• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2003

Thin films of ZrO$_2$ and TiO$_2$ were deposited on Si(100) substrates using RF magnetron sputtering technique. To study an influence of the sputtering parameters, systematic experiments were carried out in this work. XRD data show that the $ZrO_2$ films were mainly grown in the [111] orientation at the annealing temperature between 800 and $1000^{\circ}C$ while the crystal growth direction was changed to be [012] at above $1000^{\circ}C$. FT-IR spectra show that the oxygen stretching peaks become strong due to $SiO_2$ layer formation between film layers and silicon surface after annealing, and proved that a diffusion caused by either oxygen atoms of $ZrO_2$ layers or air into the interface during annealing. Different crystal growth directions were observed with the various deposition parameters such as annealing temperature, RF power magnitude, and added $O_2$ amounts. The growth rate of $TiO_2$ thin films was increased with RF power magnitude up to 150 watt, and was then decreased due to a sputtering effect. The maximum growth rate observed at 150 watt was 1500 nm/hr. Highly oriented, crack-free, stoichiometric polycrystalline $TiO_2$<110> thin film with Rutile phase was obtained after annealing at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.320-320
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• 2016

Nanocrystalline Carbon thin films have numerous applications in different areas such as mechanical, biotechnology and optoelectronic devices due to attractive properties like high excellent hardness, low friction coefficient, good chemical inertness, low surface roughness, non-toxic and biocompatibility. In this work, we studied the comparison of pure DC power and pulsed DC power in plasma sputtering process of carbon thin films synthesis. Using a close field unbalanced magnetron sputtering system, films were deposited on glass and Si wafer substrates by varying the power density and pulsed DC frequency variations. The plasma characteristics has been studied using the I-V discharge characteristics and optical emission spectroscopy. The films properties were studied using Raman spectroscopy, Hall effect measurement, contact angle measurement. Through the Raman results, ID/IG ratio was found to be increased by increasing either of DC power density and pulsed DC frequency. Film deposition rate, measured by Alpha step measurement, increased with increasing DC power density and decreased with pulsed DC frequency. The electrical resistivity results show that the resistivity increased with increasing DC power density and pulsed DC frequency. The film surface energy was estimated using the calculated values of contact angle of DI water and di-iodo-methane. Our results exhibit a tailoring of surface energies from 52.69 to $55.42mJ/m^2$ by controlling the plasma parameters.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.274-278
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• 2008

3-dimensional numerical analysis for a rectangular magnetron cathode model is done to predict cooling characteristics of high power sputtering system for ZnO deposition. It includes cooling channel design, heat transfer analysis of a target, bonding layer and backing plate. In order to model erosion profiles of a target, ion current density distribution from 3D Monte Carlo simulation is used to distribute total sputtering power to 5 discrete regions. At 3 kW of sputtering power and cooling water flow of 1 liter/min at $10^{\circ}C$, the maximum surface temperature was $45.8^{\circ}C$ for a flat new target and $156^{\circ}C$ for a target eroded by 1/3 of its thickness, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.324-327
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• 2000

ZnO(Zinc Oxide) thin films were deposited on glass substrate by Facing Targets Sputtering. Facing Targets Sputtering system can deposit thin films in plasma-free situation and change the sputtering conditions in wide range. The characteristics of ZnO thin films deposited at variation of sputtering conditions films thickness, power and substrate temperature were evaluated by XRD(x-ray diffractometer), ${\alpha}$-step (Tencor). The excellently c-axis oriented ZnO thin films were obtained at sputter pressure ImTorr, power 150W, substrate temperature 200$^{\circ}C$. In these conditions, the rocking curve of ZnO thin films deposited on glass was 3.3$^{\circ}$.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07c
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• pp.1874-1875
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• 2004

A high rate deposition sputtering process of magnesium oxide thin film in oxide mode has been developed using a 20 kW unipolar pulsed power supply. The powersupply was operated at a maximum constant voltage of 500 V and a constant current of 40 A. The pulse repetition rate and the duty were changed in the ranges of 10 ${\sim}$ 50 kHz and 10 ${\sim}$ 60 %, respectively. The deposition rate increased with increasing incident power to the target. Maximum incident power to the magnesium target was obtained by the control of frequency, duty and current. The deposition rate of a moving state was 9 nm m/min at the average power of 1.5 kW. This technique is proposed to apply high through-put sputtering system for plasma display panel.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.266-270
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• 2010

