• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2010

In this paper, we report that the effects of hydrogen doping on the electrical and optical properties of typical transparent conducting oxide films such as ZnO and $SnO_2$ prepared by magnetron sputtering. Recently, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have shown strong evidence that hydrogen acts as a source of n-type conductivity in ZnO. In this work, the beneficial effect of hydrogen incorporation on Ga-doped ZnO thin films was demonstrated. It was found that hydrogen doping results a noticeable improvement of the conductivity mainly due to the increases in carrier concentration. Extent of the improvement was found to be quite dependent on the deposition temperature. A low resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ was obtained for the film grown at $160^{\circ}C$ with $H_2$ 10% in sputtering gas. However, the beneficial effect of hydrogen doping was not observed for the films deposited at $270^{\circ}C$. Variations of the electrical transport properties upon vacuum annealing showed that the difference is attributed to the thermal stability of interstitial hydrogen atoms in the films. Theoretical calculations also suggested that hydrogen forms a shallow-donor state in $SnO_2$, even though no experimental determination has yet been performed. We prepared undoped $SnO_2$ thin films by RF magnetron sputtering under various hydrogen contents in sputtering ambient and then exposed them to H-plasma. Our results clearly showed that the hydrogen incorporation in $SnO_2$ leads to the increase in carrier concentration. Our experimental observation supports the fact that hydrogen acting as a shallow donor seems to be a general feature of the TCOs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.245-252
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• 2009

Changes in the surface morphology and light scattering of textured Al doped ZnO thin films on glass substrates prepared by rf magnetron sputtering were investigated. As-deposited ZnO:Al films show a high transmittance of above 80% in the visible range and a low electrical resistivity of $4.5{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. The surface morphology of textured ZnO:Al films are closely dependent on the deposition parameters of heater temperature, working pressure, and etching time in the etching process. The optimized surface morphology with a crater shape is obtained at a heater temperature of $350^{\circ}C$, working pressure of 0.5 mtorr, and etching time of 45 seconds. The optical properties of light transmittance, haze, and angular distribution function (ADF) are significantly affected by the resulting surface morphologies of textured films. The film surfaces, having uniformly size-distributed craters, represent good light scattering properties of high haze and ADF values. Compared with commercial Asahi U ($SnO_2$:F) substrates, the suitability of textured ZnO:Al films as front electrode material for amorphous silicon thin film solar cells is also estimated with respect to electrical and optical properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.398.1-398.1
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• 2014

The $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ (CZTSe) thin films solar cell is one of the next generation candidates for photovoltaic materials as the absorber of thin film solar cells because it has optimal bandgap (Eg=1.0eV) and high absorption coefficient of $10^4cm^{-1}$ in the visible length region. More importantly, CZTSe consists of abundant and non-toxic elements, so researches on CZTSe thin film solar cells have been increasing significantly in recent years. CZTSe thin film has very similar structure and properties with the CIGS thin film by substituting In with Zn and Ga with Sn. In this study, As-deposited CZTSe thin films have been deposited onto soda lime glass (SLG) substrates at different deposition condition using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique without post-annealing process. The effects of deposition conditions (deposition time, deposition temperature) onto the structural, compositional and optical properties of CZTSe thin films have been investigated, without experiencing selenization process. The XRD pattern shows that quaternary CZTSe films with a stannite single phase. The existence of (112), (204), (312), (008), (316) peaks indicates all films grew and crystallized as a stannite-type structure, which is in a good agreement with the diffraction pattern of CZTSe single crystal. All the films were observed to be polycrystalline in nature with a high (112) predominant orientation at $2{\theta}{\sim}26.8^{\circ}$. The carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity and optical band gap of CZTSe thin films depending on the deposition conditions. Average energy band gap of the CZTSe thin films is about 1.3 eV.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 2009

