• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.287-291
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• 2012

We investigated the etching characteristics of TaN thin films in an $O_2/BCl_3/Cl_2/Ar$ gas using a high density plasma (HDP) system. A maximum etch rate of the TaN thin films and the selectivity of TaN to $SiO_2$ were obtained as 172.7 nm/min and 6.27 in the $O_2/BCl_3/Cl_2/Ar$ (3:2:18:10 sccm) gas mixture, respectively. At the same time, the etch rate was measured as a function of the etching parameters, such as the RF power, DC-bias voltage, and process pressure. The chemical states on the surface of the etched TaN thin films were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Auger electron spectroscopy was used for elemental analysis on the surface of the etched TaN thin films. These surface analyses confirm that the surface of the etched TaN thin film is formed with the nonvolatile by-product.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.19
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• pp.101-105
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• 1999

Ultra thin $Ta_2O_5$ gate dielectrics were prepared by RTMOCVD (rapid thermal metal organic chemical vapor deposition) using Ta source $TaC_{12}H_{30}O_5N$ and $O_2$ gaseous mixtures. As a result, $Ta_2O_5$ thin films showed significantly low leakage current compared to $SiO_2$ of identical thickness, which was due to the stabilization of the interfacial layer by NO ($SiO_xN_y$) passivation layer. The conduction of leakage current in $Ta_2O_5$ thin films was described by the hopping mechanism of Poole-Frenkel (PF) type.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.07c
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• pp.1596-1598
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• 2002

This paper presents the characteristics of Ta-N thin-film strain gauges as high-temperature strain gauges, which were deposited on Si substrate by DC reactive magnetron sputtering in an argon-nitrogen atmosphere(Ar-($4{\sim}16%$)$N_2$). These films were annealed for 1 hour in $2{\times}10^{-6}$ Torr vacuum furnace range $500{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$. The optimized conditions of Ta-N thin-film strain gauges were annealing condition($900^{\circ}C$, 1 hr.) in 8% $N_2$ gas flow ratio deposition atmosphere. Under optimum conditions, the Ta-N thin-films for strain gauges is obtained a high resistivity, ${\rho}$=768.93 ${\mu}{\Omega}cm$, a low temperature coefficient of resistance, TCR = -84 ppm/$^{\circ}C$ and a high temporal stability with a good longitudinal gauge factor, GF = 4.12.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.97-100
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• 2001

This paper presents the characteristics of Ta-N thin-film strain gauges as high-temperature strain gauges, which were deposited on Si substrate by DC reactive magnetron sputtering in an argon-nitrogen atmosphere(Ar-(4~16%)$N_2$). These films were annealed for 1 hour in $2{\times}10^{-6}$ Torr vaccum furnace range $500\sim1000^{\circ}C$. The optimized conditions of Ta-N thin-film strain gauges were annealing condition($900^{\circ}C$, 1 hr.) in 8% $N_2$ gas flow ratio deposition atmosphere. Under optimum conditions, the Ta-N thin-films for strain gauges is obtained a high resistivity, $\rho=768.93$ ${\mu}{\Omega}cm$, a low temperature coefficient of resistance, TCR=-84 ppm/$^{\circ}C$ and a high temporal stability with a good longitudinal gauge factor, GF=4.12.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.335-340
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• 2013

In this study, the plasma etching of the TaN thin film with $CH_4/BCl_3/Ar$ gas chemistries was investigated. The etch rate of the TaN thin film and the etch selectivity of TaN to $SiO_2$ was studied as a function of the process parameters, including the amount of $CH_4$. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was used to investigate the chemical states of the surface of the TaN thin film.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.11 no.4 s.33
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• pp.87-91
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• 2004

We have investigated the effects of W-N/Pt bottom electrode on the ferroelectric degradation of $Sr_{0.8}Bi_{2.4}Ta_2O_9(SBT)/Pt$ due to hydrogen annealing at $350^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ gas atmosphere containing $5{\%}\;H_2$ gas for 1hr. As a result, inserting the W-N thin films between SBT and Pt, this W-N thin film prevents hydrogen molecules to be chemisorbed at the Pt electrode surface of at the electrode/ferroelectric interface during hydrogen annealing. These hydrogen atoms can diffuse into the SBT and react with the oxide causing the oxygen deficiency in the SBT film, which will result in the ferroelectric degradation. Experimental results show that W-N thin film is a good diffusion barrier during the hydrogen annealing.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.185-190
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• 2002

