• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2007

Quaternary TiZrAlN nanocomposite thin films were synthesized by Closed-Field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering (CFUBMS), and their microstructure and mechanical characteristics were examined. The grain refinement of the TiZrAlN nanocomposite thin films was controlled by adjusting the $N_2$ partial pressure. The hardness of the film varied with the $N_2$ partial pressure and the maximum value was obtained approximately 47 GPa. It was also confirmed that there is a critical value of the grain size($d_c$) to need maximum hardness.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.63-67
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• 2001

Up to now, most studies about Pt-etching have been focused on physical sputtering mechanism with Cl-based plasma, while only a limited results are available for etching characteristics with fluorine-based plasma. In this study, etch characteristics of Pt thin film with $Cl_2$/Ar and $SF_{6}$/Ar Ar gas chemistries have been studied with ECR plasma etching system. It is confirmed that $SF_{6}$/Ar Ar plasma chemistry could make volatile etch-products through the reaction with Pt thin film. Also the improvement in etch rate, etch profile and surface roughness is obtained due to the formation of volatile platinum fluoride compounds.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.299-306
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• 2014

The possibility of a low-temperature argon plasma treatment as a mean of restoration technology for contaminated invaluable archive materials and artefacts, and evidencing documents was investigated along with an oxygen plasma treatment for comparison. For this purpose, the degree of color changes, ${\Delta}E^*ab$, and surface morphological changes due to plasma treatments as an evaluation of removal performance of artificial contaminants such as brilliant green dye and carbon deposit on cellulose acetate and plain paper as matrices, respectively, were measured and analyzed using a spectrophotometer and a field emission scanning electron microscope. Compared to the argon plasma treatment with sputtering characteristic, that of the oxygen plasma with characteristic of an oxidation reaction has shown superior results in removing the contaminants; the oxygen plasma has proven to damage the matrices significantly due to its oxidative characteristic, and post-plasma reactions has anticipated to be also detrimental to the surfaces, whereas, the problems caused by the counterpart has resulted in being negligible and rather has thought to be an appropriate mean for delicate restoration and/or removal operations of contaminants.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.130-135
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• 2023

Plasma-resistant ceramic (PRC) is a material used to prevent internal damage in plasma processing equipment for semiconductors and displays. The challenge is to suppress particles falling off from damaged surfaces and increase retention time in order to improve productivity and introduce the latest miniaturization process. Here, we confirmed the effect of suppressing plasma deterioration and reducing the etch rate through surface treatment of existing PRC with an initial illumination level of 200 nm. In particular, quartz glass showed a decrease in etch rate of up to 10%. Furthermore, it is believed that micro-scale secondary particles formed on the microstructure of each material grow as crystals during the fluoridation process. This is a factor that can act as a killer defect when dropped, and is an essential consideration when analyzing plasma resistance. The plasma etching suppression effect of the initial illumination is thought to be due to partial over etching at the dihedral angle of the material due to the sputtering of re-emission of Ar+-based cations. This means that plasma damage due to densification can also be interpreted in existing PRC studies. The research results are significant in that they present surface treatment conditions that can be directly applied to existing PRC for mass production and a new perspective to analyze plasma resistance in addition to simple etching rates.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.72-78
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• 2004

Cu seed layers deposited by magnetron sputtering onto tantalum nitride barrier films were treated with ECR plasma and then the copper films were electroplated and rapid thermal annealed in an argon or nitrogen atmosphere at various temperatures ranging from 200 to $500^{\circ}C$. Changes in the microstructure and physical properties of the copper films electroplated on the hydrogen ECR plasma cleaned copper seed layers were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses. It was found that the copper film undergoes complete recrystallization during annealing at a temperature higher than $400^{\circ}C$. The resistivity of the Cu film tends to decrease and the degree of (111) preferred orientation tends to increase as the annealing temperature increases. Theoptimum annealing condition for obtaining the film with the lowest resistivity, the smoothest surface and the highest degree of the (111) preferred orientation is rapid thermal annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere at $400^{\circ}C$ for 120 s. The resistivity and the surface roughness of the electroplated copper film annealed under this condition are 1.98 $\mu$O-cm and 17.77 nm, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.333-338
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• 2011

In this work, we have fabricated the amorphous carbon (a-C:H) thin film by using unbalanced magnetron sputtering method with the magnetron source of inside/outside electromagnetic coils as the protective coating materials. We have investigated the tribological properties of amorphous carbon films prepared with various electromagnetic coil currents for the change of the plasma density, such as hardness, friction coefficient, adhesion, and surface roughness. Raman and HRTEM were used to study the microstructure of carbon films. In the result, the hardness and adhesion properties of a-C:H films were improved with increasing electromagnetic coil current due to the increase of the plasma density to the substrate. Thus, these results can be explained by the increase of $sp^2$ bonding and cluster number in the amorphous carbon film, related to the improved bombardment around substrate and the increased substrate temperature.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.207-211
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• 2005

