• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2012

The promise of nano-crystalites (nc) as a technological material, for applications including display backplane, and solar cells, may ultimately depend on tailoring their behavior through doping and crystallinity. Impurities can strongly modify electronic and optical properties of bulk and nc semiconductors. Highly doped dopant also effect structural properties (both grain size, crystal fraction) of nc-Si thin film. As discussed in several literatures, P atoms or radicals have the tendency to reside on the surface of nc. The P-radical segregation on the nano-grain surfaces that called self-purification may reduce the possibility of new nucleation because of the five-coordination of P. In addition, the P doping levels of ${\sim}2{\times}10^{21}\;at/cm^3$ is the solubility limitation of P in Si; the solubility of nc thin film should be smaller. Therefore, the non-activated P tends to segregate on the grain boundaries and the surface of nc. These mechanisms could prevent new nucleation on the existing grain surface. Therefore, most researches shown that highly doped nc-thin film by using conventional PECVD deposition system tended to have low crystallinity, where the formation energy of nucleation should be higher than the nc surface in the intrinsic materials. If the deposition technology that can make highly doped and simultaneously highly crystallized nc at low temperature, it can lead processes of next generation flexible devices. Recently, we are developing a novel CVD technology with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, named as neutral beam assisted CVD (NBaCVD), which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at low temperatures. During the formation of the nc-/pm-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. In the case of phosphorous doped Si thin films, the doping efficiency also increased as increasing the reflector bias (i.e. increasing NPB energy). At 330V of reflector bias, activation energy of the doped nc-Si thin film reduced as low as 0.001 eV. This means dopants are fully occupied as substitutional site, even though the Si thin film has nano-sized grain structure. And activated dopant concentration is recorded as high as up to 1020 #/$cm^3$ at very low process temperature (＜ $80^{\circ}C$) process without any post annealing. Theoretical solubility for the higher dopant concentration in Si thin film for order of 1020 #/$cm^3$ can be done only high temperature process or post annealing over $650^{\circ}C$. In general, as decreasing the grain size, the dopant binding energy increases as ratio of 1 of diameter of grain and the dopant hardly be activated. The highly doped nc-Si thin film by low-temperature NBaCVD process had smaller average grain size under 10 nm (measured by GIWAXS, GISAXS and TEM analysis), but achieved very higher activation of phosphorous dopant; NB energy sufficiently transports its energy to doping and crystallization even though without supplying additional thermal energy. TEM image shows that incubation layer does not formed between nc-Si film and SiO2 under later and highly crystallized nc-Si film is constructed with uniformly distributed nano-grains in polymorphous tissues. The nucleation should be start at the first layer on the SiO2 later, but it hardly growth to be cone-shaped micro-size grains. The nc-grain evenly embedded pm-Si thin film can be formatted by competition of the nucleation and the crystal growing, which depend on the NPB energies. In the evaluation of the light soaking degradation of photoconductivity, while conventional intrinsic and n-type doped a-Si thin films appeared typical degradation of photoconductivity, all of the nc-Si thin films processed by the NBaCVD show only a few % of degradation of it. From FTIR and RAMAN spectra, the energetic hydrogen NB atoms passivate nano-grain boundaries during the NBaCVD process because of the high diffusivity and chemical potential of hydrogen atoms.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.951-964
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• 2020

This paper presents a lightweight true random number generator (TRNG) using beta radiation that is useful for Internet of Things (IoT) security. In general, a random number generator (RNG) is required for all secure communication devices because random numbers are needed to generate encryption keys. Most RNGs are computer algorithms and use physical noise as their seed. However, it is difficult to obtain physical noise in small IoT devices. Since IoT security functions are required in almost all countries, IoT devices must be equipped with security algorithms that can pass the cryptographic module validation programs of each country. In this regard, it is very cumbersome to embed security algorithms, random number generation algorithms, and even physical noise sources in small IoT devices. Therefore, this paper introduces a lightweight TRNG comprising a thin-film beta-radiation source and integrated circuits (ICs). Although the ICs are currently being designed, the IC design was functionally verified at the board level. Our random numbers are output from a verification board and tested according to National Institute of Standards and Technology standards.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.129-134
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• 2007

