• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 1999

This paper describes how the gold particles self assemble on the specific phase on the microphase separated block copolymer thin film and form a well ordered patterns. For this study, polystyrene-polybutadiene-polystyrene (PS-PB-PS) triblock copolymer (30wt % PS) thin films (${\sim}100nm$) having a cylindrical morphology were cast from 0.1wt% toluene solution to be used as polymer thin film templates. The films having either vertical PS cylinders or in-plane PS cylinders in PB matrix from each different solvent evaporation condition were obtained. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy(TEM) was used to study the surface and bulk morphologies of block copolymer thin films. Small amount of gold particles was evaporated on a block copolymer thin film template to obtain a nano-scale pattern. When an as-cast thin film template was used, gold particles preferentially self assemble on the low surface tension PB phase and a relatively well ordered pattern in nano-scale was produced. However, after the formation of a low surface energy PB rich layer upon annealing, a gold self-assembled pattern was not observed.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.54.2-54.2
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• 2012

Solid-state dewetting of thin films is a process through which continuous solid films decay to form islands. Dewetting of thin films has long been a critical issue in microelectronics and much effort has been made to prevent the process and enhance the stability of films. On the other hand, dewetting has also been purposely induced to create arrays of particles and other structures for applications, including plasmonic structures and catalysts for growing nanotube and nanowire. We have investigated ways of producing regular structures via templated dewetting of thin films. Mainly, two different approaches have been used in our works to template dewetting of thin films: periodic topographical templating and planar patterning of epitaxially-grown films. Dewetting of topographically-patterned thin films results in the formation of nanoparticle arrays with spatial and crystallographic orders. Morphological evolution during templated-dewetting of single crystal films occurs in deterministic ways because of geometric and crystallographic constraints, and leads to the formation of regular structures with smaller sizes and more complex shapes than the initial patches. These results will be reviewed in this presentation.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 1996

Polyimides containing cyclobutane ring in main chain is known to be thermally stable and able to be developed in organic solvents after photolysis with 254 nm UV light. This type of polyimides can be used as promising positive photoresist in VLSI fabrication process. In the current VLSI process, photoresist films are formed by spin coating. The film thickness is more than several hundred nano meters. It seems that there is room for improvement of film coating process by introducing Langmuir Blodgett technique. Thereby ultra thin film photoresist can be formed, and higher density of integration in VLSI be achieved. In the present work, depositing procedure of LB films of this polyimide was investigated. LB film thickness was measured by ellipsometry to evaluate deposited film status. Chemical imidization procedure was studied to avoid several problems in thermal imidization. The pattern of submicron dimension has successfully formed on LB film of 8nm thick, which found showing good contrast.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.515-520
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• 2009

This study presented facile method of cell patterning using fabricated PDMS patterns on polyelectrolyte coated surface. This basic principle is the fabrication of functional surface presenting two orthogonal surfaces such as cell adhesive and repellent properties. Cell adhesive surface was firstly fabricated with simple coating of polyelectrolyte multilayer. And then, the desired patterns of PDMS for the prevention of nonspecific binding of cells were transferred onto the previously formed thin film of polyelectrolyte multilayer. Thus, we could prepare novel functional surface simultaneously containing PDMS and polyelectrolyte region. As expected, the PDMS regions showed effective prevention of nonspecific binding of cell and the other region, exposed polyelectrolyte area, provided cell adhesive environment. The height of formed PDMS structure was about 100 nm. Based on this method, cell patterning can be successfully obtained with various pattern shapes and sizes. Therefore, we expect that this simple method will be useful platform technology for the development of cell chip, cell based assay system, and biochip.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-4
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• 2006

2.22-inch qVGA $(240{\times}320)$ amorphous silicon thin film transistor liquid active matrix crystal display (a-Si TFT-AMLCD) panel has been successfully demonstrated employing a 2.5 um fine-patterning technology by a wet etch process. Higher resolution 2.22-inch qVGA LCD panel with an aperture ratio of 58% can be fabricated as the 2.5 um fine pattern formation technique is integrated with high thermal photo-resist (PR) development. In addition, a novel concept of unique a-Si TFT process architecture, which is advantageous in terms of reliability, was proposed in the fabrication of 2.22-inch qVGA LCD panel. Overall results show that the 2.5 um fine-patterning is a considerably significant technology to obtain higher aperture ratio for higher resolution a-Si TFT-LCD panel realization.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.64-68
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• 2021

