• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2014

Objectives: Along with the several cases of pulmonary disorders caused by exposure to indium that have been reported in Japan, China, and the United States, cases of Korean workers involved in processes that require handling of indium compounds with potential risk of exposure to indium compounds have also been reported. We performed biological monitoring for workers in various target manufacturing processes of indium, indium oxide, and indium tin oxide(ITO)/indium zinc oxide(IZO) in domestic factories. Materials: As biological exposure indices, we measured serum concentrations of indium using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and Krebs von den Lungen 6(KL-6) and surfactant protein D(SP-D) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. We classified the ITO/IZO target manufacturing process into powdering, mixing, molding, sintering, polishing, bonding, and finishing. Results: The powdering process workers showed the highest serum indium level. The mixing and polishing process workers also showed high serum indium levels. In the powdering process, the mean indium serum concentration in the workers exceeded $3{\mu}g/L$, the reference value in Japan. Of the powdering, mixing, and polishing process workers, 83.3%, 50.0%, and 24.5%, respectively, had values exceeding the reference value in Japan. We suppose that the reason of the higher prevalence of high indium concentrations in powder processing workers was that most of the particles in the powdering process were respirable dust smaller than $10{\mu}m$. The mean KL-6 and SP-D concentrations were high in the powdering, mixing, and polishing process workers. Therefore, the workers in these processes who were at greater risk of exposure to indium powder were those who had higher serum levels of indium, as well as KL-6 and SP-D. We observed significant differences in serum indium, KL-6, and SP-D levels between the process groups. Conclusions: Five among the seven reported cases of "indium lung" in Japan involved polishing process workers. Polishing process workers in Korea also had high serum levels of indium, KL-6, and SP-D. The outcomes of this study can be used as essential bases for establishing biological monitoring measures for workers handling indium compounds, and for developing health-care guidelines and special medical surveillance in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.750-758
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• 2016

For the channel doping of shallow junction and retrograde well formation in CMOS, indium can be implanted in silicon. The retrograde doping profiles can serve the needs of channel engineering in deep MOS devices for punch-through suppression and threshold voltage control. Indium is heavier element than B, $BF_2$ and Ga ions. It also has low coefficient of diffusion at high temperatures. Indium ions can be cause the erode of wafer surface during the implantation process due to sputtering. For the ultra shallow junction, indium ions can be implanted for p-doping in silicon. UT-MARLOWE and SRIM as Monte carlo ion-implant models have been developed for indium implantation into single crystal and amorphous silicon, respectively. An analytical tool was used to carry out for the annealing process from the extracted simulation data. For the 1D (one-dimensional) and 2D (two-dimensional) diffused profiles, the analytical model is also developed a simulation program with $C^{{+}{+}}$ code. It is very useful to simulate the indium profiles in implanted and annealed silicon autonomously. The fundamental ion-solid interactions and sputtering effects of ion implantation are discussed and explained using SRIM and T-dyn programs. The exact control of indium doping profiles can be suggested as a future technology for the extreme shallow junction in the fabrication process of integrated circuits.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.95-115
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• 2012

Although indium (In) is not an abundant element, the use of indium is expected to grow, especially as applied to copper-indium-(gallium)-selenide (CI(G)S) solar cells. In future when CIGS solar cells will be used extensively, the available amount of indium could be a limiting factor, unless a synthetic technique of efficiently utilizing the element is developed. Current vacuum techniques inherently produce a significant loss of In during the synthetic process, while electrodeposition exploits nearly 100% of the In, with little loss of the material. Thus, an electrochemical process will be the method of choice to produce alloys of In once the proper conditions are designed. In this review, we examine the electrochemical processes of electrodeposition in the synthesis of indium alloys. We focus on the conditions under which alloys are electrodeposited and on the factors that can affect the composition or properties of alloys. The knowledge is to facilitate the development of electrochemical means of efficiently using this relatively rare element to synthesize valuable materials, for applications such as solar cells and light-emitting devices.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.57-61
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• 2021

A formation process of indium bump arrays on micro-pillar structures is proposed. The space to form indium bump on the narrow structures can be secured applying the benzocyclobutene (BCB) planarization and its etch-back process. We exhibit a detailed overview of the process steps involved in the fabrication of 320×256 hybrid camera sensor for short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) detection. The shear strength of the BCB, which has undergone the different processes, is extracted by quartz crystal microbalance measurement. The shear strength of the BCB is three orders of magnitude higher than that of the indium bump itself. The measured dark current distribution of the fabricated SWIR camera sensor indicates the suggested process of indium bumps can be useful for embodying highly sensitive infared camera sensors.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.2013-2014
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• 2011

