• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.304-307
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• 2013

Reverse engineering of semiconductor devices utilizes delayering processes, in order to identify how the interconnection lines are stacked over transistor gates. Cu metal has been used in recent fabrication technologies, and de-processes becomes more difficult with the shrinking device dimensions. In this article, reverse engineering technologies to reveal the Cu interconnection lines and Cu via-plugs embedded in dielectric layers are investigated. Stacked dielectric layers are removed by $CF_4$ plasma etching, then the exposed planar Cu metal lines and via-plugs are selectively delineated by wet chemical solution, instead of the commonly used plasma-based dry etch. As a result, we have been successful in extracting the layouts of multiple layers within a system IC, and this technique can be applicable to other logic IC, analog IC, and CMOS IC, etc.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2017

High efficiency thin film solar cells require an absorber layer with high absorption and low defect, a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film with high transmittance of over 80% and a high conductivity. Furthermore, light can be captured through the glass substrate and sent to the light absorbing layer to improve the efficiency. In this paper, morphology formation on the surface of glass substrate was investigated by using HF, mainly classified as random etching and periodic etching. We discussed about the etch mechanism, etch rate and hard mask materials, and periodic light trapping structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.225-228
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate effects of the plastic/elastic deformation energy on wet etching characterization on the surface of material by using the nanoindentation and HF wet etching technique. Indents were made on the surface of Pyrex 7740 glass by the hyperfine indentation process with a Berkovich diamond indenter, and they were etched in $50\;wt\%$ HF solution. After etching process, convex structure was obtained due to the deformation-induced hillock phenomena. In this study, effects of indentation process parameters (normal load, loading rate) on the morphologies of the indented surfaces after isotopic etching were investigated from an angle of deformation energies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.56-56
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• 1999

For advanced TFT-LCD manufacturing processes, dry etching of thin-film layers(a-Si, $SiN_x$, SID & gate electrodes, ITO etc.) is increasingly preferred instead of conventional wet etching processes. To dry etch Al gate electrode which is advantageous for reducing propagation delay time of scan signals, high etch rate, slope angle control, and etch uniformity are required. For the Al gate electrode, some metals such as Ti and Nd are added in Al to prevent hillocks during post-annealing processes in addition to gaining low-resistivity($<10u{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$), high performance to heat tolerance and corrosion tolerance of Al thin films. In the case of AI-Nd alloy films, however, low etch rate and poor selectivity over photoresist are remained as a problem. In this study, to enhance the etch rates together with etch uniformity of AI-Nd alloys, magnetized inductively coupled plasma(MICP) have been used instead of conventional ICP and the effects of various magnets and processes conditions have been studied. MICP was consisted of fourteen pairs of permanent magnets arranged along the inside of chamber wall and also a Helmholtz type axial electromagnets was located outside the chamber. Gas combinations of $Cl_2,{\;}BCl_3$, and HBr were used with pressures between 5mTorr and 30mTorr, rf-bias voltages from -50Vto -200V, and inductive powers from 400W to 800W. In the case of $Cl_2/BCl_3$ plasma chemistry, the etch rate of AI-Nd films and etch selectivity over photoresist increased with $BCl_3$ rich etch chemistries for both with and without the magnets. The highest etch rate of $1,000{\AA}/min$, however, could be obtained with the magnets(both the multi-dipole magnets and the electromagnets). Under an optimized electromagnetic strength, etch uniformity of less than 5% also could be obtained under the above conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.63-63
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.709-713
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• 2004

