• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.396-401
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• 1999

In this study, $Ar^+$ ion laser etching process of single/poly-crystalline Si with $CCl_2F_2$ gas is investigated for MEMS applications. In general, laser direct etching process is useful in microelectronic process, fabrication of micro sensors and actuators, rapid prototyping, and complementary processing because of the advantages of 3D micromachining, local etching/deposition process, and maskless process with high resolution. In this study, a pyrolytic method, in which $CCl_2F_2$ gasetches molten Si by the focused laser, was used. In order to analyze the temperature profile of Si by the focused laser, the 3D heat conduction equation was analytically solved. In order to investigate the process parameters dependence of etching characteristics, laser power, $CCl_2F_2$ gas pressure, and scanning speed were varied and the experimental results were observed by SEM. The aspect ratio was measured in multiple scanning and the simple 3D structure was fabricated. In addition, the etching characteristics of $6\mum$ thick poly-crystalline Si on the insulator was investigated to obtain flat bottom and vertical side wall for MEMS applications.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.11c
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• pp.1001-1003
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• 1998

In this paper, $Ar^+$ ion laser etching process of single/poly crystalline silicon with $CCl_{2}F_{2}$ gas is studied for MEMS applications. To investigate the effects of process parameters, laser power, gas pressure, scanning speed were varied and multiple scanning was carried out to obtain high aspect ratio. In addition, scanning width was varied to observe the trench profile etched in repeating scanning cycle. From the etching of $2.6{\mu}m$ thick polycrystalline Si deposited on insulator, trench with flat bottom and vertical side wall was obtained and it is possible to apply this results for MEMS applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.319.1-319.1
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• 2016

Recently, the Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) films are intensively used in thin film a-Si solar cell applications due to their high transmittance and good conductivity. The textured ZnO:Al films are used to enhance the light trapping in thin film solar cells. The wet etch process is used to texture ZnO:Al films by dipping in diluted acidic solutions like HCl or HF. During that process the glass substrate could be damaged by the acidic solution and it may be difficult to apply it for the inline mass production process since it has to be done outside the chamber. In this paper we report a new technique to control the surface morphology of RF-sputtered ZnO:Al films. The ZnO:Al films are textured with vaporized HF formed by the mixture of HF and H2SiO3 solution. Even though the surface of textured ZnO:Al films by vapor etching process showed smaller and sharper surface structures compared to that of the films textured by wet etching, the haze value was dramatically improved. We achieved the high haze value of 78% at the wavelength of 540 nm by increasing etching time and HF concentration. The haze value of about 58% was achieved at the wavelength of 800 nm when vapor texturing was used. The ZnO:Al film texture by HCl had haze ratio of about 9.5 % at 800 nm and less than 40 % at 540 nm. In addition to low haze ratio, the texturing by HCl was very difficult to control etching and to keep reproducibility due to its very fast etching speed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.390-390
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• 2012

Information technology industries has grown rapidly and demanded alternative memories for the next generation. The most popular random access memory, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), has many advantages as a memory, but it could not meet the demands from the current of developed industries. One of highlighted alternative memories is magnetic random-access memory (MRAM). It has many advantages like low power consumption, huge storage, high operating speed, and non-volatile properties. MRAM consists of magnetic-tunnel-junction (MTJ) stack which is a key part of it and has various magnetic thin films like CoFeB, FePt, IrMn, and so on. Each magnetic thin film is difficult to be etched without any damages and react with chemical species in plasma. For improving the etching process, a high density plasma etching process was employed. Moreover, the previous etching gases were highly corrosive and dangerous. Therefore, the safety etching gases are needed to be developed. In this research, the etch characteristics of CoFeB magnetic thin films were studied by using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mixes. TiN thin films were used as a hardmask on CoFeB thin films. The concentrations of $O_2$ in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mix were varied, and then, the rf coil power, gas pressure, and dc-bias voltage. The etch rates and the selectivity were obtained by a surface profiler and the etch profiles were observed by a field emission scanning electron microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was employed to reveal the etch mechanism.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.650-656
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• 2018

The TFT-LCD industry is a kind of large-scale industrial Giant Microelectronics device industry and has a similar semiconductor process technology. Wet etching forms a relatively large proportion of the entire TFT process, but the number of published research papers on this topic is limited. The main reason for this is that the components of the etchant, in which the reaction takes place, are confidential and rarely publicized. Aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu), which have been used in recent years for the manufacture of large area LCDs, are very difficult materials to process using wet etching. Cu, a low-resistance material, can only be used in the wet etching process, and is used as a substitute for Al due to its high speed etching, low failure rate, and low power consumption. Further, the abnormal reaction of hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$), which is used as an etching solution, requires additional piping and electrical safety devices. This paper proposes a method of minimizing the damage to the plant in the case of adverse reactions, though it cannot limit the adverse reaction of hydrogen peroxide. In recent years, there have been many cases in which aluminum etching equipment has been changed to copper. This paper presents a countermeasure against abnormal reactions by implementing safety PLC with a high safety grade.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.601-605
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• 2006

