• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.811-820
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• 2013

SiC has been under investigation as a potential cladding for LWR fuel, due to its high melting point and drastically reduced chemical reactivity with liquid water, and steam at high temperatures. As SiC is a brittle material its behavior during the reflood phase of a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) is another important aspect of SiC that must be examined as part of the feasibility assessment for its application to LWR fuel rods. In this study, an experimental assessment of thermal shock performance of a monolithic alpha phase SiC tube was conducted by quenching the material from high temperature (up to $1200^{\circ}C$) into room temperature water. Post-quenching assessment was carried out by a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image analysis to characterize fractures in the material. This paper assesses the effects of pre-existing pores on SiC cladding brittle fracture and crack development/propagation during the reflood phase. Proper extension of these guidelines to an SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composite (CMC) cladding design is discussed.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.22-24
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• 2005

We studied the nematic liquid crystal (NLC) aligning capabilities using the new alignment material of the SiC (Silicon Carbide) thin film. The SiC thin film exhibits good chemical and thermal stability. The good thermal and chemical stability makes SiC an attractive candidate for electronic applications. A vertical alignment of nematic liquid crystal by ion beam exposure on the SiC thin film surface was achieved. The about $87{\circ}$ of stable pretilt angle was achieved at the range from $30{\circ}$ to $45{\circ}$ of incident angle. The good LC alignment is maintained by the ion beam alignment method on the SiC thin film surface at high annealing temperatures up to $300{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.322.1-322.1
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• 2014

Many research groups have studied tandem or multi-junction cells to overcome this low efficiency and degradation. In multi-junction cells, band-gap engineering of each absorb layer is needed to absorb the light at various wavelengths efficiently. Various absorption layers can be formed using multi-junctions, such as hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H), amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) and microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c$-Si:H), etc. Among them, ${\mu}c$-Si:H is the bottom absorber material because it has a low band-gap and does not exhibit light-induced degradation like amorphous silicon. Nevertheless, ${\mu}c$-Si:H requires a much thicker material (>2 mm) to absorb sufficient light due to its smaller light absorption coefficient, highlighting the need for a high growth rate for productivity. ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H has a much higher absorption coefficient than ${\mu}c$-Si:H at the low energy wavelength, meaning that the thickness of the absorption layer can be decreased to less than half that of ${\mu}c$-Si:H. ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H films were prepared using 40 MHz very high frequency PECVD method at 1 Torr. SiH4 and GeH4 were used as a reactive gas and H2 was used as a dilution gas. In this study, the ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H layer for triple solar cells applications was performed to optimize the film properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.350-350
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• 2010

Silicon carbide (SiC), one of the well known wide band gap semiconductors, shows high thermal conductivities, chemical inertness and breakdown energies. The design of normally-off 4H-SiC VJFETs [1] has been reported and 4H-SiC VJFETs with different lateral JFET channel opening dimensions have been studied [2]. In this work, 4H-SiC based VJFETs has been designed using the device simulator (ATLAS, Silvaco Data System, Inc). We varied the n-epi layer thickness (from $6\;{\mu}m$ to $10\;{\mu}m$) and the channel width (from $0.9\;{\mu}m$ to $1.2\;{\mu}m$), and investigated the static characteristics as blocking voltages, threshold voltages, on-resistances. We have shown that silicon carbide JFET structures of highly intensified blocking voltages with optimized figures of merit can thus be achieved by adjusting the epi layer thickness and channel width.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.320-326
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• 2000

Development of texture in SiC materials by hot-pressing and subsequent annealing was studied. Crystallographic texture type was characterized by measuring X-ray pole figures on the perpendicular plane to the hot-pressing direction. Observed all pole figures were nearly axially symmetric (fiber texture). In case of ${\beta}$-SiC materials, the pole density of basal plane (0004) increased as annealing time increased, in contrast, other planes (hkil) of ${\beta}$-SiC materials and all planes of ${\alpha}$-SiC materials nearly remained unchanged. In the case of ${\beta}$-SiC materials, therefore, a weak texture of (0001) plane at the normal direction took place in the 8h annealed samples, resulting from grian growth. The fracture toughness values of ${\alpha}$-SiC materials measured in both planes parallel and perpendicular to the hot-pressing direction were very similar. However, the fracture toughness of ${\beta}$-SiC materials measured parallel to the hot-pressing direction were higher than that measured perpendicular to the hot-pressing derection, relatively, because of the texture and the microstructure anisotropy.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.445-450
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• 2007