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) play an important role in thin-film solar cells in terms of low cost and performance improvement. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) is a very promising material for thin-film solar cellfabrication because of the wide availability of its constituent raw materials and its low cost. In this study, AZO films were prepared by low pressurechemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) using trimethylaluminum (TMA), diethylzinc(DEZ), and water vapor. In order to improve the absorbance of light, atypical surface texturing method is wet etching of front electrode using chemical solution. Alternatively, LPCVD can create a rough surface during deposition. This "self-texturing" is a very useful technique, which can eliminate additional chemical texturing process. The introduction of a TMA doping source has a strong influence on resistivity and the diffusion of light in a wide wavelength range.The haze factor of AZO up to a value of 43 % at 600 nm was achieved without an additional surface texturing process by simple TMA doping. The use of AZO TCO resulted in energy conversion efficiencies of 7.7 % when it was applied to thep-i-n a-Si:H thin film solar cell, which was comparable to commercially available fluorine doped tin oxide ($SnO_2$:F).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.450-450
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• 2012

In recent days, advances in ZnO-based oxide semiconductor materials have accelerated the development of thin-film transistors (TFTs), which are the building blocks for active matrix flat-panel displays including liquid crystal displays (LCD) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). In particular, the development of high-mobility ZnO-based channel materials has been proven invaluable; thus, there have been many reports of high-performance TFTs with oxide semiconductor channels such as ZnO, InZnO (IZO), ZnSnO (ZTO), and InGaZnO (IGZO). The reliability of oxide TFTs can be improved by examining more stable oxide channel materials. In the present study, we investigated the effects of an ALD-deposited water vapor permeation barrier on the stability of ZnO and HfZnO (HZO) thin film transistors. The device without the water vapor barrier films showed a large turn-on voltage shift under negative bias temperature stress. On the other hand, the suitably protected device with the lowest water vapor transmission rate showed a dramatically improved device performance. As the value of the water vapor transmission rate of the barrier films was decreased, the turn-on voltage instability reduced. The results suggest that water vapor related traps are strongly related to the instability of ZnO and HfZnO TFTs and that a proper combination of water vapor permeation barriers plays an important role in suppressing the device instability.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.145-149
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• 2019

Transparent and conductive ZnO/Ag/SnO2 (ZAS) tri-layer films were deposited onto glass substrates at room temperature by using radio frequency (RF) and direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering. The thickness values of the ZnO and $SnO_2$ thin films were kept constant at 50 nm and the value for Ag interlayer was varied as 5, 10, 15, and 20 nm. In the XRD pattern the diffraction peaks were identified as the (002) and (103) planes of ZnO, while the (111), (200), (220), and (311) planes could be attributed to the Ag interlayer. The optical transmittance and electrical resistivity were dependent on the thickness of the Ag interlayer. The ZAS films with a 10 nm thick Ag interlayer exhibited a higher figure of merit than the other ZAS films prepared in this study. From the observed results, a ZAS film with a 10 nm thick Ag interlayer was believed to be an alternative transparent electrode candidate for various opto-electrical devices.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.543-549
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• 2014

A zinc oxide (ZnO) hybrid structure was successfully fabricated on a glass substrate by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). In-situ growth of a multi-dimensional ZnO hybrid structure was achieved by adjusting the growth temperature to determine the morphologies of either film or nanorods without any catalysts such as Au, Cu, Co, or Sn. The ZnO hybrid structure was composed of one-dimensional (1D) nanorods grown continuously on the two-dimensional (2D) ZnO film. The ZnO film of 2D mode was grown at a relatively low temperature, whereas the ZnO nanorods of 1D mode were grown at a higher temperature. The change of the morphologies of these materials led to improvements of the electrical and optical properties. The ZnO hybrid structure was characterized using various analytical tools. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the surface morphology of the nanorods, which had grown well on the thin film. The structural characteristics of the polycrystalline ZnO hybrid grown on amorphous glass substrate were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Hall-effect measurement and a four-point probe were used to characterize the electrical properties. The hybrid structure was shown to be very effective at improving the electrical and the optical properties, decreasing the sheet resistance and the reflectance, and increasing the transmittance via refractive index (RI) engineering. The ZnO hybrid structure grown by MOCVD is very promising for opto-electronic devices as Photoconductive UV Detectors, anti-reflection coatings (ARC), and transparent conductive oxides (TCO).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.580-583
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• 2012

