• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.272-278
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• 2013

In this study, a c-axis displacement and an internal stress of the sapphire crystal of 300 mm length have been analyzed numerically and the crystal length having no sub-grain defects have been predicted. The hot zone structures were modified with the crucible geometry change and the additional insulation layer installed above the crucible. The simulation results show that the c-axis displacement difference between the original hot zone and others originated from the sub-grain defect formations in the sapphire ingot. When the crystal grown by CZ (Czochralski) grower using the modified hot zone, the crystal length having no sub-grain defects was increased about 57 mm maximum than the original one. When the simulation results compared with the experimental one, the predicted crystal length having no sub-grain defects were well corresponded with the experiment one in c-axis wafer of the 300 mm sapphire ingot. Therefore the sapphire crystal of 250 mm length having no sub-grain defects was successfully grown by CZ process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.144-151
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• 2012

Polishing is not only one of the most frequently adopted processes in modern industries, but also the most critical one to the surface quality of the products such as semi conductor wafers and LED sapphire wafers. With the required specifications for the wafer surface quality getting more and more strengthened, the manufacturers are spending huge amount of cost to renew the machine to meet the enhanced surface specifications. Surface qualities of the wafers are mostly damaged by the structural vibrations of the polishing machines. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of a wafer polishing machine have been analyzed through the frequency response test and the computer simulation. And the supporting structure of a polishing machine has been investigated to minimize the vibration transmissions, to improve the stability of the machine and further to reduce the defects of the polished products. The result of the study shows that simple design modifications of the supporting structure without altering the main structure of the machine can substantially suppress the vibrations of the machine with negligible expenses.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.626-631
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• 2005

GaN-related compound semiconductors were grown on the corrugated interface substrate using a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition system to increase the optical power of white LEDs. The patterning of substrate for enhancing the extraction efficiency was processed using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching system and the surface morphology of the etched sapphire wafer and that of the non-etched surface were investigated using an atomic force microscope. The structural and optical properties of GaN grown on the corrugated interface substrate were characterized by a high-resolution x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscope and photoluminescence. The roughness of the etched sapphire wafer was higher than that of the non-etched one. The surface of III-nitride films grown on the hemispherically patterned wafer showed the nano-sized pin-holes that were not grown partially. In this case, the leakage current of the LED chip at the reverse bias was abruptly increased. The reason is that the hemispherically patterned region doesn't have (0001) plane that is favor for GaN growth. The lateral growth of the GaN layer grown on (0001) plane located in between the patterns was enhanced by raising the growth temperature ana lowering the reactor pressure resulting in the smooth surface over the patterned region. The crystal quality of GaN on the patterned substrate was also similar with that of GaN on the conventional substrate and no defect was detected in the interface. The optical power of the LED on the patterned substrate was $14\%$ higher than that on the conventional substrate due to the increased extraction efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.149-150
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.99-99
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• 2008

To grow the large diameter GaN with high structure and optical quality has been obtained by hydride vapor phase epitaxy(HVPE) method. In addition to the nitridation of $Al_2O_3$ substrate, we also developed a "step-growth process" to reduce or to eliminate the bowing of the GaN substrate caused by thermal mismatch during cool down after growth. The as-grown 380um thickness and 75mm diameter GaN layer was separated from the sapphire substrate by laser-induced lift-off process at $600^{\circ}C$. A problem with the free-standing wafer is the typically large bowing of such a wafer, due to the built in the defect concentration near GaN-sapphire interface. A polished G-surface of the GaN substrate were characterized by room temperature Double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXRD), photoluminescence(PL) measurement, giving rise to the full-width at half maximum(FWHM) of the rocking curve of about 107 arcsec and dislocation density of $6.2\times10^6/cm^2$.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.274-285
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• 2019

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), which is a material removal process involving chemical surface reactions and mechanical abrasive action, is an essential manufacturing process for obtaining high-quality semiconductor surfaces with ultrahigh precision features. Recent rapid growth in the industries of digital devices and semiconductors has accelerated the demands for processing of various substrate and film materials. In addition, to solve many issues and challenges related to high integration such as micro-defects, non-uniformity, and post-process cleaning, it has become increasingly necessary to approach and understand the processing mechanisms for various substrate materials and abrasive particle behaviors from a tribological point of view. Based on these backgrounds, we review recent CMP R&D trends in this study. We examine experimental and analytical studies with a focus on substrate materials and abrasive particles. For the reduction of micro-scratch generation, understanding the correlation between friction and the generation mechanism by abrasive particle behaviors is critical. Furthermore, the contact stiffness at the wafer-particle (slurry)-pad interface should be carefully considered. Regarding substrate materials, recent research trends and technologies have been introduced that focus on sapphire (${\alpha}$-alumina, $Al_2O_3$), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN), which are used for organic light emitting devices. High-speed processing technology that does not generate surface defects should be developed for low-cost production of various substrates. For this purpose, effective methods for reducing and removing surface residues and deformed layers should be explored through tribological approaches. Finally, we present future challenges and issues related to the CMP process from a tribological perspective.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.173-173
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• 2010