Boron nitride (BN) is a highly attractive material for wear resistant applications of mechanical components. BN is super hard and it is the second hardest of all known materials. It also has a high thermal stability, high abrasive wear resistance, and in contrast to diamond, BN does not react with ferrous materials. The motivation of this work is to investigate the tribological properties of BN for potential applications in ultra-precision components for data storage, printing, and other precision devices. In this work, the wear characteristics of BN thin films deposited on DLC or Ti buffer layer with silicon substrate using RF-magnetron sputtering technique were analyzed. Wear tests were conducted by using a pin-on-disk type tester and the wear tracks were measured with a surface profiler. Experimental results showed that wear characteristics were dependent on the sputtering conditions and buffer layer. Particularly, BN coated on DLC layer showed better wear resistant behavior. The range of the wear rates for the BN films tested in this work was about 20 to $100{\mu}m^3$/cycle.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.859-863
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• 2007

Aluminum oxide films were deposited on n-type 6H-SiC(0001) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering technique for MIS devices applications. Well-behaved C-V characteristics were obtained measured in MIS capacitors structures. The calculated interface trap density measured at $300^{\circ}C$ was about $4.6{\times}10^{10}/cm^2\;eV$ in the upper half of the bandgap. The gate leakage current densities of the MIS structures were about $10^{-8}A/cm^2$ and about $10^{-6}A/cm^2$ measured at room temperature and at $300^{\circ}C$ for a ${\pm}1\;MV/cm$, respectively These results indicate that the interface property of this structure is enough quality to MIS devices applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2008

Aluminum oxide films were deposited on n-type GaN substrates by RF magnetron sputtering technique for MIS devices applications using optimized conditions, Well-behaved C - V characteristics were obtained measured in MIS capacitors structures. The calculated interface trap density measured at $300^{\circ}C$ was about $9\times10^{10}/cm^2$ eV in the upper bandgap. The gate leakage current densities of the MIS structures were about $10^{-9}A/cm^2$ and about $10^{-4}A/cm^2$ measured at room temperature and at $300^{\circ}C$ for $a{\pm}1MV/cm$, respectively. These results indicate that the interface property of this structure is enough quality to MIS devices applications.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.301-305
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• 2009

Pt nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution (dia. ~4 nm) were synthesized via an alcohol reduction method and used for the fabrication of hybrid Pt-$SiO_2$ nanoparticles. Also, the self-assembled monolayer of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) was studied as a charge trapping layer for non-volatile memory (NVM) applications. A metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) type memory device with Pt NPs exhibits a relatively large memory window. These results indicate that the self-assembled Pt NPs can be utilized for NVM devices. In addition, it was tried to show the control of thin-film thickness of hybrid Pt-$SiO_2$ nanoparticles indicating the possibility of much applications for the MOS type memory devices.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.620-621
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• 2008

Transparent electronics has been one of the key terminologies forecasting the ubiquitous technology era. Several researchers have thus extensively developed transparent oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) on glass and plastic substrates although in general high voltage operating devices have been mainly studied considering transparent display drivers. However, low voltage operating oxide TFTs with transparent electrodes are very necessary if we are aiming at logic circuit applications, for which transparent complementary or one-type channel inverters are required. The most effective and low power consuming inverter should be a form of complementary p-channel and n-channel transistors but real application of those complementary TFT inverters also requires electrical- and even photo-stabilities. Since p-type oxide TFTs have not been developed yet, we previously adopted organic pentacene TFTs for the p-channel while ZnO TFTs were chosen for n-channel on sputter-deposited $AlO_x$ film. As a result, decent inverting behavior was achieved but some electrical gate instability was unavoidable at the ZnO/$AlO_x$ channel interface. Here, considering such gate instability issues we have designed a unique transparent complementary TFT (CTFTs) inverter structure with top n-ZnO channel and bottom p-pentacene channel based on 12 nm-thin nano-oxide/self assembled monolayer laminated dielectric, which has a large dielectric strength comparable to that of thin film amorphous $Al_2O_3$. Our transparent CTFT inverter well operate under 3 V, demonstrating a maximum voltage gain of ~20, good electrical and even photoelectric stabilities. The device transmittance was over 60 % and this type of transparent inverter has never been reported, to the best of our limited knowledge.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.241-245
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• 2010

