• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2016

Thin films synthesized by plasma processes have been widely applied in a variety of industrial sectors. The structure control of thin film is one of prime factor in most of these applications. It is well known that the structure of this film is closely associated with plasma parameters and species of plasma which are electrons, ions, radical and neutrals in plasma processes. However the precise control of structure by plasma process is still limited due to inherent complexity, reproducibility and control problems in practical implementation of plasma processing. Therefore the study on the fundamental physical properties that govern the plasmas becomes more crucial for molecular scale control of film structure and corresponding properties for new generation nano scale film materials development and application. The thin films are formed through nucleation and growth stages during thin film depostion. Such stages involve adsorption, surface diffusion, chemical binding and other atomic processes at surfaces. This requires identification, determination and quantification of the surface activity of the species in the plasma. Specifically, the ions and neutrals have kinetic energies ranging from ~ thermal up to tens of eV, which are generated by electron impact of the polyatomic precursor, gas phase reaction, and interactions with the substrate and reactor walls. The present work highlights these aspects for the controlled and low-temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapour disposition (PECVD) of Si-based films like crystalline Si (c-Si), Si-quantum dot, and sputtered crystalline C by the design and control of radicals, plasmas and the deposition energy. Additionally, there is growing demand on the low-temperature deposition process with low hydrogen content by PECVD. The deposition temperature can be reduced significantly by utilizing alternative plasma concepts to lower the reaction activation energy. Evolution in this area continues and has recently produced solutions by increasing the plasma excitation frequency from radio frequency to ultra high frequency (UHF) and in the range of microwave. In this sense, the necessity of dedicated experimental studies, diagnostics and computer modelling of process plasmas to quantify the effect of the unique chemistry and structure of the growing film by radical and plasma control is realized. Different low-temperature PECVD processes using RF, UHF, and RF/UHF hybrid plasmas along with magnetron sputtering plasmas are investigated using numerous diagnostics and film analysis tools. The broad outlook of this work also outlines some of the 'Grand Scientific Challenges' to which significant contributions from plasma nanoscience-related research can be foreseen.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.109-109
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• 2000

Recently, carbon nanotube has been investigating for field emission display ( (FED) applications due to its high electron emission at relatively low electric field. However, the growing of carbon nanotube generally requires relatively high temperature processing such as arc-discharge (5,000 ~ $20,000^{\circ}C$) and laser evaporation (4,000 ~ $5,000^{\circ}C$) methods. In this presentation, low temperature growing of carbon nanotube by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using nickel catalyst which is compatible to conventional FED processing temperature will be described. Carbon n notubes with average length of 100 run and diameter of 2 ~ $3\mu$ill were successfully grown on silicon substrate with native oxide layer at $550^{\circ}C$using nickel catalyst. The morphology and microstructure of carbon nanotube was highly depended on the processing temperature and nickel layer thickness. No significant carbon nanotube growing was observed with samples deposited on silicon substrates without native oxide layer. This is believed due to the formation of nickel-silicide and this deteriorated the catalytic role of nickel. The formation of nickel-silicide was confirmed by x-ray analysis. The role of native oxide layer and processing parameter dependence on microstructure of low temperature grown carbon nanotube, characterized by SEM, TEM XRD and R없nan spectroscopy, will be presented.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2000

An ECR-PECVD system with the characteristics of high ionization rat다 ability of plasma processing in a wide pressure range and deposition at low temperature was manufactured and characterized for the deposition of thin films. The system consists of a vacuum chamber, sample stage, vacuum gauge, vacuum pump, gas injection part, vacuum sealing valve, ECR source and a control part. The control of system is carried out by the microprocessor and the ROM program. We have investigated the vacuum characteristics of ECR-PECVD system, and also have diagnosed the characteristics of ECR microwave plasma by using the Langmuir probe. From the data of system and plasma characterization, we could confirmed the stability of pressure in the vacuum chamber according to the variation of gas flow rate and the effect of ion bombardment by the negative DC self bias voltage. The plasma density was increased with the increase of gas flow rate and ECR power. On the other hand, it was decreased with the increase of horizontal radius and distance between ECR source and probe. The calculated plasma densities were in the range of 49.7\times10^{11}\sim3.7\times10^{12}\textrm{cm}^{-3}$. It is also expected that we can estimate the thickness uniformity of film fabricated by the ECR-PECVD system from the distribution of the plasma density.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.706-714
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• 1995

Silicon oxide thin films were deposited by remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCYD). The effect of the operating variables, such as plasma power, deposition temperature and partial pressure of reactant on the material Properties of the silicon oxide film was investigated. By XPS, it was found out that the film was suboxide (O/Si<2) and small amount of nitrogen due to the plasma excitation was accumulated at the Si/SiO$_2$interface. The amount of dangling bonds at the Si/SiO$_2$interfaces were measured by ESR and the concentration of hydrogen bond was obtained by SIMS and FT-IR. The bond angle distribution(d$\theta$/$\theta$) was shown to be similiar to thermal oxide above 20$0^{\circ}C$ but the etch rate was higher than that of the thermal oxides due to the structural difference and the stress between silicon substrate and silicon oxide film.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2001

