• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2011

In this work, fabrication and electrochemical analysis of an individual multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) electrode are carried out to confirm the applicability of electrochemical sensing. The reactive ion etching (RIE) process is performed to obtain sensitive MWNT electrodes. In order to characterize the electrochemical properties, an individual MWNT is cut by RIE under oxygen atmosphere into two segments with a small gap: one segment is applied to the working electrode and the other is used as a counter electrode. Electrical contacts are provided by nanolithography to the two MWNT electrodes. Dopamine is specially selected as an analytical molecule for electrochemical detection using the MWNT electrode. Using a quasi-Ag/AgCl reference electrode, which was fabricated by us, the nanoelectrodes are subjected to cyclic voltammetry inside a $2{\mu}L$ droplet of dopamine solution. In the experiment, RIE power is found to be a more effective parameter to cut an individual MWNT and to generate "broken" open state, which shows good electrochemical performance, at the end of the MWNT segments. It is found that the pico-molar level concentration of analytical molecules can be determined by an MWNT electrode. We believe that the MWNT electrode fabricated and treated by RIE has the potential for use in high-sensitivity electrochemical measurement and that the proposed scheme can contribute to device miniaturization.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.282-286
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• 1997

Reactive ion etching (RIE) characteristics of InP in the $Cl_2$/ CH_4/H_2$ discharges was investigated, as a function of the rf power, substrate temperature and gas composition. It was observed that the etch rate increased as the rf power, sample temperature and/or $Cl_2$ gas concentration increased. Etch rate of about 0.9$\mu\textrm{m}$/min was obtained at the optimum condition of 150W rf power, $180^{\circ}C$ substrate temperature and $10Cl_2$ /$5CH_4/85H_2$ gas ratio. Polymer formation was completely suppressed by adding $Cl_2$ to the $CH_4$ /$H_2$ discharges.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.300-306
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• 2010

Superhydrophobic micro-nano hybrid structures were fabricated by reactive ion etching of hydrophobic polymer micro patterns using gold nanoparticles as etch masks. Micro structures of perfluoropolyether bisurethane methacrylate (PFPE) were prepared by soft-lithographic technique using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) molds. Water contact angles on the surfaces of various PFPE micro structures and corresponding micro-nano hybrid structures were compared to examine the effects of micro patterning and nanostructure formation in the manifestation of superhydrophobicity. The PFPE micro-nano hybrid structures exhibited a very stable superhydrophobicity, while the micro-only structures could not reach the superhydrophobicity but only showed the unstable hydrophobicity.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.32-35
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• 2013

In this paper, a manufacturing process was developed for fabricating high-quality AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. Various conditions and processing methods regarding the ohmic contact and pre-metal-deposition $BCl_3$ etching processes were evaluated in terms of the device performance. In order to obtain a good ohmic contact performance, we tested a Ti/Al/Ta/Au ohmic contact metallization scheme under different rapid thermal annealing (RTA) temperature and time. A $BCl_3$-based reactive-ion etching (RIE) method was performed before the ohmic metallization, since this approach was shown to produce a better ohmic contact compared to the as-fabricated HEMTs. A HEMT with a 0.5 ${\mu}m$ gate length was fabricated using this novel manufacturing process, which exhibits a maximum drain current density of 720 mA/mm and a peak transconductance of 235 mS/mm. The X-band output power density was 6.4 W/mm with a 53% power added efficiency (PAE).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1069-1074
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• 2005

In this work, nano-needle structures ate formed to solve problem, related to low density of quantum dots for nano floating gate memory. Such structures ate fabricated and electrical properties' of MIS devices fabricated on the nano-structures are studied. Nano floating gate memory based on quantum dot technologies Is a promising candidate for future non-volatile memory devices. Nano-structure is fabricated by reactive ion etching using $SF_6$ and $O_2$ gases in parallel RF plasma reactor. Surface morphology was investigated after etching using scanning electron microscopy Uniform and packed deep nano-needle structure is established under optimized condition. Photoluminescence and capacitance-voltage characteristics were measured in $Al/SiO_2/Si$ with nano-needle structure of silicon. we have demonstrated that the nano-needle structure can be applicable to non-volatile memory device with increased charge storage capacity over planar structures.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.140-143
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• 2013