One of the weak points of the Cr-doped SZO is that until now, it has only been fabricated on perovskite substrates, whereas NiO-ReRAM devices have already been deposited on Si substrates. The fabrication of RAM devices on Si substrates is important for commercialization because conventional electronics are based mainly on silicon materials. Cr-doped ReRAM will find a wide range of applications in embedded systems or conventional memory device manufacturing processes if it can be fabricated on Si substrates. For application of the commercial memory device, Cr-doped $SrZrO_3$ perovskite thin films were deposited on a $SrRuO_3$ bottom electrode/Si(100)substrate using pulsed laser deposition. XRD peaks corresponding to the (112), (004) and (132) planes of both the SZO and SRO were observed with the highest intensity along the (112) direction. The positions of the SZO grains matched those of the SRO grains. A well-controlled interface between the $SrZrO_3$:Cr perovskite and the $SrRuO_3$ bottom electrode were fabricated, so that good resistive switching behavior was observed with an on/off ratio higher than $10^2$. A pulse test showed the switching behavior of the Pt/$SrZrO_3:Cr/SrRuO^3$ device under a pulse of 10 kHz for $10^4$ cycles. The resistive switching memory devices made of the Cr-doped $SrZrO_3$ thin films deposited on Si substrates are expected to be more compatible with conventional Si-based electronics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.470-470
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• 2013

Recently, active materials such as amorphous silicon (a-Si), poly crystalline silicon (poly-Si), transition metal oxide semiconductors (TMO), and organic semiconductors have been demonstrated for flexible electronics. In order to apply flexible devices on the polymer substrates, all layers should require the characteristic of flexibility as well as the low temperature process. Especially, pentacene thin film transistors (TFTs) have been investigated for probable use in low-cost, large-area, flexible electronic applications such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, smart cards, display backplane driver circuits, and sensors. Since pentacene TFTs were studied, their electrical characteristics with varying single variable such as strain, humidity, and temperature have been reported by various groups, which must preferentially be performed in the flexible electronics. For example, the channel mobility of pentacene organic TFTs mainly led to change in device performance under mechanical deformation. While some electrical characteristics like carrier mobility and concentration of organic TFTs were significantly changed at the different temperature. However, there is no study concerning multivariable. Devices actually worked in many different kinds of the environment such as thermal, light, mechanical bending, humidity and various gases. For commercialization, not fewer than two variables of mechanism analysis have to be investigated. Analyzing the phenomenon of shifted characteristics under the change of multivariable may be able to be the importance with developing improved dielectric and encapsulation layer materials. In this study, we have fabricated flexible pentacene TFTs on polymer substrates and observed electrical characteristics of pentacene TFTs exposed to tensile and compressive strains at the different values of temperature like room temperature (RT), 40, 50, $60^{\circ}C$. Effects of bending and heating on the device performance of pentacene TFT will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.318.2-318.2
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• 2016

FeM2X4 spinel structures, where M is a transition metal and X is oxygen or sulfur, are candidate materials for spin filters, one of the key devices in spintronics. Both the Fe and M ions can occupy tetrahedral and octahedral sites; therefore, these types of compounds can display various physical and chemical properties [1]. On the other hand, the electronic and magnetic properties of these spinel structures could be modified via the control of cation distribution [2, 3]. Among the spinel oxides, iron manganese oxide is one of promising materials for applications. FeMn2O4 shows inverse spinel structure above 390 K and ferrimagnetic properties below the temperature [4]. In this work, we report on the structural and magnetic properties of epitaxial FeMn2O4 thin film on MgO(100) substrate. The reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that films were epitaxially grown on MgO(100) without the impurity phases. The valance states of Fe and Mn in the FeMn2O4 film were carried out using x-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The magnetic properties were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), indicating that the samples are ferromagnetic at room temperature. The structural detail and origin of magnetic ordering in FeMn2O4 will be discussed.