• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 2011

We deposited $SiN_x$ thin films by using PECVD technique at $200^{\circ}C$ with various flow ratios of the $SiH_4/N_2$ gases. The photoluminescence measurements revealed that the maximum emission wavelength shifted to long wavelength as the ratio increased, however, positions of the several peak wavelengths, such as 1.9, 2.2, 2.4, and 3.1 eV, were independent on the ratio. Changes of the photoluminescence spectra were measured in the $N_{2}-$, $H_{2}-$, and $O_2$-annealed films. The luminescence intensities increased after the annealing process. In particular, the maximum emission wavelength shifted to short wavelength after $H_{2}-$ or $O_2$-annealing. But there were still several peaks on the spectra of all annealed films, several peak positions remained to be unchanged after the annealing. As for the light emission mechanism, we have considered the defect states of the Si- and N- dangling bonds in the $SiN_x$ energy gap, so that the energy transitions from/to the conduction/valence bands and the defect states in the gap were attributed to the light emission in the $SiN_x$ films. The experimental results point to the possibility of a Si-based light emission materials for flexible Si-based electro-optic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.563-575
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• 2006

Ti(C,N) films are synthesized by pulsed DC plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PEMOCVD) using metal-organic compounds of tetrakis diethylamide titanium at $200-300^{\circ}C$. To compare plasma parameter, in this study, $H_2$ and $He/H_2$ gases are used as carrier gas. The effect of $N_2\;and\;NH_3$ gases as reactive gas is also evaluated in reduction of C content of the films. Radical formation and ionization behaviors in plasma are analyzed in-situ by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) at various pulsed bias voltages and gas species. He and $H_2$ mixture is very effective in enhancing ionization of radicals, especially for the $N_2$. Ammonia $(NH_3)$ gas also highly reduces the formation of CN radical, thereby decreasing C content of Ti(C, N) films in a great deal. The microhardness of film is obtained to be $1,250\;Hk_{0.01}\;to\;1,760\;Hk_{0.01}$ depending on gas species and bias voltage. Higher hardness can be obtained under the conditions of $H_2\;and\;N_2$ gases as well as bias voltage of 600 V. Hf(C, N) films were also obtained by pulsed DC PEMOCYB from tetrakis diethyl-amide hafnium and $N_2/He-H_2$ mixture. The depositions were carried out at temperature of below $300^{\circ}C$, total chamber pressure of 1 Torr and varying the deposition parameters. Influences of the nitrogen contents in the plasma decreased the growth rate and attributed to amorphous components, to the high carbon content of the film. In XRD analysis the domain lattice plain was (111) direction and the maximum microhardness was observed to be $2,460\;Hk_{0.025}$ for a Hf(C,N) film grown under -600 V and 0.1 flow rate of nitrogen. The optical emission spectra measured during PEMOCVD processes of Hf(C, N) film growth were also discussed. $N_2,\;N_2^+$, H, He, CH, CN radicals and metal species(Hf) were detected and CH, CN radicals that make an important role of total PEMOCVD process increased carbon content.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.348-353
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• 1997

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon(a-C:H) films were deposited on p-type Si(100) by DC saddle-field plasma enhanced CVD to investigate the effect of substrate bias on optical properties and structural changes. They were deposited using pure methane gas at a wide range of substrate bias at room temperature and 90 mtorr. The substrate bias voltage ($V_s$) was employed from $V_s=0 V$ to $V_s=400 V$. The information of optical properties was investigated by photoluminescence and transmitance. Chemical bondings of a-C:H have been explored from FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. The thickness and relative hydrogen content of the films were measured by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and elastic recoil detection (ERD) technigue. The growth rate of a-C:H film was decreased with the increase of $V_s$, but the hydrogen content of the film was increased with the increase of $V_s$. The a-C:H films deposited at the lowest $V_s$ contain the smallest amount of hydrogen with most of C-H bonds in the of $CH_2$ configuration, whereas the films produced at higher $V_s$ reveal dominant the $CH_3$ bonding structure. The emission of white photoluminescence from the films were observed even with naked eyes at room temperature and the PL intensity of the film has the maximum value at $V_s$=200 V. With $V_s$ lower than 200 V, the PL intensity of the film increased with V, but for V, higher than 200 V, the PL intensity decreased with the increase of $V_s$. The peak energy of the PL spectra slightly shifted to the higher energy with the increase of $V_s$. The optical bandgap of the film, determined by optical transmittance, was increased from 1.5 eV at $V_s$=0V to 2.3 eV at $V_s$=400 V. But there were no obvious relations between the PL peak and the optical gap which were measured by Tauc process.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.7-11
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• 1999