Capacitor material utilized in the downsizing passive devices and dynamic random access memory(DRAM) requires the physical and electrical properties at given area such as capacitor thickness reduction, relative dielectric constant increase, low leakage current and thermal stability. Common capacitor materials, $SiO_2$, $Si_3N_4$, $SiO_2$/$Si_3N_4$,TaN and et al., used until recently have reached their physical limits in their application to several hundred angstrom scale capacitor. $Ta_2O_{5}$ is known to be a good alternative to the existing materials for the capacitor application because of its high dielectric constant (25 ~35), low leakage current and high breakdown strength. Despite the numerous investigations of $Ta_2O_{5}$ material, there have little been established the clear understanding of the annealing effect on capacitance characteristic and conduction mechanism, design and fabrication for $Ta_2O_{5}$ film capacitor. This study presents the structure-property relationship of reactive-sputtered $Ta_2O_{5}$ MIM capacitor structure processed by annealing in a vacuum. X-ray diffraction patterns skewed the existence of amorphous phase in as-deposited condition and the formation of preferentially oriented-$Ta_2O_{5}$ in 670, $700^{\circ}C$ annealing. On 670, $700^{\circ}C$ annealing under the vacuum, the leakage current decrease and the enhanced temperature-capacitance characteristic stability. and the leakage current behavior is stable irrespective of applied electric field. The results states that keeping $Ta_2O_{5}$ annealed at vacuum gives rise to improvement of electrical characteristics in the capacitor by reducing oxygen-vacancy and the broken bond between Ta and O.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.303-308
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• 2004

This paper descibes on the characteristics of Ta-N(tantalum nitride) ceramic thin-film strain gauges which were deposited on Si substrates by DC reactive magnetron sputtering in an argon-nitrogen atmosphere (Ar-$(4{\sim}16%)N_{2}$) for high-temperature applications. These films were annealed in $2{\times}10^{-6}$ Torr vacuum furnace at the range of $500{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$. Optimum deposition atmosphere and annealing temperature were determined at $900^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr. in 8% $N_{2}$ gas flow ratio. Under optimum formation conditions, the Ta-N thin-film for strain gauges was obtained a high-resistivity of $768.93{\mu}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, a low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of -84 ppm/$^{\circ}C$ and a good longitudinal gauge factor (GF) of 4.12.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.65-68
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• 2005

The effect of crystal orientation and microstructure on the mechanical properties of $TaN_x$ was investigated. $TaN_x$ films were grown on $SiO_2$ substrates by ultrahigh vacuum unbalanced magnetron sputter deposition in mixed $Ar/N_2$ discharges at 20 mTorr (2.67 Pa) and at $350^{\circ}C$. Unlike the Ti-N system, in which TiN is the terminal phase, a large number of N-rich phases in the Ta-N system could lead to layers which had nano-sized lamella structure of coherent cubic and hexagonal phases, with a correct choice of nitrogen fraction in the sputtering mixture and ion irradiation energy during growth. The preferred orientations and the micro-structure of $TaN_x$ layers were controlled by varing incident ion energy $E_i\;(=30eV\~50eV)$ and nitrogen fractions $f_{N2}\;(=0.1\~0.15)$. $TaN_x$ layers were grown on (0002)-Ti underlayer as a crystallographic template in order to relieve the stress on the films. The structure of the $TaN_x$ film transformed from Bl-NaCl $\delta-TaN_x$ to lamellar structured Bl-NaCl $\delta-TaN_x$ + hexagonal $\varepsilon-TaN_x$ or Bl-NaCl $\delta-TaN_x$ + hexagonal $\gamma-TaN_x$ with increasing the ion energy at the same nitrogen fraction $f_{N2}$. The hardness of the films also increased by the structural change. At the nitrogen fraction of $0.1\~0.125$, the structure of the $TaN_x$ films was changed from $\delta-TaN_x\;+\;\varepsilon-TaN_x\;to\;\delta-TaN_x\;+\;\gamma-TaN_x$ with increasing the ion energy. However, at the nitrogen fraction of 0.15 the film structure did not change from $\delta-TaN_x\;+\;\varepsilon-TaN_x$ over the whole range of the applied ion energy. The hardness increased significantly from 21.1 GPa to 45.5 GPa with increasing the ion energy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2008.08a
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• pp.156-156
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• 2008