• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.119-126
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• 2001

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films were deposited by ECR-PECVD (electron cyclotron resonance-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) method with deposition conditions such as ECR plasma source power, gas composition of methane and hydrogen, deposition time and substrate bias voltage. The hydrogen content in the films has been measured by ERDA (elastic recoil detection analysis) using 2.5 MeV $He^{++}$ ion beam. From the results of AES (Auger electron spectroscopy), RBS (Rutherford backscattering spectrometry) and ERDA, the composition elements of deposited film were confirmed the carbon atom and the hydrogen atom. It was observed by FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) that the hydrogen contents in the film varied according to the deposition conditions. In deposition condition of substrate bias voltage, the hydrogen contents were decreased remarkably because the amount of dehydrogenation in films was increased as the substrate bias voltage increased. In the rest deposition conditions, the hydrogen contents in the film were measured in the range 45~55%.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2001

$CeO_2$ thin films as insulator for MFISFET (Metal-ferroelectric-insulator- semiconductor-field effect transistor) were deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering. Ar and $O_2$ gas as the deposition gas were used and the effects of oxygen partial pressure during sputtering on texture and electrical properties of $CeO_2$ thin films were evaluated. All $CeO_2$ thin films deposited on p-type Si(100) substrate at $600^{\circ}C$ exhibited (200) preferred orientation. The films deposited with only Ar gas among various condition had highest preferred orientation but show large hysteresis characteristics in capacitance-voltage measurement due to relatively many charged paricles and roughness. Films show smooth surface state and good C-V characteristics with increasing oxygen partial pressure. It was thought that this trend in C-V characteristics was due to the amount of mobile ionic charge within $CeO_2$ films. The composition of films show oxygen excess, that is, O/$Ce_2$ ratio of films was 2.22~2.42 range and leakage current of films show $10^{-7}~10^{-8}A$order at 100 kV/cm.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.916-922
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• 2008

Structures being used in space environment, should be designed to have minimum CTE(coefficient of thermal expansion) for the dimensional stability. Accurate CTE data of the materials are required to design the space structures consisting of various materials. There are uncertainties in the characteristics of materials even though the same manufacturing processes are applied. Therefore, it is needed to measure the thermal deformation of not only the material specimen but also substructures in simulated space environment, such as high vacuum condition. In this research, therefore, precise CTE measurement system using displacement measuring interferometer and vacuum chamber has been designed with uncertainty analysis of the measurements. This system can be used to measure the CTE of the specimen or thermal expansion of the substructure with varying size up to 50cm in length. To measure the low CTE material, overall uncertainty of this system is expected under 0.01ppm/K.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2003

Deposition behavior of hard amorphous carbon film was investigated by molecular dynamic simulation using Tersoff potential which was suggested for the interaction potential between carbon atoms. When high energy carbon atoms were collided on diamond (100) surface, dense amorphous carbon film could be obtained. Physical properties of the simulated carbon film were compared with those of the film deposited by filtered cathodic arc process. As in the experimental result, the most diamond-like film was obtained at an optimum kinetic energy of the incident carbon atoms. The optimum kinetic energy was 50 eV, which is comparable to the experimental observation. The simulated film was amorphous with short range order of diamond lattice. At the optimum kinetic energy condition, we found that significant amount of carbon atom were placed at a metastable site of distance 2.1 $\AA$. By melting and quenching simulation of diamond lattice, it was shown that this metastatic peak is Proportional to the quenching rate. These results show that the hard and dense diamond-like film could be obtained when the localized thermal spike due to the collision of high energy carbon atom can be effectively dissipated to the lattice.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.167-272
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• 1998

The fluorine doped silicon oxide (SiOF) intermetal dielectric (IMD) films havc been of interest due to their lower dielectric constant and compatibility with existing process tools. However, instability issues related to hond and increasing dielectric constant due to water absorption when the SiOF film was exposured to atmospheric ambient. Therefore, the purpose nf this research is to study the effect of post oxygen plasma treatment on the resistance of nioisture absorption and reliability of SiOF film. Improvement of moisture ahsorption resistance of SiOF film is due to the forming of thin $SiO_2$ layer at the SiOF film surface. It is thought that the main effect of the improvement of moisture absorption resistance was densification of the top layer and reduction in the numher of Si-F honds that tend to associate with OH honds. However, the dielectric constant was inucased when plasma treatment time is above 5 min. In this study, therefore, it is thought that the proper plasma treatment time is 3 min when plasma treatment condition is 700 W of microwave power, 3 mTorr of process pressure and $300^{\circ}C$ of substrate temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.206-212
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• 1996

