• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.127-134
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• 2015

Aluminum nitride (AlN) single crystals have attracted much attention for a next-generation semiconductor application because of wide bandgap (6.2 eV), high thermal conductivity ($285W/m{\cdot}K$), high electrical resistivity (${\geq}10^{14}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$), and high mechanical strength. The bulk AlN single crystals or thin film templates have been mainly grown by PVT (sublimation) method, flux method, solution growth method, and hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) method. Since AlN suffers difficulty in commercialization due to the defects that occur during single crystal growth, crystalline quality improvement via defects analyses is necessary. Etch pit density (EPD) analysis showed that the growth misorientations and the defects in the AlN surface exist. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) analyses were employed to investigate the overall crystalline quality and various kinds of defects. TEM studies show that the morphology of the AlN is clearly influenced by stacking fault, dislocation, second phase, etc. In addition EBSD analysis also showed that the zinc blende polymorph of AlN exists as a growth defects resulting in dislocation initiator.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.149-153
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• 2021

ε-Ga₂O₃ thin films were grown on 4H-SiC substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and crystalline quality were evaluated depend on growth conditions. It was found that the best conditions of the ε-Ga₂O₃ were grown at a growth temperature of 665℃ and an oxygen flow rate of 200 sccm. Two-dimensional growth was completed after the merge of hexagonal nuclei, and the arrangement direction of hexagonal nuclei was closely related to the crystal direction of the substrate. However, it was confirmed that crystal structure of the ε-Ga₂O₃ had an orthorhombic rather than hexagonal. Crystal phase transformation was performed by thermal treatment. And a β-Ga₂O₃ thin film was grown directly on 4H-SiC for the comparison to the phase transformed β-Ga₂O₃ thin film. The phase transformed β-Ga₂O₃ film showed better crystal quality than directly grown one.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.874-882
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• 2017

As the interest on the air-pollution is gradually rising up at home and abroad, automotiv e and fuel researchers have been working on the exhaust emission reduction from vehicles through a lot of approaches, which consist of new engine design, innovative after-treatment systems, using clean (eco-friendly alternative) fuels and fuel quality improvement. This research has brought forward three main issues : evaporative, performance, air pollution. In addition, researcher studied the environment problems of the bio-ethanol, bio-butanol, bio-ETBE (Ethyl Tertiary Butyl Ether), MTBE (Methyl Tert iary Butyl Ether) fuel contained in the fuel as octane number improver. The researchers have many dat a about the health effects of ingestion of octane number improver. However, the data support the con clusion that octane number improver is a potential human carcinogen at high doses. Based on the bio-fuel and octane number improver types (bio-ethanol, bio-butanol, bio-ETBE, MTBE), this paper dis cussed the influence of gasoline fuel properties on the evaporative emission characteristics. Also, this p aper assessed the acceleration and power performance of gasoline vehicle for the bio-fuel property. As a result of the experiment, it was found that all the test fuels meet the domestic exhaust gas standards, and as a result of measurement of the vapor pressure of the test fuels, the bio - ethanol : 15 kPa and the biobutanol : 1.6 kPa. thus when manufacturing E3 fuel, Increasing the biobutanol content reduces evaporation gas and vapor pressure. In addition, Similar accelerating and powering performance was shown for the type of biofuel and when bio-butanol and bio-ethanol were compared accelerated perf ormance was improved by about 3.9% and vehicle power by 0.8%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.113-114
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• 2009

Silicon carbide is one of the most attractive and promising wide band-gap semiconductor material with excellent physical properties and huge potential for electronic applications. Up to now, the most successful method for growth of large SiC crystals with high quality is the physical vapor transport (PVT) method [1, 2]. Since further reduction of defect densities in larger crystal are needed for the true implementation of SiC devices, many researchers are focusing to improve the quality of SiC single crystal through the process modifications for SiC bulk growth or new material implementations [3, 4]. It is well known that for getting high quality SiC crystal, source materials with high purity must be used in PVT method. Among various source materials in PVT method, a SiC powder is considered to take an important role because it would influence on crystal quality of SiC crystal as well as optimum temperature of single crystal growth, the growth rate and doping characteristics. In reality, the effect of powder on SiC crystal could definitely exhibit the complicated correlation. Therefore, the present research was focused to investigate the quality difference of SiC crystal grown by conventional PVT method with using various SiC powders. As shown in Fig. 1, we used three SiC powders with different particles size. The 6H-SiC crystals were grown by conventional PVT process and the SiC seeds and the high purity SiC source materials are placed on opposite side in a sealed graphite crucible which is surrounded by graphite insulation[5, 6]. The bulk SiC crystal was grown at $2300^{\circ}C$ of the growth temperature and 50mbar of an argon pressure. The axial thermal gradient across the SiC crystal during the growth is estimated in the range of $15\sim20^{\circ}C/cm$. The chemical etch in molten KOH maintained at $450^{\circ}C$ for 10 min was used for defect observation with a polarizing microscope in Nomarski mode. Electrical properties of bulk SiC materials were measured by Hall effect using van der Pauw geometry and a UV/VIS spectrophotometer. Fig. 2 shows optical photographs of SiC crystal ingot grown by PVT method and Table 1 shows electrical properties of SiC crystals. The electrical properties as well as crystal quality of SiC crystals were systematically investigated.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07c
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• pp.1597-1599
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• 2004