Silicon nitride films grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are useful for a variety of applications, including anti-reflecting coatings in solar cells, passivation layers, dielectric layers in metal/insulator structures, and diffusion masks. PECVD systems are controlled by many operating variables, including RF power, pressure, gas flow rate, reactant composition, and substrate temperature. The wide variety of processing conditions, as well as the complex nature of particle dynamics within a plasma, makes tailoring SiN film properties very challenging, since it is difficult to determine the exact relationship between desired film properties and controllable deposition conditions. In this study, SiN PECVD modeling using optimized neural networks has been investigated. The deposition of SiN was characterized via a central composite experimental design, and data from this experiment was used to train and optimize feed-forward neural networks using the back-propagation algorithm. From these neural process models, the effect of deposition conditions on film properties has been studied. A recipe synthesis (optimization) procedure was then performed using the optimized neural network models to generate the necessary deposition conditions to obtain several novel film qualities including high charge density and long lifetime. This optimization procedure utilized genetic algorithms, hybrid combinations of genetic algorithm and Powells algorithm, and hybrid combinations of genetic algorithm and simplex algorithm. Recipes predicted by these techniques were verified by experiment, and the performance of each optimization method are compared. It was found that the hybrid combinations of genetic algorithm and simplex algorithm generated recipes produced films of superior quality.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.478-478
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• 2012

Recently, there are many researches in order to increase the deposition rate (D/R) and improve film uniformity and quality in the deposition of microcrystalline silicon thin film. These two factors are the most important issues in the fabrication of the thin film solar cell, and for the purpose of that, several process conditions, including the large area electrode (more than 1.1 X 1.3 (m2)), higher pressure (1 ~ 10 (Torr)), and very high frequency regime (VHF, 40 ~ 100 (MHz)), have been needed. But, in the case of large-area capacitively coupled discharges (CCP) driven at frequencies higher than the usual RF (13.56 (MHz)) frequency, the standing wave and skin effects should be the critical problems for obtaining the good plasma uniformity, and the ion damage on the thin film layer due to the high voltage between the substrate and the bulk plasma might cause the defects which degrade the film quality. In this study, we will propose the new concept of the large-area multi-electrode (a new multi-electrode concept for the large-area plasma source), which consists of a series of electrodes and grounds arranged by turns. The experimental results with this new electrode showed the processing performances of high D/R (1 ~ 2 (nm/sec)), controllable crystallinity (~70% and controllable), and good uniformity (less than 10%) at the conditions of the relatively high frequency of 40 MHz in the large-area electrode of 280 X 540 mm2. And, we also observed the SEM images of the deposited thin film at the conditions of peeling, normal microcrystalline, and powder formation, and discussed the mechanisms of the crystal formation and voids generation in the film in order to try the enhancement of the film quality compared to the cases of normal VHF capacitive discharges. Also, we will discuss the relation between the processing parameters (including gap length between electrode and substrate, operating pressure) and the processing results (D/R and crystallinity) with the process condition map for ${\mu}c$-Si:H formation at a fixed input power and gas flow rate. Finally, we will discuss the potential of the multi-electrode of the 3.5G-class large-area plasma processing (650 X 550 (mm2) to the possibility of the expansion of the new electrode concept to 8G class large-area plasma processing and the additional issues in order to improve the process efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.486-491
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• 2008

The plasma processing is applied to many industrial fields as thin film deposition or surface treatment technique. In this study, we investigated large-area uniformed surface treatment of PET film at low temperature by using Scanning Plasma Method(SPM). Then, we measured difference and distribution of temperature on film's surface by setting up a thermometer. We studied the condition of plasma for surface treatment by examining intensity of irradiation of uniformed plasma. And we compared contact angles of treated PET film by using Ar and $O_2$ plasma based low temperature. In our result, surface temperature of 3-point of treating is low temperature about $22^{\circ}C$, in other hands, there is scarcely any variation of temperature on film's surface. And by using Ar plasma treatment, contact angle is lower than untreatment or $O_2$ plasma treatment. In case of PET film having thermal weak point, low temperature processing using SPM is undamaged method in film's surface and uniformly treated film's surface. As a result, Ar plasma surface treatment using SPM is suitable surface treatment method of PET film.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.4 no.S1
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• pp.130-137
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• 1995

Deopsition of thermal quality SiO2 using a high density plasma ECR CVD process has been demonstrated to give void and seam free gap fill of high aspect ratio metallization structures with a simple oxygen-silane chemistry. This is achieved by continuous sputter etching of the film during the deposition process. A two-step process is utilized to deposit a composite layer for higher manufacturing efficiency. The first step, which has a deposition rate of approximately 0.5 $\mu$m/min., is used to provide complete gap fill between the metal lines. The second step, which has a deposition rate of up to 1.5 $\mu$m/min., is used to deposit a total thickness of 2.0$\mu$m for the intermetal dielectric film. The topography of this composite film is very compatible with subsequent chemicl mechanical polishing(CMP) planarization processing.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.262.2-262.2
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• 2014

Plasma processing is an essential process for pattern etching and thin film deposition in nanoscale semiconductor device fabrication. It is necessary to maintain plasma chamber in steady-state in production. In this study, we determined plasma chamber state with residual gas analysis with self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy. Residual gas monitoring of fluorocarbon plasma etching chamber was performed with self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy (SPOES) and various chemical elements was identified with a SPOES system which is composed of small inductive coupled plasma chamber for glow discharge and optical emission spectroscopy monitoring system for measuring optical emission. This work demonstrates that chamber state can be monitored with SPOES and this technique can potentially help maintenance in production lines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.99-100
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• 2005

We have grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) method, which has been regard as one of the most promising candidates for the synthesis of CNTs due to the vertical alignment, the low temperature and the large area growth. We use methane ($CH_4$) and hydrogen ($H_2$) gas for the growth of CNTs. 60 nm thick Ni catalytic layer were deposited on the TiN coated glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering method. In this work, we report the effects of pressure on the growth of CNTs. We have changed pressure of processing (10 $\sim$ 20 Torr) deposition of CNTs. SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) images show diameter, length and cross section state CNTs.