Lowering surface reflectance of silicon wafer by texturization is one of the most important processes to improve the efficiency of silicon solar cells. Generally, the texturing of crystalline silicon was carried out using alkaline solution. The average reflectance of this method was 11% at the wavelength between 400 and 1,000 nm. In this study, the wafers were first texturing by NaOH solution at $80^{\circ}C$ for 35 min. Then the wafers were texturing by $SF_6$ and $O_2$ plasma in RIE (Reactive Ion Etching). The average reflectance of two step texturing was reduced to below 5% at the wavelength between 400 and 1,000 nm.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.430-436
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• 1997

A piezoresistive acceleration sensor for 30 G has been fabricated by silicon micromachining method using SDB(silicon direct bonding) wafer. The structure of the piezoresistive acceleration sensor consists of a seismic square pillar type mass and four beams. This structure was fabricated by reactive ion etching and chemical etching using KOH-etchant. The rectangular square structure is used in order to compensate the deformation of the edges due to underetching. The fabricated sensor showed a linear output voltage-acceleration characteristics and its sensitivity was about $88{\mu}V/V{\cdot}g$ from 0 to 10 G.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.11
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• pp.1028-1034
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• 2010

In the development of 3D package, through silicon via (TSV) formation technology by using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) is one of the key processes. We performed the Bosch process, which consists of sequentially alternating the etch and passivation steps using $SF_6$ with $O_2$ and $C_4F_8$ plasma, respectively. We investigated the effect of changing variables on vias: the gas flow time, the ratio of $O_2$ gas, source and bias power, and process time. Each parameter plays a critical role in obtaining a specified via profile. Analysis of via profiles shows that the gas flow time is the most critical process parameter. A high source power accelerated more etchant species fluorine ions toward the silicon wafer and improved their directionality. With $O_2$ gas addition, there is an optimized condition to form the desired vertical interconnection. Overall, the etching rate decreased when the process time was longer.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.60-63
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• 1999

Application of reactive ion etching (RIE) technique to Ta-Al alloy thin film with a thickness of $1000{\AA}$ was studied. $CF_{4}$ gas could be used effectively to etch the Ta-Al alloy thin film. The etching rate in the thin film with Ta content of 50 mol% was about $67{\AA}/min$. NO selectivity between the Ta-Al alloy film and $SiO_{2}$ film was observed during the etching using the $CF_{4}$ gas. The etching rate of the $SiO_{2}$ layer was 12 times faster than that of the Ta-Al alloy thin film. It was also observed that photoresist of AZ5214 was more useful than Shiepley 1400-27 in RIE with the $CF_{4}$ gas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.387-387
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• 2013

Currently, the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) have been used in a variety of applications. However, the downsizing of devices and the increasing density of recording medias are now in progress. So there are many demands for development of new semiconductor memory for next generation. Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is one of the prospective semiconductor memories with excellent features including non-volatility, fast access time, unlimited read/write endurance, low operating voltage, and high storage density. MRAM is composed of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). The MTJ stack consists of various magnetic materials, metals, and a tunneling barrier layer. Recently, MgO thin films have attracted a great attention as the prominent candidates for a tunneling barrier layer in the MTJ stack instead of the conventional Al2O3 films, because it has low Gibbs energy, low dielectric constant and high tunneling magnetoresistance value. For the successful etching of high density MRAM, the etching characteristics of MgO thin films as a tunneling barrier layer should be developed. In this study, the etch characteristics of MgO thin films have been investigated in various gas mixes using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE). The Cl2/Ar, CH3OH/Ar, and CH4/Ar gas mix were employed to find an optimized etching gas for MgO thin film etching. TiN thin films were employed as a hard mask to increase the etch selectivity. The etch rates were obtained using surface profilometer and etch profiles were observed by using the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).