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been deposited onto bare glass substrates by sol-gel process. The solution was prepared by mixing indium precursor and tin precursor dissolved in 2-methoxyethanol at $75^{\circ}C$ for 12 hours. Indium tin oxide films were prepared by slowly heat up to $200^{\circ}C$ for 10 minutes and annealed at $350^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. In this paper, we researched simple and inexpensive sol-gel process. To find the optimal ratio of In/Sn to reduce electric resistance in ITO made by sol-gel process, we assessed electric properties varying the ratio of In and Sn precursor.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.93-101
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• 2013

The electrodeposition of indium onto a copper electrode from an aqueous sulfate solution containing $In^{3+}$ was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. Reduction and oxidation of indium on copper were investigated by using cyclic voltammograms at different negative limiting potentials and at different scan rates in cumulative cycles. Cyclic voltammograms indicated that reduction and oxidation processes of indium could involve various reactions. Chronoamperometry was carried out to analyze the nucleation mechanism of indium in the early stage of indium electrodeposition. The non-dimensional plot of the current transients at different potentials showed that the shape of the plot depended on the applied potential. The nucleation of indium at potential step of -0.6~-0.8 V was close to progressive nucleation limited by diffusion. However the non-dimensional plot of current transients for the indium nucleation showed different behaviors from theoretical curves at the potential step lower than -0.8 V.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.299-306
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide current the recent information on indium-related adverse health effects and the Korean indium-related industries. Methods: Peer review papers were searched in environmental, occupational and medical journals with the keyword of 'Indium' and 'ITO' and reviewed. To determine the indium related industries and indium consumption amounts, references and database were investigated and analyzed. In addition, field walk-through surveys and interviews were conducted in order to collect field data and to ascertain the field situation for the processes and industries. Results: A total of 10 cases of indium lung diseases have been reported in series since the first case reported in 2001. Seven cases were found in Japan, two cases in the United States, and one in China. No indium lung case has been reported yet in Korea, but it is believed that there are high potential risks among workers in indium-related industries. There are four categories in indiumrelated- industry; indium production and smelting, manufacturing of indium products such as ITO target, the production of thin films of flat panel display, and indium recovery industry. We found that all these types of industries are operating in Korea. Therefore, it is necessary for industrial hygienists to understand the processes and industries related to indium as well as the adverse health effects of indium. Conclusions: It was found that all four categories of indium-related industry from the indium production to recovery industry are active in Korea. However, the adverse health effects of indium are not well recognized. Therefore, it is believed that there is a high risks in indium-related industry, and it is necessary to make emergency interventions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.741-746
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• 2009

Compare to conventional Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) film deposition methods, cesium assisted sputtering method has been shown superior electrical, mechanical, and optical film properties. However, it is not easy to use cesium assisted sputtering method since ITO film properties are very sensitive to Cesium assisted equipment condition but their mechanism is not yet clearly defined physically or mathematically. Therefore, to optimize deposited ITO film characteristics, development of accurate and reliable process model is essential. For this, in this work, we developed ITO film deposition process model using neural networks and design of experiment (DOE). Developed model prediction results are compared with conventional statistical regression model and developed neural process model has been shown superior prediction results on modeling of ITO film thickness, sheet resistance, and transmittance characteristics.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.65-67
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• 2012

The desorption characteristics of previously adsorbed indium ions on phosphorylated sawdust were tested by various chemical reagents such as HCl, $HNO_3$, NaCl, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and nitrilotriacetic acid. Among them, HCl was chosen as the best desorbing agent in terms of economics. The desorption efficiency of HCl for indium ions was about 97% at a concentration of 0.5 M. The desorption efficiency for indium ions was very high at about 94% even at a solid/liquid ratio of 10.0, and the desorption process was quickly performed within 60 min. The removal efficiency of indium ions in recycled phosphorylated sawdust could be maintained at 85% in the 4th cycle.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.3-10
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• 2013

Indium is one of the rare metals, and it has been used mainly for preparation of indium tin oxide (ITO). This review investigated the process parameters and the merits and demerits of several methods to recover indium from the leaching solution of secondary resources, such as solvent extraction, ion exchange, and precipitation. D2EHPA has been used mostly as a cationic extractant for indium extraction in moderate acid solutions, while amine extractants are used in strong hydrochloric acid solution. Since the loading capacity of resins for indium is generally small, ion exchange has some advantage over solvent extraction only when the concentration of indium is low.