• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05c
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• pp.83-87
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• 2002

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) silicon nitride ($SiN_X$) is widely used as a gate dielectric material for the hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) thin film transistors (TFT's). We investigated $SiN_X$ films were deposited PECVD at low temperature ($300^{\circ}C$). The reaction gases were used pure nitrogen and a helium diluted of silane gas(20% $SiH_4$, 80% He). Experimental investigations were carried out with the variation of $N_2/SiH_4$ flow ratios from 3 to 50 and the rf power of 200 W. This article presents the $SiN_X$ gate dielectric studies in terms of deposition rate, hydrogen content, etch rate and C-V, leakage current density characteristics for the gate dielectric layer of thin film transistor applications. Electrical properties were analyzed through high frequency (1MHz) C-V and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The thickness and the refractive index on the films were measured by ellipsometry and chemical bonds were determined by using an FT-IR equipment.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1987.07a
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• pp.429-432
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• 1987

A new LOCOS (Local Oxidation of Silicon) process using a thin nitride film directly deposited on the silicon substrate by LPCVD has been developed in order to reduce the bird's beak length. SEM studies showed that nitride thickness of 50nm can decrease the bird's beak length down to 0.2um with 450nm field oxide. No crystalline defects are observed around the bird's beak after the Wright etch. A 30% improvement in current density was obtained when this new method was applied to MOS transistors (W/L*2.9/20.4) compared to conventional LOCOS process (bird's beak length=0.7um). Other various electrical parameters improved by this new simple LOCOS process are reported in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.111-111
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• 2009

In this work, we discuss simulation of surface acoustic wave device using Comsol Multiphysics. The structure SAW device based on piezoelectric thin film aluminum-nitride (AlN) on silicon was simulated. Some parameters of SAW device such as surface velocity, displacement of piezoelectric thin film were evaluated by software. Many modes and shapes of wave are also discussed in this paper. For evaluation physical parameters of AlN piezoelectric layer, the SAW resonator was modeled and simulation results were also compared with experiment results. we simulated arid evaluated the surface Rayleigh wave of AlN thin film on silicon substrate. Results simulation and experiment showed the surface velocity of AlN thin film was about 5200 m/s and shape of surface wave was also displayed. This paper has also proposed as method to study SAW characteristic of piezoelectric thin film and found out measurement values accurately of film such as stiffness matrix, piezoelectric matrix. These values are very important in calculation and design SAW device or MEMS device based on AlN piezoelectric layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.69-73
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• 1997

Microwave Plasma assisted CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) and DC Plasma CVD were used to prepare thin and thick diamond film, respectively. Diamond coated silicon nitride and fiee standing diamond thick film were eroded by silicon carbide particles. The velocity of the solid particle was about 220m/sec. Phase transformation and the other crack formation were investigated by using Raman spectroscopy and microscopy.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2000

The amorphous tungsten nitrides, WNx, film could be fabricated by reactive sputtering process. The nitrogen concentration for the amorphization ranges from 10 at% to 40at%. The amorphous $W_{67}N_{33}$ film was crystallized into low resistivity $\alpha$-tungsten phase with equiaxed grains and excess nitrogen after the rapid thermal annealing for 1min at 1273K, which was similar to the resistivity of the sputtered pure tungsten film. The excess nitrogen was depleted from $\alpha$-tungsten crystals and then segregated at $\alpha$-tungsten/poly-Si interface. The segregated nitrogen has favored the formation of the homogeneous diffusion barrier layer comprised of silicon nitride, $Si_3N_4$, nano-crystals, which undertaken the inhibition of the high resistivity tungsten silicide reaction.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1013-1019
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• 2007

Amorphous silicon and silicon-nitride films were deposited using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method at $150^{\circ}C$. As fraction of $H_2$ in source gas was increased, characteristics of low-temperature silicon-nitride films approached those of conventional high-temperature films; the refractive index approached 1.9 and the ratio of nitrogen-hydrogen bonds to silicon-hydrogen bonds increased. And also, as fraction of $H_2$ in source gas was increased, characteristics of low-temperature silicon films approached those of conventional high-temperature films; refractive index and optical band gap approached 4.2 and 1.8 eV, and $[Si-H]/([Si-H]+[Si-H_2])$ increased. Lower RF power and process-pressure made the amorphous silicon films to be better properties. Increase of $H_2$ ratio seemed as the common factor to get reliable amorphous silicon and silicon-nitride films for thin-film-transistors (TFTs) at low temperature.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.331-337
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• 2012