In this work a multi-layered nanostructured TiAIN/CrN superlattice coatings was synthesized using closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering method and the relationships between their superlattice period (1), micro-structure, hardness and elastic modulus were investigated. In addition, wear test at $500^{\circ}C$ and oxidation resistance test at $900^{\circ}C$ were performed to investigate high temperature properties of these thin films. The coatings were characterized in terms of microstructure and mechanical properties by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nano-indentation test. Results from TEM analysis showed that superlattice periods was inversely proportional to the jig rotation speed. The maximum hardness and elastic modulus of 37 GPa and 375 GPa were observed at superalttice period of 6.1 nm and 4.4 nm, respectively. An higher value of microhardness from TiAIN/CrN thin films than either TiAIN (30 GPa) or CrN (26 GPa) was noted while the elastic modulus was approximately an average of TiAIN and CrN films. These enhancement effects in superlattice films could be attributed to the resistance to dislocation glide across interface between the CrN and TiAIN layers. Much improved plastic deformation resistance ($H^3/E^2$) of 0.36 from TiAIN/CrN coatings was observed, compared with 0.15 and 0.16 from TiAIN and CrN, respectively. Also the wear resistance at $500^{\circ}C$ was largely increased than those of single TiAIN and CrN coatings and TiAIN/CrN coatings showed much reduced weight gain after exposure at $900^{\circ}C$ for 20 hours.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.237.1-237.1
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• 2013

Ti 와 Al 은 금속간의 화합물이 내산화성에 우수한 성질을 가지고 있으며 낮은 밀도와 고온에도 큰 변화가 없는 성질을 가지고 있다. 그리하여 내식 및 부식 관련 연구나 고온재료를 필요로 하는 우주, 엔진 제품 등에 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 또한 Ti-Al-N 박막은 경도가 우수하여 고속 공구 부품에 널리 사용되고 있으며 최근 Ti-Al-N 에 Si 첨가로 인하여 40 GPa 이상의 고경도와 1,000도 이상의 산화온도를 지닌 나노 혼합물 코팅을 형성 시키는 것으로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 Ti, Al, Si 원분말을 PBM (Planetary Ball Milling) 방법을 사용하여 Ti-Al-Si 혼합분말로 제조하고, 제조된 분말들은 SPS (Spark Plasma Sintering) 공정을 통하여 Ti-Al-Si 합금타겟을 제작하였다. 제작된 Ti-Al-Si 합급타겟을 사용한 Sputtering 공정을 수행하여 Ti-Al-Si 3원계 박막을 증착하였다. 그 결과 기존 Ti (82 ${\mu}m$), Al (32 ${\mu}m$), Si (16 ${\mu}m$) 크기의 원분말들이 PBM (Planetary Ball Milling) 공정 후 Ti-Al-Si (18 ${\mu}m$) 로 입도가 작아진 것을 확인 할 수 있었고, 소결 후 타겟이 99% 이상의 높은 밀도를 가졌으며 원분말의 조성과 동일한 조성을 가진 타겟이 제작되었음을 확인하였다. Ti-Al-Si 타겟의 경도는 약 1,000 Hv 이상의 값을 보였으며, Ti-Al-Si-N 박막의 경우 타겟의 조성과 동일하였고 경도는 약 35 GPa 로 높은 경도 값을 가지는 것을 확인하였다. 내산화 테스트 결과 Ti-Al-Si-N 박막은 1,000도 에서도 박막의 손상이 가지 않았다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.274-274
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• 2016

터치스크린패널로 응용하기 위하여 80%이상의 높은 투과도와 낮은 저항이 요구된다. 그 중에서도 무반사 효과 (anti-reflective, AR) 를 크게하여 투과도를 향상시키는 방법으로 나노구조물, 증착시 경사각, 다층박막 방법 등이 연구 개발되고 있다. 단일 박막을 이용하여 무반사 코팅을 하는 경우, 정밀한 굴절률 조절이 어려우며 낮은 반사율 영역의 선폭이 좁은 단점이 있다. 반면, 저/고굴절률 다층박막의 경우 비교적 굴절률 조절이 용이하고 가시광영역 전반적으로 높은 투과도를 가질 수 있다. plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) 증착법을 이용하여 무반사 효과를 증대시키기 위해 저/고굴절률 다층구조의 박막을 두께조합에 따라 평가하였으며, 가장 널리 사용되고 있는 Sputtering증착법과 비교하여 연구하였다. 제작된 다층박막의 구조는 glass(sub.)/SiN/SiO2/ITO 이며, 무반사 코팅층인 SiN/SiO2층은 각각 PECVD와 Sputtering 증착법을 통해 성장되었고, ITO는 스퍼터링 증착법을 이용하여 동일하게 성장하였다. 그 결과 PECVD 증착법이 Sputtering 증착법에 비하여 가시광영역(400~800nm)에서 더 높은 투과도를 얻게 되었다. 결과의 차이에 대해서 PECVD 증착법과 Sputtering 증착법으로 성장된 SiN, SiO2 박막의 광학적 특성과 물리적 특성의 변화를 spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) 을 이용하여 비교, 분석하였다.