The dependency of processing pressure on the electrical performances in amorphous silicon-zinc-tin-oxide thin film transistors (SZTO-TFT) has been investigated. The SZTO channel layers were deposited by using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method with different partial pressure. The field effect mobility (${\mu}_{FE}$) increased and threshold voltage ($V_{th}$) shifted to negative direction with increasing pressure during deposition processing. As a result, oxygen vacancies generated in SZTO channel layer with increasing partial pressure resulted in negative shift in $V_{th}$ and increase in on-current.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.347.2-347.2
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• 2014

최근, 비정질 산화물 반도체 thin film transistor (TFT)는 수소화된 비정질 실리콘 TFT와 비교하여 높은 이동도와 큰 on/off 전류비, 낮은 구동 전압을 가짐으로써 빠른 속도가 요구되는 차세대 투명 디스플레이의 TFT로 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 한편, 기존의 Thin-Film-Transistor 제작 시 우수한 박막을 얻기 위해서는 $500^{\circ}C$ 이상의 높은 열처리 온도가 필수적이며 이는 유리 기판과 플라스틱 기판에 적용하는 것이 적합하지 않고 높은 온도에서 수 시간 동안 열처리를 수행해야 하므로 공정 시간 및 비용이 증가하게 된다는 단점이 있다. 이러한 점을 극복하기 위해 본 연구에서는 간단하고, 낮은 제조비용과 대면적의 박막 증착이 가능한 용액공정을 통하여 박막 트랜지스터를 제작하였으며 thermal 열처리와 microwave 열처리 방식에 따른 전기적 특성을 비교 및 분석하고 각 열처리 방식의 열처리 온도 및 조건을 최적화하였다. P-type bulk silicon 위에 산화막이 100 nm 형성된 기판에 spin coater을 이용하여 Al-Zn-Sn-O 박막을 형성하였다. 그리고, baking 과정으로 $180^{\circ}C$의 온도에서 10분 동안의 열처리를 실시하였다. 연속해서 Photolithography 공정과 BOE (30:1) 습식 식각 과정을 이용해 활성화 영역을 형성하여 소자를 제작하였다. 제작 된 소자는 Junctionless TFT 구조이며, 프로브 탐침을 증착 된 채널층 표면에 직접 접촉시켜 소스와 드레인 역할을 대체하여 동작시킬 수 있어 전기적 특성을 간단하고 간략화 된 공정과정으로 분석할 수 있는 장점이 있다. 열처리 조건으로는 thermal 열처리의 경우, furnace를 이용하여 $500^{\circ}C$에서 30분 동안 N2 가스 분위기에서 열처리를 실시하였고, microwave 열처리는 microwave 장비를 이용하여 각각 400 W, 600 W, 800 W, 1000 W로 15분 동안 실시하였다. 그 결과, furnace를 이용하여 열처리한 소자와 비교하여 microwave를 통해 열처리한 소자에서 subthreshold swing (SS), threshold voltage (Vth), mobility 등이 비슷한 특성을 내는 것을 확인하였다. 따라서, microwave 열처리 공정은 향후 저온 공정을 요구하는 MOSFET 제작 시의 훌륭한 대안으로 사용 될 것으로 기대된다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.697-700
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• 2011

Thin-film transistors(TFTs) with magnesium zinc tin oxide(MZTO) channel layer are fabricated by solution-process. The threshold voltage (Vth) shifted toward positive directly with increasing Mg contents in MZTO system. Because the Mg has a lower standard electrode potential (SEP) than Sn, Zn, thus degenerate the oxygen vacancy ($V_O$). As a result, the Mg act as carrier suppressor and oxygen binder in the MZTO as well as a Vth controller.