• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.231-236
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• 2008

B, P, and Cs ions were implanted with various parameters into silicon nitride layers prepared by LPCVD. In order to get the maximum impurity concentration at the silicon nitride surface, a high temperature oxide (HTO) buffer layers was deposited prior to the implantation. Alkali ion and pH sensing properties of the layers were investigated with an electrolyte-insulator-silicon (EIS) structure using high frequency capacitance-voltage (HF-CV) measurements. The ion sensing properties of implanted silicon nitrides were compared to those of as-deposited silicon nitride. Band Cs co-implanted silicon nitrides showed a pronounced difference in pH and alkali ion sensing properties compared to those of as-deposited silicon nitride. B or P implanted silicon nitrides in contrast showed similar ion sensitivities like those of as-deposited silicon nitride.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 1998

The effect of the $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase fraction on the mechanical properties in silicon nitrides was investigated in part 1. In part II, we describe the role of microstructure on the mechanical properties and contact damage of silicon nitrides with coarse/equiaxed and coarse/elongated microstructures. Grain sizes and shapes were controlled by starting powder. Hertzian indentation using spherical indenter was also used to investigate contact damage behavior. Cone cracks from the spherical indentation were suppressed when the silicon nitride contains coarse and elongated grains. Coarse and elongated grains played an important role of cone crack suppression. The size of quasi-plastic zone does not depend on grain size or shape but depends on the fraction of $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase. A quasi-plastic zone was consisting of microcracks by shear stress during indentation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.327.1-327.1
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• 2014

Nitrides-on-silicon structures are considered to be an excellent candidate for unique design architectures and creating devices for high-power applications. Therefore, a lot of effort has been concentrating on growing high-quality III-nitrides on Si substrates, mostly Si(111) and Si(001) substrates. However, there are several fundamental problems in the growth of nitride compound semiconductors on silicon. First, the large difference in lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients will lead to misfit dislocation and stress in the epitaxial films. Second, the growth of polar compounds on a non-polar substrate can lead to antiphase domains or other defective structures. Even though the lattice mismatches are reached to 16.9 % to GaN and 19 % to AlN and a number of dislocations are originated, Si(111) has been selected as the substrate for the epitaxial growth of nitrides because it is always favored due to its three-fold symmetry at the surface, which gives a good rotational matching for the six-fold symmetry of the wurtzite structure of nitrides. Also, Si(001) has been used for the growth of nitrides due to a possible integration of nitride devices with silicon technology despite a four-fold symmetry and a surface reconstruction. Moreover, Si(110), one of surface orientations used in the silicon technology, begins to attract attention as a substrate for the epitaxial growth of nitrides due to an interesting interface structure. In this system, the close lattice match along the [-1100]AlN/[001]Si direction promotes the faster growth along a particular crystal orientation. However, there are insufficient until now on the studies for the growth of nitride compound semiconductors on Si(110) substrate from a microstructural point of view. In this work, the microstructural properties of nitride thin layers grown on Si(110) have been characterized using various TEM techniques. The main purpose of this study was to understand the atomic structure and the strain behavior of III-nitrides grown on Si(110) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Insight gained at the microscopic level regarding how thin layer grows at the interface is essential for the growth of high quality thin films for various applications.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.224-228
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• 1997

Rolling contact fatigue tests were performed for two types silicon nitrides using disk- type specimens. Materials showed a fatigue behaviour similar to that typically found in metallic materials From the fractographic and metallographic observations, it has been found that the crack initation in the silicon nitrides subjected to rolling contact fatigue is to be induced by cyclic subsurface shear stress, as is known in steel bearing. On the mid-sections of the specimens, many subsurface cracks which lay parallel to the contact surface can be found at a depth where fluctuation of the Herzian shear stress was the maximum.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 1998

