substrate under a hybrid voltage of AC 200 V (60 Hz) combined with DC 260 V value at room temperature within $5{\sim}60\;min$ by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO). An optimized aluminate-fluorosilicate solution was used as the electrolytes. The surface morphology, thickness and composition of layers on Al2021 alloys at different reaction times were studied. The results showed that it is possible to generate oxide layers of good properties on Al2021 alloys in aluminate-fluorosilicate electrolytes. Analysis show that the double-layer structure oxide layers consist of different states such as ${\alpha}-{Al_2}{O_3}$ and ${\gamma}-{Al_2}{O_3}$. For short treatment times, the formation process of oxide layers follows a linear kinetics, while for longer times the formation process slows down and becomes a steady stage. During the PEO processes, the average size of the discharge channels increased gradually as the PEO treatment time increased.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.900-906
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• 2001

We prepared tunnel magnetoresistance(TMR) devices of Ta($50\AA$)/NiFe($50\AA$)/IrMn(150$\AA$)/CoFe($50\AA$)/Al ($13\AA$)-O/CoFe($40\AA$)/NiFe($400\AA$)/Ta(50$\AA$) structure which has 100$\times$100 $\mu\textrm{m}^2$ junction area on $2.5\Times2.5 cm^{2}$ $Si/SiO_2$ ($1000\AA$) substrates by a inductively coupled plasma(ICP) magnetron sputter. We fabricated the insulating layer using a ICP plasma oxidation method by varying oxidation time from 80 sec to 360 sec, and measured resistances and magnetoresistance(MR) ratios of TMR devices. We used a high resolution transmission electron microscope(HRTEM) to investigate microstructural evolution of insulating layer. The average resistance of devices increased from 16.38 $\Omega$ to 1018 $\Omega$ while MR ratio decreased from 30.31 %(25.18 %) to 15.01 %(14.97 %) as oxidation time increased from 80 sec to 360 sec. The values in brackets are calculated values considering geometry effect. By comparing cross-sectional TEM images of 220 sec and 360 sec-oxidation time, we found that insulating layer of 360 sec-oxidized was 30 % and 40% greater than that of 150 sec-oxidized in thickness and thickness variation, respectively. Therefore, we assumed that increase of thickness variation with oxidation time is major reason of MR decrease. The resistance of 80 sec-oxidized specimen was 160 k$\Omega$$\mu\textrm{m}^2$ which is appropriate for industrial needs of magnetic random access memory(MRAM) application.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.455-462
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• 2019

ZrB₂ ceramic and ZrB₂ ceramic composites with the addition of SiC, WC, and SiC/WC are successfully synthesized by a spark plasma sintering method. During high-temperature oxidation, SiC additive form a SiO₂ amorphous outer scale layer and SiC-deplete ZrO₂ scale layer, which decrease the oxidation rate. WC addition forms WO₃ during the oxidation process to result in a ZrO₂/WO₃ liquid sintering layer, which is known to improve the anti-oxidation effect. The addition of SiC and WC to ZrB₂ reduces the oxygen effective diffusivity by one-fifth of that of ZrB₂. The addition of both SiC and WC shows the formation of a SiO₂ outer dense glass layer and ZrO₂/WO₃ layer so that the anti-oxidation effect is improved three times as much as that of ZrB₂. Therefore, SiC- and WC-added ZrB₂ has a lower two-order oxygen effective diffusivity than ZrB₂; it improves the anti-oxidation performance 3 times as much as that of ZrB₂.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2008

The characteristics, such as roughness, thickness, microhardness and corrosion resistance, of plasma electrolytic oxide coatings on AZ91D alloy were investigated under the processing condition of various coating times. The coatings on AZ91D alloy consisted of MgO, $MgAl_{2}O_{4}$ and $Mg_{2}SiO_{4}$ oxides. The surface roughness and thickness of coatings became larger with increasing the coating time. The microhardness in cross section of coatings was much higher than not only that in surface but that in the conventional anodic oxide coatings, which increased progressively as the coating time increased. After being immersed in 3.5%NaCl solution and methyl alcohol, the corrosion resistance of AZ91D alloy was markedly improved by plasma electrolytic oxidation coating treatment, and the AZ91D alloy coated for 50min revealed excellent corrosion resistance.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.212-219
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• 2019

This paper reviews recent approaches to develop composite polymer-containing coatings by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) using various low-molecular fractions of superdispersed polytetrafluoroethylene (SPTFE). The features of the unique approaches to form the composite polymer-containing coating on the surface of MA8 magnesium alloy were summarized. Improvement in the corrosion and tribological behavior of the polymer-containing coating can be attributed to the morphology and insulating properties of the surface layers and solid lubrication effect of the SPTFE particles. Such multifunctional coatings have high corrosion resistance ($R_p=3.0{\times}10^7{\Omega}cm^2$) and low friction coefficient (0.13) under dry wear conditions. The effect of dispersity and ${\xi}$-potential of the nanoscale materials ($ZrO_2$ and $SiO_2$) used as electrolyte components for the plasma electrolytic oxidation on the composition and properties of the coatings was investigated. Improvement in the protective properties of the coatings with the incorporated nanoparticles was explained by the greater thickness of the protective layer, relatively low porosity, and the presence of narrow non-through pores. The impedance modulus measured at low frequency for the zirconia-containing layer (${\mid}Z{\mid}_{f=0.01Hz}=1.8{\times}10^6{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$) was more than one order of magnitude higher than that of the PEO-coating formed in the nanoparticles-free electrolyte (${\mid}Z{\mid}_{f=0.01Hz}=5.4{\times}10^4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$).

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.1003-1008
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• 1995

CVD-Si3N4/CVD-SiC/pack-SiC/pyro-carbon/(3-D C/C composite) multilayer coating was performed to improve the oxdiation resistance and erosion resistance properteis of the 3-D carbon/carbon composite, and the plasma test was performed to measure the oxidation resistance and erosion resistance properties. The thicknesses of each film layer were about 10${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ for pack-SiC, 5${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ for CVD-SiC and 40${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ for CVD-Si3N4. When the multilayer coated specimen was exposed to the plasma flame with temperature of 500$0^{\circ}C$ for 20 seconds, it showed the weight loss five times less than that of the only pyro-carbon coated specimen.