• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.959-962
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• 2000

In this study, the micro shaft was fabricated by high speed etching process. The integration of the kinetic energy of circumference and the effect of etching takes less time to fabricate the micro shaft than any other conventional methods. First, the end part of the rod(SKD11) was dipped in chemical solution(FeCl$_3$) and the rod rotated at high speed(3500-10000rpm). Experimental setup was simply composed of high speed motor. chemical solution and $\Phi$ 1 mm rod. The main factors of diameter control are chemical concentration, reaction time and rpm. has a result. the diameter of the dipped rod was decreased by 200${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ by high speed rotation and its shape and surface was good. From this experiment, we found the possibility to manufacture micro shaft without very expensive equipment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2011

These days, a growing demand for memory device is filled up with the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Although DRAM is a reasonable solution for current demand, the universal novel memory with high density, high speed and nonvolatility, needs to be developed. Among various new memories, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM) device is considered as one of good candidate memories because of excellent features including high density, high speed, low operating power and nonvolatility. The etching of MTJ stack which is composed of magnetic materials and insulator such as MgO is one of the vital process for MRAM. Recently, MgO has attracted great interest in the MTJ stack as tunneling barrier layer for its high tunneling magnetoresistance values. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of MgO thin films should be investigated. Until now, there were some works devoted to the investigations on etch characteristics of MgO thin films. Initially, ion milling was applied to the etching of MgO thin films. However, ion milling has many disadvantages such as sidewall redeposition and etching damage. High density plasma etching containing the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching and high density reactive ion etching have been employed for the improvement of etching process. In this work, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) system was adopted for the improvement of etching process using MgO thin films and etching gas mixes of $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4$/$O_2$/Ar have been employed. The etch rates are measured by a surface profilometer and etch profiles are observed using field emission scanning emission microscopy (FESEM). The effects of gas concentration and etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage to substrate, and gas pressure on etch characteristics will be systematically explored.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.32-38
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• 2004

Laser-induced thermochemical wet etching of titanium in phosphoric acid has been investigated to examine the feasibility of this method fur fabrication of microstructures. Cutting, drilling, and milling of titanium foil were carried out while examining the influence of process parameters on etch width, etch depth, and edge straightness. Laser power, scanning speed of workpiece, and etchant concentration were chosen as major process parameters influencing on temperature distribution and reaction rate. Etch width increased almost linearly with laser power showing little dependence on scanning speed while etch depth showed wide variation with both laser power and scanning speed. A well-defined etch profile with good surface quality was obtained at high concentration condition. Fabrication of a hole, micro cantilever beam, and rectangular slot with dimension of tess than 100${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ has been demonstrated.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.506-516
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• 1998

In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to detect the malfunction of plasma-etching characteristics using EPD signal trajectories. EPD signal trajectories offer many information on plasma-etching process state, so they must be considered as the most important data sets to predict the wafer states in plasma-etching process. A recent work has shown that EPD signal trajectories were successfully incorporated into process modeling through critical parameter extraction, but this method consumes much effort and time. So Principal component analysis(PCA) can be applied. PCA is the linear transformation algorithm which converts correlated high-dimensional data sets to uncorrelated low-dimensional data sets. Based on this reason neural network model can improve its performance and convergence speed when it uses the features which are extracted from raw EPD signals by PCA. Wafer-state variables, Critical Dimension(CD) and uniformity can be estimated by simulation using neural network model into which EPD signals are incorporated. After CD and uniformity values are predicted, proposed algorithm determines whether malfunction values are produced or not. If malfunction values arise, the etching process is stopped immediately. As a result, through simulation, we can keep the abnormal state of etching process from propagating into the next run. All the procedures of this algorithm can be performed on-line, i.e. wafer to wafer.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.9 s.186
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• pp.164-173
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• 2006

