• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2000

Dielectric characteristics of P(VDF/TrFE) film manufactured using spin coating technique have been investigated. To improve the crystallinity and quality of film, the film was three step annealed. Simple etching process and conditions for P(VDF/TrFE) film were established using top electrode as a mask. Poling is performed by several steps. $1.87\;{\mu}m$ thick P(VDF/TrFE) films were obtained with conditions such that the solution of 10 wt% concentration was spun at 3000rpm for 30 seconds. Before poling, dielectric constant and dielectric loss of P(VDF/TrFE) film were 13.5 and 0.042, respectively. After poling, dielectric constant and dielectric loss of P(VDF/TrFE) film were 11.5 and 0.037, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.149-154
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• 1996

ZnO and Al-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by sol-gel dip-coating method and electrical and optical properties of films were investigated. Using the zinc acetate dihydrate and acetylaceton(AcAc) as a chelating agent stable ZnO sol was synthesized with HCl catalyst. Adding aluminium chloride to the ZnO sol Al-doped ZnO sol could be also synthesized. As Al contents increase the crystallinity of ZnO thin film was retarded by increased compressive stress in the film resulted from the difference of ionic radius between Zn2+ and Al3+ The thickness of ZnO and Al-doped ZnO thin film was in the range of 2100~2350$\AA$. The resistivity of ZnO thin films was measured by Van der Pauw method. ZnO and Al-doped ZnO thin films with annealing temperature and Al content had the resistivity of 0.78~1.65$\Omega$cm and ZnO and Al-doped ZnO thin film post-annealed at 40$0^{\circ}C$ in vacuum(5$\times$10-5 torr) showed the resistivity of 2.28$\times$10-2$\Omega$cm. And the trans-mittance of ZnO and Al-doped ZnO thin film is in the range of 91-97% in visible range.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.243-248
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• 2018

All solid state thin film batteries with two types of cell structure, Pt / $LiCoO_2$ / LiPON / Cu and Pt / $LiCoO_2$ / LiPON / $LiCoO_2$ / Cu, are prepared and their electrochemical performances are investigated to evaluate the effect of $LiCoO_2$ interlayer at the interface of LiPON / Cu. The crystallinity of the deposited $LiCoO_2$ thin films is confirmed by XRD and Raman analysis. The crystalline $LiCoO_2$ cathode thin film is obtained and $LiCoO_2$ as the interlayer appears to be amorphous. The surface morphology of Cu current collector after cycling of the batteries is observed by AFM. The presence of a 10 nm-thick layer of $LiCoO_2$ at the interface of LiPON / Cu enhances the interfacial adhesion and reduces the interfacial resistance. As a result, Li plating / stripping at the interface of LiPON / Cu during charge/discharge reaction takes place more uniformly on Cu current collector, while without the interlayer of $LiCoO_2$ at the interface of LiPON / Cu, the Li plating / stripping is localized on current collector. The thin film batteries with the interlayer of $LiCoO_2$ at the interface of LiPON / Cu exhibits enhanced initial coulombic efficiency, reversible capacity and cycling stability. The thickness of the anode current collector Cu also appears to be crucial for electrochemical performances of all solid state thin film batteries.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2022

The breathable film refers to a high-functional film that allows gas and water vapor to pass through very fine and sophisticated pores but not liquid. In this research, the breathable film was prepared based on linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and CaCO₃ particles by extrude method. The LLDPE composite film containing CaCO₃ particles had excellent mechanical properties and functionalties. The drawing is a technologically simple and excellent method for improving the mechanical properties of composite films. In this work, the effects of draw ratio on morphology, crystallinity, pore size distribution, mechanical properties, and water vapor permeability of the films were examined. The results revealed that both surface morphology and breathability were affected by the influence of chain orientation and crystal growth with increasing the draw ratio. The mechanical properties were improved with increasing the draw ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.1116-1125
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• 2023

