• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2010

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating was studied to be a good tribological problem-solver due to its low friction characteristics and high hardness. However, generally hydrogenated DLC film has shown a weak thermal stability above $300^{\circ}C$. However, the silicon doping DLC process by DC pulse plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for the new DLC coating which has a good characterization with thermal stability at high temperature itself has been observed. And we were discussed a process for optimizing silicon content to promote a good thermal stability using various tetramethylsilane (TMS) and methane gas at high-temperature. The chemical compositions of silicon-containing DLC film was analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before and after heat treatment. Raman spectrum analysis showed the changed structure on the surface after the high-temperature exposure testing. In particular, the hardness of silicon-containing DLC film showed different values before and after the annealing treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2011

The silicon-containing Diamond-like Carbon (Si-DLC) film as an low friction coefficient coating has especially treated a different silicon content by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process at $500^{\circ}C$ on nitrided-STD 11 mold steel with (TMS) gas flow rate. The effects of variable silicon content on the Si-DLC films were tested with relative humidity of 5, 30 and 85% using a ball-on-disk tribometer. The wear-tested and original surface of Si-DLC films were analysed for an understanding of physical and chemical characterization, including a changing structure, via Raman spectra and nano hardness test. The results of Raman spectra have inferred a changing intra-structure from dangling bonds. And high silicon containing DLC films have shown increasing carbon peak ratio ($I_D/I_G$) values and G-peak values. In particular, the tribological tested surface of Si-DLC was shown the increasing hardness value in proportional to TMS gas flow rate. Therefore, at same time, the structure of the Si-DLC film was changed to a different intra-structure and increased hardness film with mechanical shear force and chemical reaction.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2022

Amorphous carbon (a-C) has excellent wear resistance and, therefore is used as a coating to protect numerous mechanical components to prolong their lifetimes. Among the a-C coatings, diamond-like carbon (DLC) and DLC-containing silicon (Si-DLC) receive extensive attention owing to their enhanced wear resistance and low frictional characteristics. In this study, the friction and wear characteristics of DLC and Si-DLC coatings are analyzed. For comparative analysis, DLC-coated and Si-DLC-coated vanes are utilized with the counterpart of a roller for the friction tests. Since the lubricated mechanical components are generally vulnerable to wear when a lubricant film does not form properly, friction tests are conducted under boundary lubrication conditions to promote wear. A cylinder-on-cylinder type tribometer is used to perform the friction tests with various normal load conditions. After the friction test, a 3D laser confocal microscope is used for quantifying the wear volume to calculate the wear rate of each specimen. Consequently, the DLC-coated specimen shows a lower coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate than the specimen without the coating, while the Si-DLC coating shows a higher COF than the bare specimen. The results of this study are expected to contribute to improving the efficiency and reliability of compressors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.183-183
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• 2012

In the era of 45 nm or beyond technology, conventional etch mask using photoresist showed its limitation of etch mask pattern collapse as well as pattern erosion, thus hard mask in etching became necessary for precise control of etch pattern geometry. Currently available hard mask materials are amorphous carbon and polymetric materials spin-on containing carbon or silicon. Amorphous carbon layer (ACL) deposited by PECVD for etch hard mask has appeared in manufacturing, but spin-on carbon (SOC) was also suggested to alleviate concerns of particle, throughput, and cost of ownership (COO) [1]. SOC provides some benefits of reduced process steps, but it also faced with wiggling on a sidewall profile. Diamond like carbon (DLC) was also evaluated for substituting ACL, but etching selectivity of ACL was better than DLC although DLC has superior optical property [2]. Developing a novel material for pattern hard mask is very important in material research, but it is also worthwhile eliminating a potential issue to continuously develop currently existing technology. In this paper, we investigated in-situ dry-cleaning (ISD) monitoring of ACL coated process chamber. End time detection of chamber cleaning not only provides a confidence that the process chamber is being cleaned, but also contributes to minimize wait time waste (WOW). Employing Challenger 300ST, a 300mm ACL PECVD manufactured by TES, a series of experimental chamber cleaning runs was performed after several deposition processes in the deposited film thickness of $2000{\AA}$ and $5000{\AA}$. Ar Actinometry and principle component analysis (PCA) were applied to derive integrated and intuitive trace signal, and the result showed that previously operated cleaning run time can be reduced by more than 20% by employing real-time monitoring in ISD process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.622-629
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• 2015

Cu circuits were successfully fabricated on flexible PET(polyethylene terephthalate) substrates using wettability difference and electroless plating without an etching process. The wettability of Cu plating solution on PET was controlled by oxygen plasma treatment and $SiO_x$-DLC(silicon oxide containing diamond like carbon) coating by HMDSO(hexamethyldisiloxane) plasma. With an increase of the height of the nanostructures on the PET surface with the oxygen plasma treatment time, the wettability difference between the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity increased, which allowed the etchless formation of a Cu pattern with high peel strength by selective Cu plating. When the height of the nanostructure was more than 1400 nm (60 min oxygen plasma treatment), the reduction of the critical impalement pressure with the decreasing density of the nanostructure caused the precipitation of copper in the hydrophobic region.