Fully sealed field emission display in size of 4.5 inch has been fabricated using single-wall carbon nanotubes-organic vehicle com-posite. The fabricated display were fully scalable at low temperature below 415$^{\circ}C$ and CNTs were vertically aligned using paste squeeze and surface rubbing techniques. The turn-on fields of 1V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and field emis-sion current of 1.5mA at 3V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ (J=90${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$/$\textrm{cm}^2$)were observed. Brightness of 1800cd/$m^2$ at 3.7V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ was observed on the entire area of 4.5-inch panel from the green phosphor-ITO glass. The fluctuation of the current was found to be about 7% over a 4.5-inch cath-ode area. This reliable result enables us to produce large area full-color flat panel dis-play in the near future. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted much attention because of their unique elec-trical properties and their potential applica-tions [1, 2]. Large aspect ratio of CNTs together with high chemical stability. ther-mal conductivity, and high mechanical strength are advantageous for applications to the field emitter [3]. Several results have been reported on the field emissions from multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs) and single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) grown from arc discharge [4, 5]. De Heer et al. have reported the field emission from nan-otubes aligned by the suspension-filtering method. This approach is too difficult to be fully adopted in integration process. Recently, there have been efforts to make applications to field emission devices using nanotubes. Saito et al. demonstrated a car-bon nanotube-based lamp, which was oper-ated at high voltage (10KV) [8]. Aproto-type diode structure was tested by the size of 100mm $\times$ 10mm in vacuum chamber [9]. the difficulties arise from the arrangement of vertically aligned nanotubes after the growth. Recently vertically aligned carbon nanotubes have been synthesized using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition(CVD) [6, 7]. Yet, control of a large area synthesis is still not easily accessible with such approaches. Here we report integra-tion processes of fully sealed 4.5-inch CNT-field emission displays (FEDs). Low turn-on voltage with high brightness, and stabili-ty clearly demonstrate the potential applica-bility of carbon nanotubes to full color dis-plays in near future. For flat panel display in a large area, car-bon nanotubes-based field emitters were fabricated by using nanotubes-organic vehi-cles. The purified SWNTs, which were syn-thesized by dc arc discharge, were dispersed in iso propyl alcohol, and then mixed with on organic binder. The paste of well-dis-persed carbon nanotubes was squeezed onto the metal-patterned sodalime glass throuhg the metal mesh of 20${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in size and subse-quently heat-treated in order to remove the organic binder. The insulating spacers in thickness of 200${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ are inserted between the lower and upper glasses. The Y\ulcornerO\ulcornerS:Eu, ZnS:Cu, Al, and ZnS:Ag, Cl, phosphors are electrically deposited on the upper glass for red, green, and blue colors, respectively. The typical sizes of each phosphor are 2~3 micron. The assembled structure was sealed in an atmosphere of highly purified Ar gas by means of a glass frit. The display plate was evacuated down to the pressure level of 1$\times$10\ulcorner Torr. Three non-evaporable getters of Ti-Zr-V-Fe were activated during the final heat-exhausting procedure. Finally, the active area of 4.5-inch panel with fully sealed carbon nanotubes was pro-duced. Emission currents were character-ized by the DC-mode and pulse-modulating mode at the voltage up to 800 volts. The brightness of field emission was measured by the Luminance calorimeter (BM-7, Topcon).

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.528-537
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• 2008

60 nm and 20 nm thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) layers were deposited on 200 nm $SiO_2$/single-Si substrates by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition(ICP-CVD). Subsequently, 30 nm-Ni layers were deposited by an e-beam evaporator. Finally, 30 nm-Ni/(60 nm and 20 nm) a-Si:H/200 nm-$SiO_2$/single-Si structures were prepared. The prepared samples were annealed by rapid thermal annealing(RTA) from $200^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$ in $50^{\circ}C$ increments for 40 sec. A four-point tester, high resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), and scanning probe microscopy(SPM) were used to examine the sheet resistance, phase transformation, in-plane microstructure, cross-sectional microstructure, and surface roughness, respectively. The nickel silicide from the 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low sheet resistance from $400^{\circ}C$ which is compatible for low temperature processing. The nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low resistance from $300^{\circ}C$. Through HRXRD analysis, the phase transformation occurred with silicidation temperature without a-Si:H layer thickness dependence. With the result of FE-SEM and TEM, the nickel silicides from 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the microstructure of 60 nm-thick silicide layers with the residual silicon regime, while the ones from 20 nm a-Si:H formed 20 nm-thick uniform silicide layers. In case of SPM, the RMS value of nickel silicide layers increased as the silicidation temperature increased. Especially, the nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the lowest RMS value of 0.75 at $300^{\circ}C$.