Zinc oxide film is a transparent conductive material and is used in optoelectronic devices in various fields. Therefore, characterization of the zinc oxide film will play a very important role in improving the performance of optoelectronic devices. Here, we will evaluate the morphological and structural characteristics of such a zinc oxide film based on the solution process. Specifically, the sol-gel method will be repeatedly performed to observe the change in material properties of the zinc oxide film according to the number of times of spin-coating. It was confirmed that crystallization proceeded as a result of performing the sol-gel method repetitively 5 times under constant solution conditions. At 7 times or more, the element composition and crystallinity tended to converge to a specific value. The average crystal size of the final zinc oxide film was calculated to be about 10.7 nm. In this study, the number of processes showing optimal crystallization was 7 times. The results and methodology of this study can be applied while varying various solution process variables and are expected to contribute to establishing optimal process conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2012

The promise of nano-crystalites (nc) as a technological material, for applications including display backplane, and solar cells, may ultimately depend on tailoring their behavior through doping and crystallinity. Impurities can strongly modify electronic and optical properties of bulk and nc semiconductors. Highly doped dopant also effect structural properties (both grain size, crystal fraction) of nc-Si thin film. As discussed in several literatures, P atoms or radicals have the tendency to reside on the surface of nc. The P-radical segregation on the nano-grain surfaces that called self-purification may reduce the possibility of new nucleation because of the five-coordination of P. In addition, the P doping levels of ${\sim}2{\times}10^{21}\;at/cm^3$ is the solubility limitation of P in Si; the solubility of nc thin film should be smaller. Therefore, the non-activated P tends to segregate on the grain boundaries and the surface of nc. These mechanisms could prevent new nucleation on the existing grain surface. Therefore, most researches shown that highly doped nc-thin film by using conventional PECVD deposition system tended to have low crystallinity, where the formation energy of nucleation should be higher than the nc surface in the intrinsic materials. If the deposition technology that can make highly doped and simultaneously highly crystallized nc at low temperature, it can lead processes of next generation flexible devices. Recently, we are developing a novel CVD technology with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, named as neutral beam assisted CVD (NBaCVD), which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at low temperatures. During the formation of the nc-/pm-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. In the case of phosphorous doped Si thin films, the doping efficiency also increased as increasing the reflector bias (i.e. increasing NPB energy). At 330V of reflector bias, activation energy of the doped nc-Si thin film reduced as low as 0.001 eV. This means dopants are fully occupied as substitutional site, even though the Si thin film has nano-sized grain structure. And activated dopant concentration is recorded as high as up to 1020 #/$cm^3$ at very low process temperature (＜ $80^{\circ}C$) process without any post annealing. Theoretical solubility for the higher dopant concentration in Si thin film for order of 1020 #/$cm^3$ can be done only high temperature process or post annealing over $650^{\circ}C$. In general, as decreasing the grain size, the dopant binding energy increases as ratio of 1 of diameter of grain and the dopant hardly be activated. The highly doped nc-Si thin film by low-temperature NBaCVD process had smaller average grain size under 10 nm (measured by GIWAXS, GISAXS and TEM analysis), but achieved very higher activation of phosphorous dopant; NB energy sufficiently transports its energy to doping and crystallization even though without supplying additional thermal energy. TEM image shows that incubation layer does not formed between nc-Si film and SiO2 under later and highly crystallized nc-Si film is constructed with uniformly distributed nano-grains in polymorphous tissues. The nucleation should be start at the first layer on the SiO2 later, but it hardly growth to be cone-shaped micro-size grains. The nc-grain evenly embedded pm-Si thin film can be formatted by competition of the nucleation and the crystal growing, which depend on the NPB energies. In the evaluation of the light soaking degradation of photoconductivity, while conventional intrinsic and n-type doped a-Si thin films appeared typical degradation of photoconductivity, all of the nc-Si thin films processed by the NBaCVD show only a few % of degradation of it. From FTIR and RAMAN spectra, the energetic hydrogen NB atoms passivate nano-grain boundaries during the NBaCVD process because of the high diffusivity and chemical potential of hydrogen atoms.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.420-424
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• 2014