A conversion layer of SiC was fabricated on the graphite substrate by a chemical vapor reaction method in order to enhance the oxidation resistance of graphite. The effect of boron carbide containing powder bed on the morphology of SiC conversion layer was investigated during the chemical vapor reaction of graphite with the reactive silicon-source at $1650^{\circ}C\;and\;1700^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. The presence of boron species enhanced the conversion of graphite into SiC, and altered the morphology of the conversion layer significantly as well. A continuous and thick SiC conversion layer was formed only when the boron source was used with the other silicon compounds. The boron is deemed to increase the diffusion of SiOx in SiC/C system.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.171-174
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• 2005

The relationship between porous surfaces and photoluminescence (PL) behavior of porous silicon carbide (PSC) in various solvents has been studied. The porous surfaces of p-type silicon carbide can be fabricated by electrochemical anodization from the 6H, 15R, 4H-${\alpha}$-SiC substrates in dark-current mode (DCM) condition. We have been investigated the dependence of the PL spectra of PSC under the medium having the different dielectric constants. It has been found that PL depends sensitively on the environment surrounding the surface. The extent of chemically stability on the surface of PSC due to the various solvents was confirmed by reflectance Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Detailed IR experiments on the PSC samples were carried out before and after various solvents immersion. These results will be offered important information on the origin of PL in porous structure.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.697-705
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• 2014

A single chip Programmable AC to DC Power Converter, consisting of wide band gap SiC MOSFET and SiC diodes, has been proposed which converts high frequency ac voltage to a conditioned dc output voltage at user defined given power level. The converter has high conversion efficiency because of negligible reverse recovery current in SiC diode and SiC MOSFET. High frequency operation reduces the need of bigger size inductor. Lead inductors are enough to maintain current continuity. A complete electrical analysis, die area estimation and thermal analysis of the converter has been presented. It has been found that settling time and peak overshoot voltage across the device has reduced significantly when SiC devices are used with respect to Si devices. Reduction in peak overshoot also increases the converter efficiency. The total package substrate dimension of the converter circuit is only $5mm{\times}5mm$. Thermal analysis performed in the paper shows that these devices would be very useful for use as miniaturized power converters for load currents of up to 5-7 amp, keeping the package thermal conductivity limitation in mind. The converter is ideal for voltage requirements for sub-5 V level power supplies for high temperatures and space electronics systems.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.747-750
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• 2007

The thermal conductivities of nano-sized fumed silica-based insulation media were investigated by varying a mean particle size of the silicon carbide opacifiers and ceramic fiber content. Opacifying effect of ceramic fiber and silicon carbide powders was discussed in terms of their content and the mean particle size of them. As the fiber contents increased from 10 wt% to 30 wt% in a material, its thermal conductivity at temperatures of about $620^{\circ}C$ decreased from 0.171 $Wm^{-1}K^{-1}$ to 0.121 $Wm^{-1}K^{-1}$. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivity at temperatures of about $625^{\circ}C$ decreased from 0.128 $Wm^{-1}K^{-1}$ to 0.092 $Wm^{-l}K^{-1}$ as the mean SiC particle size decreased from $31{\mu}m$ to $10{\mu}m$.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.72-75
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• 2023

Silicon carbide (SiC) is used as a substrate material for power semiconductors; however, SiC chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) requires considerable time owing to its chemical stability and high hardness. Therefore, researchers are attempting to increase the material removal rate (MRR) of SiC CMP using various methods. Mixed-abrasive CMP (MAS CMP) is one method of increasing the material removal efficiency of CMP by mixing two or more particles. The aim of this research is to study the mathematical modeling of the MRR of MAS CMP of SiC with SiO₂ and TiO₂ particles. With a total particle concentration of 32 wt, using 80-nm SiO₂ particles and 25-nm TiO₂ particles maximizes the MRR at 8 wt of the TiO₂ particle concentration. In the case of 5 nm TiO₂ particles, the MRR tends to increase with an increase in TiO₂ concentration. In the case of particle size 10-25 nm TiO₂, as the particle concentration increases, the MRR increases to a certain level and then decreases again. TiO₂ particles of 25 nm or more continuously decreased MRR as the particle concentration increased. In the model proposed in this study, the MRR of MAS CMP of SiC increases linearly with changes in pressure and relative speed, which shows the same result as the Preston's equation. These results can contribute to the future design of MAS; however, the model needs to be verified and improved in future experiments.