Electrical properties as a function of composition in silicon nitride ($SiN_x$) films grown at low temperatures ($<200^{\circ}C$) were studied for applications to photonic devices and thin film transistors. Both silicon-rich and nitrogen-rich compositions were successfully produced in final films by controlling the source gas mixing ratio, $R=[(N_2\;or\;NH_3)/SiH_4]$, and the RF plasma power. Depending on the film composition, the dielectric and optical properties of $SiN_x$ films varied substantially. Both the resistivity and breakdown field strength showed the maximum value at the stoichiometric composition (N/Si = 1.33), and degraded as the composition deviated to either side. The electrical properties degraded more rapidly when the composition shifted toward the silicon-rich side than toward the nitrogen-rich side. The composition shift from the silicon-rich side to the nitrogen-rich side accompanied the shift in the photoluminescence characteristic peak to a shorter wavelength, indicating an increase in the band gap. As long as the film composition is close to the stoichiometry, the breakdown field strength and the bulk resistivity showed adequate values for use as a gate dielectric layer down to $150^{\circ}C$ of the process temperature.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.785-789
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• 2005

Low temperature deposition of silicon and silicon nitride films by catalytic CVD technique was studied for application to thin film transistors on plastic substrates for flexible AMOLEDs. The substrate temperature initially held at room temperature, and was controlled successfully below $150^{\circ}C$ during the entire deposition process. Amorphous silicon films having good adhesion, good surface morphology and sufficiently low content of atomic hydrogen were obtained and could be successfully crystallized using excimer laser without a prior dehydrogenation step. $SiN_x$ films showed a good refractive index, a high deposition rate, a moderate breakdown field and a dielectric constant. The Cat-CVD silicon and silicon nitride films can be good candidates for fabricating thin films transistors on plastic substrates to drive active-matrix organic light emitting display.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.462-466
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• 2007

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited on Si substrates by using polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layers, in which the AlN film was grown by pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering. Characteristics of grown AlN films were investigated experimentally by means of FE-SEM, X-ray diffraction, and FT-IR, respectively. The columnar structure of AlN thin films was observed by FE-SEM. X-ray diffraction pattern proved that the grown AlN film on 3C-SiC layers had highly (002) orientation with low value of FWHM (${\Theta}=1.3^{\circ}$) in the rocking curve around (002) reflections. These results were shown that almost free residual stress existed in the grown AlN film on 3C-SiC buffer layers from the infrared absorbance spectrum. Therefore, the presented results showed that AlN thin films grown on 3C-SiC buffer layers can be used for various piezoelectric fields and M/NEMS applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2010

The effect of thermal anneal on the characteristics of structural properties and the enhancement of luminescence and photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of silicon-rich silicon-nitride films were investigated. By using an ultra high vacuum ion beam sputtering deposition, B-doped silicon-rich silicon-nitride (SRSN) thin films, with excess silicon content of 15 at. %, on P-doped (n-type) Si substrate was fabricated, sputtering a highly B doped Si wafer with a BN chip by N plasma. In order to examine the influence of thermal anneal, films were then annealed at different temperature up to $1100^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ environment. Raman, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy did not show any reliable evidence of amorphous or crystalline Si clusters allowing us concluding that nearly no Si nano-cluster could be formed through the precipitation of excess Si from SRSN matrix during thermal anneal. Instead, results of Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy clearly indicated that defective, amorphous Si-N matrix of films was changed to be well-ordered thanks to high temperature anneal. The measurement of spectral ellipsometry in UV-visible range was carried out and we found that the optical absorption edge of film was shifted to higher energy as the anneal temperature increased as the results of thermal anneal induced formation of $Si_3N_4$-like matrix. These are consistent with the observation that higher visible photoluminescence, which is likely due to the presence of Si-N bonds, from anneals at higher temperature. Based on these films, PV cells were fabricated by the formation of front/back metal electrodes. For all cells, typical I-V characteristic of p-n diode junction was observed. We also tried to measure PV properties using a solar-simulator and confirmed successful operation of PV devices. Carrier transport mechanism depending on anneal temperature and the implication of PV cells based on SRSN films were also discussed.