• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.36D no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 1999

The electrical properties of rf-magnetron sputtered $Ba_{0.5}Sr_{0.3}TiO_3$ (BST) capacitors were investigated by varying annealing temperature and atmosphere of the rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The electrical properties of Pt/BST/Pt capacitors were found to strongly depend on the RTA condition. It seems that the dependence of the electrical properties of the Pt/BST/Pt capacitors on the RTA condition is related to the oxygen vacancies in BST thin films. In order to clarify the relation between the oxygen vacancies and the electrical properties of Pt/BST/Pt capacitors, we have examined the two different annealing methods. One annealing method was performed in $O_2$ gas and the other was done in $O_2$-plasma at the same condition of 450$^{\circ}C$, 20 mtorr. It was found that the leakage current densities of $O_2$-plasma annealed capacitor were much lower than those of $O_2$ annealed capacitor. The dielectric constants of $O_2$ annealed capacitor decreased about 14% comparing with those of as-deposited. In contrast, there was no decrease in the dielectric constant of $O_2$-plasma annealed. These results indicate that $O_2$-plasma annealing is very effective in compensation the oxygen vacancies in BST thin films. It can be also concluded that the oxygen vacancies greatly affect the electrical properties of Pt/BST/Pt capacitors.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.353-359
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• 1992

Thermal oxidation and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of tantalum oxide thin films on p-type (100) Si substrates were studied to examine the dielectric nature of T$a_2O_5$ as a Al/T$a_2O_5$/p-Si capacitor. Microstructure and dielectric properties of the capacitors were investigated by XRD, AES, high frequency C-V analyzer, I-V meter and TEM. XRD analysis showed that the structure of T$a_2O_5$ films were amorphous, but the films were crystallized to hexagonal $\delta$-T$a_2O_5$ by 65$0^{\circ}C$ thermal oxidation treatment. It was found that the stoichiometry of the films was more or less close to 2 : 5. Leakage current density and relative dielectric constant of thermal oxidation T$a_2O_5$ film at 60$0^{\circ}C$ was 5.0${ imes}10^{-6}$/A/c$m^2 and 31.5, respectively. In the case of PECVD T$a_2O_5$film deposited at 0.47W/c$m^2 they were 2.5${ imes}10^{-5}$/A/$ extrm{cm}^2$ and 24.0, respectively. The morphology of the films and interfaces were investigated by TEM.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.190-194
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• 2012

The formation of high-quality polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) on relatively low cost substrate has been an important issue in the development of thin film solar cells. Poly-Si seed layers were fabricated by an inverse aluminum-induced crystallization (I-AIC) process and the properties of the resulting layer were characterized. The I-AIC process has an advantage of being able to continue the epitaxial growth without an Al layer removing process. An amorphous Si precursor layer was deposited on Corning glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering system with Ar plasma. Then, Al thin film was deposited by thermal evaporation. An $SiO_2$ diffusion barrier layer was formed between Si and Al layers to control the surface orientation of seed layer. The crystallinity of the poly-Si seed layer was analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The grain size and orientation of the poly-Si seed layer were determined by electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD) method. The prepared poly-Si seed layer showed high volume fraction of crystalline Si and <100> orientation. The diffusion barrier layer and processing temperature significantly affected the grain size and orientation of the poly Si seed layer. The shorter oxidation time and lower processing temperature led to a better orientation of the poly-Si seed layer. This study presents the formation mechanism of a poly seed layer by inverse aluminum-induced crystallization.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.281-284
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• 2007

Recently, we have developed p-i-n a-Si:H single junction thin film solar cells with RF (13.56MHz) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system, and also successfully fabricated the mini modules ($>300cm^2$), using the laser patterning technique to form an integrated series connection. The efficiency of a mini module was 7.4% ($Area=305cm^2$, Isc=0.25A, Voc=14.74V, FF=62%). To fabricate large area modules, it is important to optimise the integrated series connection, without damaging the cell. We have newly installed the laser patterning equipment that consists of two different lasers, $SHG-YVO_4$ (${\lambda}=0.532{\mu}m$) and YAG (${\lambda}=1.064{\mu}m$). The mini-modules are formed through several scribed lines such as pattern-l (front TCO), pattern-2 (PV layers) and pattern-3 (BR/back contact). However, in the case of pattern-3, a high-energy part of laser shot damaged the textured surface of the front TCO, so that the resistance between the each cells decreases due to an incomplete isolation. In this study, the re-deposition of SnOx from the front TCO, Zn (BR layer) and Al (back contact) on the sidewalls of pattern-3 scribed lines was observed. Moreover, re-crystallization of a-Si:H layers due to thermal damage by laser patterning was evaluated. These cause an increase of a leakage current, result in a low efficiency of module. To optimize a-Si:H single junction thin film modules, a laser beam profile was changed, and its effect on isolation of scribed lines is discussed in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.79-79
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• 1999