Aluminum-scandium nitride ($Al_{1-x}Sc_xN$) thin films with a TiN buffer layer have been fabricated on SUS430 substrate by RF reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature under 50% $N_2$/Ar. The effect of Sc-doping on the structure and piezoelectric properties of AlN films has been investigated using SEM, XRD, surface profiler and pressure-voltage measurements. The as-deposited AlN films showed polycrystalline phase, and the Sc-doped AlN film, the peak of AlN (002) plane and the crystallinity became very strong. With Sc-doping, the crystal size of AlN film was grown from ~20 nm to ~100 nm. The output signal voltage of AlN sensor showed a linear behavior between 15~65 mV, and output signal voltage of Sc-doped AlN sensor was increased over 7 times. The pressure-sensing sensitivity of AlN film was calculated about 10.6mV/MPa, and $Al_{0.88}Sc_{0.12}N$ film was calculated about 76 mV/MPa.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.236.1-236.1
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• 2015

The surface morphology of front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films is very important to achieve high current density in amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film solar cells since it can scatter the light in a better way. In this study, we present the low cost hydrothermal deposited uniform zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-flower structure with various aspect ratios for a-Si thin film solar cells. The ZnO nano-flower structures with various aspect ratios were grown on the RF magnetron sputtered AZO films. The diameters and length of the ZnO nano-flowers was controlled by varying the annealing time. The length of ZnO nano-flowers were varied from 400 nm to $2{\mu}m$ while diameter was kept higher than 200 nm to obtain different aspect ratios. The ZnO nano-flowers with higher surface area as compared to conventional ZnO nano structure are preferred for the better light scattering. The conductivity and crystallinity of ZnO nano-flowers can be enhanced by annealing in hydrogen atmosphere at 350 oC. The vertical aligned ZnO nano-flowers showed higher haze ratio as compared to the commercially available FTO films. We also observed that the scattering in the longer wavelength region was favored for the high aspect ratio of ZnO nano-flowers. Therefore, we proposed low cost and vertically aligned ZnO nano-flowers for the high performance of thin film solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.86.2-86.2
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• 2015

Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cells have been fabricated using sputtered Cu/Sn/Zn metallic precursors on Mo coated sodalime glass substrate without using a toxic H2Se and H2S atmosphere. Cu/Sn/Zn metallic precursors with various thicknesses were prepared using DC magnetron sputtering process at room temperature. As-deposited metallic precursors were sulfo-selenized inside a graphite box containing S and Se pellets using rapid thermal processing furnace at various sulfur to selenium (S/Se) compositional ratio. Thin film solar cells were fabricated after sulfo-selenization process using a 65 nm CdS buffer, a 40 nm intrinsic ZnO, a 400 nm Al doped ZnO, and Al/Ni top metal contact. Effects of sulfur to selenium (S/Se) compositional ratio on the microstructure, crystallinity, electrical properties, and cell efficiencies have been studied using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscope, I-V measurement system, solar simulator, quantum efficiency measurement system, and time resolved photoluminescence spectrometer. Our fabricated Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cell shows the best conversion efficiency of 9.24 % (Voc : 454.6 mV, Jsc : 32.14 mA/cm2, FF : 63.29 %, and active area : 0.433 cm2), which is the highest efficiency among Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cells prepared using sputter deposited metallic precursors and without using a toxic H2Se gas. Details about other experimental results will be discussed during the presentation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.568-573
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• 2011

AZO (Al doped ZnO) thin films were deposited on the quartz substrates with thickness variation from 25 to 300 nm by using PLD (pulsed laser deposition). XRD (x-ray diffractometer), SPM (scanning probe microscopy), Hall effect measurement and uv-visible spectrophotometer were employed to investigate the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of the thin films. XRD results demonstrated that films were preferrentially oriented along the c-axis and crystallinity of film was improved with increase of film thickness. As for the surface morphologies, the mean diameter and root mean square of grains were increased as the film thickness was increased. When the film thickness was 200 nm, the lowest resistivity of $4.25{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}cm$ obtained with carrier concentration of $6.84{\times}10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$ and mobility of $21.4\;cm^2/V{\cdot}S$. All samples showed more than 80% of transmittance in the visible range. Upon these results, it is found that the samples thickness can affect their structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties. This study suggests that the resistivity can be improved by controlling film thickness.