The effect of an Ar plasma treatment on polycarbonate substrates was investigated using $TiO_2$ coatings produced by reactive ion-beam assisted sputtering. The typical pressure used during sputtering was about $10^{-4}$ Torr. After the Ar plasma treatment, the contact angle of a water droplet was reduced from $88^{\circ}$ to $52^{\circ}$ and then further decreased to $12^{\circ}$ with the addition of oxygen into the chamber. The surface of the polycarbonate substrate hanged from hydrophobic to hydrophilic with these treatments and revealed its changing nano-scale roughness. The $TiO_2$ films on the treated surface showed various colors and periodic ordering dependant on the film thickness due to optical interference.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.267-274
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• 2009

Titanium Chromium Nitrided (TiCrN) coatings were deposited on stainless steel 316 L and Si (100) wafer by inductively coupled plasma assisted D.C. magnetron sputtering at the various sputtering power on Cr target and $N_2/Ar$ gas ratio. Increasing the sputtering power of Cr target, XRD patterns were changed from TiCrN to nitride $Cr_2Ti$. The maximum hardness was $Hk_{3g}$ 3900 at $0.3\;N_2/Ar$ gas ratio. The thickness of the TiCrN films increased as the Cr target power increased, and it showed over $Hk_{5g}3100$ hardness at 100 W, 150 W. TiCrN films were deposited by the ICP assisted DC magnetron sputtering shown good wear resistance as the $N_2/Ar$ gas ratio was 0.1, 0.3.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 2011

A $ZrO_2$ thin film as a corrosion protective layer was deposited on Zircaloy-4 (Z-4) clad material using $N_2O$ as a reactive gas by RF reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The Z-4 substrate was located in plasma or out of plasma during the $ZrO_2$ deposition process to investigate mechanical and corrosive properties for the plasma immersion. Tetragonal and monoclinic phases were existed in $ZrO_2$ thin film immersed in plasma. We observed that a grain size of the $ZrO_2$ thin film immersed in plasma state is larger than that of the $ZrO_2$ thin film out of plasma state. In addition, the corrosive property of the $ZrO_2$ thin films in the plasma was characterized using the weight gains of Z-4 after the corrosion test. Compared with the $ZrO_2$ thin film immersed out of plasma, the weight gains of $ZrO_2$ thin film immersed in plasma were larger. These results indicate that the $ZrO_2$ film with the tetragonal phase in the $ZrO_2$ can protect the Z-4 from corrosive phenomena.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.375-379
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• 2014

Nanocrystalline TiAlN coatings were prepared by reactively sputtering TiAl metal target with $N_2$ gas. This was done using a magnetron sputtering system operated in DC and ICP (inductively coupled plasma) conditions at various power levels. The effect of ICP power (from 0 to 300 W) on the coating microstructure, corrosion and mechanical properties were systematically investigated using FE-SEM, AFM and nanoindentation. The results show that ICP power has a significant influence on coating microstructure and mechanical properties of TiAlN coatings. With increasing ICP power, the coating microstructure evolved from the columnar structure typical of DC sputtering processes to a highly dense one. Average grain size of TiAlN coatings decreased from 15.6 to 5.9 nm with increasing ICP power. The maximum nano-hardness (67.9 GPa) was obtained for the coatings deposited at 300 W of ICP power. The smoothest surface morphology (Ra roughness 5.1 nm) was obtained for the TiAlN coating sputtered at 300 W ICP power.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.593-600
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• 2013

The asymmetric pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering system is widely used for the high quality plasma sputtering process such as a thin film deposition. In asymmetric pulsed DC power supply a reverse voltage is applied to the target periodically to minimize arc discharging effect. When sputtering in the mid-frequency range (20-350 kHz), the periodic target voltage reversals suppress arc formation at the target and provide long-term process stability. Thus, high quality, defect-free coatings of these materials can now be deposited at competitive rates. In this paper, a new style asymmetric pulsed DC power supply including mid-transformer is presented. In the proposed, an energy recovery circuit is adopted to reduce the mutual inductance of the transformer. As a result, the system dynamics of the voltage control loop is increased highly and the non-linear voltage boosting effect of the conventional system is removed. This work was proved through simulation and laboratory based experimental study.