The resistance-capacitance (RC) delay of signals through interconnection materials becomes a big hurdle for high speed operation of semiconductors which contain multi-layer interconnections in smaller scales with higher integration density. Low-k materials are applied to the inter-metal dielectric (IMD) materials in order to overcome the RC delay. Relaxation continuum (RCT) model that includes neutral-species transport model have developed to model the etching process in a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) device. We present the parametric study of the modeling results of a two-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (2f-CCP) with $N_2/H_2$ gas mixture that is known as promising one for organic low-k materials etching. For the etching of low-k materials by $N_2/H_2$ plasma, N and H atoms have a big influence on the materials. Moreover the distributions of excited neutral species influence the plasma density and profile. We include the neutral transport model as well as plasma one in the calculation. The plasma and neutrals are calculated self-consistently by iterating the simulation of both species till a spatio-temporal steady state profile could be obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.220-220
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• 2013

Surface-normal transmission electro-absorption modulator (EAM) are attractive for high-definition (HD) three-dimensional (3D) imaging application due to its features such as small system volume and simple epitaxial structure [1,2]. However, EAM in order to be used for HD 3D imaging system requires uniform modulation performance over large area. To achieve highly uniform modulation performance of EAM at the operating wavelength of 850 nm, it is extremely important to remove the GaAs substrate over large area since GaAs material has high absorption coefficient below 870 nm which corresponds to band-edge energy of GaAs (1.424 eV). In this study, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a transmission EAM in which highly selective backside etching methods which include lapping, dry etching and wet etching is carried out to remove the GaAs substrate for achieving highly uniform modulation performance. First, lapping process on GaAs substrate was carried out for different lapping speeds (5 rpm, 7 rpm, 10 rpm) and the thickness was measured over different areas of surface. For a lapping speed of 5 rpm, a highly uniform surface over a large area ($2{\times}1\;mm^2$) was obtained. Second, optimization of inductive coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) was carried out to achieve anisotropy and high etch rate. The dry etching carried out using a gas mixture of SiCl4 and Ar, each having a flow rate of 10 sccm and 40 sccm, respectively with an RF power of 50 W, ICP power of 400 W and chamber pressure of 2 mTorr was the optimum etching condition. Last, the rest of GaAs substrate was successfully removed by highly selective backside wet etching with pH adjusted solution of citric acid and hydrogen peroxide. Citric acid/hydrogen peroxide etching solution having a volume ratio of 5:1 was the best etching condition which provides not only high selectivity of 235:1 between GaAs and AlAs but also good etching profile [3]. The fabricated transmission EAM array have an amplitude modulation of more than 50% at the bias voltage of -9 V and maintains high uniformity of >90% over large area ($2{\times}1\;mm^2$). These results show that the fabricated transmission EAM with substrate removed is an excellent candidate to be used as an optical shutter for HD 3D imaging application.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.519-522
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• 2008

As industry of a semiconductor and LCD industry have been rapidly growing, precision technologies of machining such as etching and 3D measurement are required. Stylus has been important measuring method in traditional manufacturing process. However, its disadvantages are low measuring speed and damage possibility at contacting point. To overcome mentioned disadvantage, non-contacting measurement method is needed such as PMP(Phase Measuring Profilometry), WSI(white scanning interferometer) and Confocal Profilometry. Among above 3 well-known methods, WSI started to be applied to FPD(flat panel display) manufacturing process. Even though it overcomes 21t ambiguity of PMP method and can measure objects which has specular surface, the measuring speed and vibration coming from manufacturing machine are one of main issue to apply full automatic total inspection. In this study, We develop high speed WSI system and algorithm to reduce unknown noise. The developing WSI and algorithm are implemented to measure 3D surface of wafer. Experimental results revealed that the proposed system and algorithm are able to measure 3D surface profile of wafer with a good precision and high speed.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.437-446
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• 2006

A fabrication method fur high-aspect-ratio microchannels in stainless steel using laser-assisted thermochemical wet etching is reported in this paper. The fabrication of deep microchannels with an aspect ratio over ten is realized by applying a multiple etching process with an optimization of process conditions. The cross-sectional profile of the microchannels can be adjusted between rectangular and triangular shapes by properly controlling laser power and etchant concentration. Excellent dimensional uniformity is achieved among the channels with little heat-affected area. Microchannels with a width ranging from 15 to $50{\mu}m$ can be fabricated with an aspect ratio of ten and a pitch of 150 m or smaller. The effects of process variables such as laser power, scan speed, and etchant concentration on the fabrication results, including etch width, depth, and cross-sectional profile are closely examined.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2009

Typically, single-wafer wet etching is done by dispensing chemical onto the front and back side of spin wafer. The wafer is fixed by a number of chuck pins, which obstruct the chemical flow and would result in the incomplete removal of the remaining film, which can become a source of contamination in the next process. In this paper, we introduce a novel design of wafer chuck, in which chuck pins are groupped into two and each group of pins fixes the substrate alternatively. Two groups of chuck pins fix the high-speed spin substrate with non contact method using a magnetic material. The actual process has been executed to observe the effectiveness of this new wafer chuck. It was found that the new wafer chuck performed better than the conventional wafer chuck for removing the remaining film from the bevel and edge side of substrate.