Characteristics of laser-assisted wet etching of titanium in phosphoric acid were investigated to examine the feasibility of this method for fabrication of high aspect ratio microchannels. Laser power, number of scans, etchant concentration, position of beam waist and scanning speed were taken into consideration as the major process parameters exerting the temperature distribution and the cross sectional profile of etched channels. Experimental results indicated that laser power influences on both etch width and depth while number of scans and scanning speed mainly affect on the etch depth. At a low etchant concentration, the cross sectional profile of an etched channel becomes a U-shape but it gradually turns into a V-shape as the concentration increases. On the other hand, surface of the laser beam focus with respect to the sample surface is found to be a key factor determining the bubble dynamics and thus the process stability. It is demonstrated that metallic microchannels with different cross sectional profiles can be fabricated by properly controlling the process parameters. Microchannels of aspect ratio up to 8 with the width and depth ranges of 8∼32 m and 50∼300 m, respectively, were fabricated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.830-833
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• 2003

This paper describes the fabrication and characteristics of 3C-SiCOI sotctures by SDB and etch-back technology for high-temperature MEMS applications. In this work, insulator layers were formed on a heteroepitaxial 3C-SiC film grown on a Si(001) wafer by thermal wet oxidation and PECVD process, successively. The pre-bonding of two polished PECVD oxide layers made the surface activation in HF and bonded under applied pressure. The wafer bonding characteristics were evaluated by the effect of HF concentration used in the surface treatment on the roughness of the oxide and pre-bonding strength. Hydrophilic character of the oxidized 3C-SiC film surface was investigated by ATR-FTIR. The strength of the bond was measured by tensile strengthmeter. The bonded interface was also analyzed by SEM. The properties of fabricated 3C-SiCOI structures using etch-back technology in TMAH solution were analyzed by XRD and SEM. These results indicate that the 3C-SiCOI structure will offers significant advantages in the high-temperature MEMS applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.65-65
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• 1999

Dry etching technique provides more easy controllability on the etch profile such as anisotropic etching than wet etching process and the results of lots of researches on the characterization of various plasmas or ion beams for semiconductor etching have been reported. Chlorine-based plasmas or chlorine ion beam have been often used to etch several semiconductor materials, in particular Si-based materials. We have studied the effect of He flow rate on the Si and SiO2 dry etching using chlorine-based plasma. Experiments were performed using reactive ion etching system. RF power was 300W. Cl2 gas flow rate was fixed at 58.6 sccm, and the He flow rate was varied from 0 to 120 sccm. Fig. 1 presents the etch depth of si layer versus the etching time at various He flow rate. In case of low He flow rate, the etch rate was measured to be negligible for both Si and SiO2. As the He flow increases over 30% of the total inlet gas flow, the plasma state becomes stable and the etch rate starts to increase. In high Ge flow rate (over 60%), the relation between the etch depth and the time was observed to be nearly linear. Fig. 2 presents the variation of the etch rate depending on the He flow rate. The etch rate increases linearly with He flow rate. The results of this preliminary study show that Cl2/He mixture plasma is good candidate for the controllable si dry etching.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.61-66
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• 2012

The double-layered Ti/Si barrier metal is demonstrated for the source/drain Cu interconnections in oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors (TFTs). The transmission electromicroscopy and ion mass spectroscopy analyses revealed that the double-layered barrier structure suppresses the interfacial reaction and the interdiffusion at the interface after thermal annealing at $350^{\circ}C$. The underlying Si layer was found to be very useful for the etch stopper during wet etching for the Cu/Ti layers. The oxide TFTs with a double-layered Ti/Si barrier metal possess excellent TFT characteristics. It is concluded that the present barrier structure facilitates the back-channel-etch-type TFT process in the mass production line, where the four- or five-mask process is used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.824-827
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• 2000

Fabrication of InP-based photonic devices by dry etch Process is important for clear formation of waveguide mesa structure. We have developed more efficient etch process of the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) with low damages and less polymeric deposits for the InP-based photonic devices than the reactive ion etching (RIE) technique. We report the tendency of etch rate variation by the process parameters of the RF power, pressure, gas flow rate, and the gas mixing ratio. The surface roughness of InP-based waveguide structure was more improved by the light wet etching in the mixed solution of H$_2$SO$_4$:H$_2$O (1:1)