Recently, a patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) has been intensively used as one of the effective ways to reduce the dislocation density for the III-nitride epitaxial layers aiming for the application of high-performance, especially high-brightness, light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In this paper, we analyze the growth kinetics of the atoms and crystalline quality for the undopped-GaN depending on the facets of the pattern fabricated on a sapphire substrate. The effects of the PSS on the device characteristics of InGaN/GaN LEDs were also investigated. Several GaN samples were grown on the PSS under the different growth conditions. And the undoped-GaN layer was grown on a planar sapphire substrate as a reference. For the (002) plane of the undoped-GaN layer, as an example, the line-width broadening of the x-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum on a planar sapphire substrate is 216.0 arcsec which is significantly narrower than that of 277.2 arcsec for the PSS. However, the line-width broadening for the (102) plane on the planar sapphire substrate (363.6 arcsec) is larger than that for the PSS (309.6 arcsec). Even though the growth parameters such as growth temperature, growth time, and pressure were systematically changed, this kind of trend in the line-width broadening of XRD spectrum was similar. The emission wavelength of the undoped-GaN layer on the PSS was red-shifted by 5.7 nm from that of the conventional LEDs (364.1 nm) under the same growth conditions. In addition, the intensity for the GaN layer on the PSS was three times larger than that of the planar case. The spatial variation in the emission wavelength of the undoped-GaN layer on the PSS was statistically ${\pm}0.5\;nm$ obtained from the photoluminescence mapping results throughout the whole wafer. These results will be discussed in terms of the mixed dislocation depending on the facets and the period of the patterns.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2015

CMP(Chemical Mechanical Polishing) Processes have been used to improve the planarization of the wafers in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Polishing performance of CMP Process is determined by the chemical reaction of the liquid sol containing abrasive, pressure of the head portion and rotational speed of the polishing pad. However, frictional heat generated during the CMP process causes agglomeration of the particles and the liquidity degradation, resulting in a non-uniform of surface roughness and surface scratch. To overcome this chronic problem, herein, we introduced NaCl salt as an additive into silica sol for elimination the generation of frictional heat. The added NaCl reduced the zata potential of silica sol and increased the contact surface of silica particles onto the sapphire wafer, resulting in increase of the removal rate up to 17 %. Additionally, it seems that the silica particles adsorbed on the polishing pad decreased the contact area between the sapphire water and polishing pad, which suppressed the generation of frictional heat.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.40-43
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• 2009

The authors fabricated a nanopatterned surface on a GaN thin film deposited on a sapphire substrate and used that as an epitaxial wafer on which to grow an InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well structure with metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The deposited GaN epitaxial surface has a two-dimensional photonic crystal structure with a hexagonal lattice of 230 nm. The grown structure on the nano-surface shows a Raman shift of the transverse optical phonon mode to $569.5\;cm^{-1}$, which implies a compressive stress of 0.5 GPa. However, the regrown thin film without the nano-surface shows a free standing mode of $567.6\;cm^{-1}$, implying no stress. The nanohole surface better preserves the strain energy for pseudo-morphic crystal growth than does a flat plane.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.147-147
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• 2011

High crystalline nonpolar a-plane (11-20) nitride light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been fabricated on r-plane (1-102) sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD). The multi-quantum wells (MQWs) active region is consists of 4 periods the nonpolar a-plane InGaN/GaN(a-InGaN/GaN) on a high quality a-plane GaN (a-GaN) template grown by using the multibuffer layer technique. The full widths at half maximum (FWHMs) of x-ray rocking curve (XRC) obtained from phiscan of the specimen that was grown up to nonpolar a-plane GaN LED layers with double crystal x-ray diffraction. The FWHM values were decreased down to 477 arc sec for $0^{\circ}$ and 505 arc sec for $-90^{\circ}$, respectively. After fabricating a conventional lateral LED chip which size was $300{\times}600{\mu}m^2$, we measured the optical output power by on-wafer measurements. N-electrode was made with Cr/Au contact, and ITO on p-GaN was formed with Ohmic contact using Ni/Au followed by inductively coupled plasma etching for mesa isolation. The optical output power of 1.08 mW was obtained at drive current of 20 mA with the peak emission wavelength of 502 nm.