$In_{1-x}Ga_xAs$ epitaxial layers were grown at 76 Torr by low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD). Growth rate did not change much with growth temperature. Surface morphology of $In_{1-x}Ga_xAs$ epitaxial layer was affected by lattice mismatch, growth temperature and $AsH_3/(TMIn+TMGa)$ ratio. A high quality epilayer showed a full width at half maximum of 2.8 meV by photoluminescence measurement at 5K. The composition of the $In_{1-x}Ga_xAs$ was determined by the relative gas phase diffusion of TMIn and TMGa. Lattice mismatch and growth temperature were the most important variables that determine the electrical properties of $In_{1-x}Ga_xAs$ epitaxial layers. At optimized growth condition, it was possible to obtain a high quality $In_{1-x}Ga_xAs$ epilayers with a electron concentration as low as $8{\times}10^{14}/cm^3$ and an electron mobility as high as 11,000$\textrm{cm}^2$/Vsec at room temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.322-326
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• 2011

Etch process of silicon dioxide layer by using capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) is currently being used to manufacture semiconductor devices with nano-scale feature size below 50 nm. In typical CCP plasma etcher system, plasmas are generated by applying the RF power on upper electrode and ion bombardment energy is controlled by applying RF power to the bottom electrode with the Si wafer. In this case, however, etch results often drift due to heating of the electrode during etching process. Therefore, controlling the temperature of the upper electrode is required to obtain improvement of etch repeatability. In this work, we report repeatability improvement during the silicon dioxide etching under extreme process conditions with very high RF power and close gap between upper and bottom electrodes. Under this severe etch condition, it is difficult to obtain reproducible oxide etch results due to drifts in etch rate, critical dimension, profile, and selectivity caused by unexpected problems in the upper electrode. It was found that reproducible etch results of silicon dioxide layer could be obtained by controlling temperature of the upper electrode. Methods of controlling the upper electrode and the correlation with etch repeatability will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.688-688
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.215-216
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• 2013

The silicide is a compound of Si with an electropositive component. Silicides are commonly used in silicon-based microelectronics to reduce resistivity of gate and local interconnect metallization. The popular silicide candidates, CoSi2 and TiSi2, have some limitations. TiSi2 showed line width dependent sheet resistance and has difficulty in transformation of the C49 phase to the low resistive C54. CoSi2 consumes more Si than TiSi2. Nickel silicide is a promising material to substitute for those silicide materials providing several advantages; low resistivity, lower Si consumption and lower formation temperature. Nickel silicide (NiSi) nanowire (NW) has features of a geometrically tiny size in terms of diameter and significantly long directional length, with an excellent electrical conductivity. According to these advantages, NiSi NWs have been applied to various nanoscale applications, such as interconnects [1,2], field emitters [3], and functional microscopy tips [4]. Beside its tiny geometric feature, NW can provide a large surface area at a fixed volume. This makes the material viable for photovoltaic architecture, allowing it to be used to enhance the light-active region [5]. Additionally, a recent report has suggested that an effective antireflection coating-layer can be made with by NiSi NW arrays [6]. A unique growth mechanism of nickel silicide (NiSi) nanowires (NWs) was thermodynamically investigated. The reaction between Ni and Si primarily determines NiSi phases according to the deposition condition. Optimum growth conditions were found at $375^{\circ}C$ leading long and high-density NiSi NWs. The ignition of NiSi NWs is determined by the grain size due to the nucleation limited silicide reaction. A successive Ni diffusion through a silicide layer was traced from a NW grown sample. Otherwise Ni-rich or Si-rich phase induces a film type growth. This work demonstrates specific existence of NiSi NW growth [7].

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.194-200
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• 2002

MOCVD(metal-organic chemical vapor deposition) copper thin film was annealed at various conditions and the eletrical properties and micro-structures were investigated to find the optimal annealing condition and its effect. Cu thin film annealed at Ar 1 torr, $400^{\circ}C$ had the most improved resistivity of 1.98 $\mu\Omega$cm, and texture; the ratio of $I_{(111)}/I_{(200)}$ was varied from 2.03 to 3.11, and Cu thin film annealed at Ar 1 torr, $450^{\circ}C$ had the largest grain size and uniformity. After the annealing, the EM(electromigration) test was followed to ensure the improved properties by annealing. Compare to other conditions, Cu patterns annealed at Ar 1 torr, $400 ^{\circ}C$ had the most improved properties when it came to the EM resistance, which was due to the low resistivity, the preferential evolution of texture to (111) plane, and the reduction of surface roughness of annealed copper film.