The varous techniques for fabrication of si or metal tip as a field emission electron source have been reported due to great potential capabilities of flat panel display application. In this report, 240nm thermal oxide was initially grown at the p-type (100) (5-25 ohm-cm) 4 inch Si wafer and 310nm Si3N4 thin layer was deposited using low pressure chemical vapor deposition technique(LPCVD). The 2 micron size dot array was photolithographically patterned. The KOH anisotropic etching of the silicon substrate was utilized to provide V-groove formation. After formation of the V-groove shape, dry oxidation at 100$0^{\circ}C$ for 600 minutes was followed. In this procedure, the orientation dependent oxide growth was performed to have a etch-mask for dry etching. The thicknesses of the grown oxides on the (111) surface and on the (100) etch stop surface were found to be ~330nm and ~90nm, respectively. The reactive ion etching by 100 watt, 9 mtorr, 40 sccm Cl2 feed gas using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) system was performed in order to etch ~90nm SiO layer on the bottom of the etch stop and to etch the Si layer on the bottom. The 300 watt RF power was connected to the substrate in order to supply ~(-500)eV. The negative ion energy would enhance the directional anisotropic etching of the Cl2 RIE. After etching, remaining thickness of the oxide on the (111) was measured to be ~130nm by scanning electron microscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2010

In this paper, we report that the effects of hydrogen doping on the electrical and optical properties of typical transparent conducting oxide films such as ZnO and $SnO_2$ prepared by magnetron sputtering. Recently, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have shown strong evidence that hydrogen acts as a source of n-type conductivity in ZnO. In this work, the beneficial effect of hydrogen incorporation on Ga-doped ZnO thin films was demonstrated. It was found that hydrogen doping results a noticeable improvement of the conductivity mainly due to the increases in carrier concentration. Extent of the improvement was found to be quite dependent on the deposition temperature. A low resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ was obtained for the film grown at $160^{\circ}C$ with $H_2$ 10% in sputtering gas. However, the beneficial effect of hydrogen doping was not observed for the films deposited at $270^{\circ}C$. Variations of the electrical transport properties upon vacuum annealing showed that the difference is attributed to the thermal stability of interstitial hydrogen atoms in the films. Theoretical calculations also suggested that hydrogen forms a shallow-donor state in $SnO_2$, even though no experimental determination has yet been performed. We prepared undoped $SnO_2$ thin films by RF magnetron sputtering under various hydrogen contents in sputtering ambient and then exposed them to H-plasma. Our results clearly showed that the hydrogen incorporation in $SnO_2$ leads to the increase in carrier concentration. Our experimental observation supports the fact that hydrogen acting as a shallow donor seems to be a general feature of the TCOs.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.328-332
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• 2012

The work function of Ag (silver) is too low (~4.3 eV) to be used as an electrode of T-OLED (Top Emission Organic Light Emitting Diode). To solve this weakness, researches used plasma-, UV-, or thermal treatment on Ag films in order to increase the work function (~5.0 eV). So, most of studies have focused only on the work function of various treated Ag films, but studies focusing on nanomechanical properties were very important to investigate the efficiency and life time of T-OLED etc. In this paper, we focused on the mechanical properties of the Ag and $AgO_x$ film. The Ag was deposited on a glass substrate with the thickness of 150 nm by using rf-magnetron sputter with the power was fixed at 100 W and working pressure was 3 mTorr. The deposited Ag film was UV treated by UV lamp for several minutes (0~9 min). We measured the sheet resistance and mechanical property of the deposited film. From the experimental result, there were some differences of the sheet resistance and surface hardness of Ag thin film between short time (0~3 min) and long time UV treatment. These result presumed that the induced stress was taken place by the surface oxidation after UV treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.434-435
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• 2012

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) silicon dioxide thin films have many applications in semiconductor manufacturing such as inter-level dielectric and gate dielectric metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). Fundamental chemical reaction for the formation of SiO2 includes SiH4 and O2, but mixture of SiH4 and N2O is preferable because of lower hydrogen concentration in the deposited film [1]. It is also known that binding energy of N-N is higher than that of N-O, so the particle generation by molecular reaction can be reduced by reducing reactive nitrogen during the deposition process. However, nitrous oxide (N2O) gives rise to nitric oxide (NO) on reaction with oxygen atoms, which in turn reacts with ozone. NO became a greenhouse gas which is naturally occurred regulating of stratospheric ozone. In fact, it takes global warming effect about 300 times higher than carbon dioxide (CO2). Industries regard that N2O is inevitable for their device fabrication; however, it is worthwhile to develop a marginable nitrous oxide free process for university lab classes considering educational and environmental purpose. In this paper, we developed environmental friendly and material cost efficient SiO2 deposition process by substituting N2O with O2 targeting university hands-on laboratory course. Experiment was performed by two level statistical design of experiment (DOE) with three process parameters including RF power, susceptor temperature, and oxygen gas flow. Responses of interests to optimize the process were deposition rate, film uniformity, surface roughness, and electrical dielectric property. We observed some power like particle formation on wafer in some experiment, and we postulate that the thermal and electrical energy to dissociate gas molecule was relatively lower than other runs. However, we were able to find a marginable process region with less than 3% uniformity requirement in our process optimization goal. Surface roughness measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) presented some evidence of the agglomeration of silane related particles, and the result was still satisfactory for the purpose of this research. This newly developed SiO2 deposition process is currently under verification with repeated experimental run on 4 inches wafer, and it will be adopted to Semiconductor Material and Process course offered in the Department of Electronic Engineering at Myongji University from spring semester in 2012.