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are grown on the TiN-coated silicon substrate by varying the thickness of Ni and Invar426 catalyst layers at 600$^{\circ}C$ using an inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD). The Ni and Invar426 catalysts are formed using an RF magnetron sputtering system with various deposition periods. Characterization using various techniques, such as FESEM, HRTEM, and Raman spectroscopy, shows that the physical dimension as well as the crystal quality of grown CNTs are strongly changed by the kind and thickness of catalyst materials. It is also seen that Ni catalysts would be more desirable for vertical-alignment of CNTs compared with Invar426 catalysts. However, the CNTs using Invar426 catalysts display much better electron emission capabilities than those using Ni catalysts. The physical reason for all the measured data obtained are discussed to establish the relationship between structural properties and field-emissive properties of CNTs.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.73-95
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• 2013

Nine deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences were used to functionalize single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) sensors to detect the trace amount of methanol, acetone, and HCl in vapor. DNA 24 Ma (24 randomly arranged nitrogenous bases with one amine at each end of it) decorated SWNT sensor and DNA 24 A (only adenine (A) base with a length of 24) decorated SWNT sensor have demonstrated the largest sensing responses towards acetone and HCl, respectively. On the other hand, for the DNA GT decorated SWNT sensors with different sequence lengths, the optimum DNA sequence length for acetone and HCl sensing is 32 and 8, separately. The detection of methanol, acetone, and HCl have identified that DNA functionalized SWNT sensors exhibit great selectivity, sensitivity, and repeatability with an accuracy of more than 90%. Further, a sensor array composed of SWNT functionalized with various DNA sequences was utilized to identify acetone and HCl through pattern recognition. The sensor array is a combination of four different DNA functionalized SWNT sensors and two bare SWNT sensors (work as reference). This wireless sensing system has enabled real-time gas monitoring and air quality assurance for safety and security.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.279-282
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• 2013

Recently, it has been interested much that AlN (Aluminum Nitride) crystals can be applied to UV LEDs and high power devices as like GaN and SiC crystals. The reports about commercial grade of AlN wafers in the world have been absent, however several results for growth of large size of AlN single crystals have been reported from abroad. In this report, the result of AlN single crystals of a diameter of about 8 mm grown are reported. Optical microscopic characterization was applied to observe the form of the crystals and the crystal quality was evaluated by FWHM measurement by DCXRD rocking curve analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1009-1014
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• 2012

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (${\alpha}$-Si:H) layers deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are investigated for use in silicon hetero-junction solar cells employing n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates. The optical and structural properties of silicon hetero-junction devices have been characterized using spectroscopy ellipsometry and high resolution cross-sectional transmission electron micrograph (HRTEM). In addition, the effective carrier lifetime is measured by the quasi-steady-state photocoductance (QSSPC) method. We have studied on the correlation between the order of ${\alpha}$-Si:H and the passivation quality at the interface of ${\alpha}$-Si:H/c-Si. Base on the result, we have fabricated a silicon hetero-junction solar cell incorporating the ${\alpha}$-Si:H passivation layer with on open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of 637 mV.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.214-214
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• 2009

While critical properties of BSCCO wires rely considerably on grid direction upon BSCCO and have very complicated mechanism of generating a superconducting phase, making it difficult to improve properties of wires, YBCO thin-film wires which can be formed in a superconducting phase upon metal board through vapor deposition processing can get excellent direction and reduce manufacturing costs with more flexibility in improving critical properties; thus, they will be suitable for instrument application in the future. Contrary to BSCCO wires for which thick silver alloy covering materials should inevitably be used, moreover, YBCO thin-film wires have an advantage of making thickness and quality of covering materials different by usage. Such a property can be an important element to widen application of wires by presenting possibility of using thin-film wires as superconducting material for fault current limiter as well as for high power current application. In this study we intend to prepare YBCO thin-film wires with different stabilizer layers to analyze current application and current restriction properties by stabilizer layers on the basis of detailed researches on changes in current classification properties below critical value.