The effect of $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase on the mechanical properties and contact damage of silicon nitrides $Si_3N_4$) was investigated. Silicon nitride materials were prepared from two starting powders, at selective increasing hot-pressing temperatures to coarsen the microstructures: (i) from relatively coarse $\alpha$-phase powder, essentially equiaxed $\alpha$-$Si_3N_4$ grains, with limited, slow transformation to $\beta$-$Si_3N_4$ grain; (ii) from relatively fine $\alpha$-phase powder, a more rapid transformation to $\beta$-$Si_3N_4$, with attendant grain elongation. The resulting micro-structure thereby provided a spectrum of $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase ratios, grain sizes, and grain shapes. Fracture strength, hardness, and toughness were measured, and contact damage and strength degradation after indentation were investigated by Hertzian indentation using spherical indenter. A brittle to ductile transition in $Si_3N_4$ depended on $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase ratio as well as grain size. Silicon nitride with elongated $\beta$ grains showed a superior, contact damage resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.11
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• pp.675-680
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• 2008

The effect of pore former content on both porosity and pore structure was investigated for porous sintered reaction-bonded silicon nitrides (SRBSNs). A spherical PMMA with $d_{50}=8{\mu}m$ was employed as a pore-former. Its amount ranged from 0 to 30 part. Porous SRBSNs were fabricated by post-sintering at various temperatures where the porosity was controlled at $12{\sim}52%$. The strong tendency of increasing porosity with PMMA content and decreasing porosity with sintering temperature was observed. Measured pore-channel diameter increased $(0.3{\rightarrow}1.1{\mu}m)$ with both PMMA content and sintering temperature.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.783-789
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• 2003

An experimental method to investigate the fracture strength and fracture toughness for the silicon nitrides sintered at various sintering temperature is established. The erosion rate for these materials in the various concentration of NaOH solution is also investigated. In result, the fracture strength of Si3N4 is decreased with the increase of sintering temperature. On the other hand, the fracture toughness KIC is increased with the increase of sintering temperature. The erosion rate of silicon nitride in the NaOH solution depend largely on the grain size and the concentration of NaOH solution. The erosion rate of silicon nitride sintered at $1800^{\circ}C$ was much higher than that at $1950^{\circ}C$. These results are due to the unique columnar structure of silicon nitride.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.334.2-334.2
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• 2016

Silicon nitride (SiNx:H) films are generally used as passivation layer on solar cell and they are usually made by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). In this study, we investigated the properties of silicon nitride (SiNx:H) films made by PECVD. Effects of mixture ratio of process gases with silane (SiH4) and ammonia (NH3) on the passivation qualities of silicon nitride film are evaluated. Passivation properties of SiNx:H are focused by making antireflection properties identical with thickness and refractive index controlled. The absorption coefficient of each film was evaluated by spectrometric ellipsometery and the minority carrier lifetimes were evaluated by quasi-steady-state photo-conductance (QSSPC) measurement. The optical properties were obtained by UV-visible spectrophotometer. The interface properties were measured by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement and the film components were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy detection (RBS) - elastic recoil detection (ERD).

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.478-483
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• 2009

Thermal shock and hot corrosion resistance of silicon nitride ceramics are investigated in this study. Silicon nitrides are fabricated by nitride pressureless sintering (NPS) process, which process is the continuous process of nitridation reaction of Si metal combined with subsequent pressureless sintering. The results of thermal shock test show it sustains 400MPa of initial strength during test in the designated condition of ${\Delta}T=700{\sim}25^{\circ}C$ up to maximum 4,800 cycles. Hot corrosion tests also reveal that the strength degradation of NPS silicon nitride did not occur at $700^{\circ}C$ with an exposure in Ar, $H_2$, Na and K for 1,275 h.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.200-206
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• 1997

Using $SiCl_{2}H_{2}$, $NH_{3}$ and $N_{2}O$, we have fabricated silicon oxynitride ($Si_{x}O_{y}N_{z}$) layers on thermally oxidized silicon wafer by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. Three different compositions were achieved by controlling gas flow ratios($NH_{3}/N_{2}O$)) to 0.2, 0.5 and 2 with fixed gas flow of $SiCl_{2}H_{2}$. Ellipsometry and high frequency capacitance-voltage(HFCV) measurements were adapted to investigate the difference of the refractive index, dielectric constant, and composition, respectively. Regardless of nitride content, silicon oxynitrides had similar stability to silicon nitrides. The relative standing of alkali ion sensitivity in silicon oxynitride layers was influenced by nitride content. The better alkali ion-sensitivity was achieved by increasing oxide content in bulk of silicon oxynitrides.