We demonstrate an effect of annealing temperature on imprinting process of BiLaO thin film for liquid crystal alignment. BiLaO prepared sol-gel process was deposited by spin coating on a glass substrate, and then transferred to a pre-fabricated aligned pattern which is fabricated on a silicon wafer by laser interference lithography. Thin film was annealed at different temperature of 100, 150, 200, and 250 ℃. From the polarized optical microscopy analysis, the liquid crystal orientation was not uniform at the annealing temperature of 200 ℃ or lower and the uniform liquid crystal alignment characteristics were confirmed at the annealing temperature of 250 ℃. From atomic force microscopy, the pattern was not transferred at a temperature of 200 ℃ or lower. In contrast, the pattern was transferred at 250 ℃. Anisotropy of the thin film was obtained by the alignment pattern transferred at a temperature of 250 ℃, and the liquid crystal molecules could be evenly oriented on the thin film. Therefore, it was confirmed that the liquid crystal alignment process by the imprinting process of the BiLaO oxide film was affected by the annealing temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2012

We have observed the change in the film resistance of thin nickel film up to 13 nm, which is deposited on a porous anodic alumina substrate, prepared by two-step anodization technique under phosphoric acid. The resulting film grows as a porous film, following the pore structure on the surface of the alumina substrate, and the value of the resistance lies above $150k{\Omega}$ within the range of thickness studied here, decreasing very slowly with the film thickness. The observed resistance value is much higher than the reported value of a uniform film at the same thickness. Since the observed value of the surface coverage with the pores is smaller than the critical value, expected from the percolation theory, the pore structure limits the formation of conduction channel across the film. In addition, by comparing to the typical model of thickness-dependent resistivity, we expect that the scattering at the pore edge further increases the film resistance.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.95-102
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• 2014

Light trapping techniques can change the propagation direction of incident light and keep the light longer in the absorption layers of solar cells to enhance the power conversion efficiency. In thin film silicon (Si) solar cells, the thickness of absorption layer is generally not enough to absorb entire available photons because of short carrier life time, and light induced degradation effect, which can be compensated by the light trapping techniques. These techniques have been adopted as textured transparent conduction oxide (TCO) layers randomly or periodically textured, intermediate reflection layers of tandem and triple junction, and glass substrates etched by various patterning methods. We reviewed the light trapping techniques for thin film Si solar cells and mainly focused on the commercially available techniques applicable to textured TCO on patterned glass substrates. We described the characterization methods representing the light trapping effects, texturing of TCO and showed the results of multi-scale textured TCO on etched glass substrates. These methods can be used tandem and triple thin film Si solar cells to enhance photo-current and power conversion efficiency of long term stability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.410.1-410.1
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• 2016

Vanadium dioxide ($VO_2$) is a well-known material that exhibits a metal-semiconductor transition at 340 K, with drastic change of transmittance at NIR region. However, $VO_2$ based thermochromics accompany with low visible transmittance value and unfavorable color (brownish yellow). Herein, we demonstrate the adjustment of visible transmittance of $VO_2$ thin film by nanosphere template assisted patterning process using sol-gel method. 2-Dimenstional honeycomb shape was varied as function of diameter of nanosphere and coating conditions. The morphological geometry of the films was investigated by FE-SEM and AFM. Result shows that inversed shape of nanosphere was formed clearly and pattern width was altered according to the bead size. This structure creates the geometrical blank area from the position of nanosphere which improves the optical transmittance at the visible region. Moreover, such patterned $VO_2$ thin film not only maintains the optical switching efficiency, but also generate the gorgeous scattering effect which presumably support the glazing application.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.119-125
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• 2007

We investigated recovery in $Au/YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ (YBCO) thin film meander lines on sapphire substrates. The meander lines were fabricated by patterning YBCO films coated with gold layers. The lines were subjected to simulated AC fault current and then small current was applied for recovery measurements. The samples were immersed in liquid nitrogen during the experiment. After the fault, the resistance decreased linearly, first slowly and then fast to zero. The initial slow decrease was due to the decrease of the meander line temperature, whereas the fast decrease was originated from the transition from the normal state to the superconducting state. The recovery speed depended on the size of samples, and was faster in the smaller samples during the whole period of recovery. The experimental results were analyzed quantitatively with the concept of heat transfer within the sample and to the surrounding liquid nitrogen. A heat balance equation was solved for the initial phase of recovery, and an expression for the time dependence of resistance was obtained. The result agreed with data well.