The cooling capacity of a micro-heat pipe is mainly governed by the magnitude of capillary pressure induced in the wick structure. For microchannel wicks, a higher capillary pressure is achievable for narrower and deeper channels. In this study, a metallic micro-heat pipe adopting high-aspect-ratio microchannel wicks is fabricated. Micromachining of high-aspect-ratio microchannels is done using the laser-induced wet etching technique in which a focused laser beam irradiates the workpiece placed in a liquid etchant along a desired channel pattern. Because of the direct writing characteristic of the laser-induced wet etching method, no mask is necessary and the fabrication procedure is relatively simple. Deep microchannels of an aspect ratio close to 10 can be readily fabricated with little heat damage of the workpiece. The laser-induced wet etching process for the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio microchannels in 0.5mm thick stainless steel foil is presented in detail. The shape and size variations of microchannels with respect to the process variables, such as laser power, scanning speed, number of scans, and etchant concentration are closely examined. Also, the fabrication of a flat micro-heat pipe based on the high-aspect-ratio microchannels is demonstrated.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.19-24
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• 2021

As the size of semiconductor devices decreases, the etching pattern becomes very narrow and a deep high aspect ratio process becomes important. The cryogenic etching process enables high aspect ratio etching by suppressing the chemical reaction of reactive ions on the sidewall while maintaining the process temperature of -100℃. ESC is an important part for temperature control in cryogenic etching equipment. Through the cooling path inside the ESC, liquid nitrogen is used as cooling water to create a cryogenic environment. And since the ESC directly contacts the wafer, it affects the temperature uniformity of the wafer. The temperature uniformity of the wafer is closely related to the yield. In this study, the cooling path was designed and analyzed so that the wafer could have a uniform temperature distribution. The optimal cooling path conditions were obtained through the analysis of the shape of the cooling path and the change in the speed of the coolant. Through this study, by designing ESC with optimal temperature uniformity, it can be expected to maximize wafer yield in mass production and further contribute to miniaturization and high performance of semiconductor devices.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.261-268
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• 1999

Laser-induced thermochemical etching has been recognized as a new powerful method for processing a variety of materials, including metals, semiconductors, ceramics, insulators and polymers. This study presents characteristics of direct etching for Si substrate using focused argon ion laser beam in aqueous KOH and $CCl_2F_2$ gas. In order to determine process conditions, we first theoretically investigated the temperature characteristics induced by a CW laser beam with a gaussian intensity distribution on a silicon surface. Major process parameters are laser beam power, beam scan speed and reaction material. We have achieved a very high etch rate up to $434.7\mum/sec$ and a high aspect ratio of about 6. Potential applications of this laser beam etching include prototyping of micro-structures of MEMS(micro electro mechanical systems), repair of devices, and isolation of opto-electric devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.186-189
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• 2001

The main method in micro-etching process, used in manufacturing semiconductors, electronic components, circuits, is Photo Masking method that exposes and develops on the photo-sensitivity solutions or films. This method enables one to process highly precisely, $\pm$0.03 mm in end line location area. But this has limits in a high speed / wide width process, difficulties in endless masking, and the problem of high price. We have developed the direct masking method to make use of Gravure printing, widely used in grocery packing sheet printing. We made cylinder tools to influence the masking quality by laser stream process. We have confirmed that the end line location accuracy in the line width of the product is improved from 0.12 mm to $\pm$0.07 mm level, after etching process.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.668-673
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• 1997

A Single-crystalline Mn-Zn Ferrite (110 orientation) was masklessly etched by focused Ar laser irradiation in an H$_3$PO$_4$ solution. The depth of the etched grooves increases with increasing a laser power, decreasing a scan speed, and increasing the H$_3$PO$_4$concentration. The width of the etched grooves increases with a increasing laser power, but was relatively insensitive to the scan speed and H$_3$PO$_4$concentration. High etching rate of up to 714 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$/s and an aspect ratio of 6 for vertical slab structure have been obtained by the light-guiding effect of the laser bean in the H$_3$PO$_4$ solution.