• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.454-454
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• 2014

Silicon microwire array is one of the promising platforms as a means for developing highly efficient solar cells thanks to the enhanced light trapping efficiency. Among the various fabrication methods of microstructures, deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process has been extensively used in fabrication of high aspect ratio microwire arrays. In this presentation, we show precisely controlled Si microwire arrays by tuning the DRIE process conditions. A periodic microdisk arrays were patterned on 4-inch Si wafer (p-type, $1{\sim}10{\Omega}cm$) using photolithography. After developing the pattern, 150-nm-thick Al was deposited and lifted-off to leave Al microdisk arrays on the starting Si wafer. Periodic Al microdisk arrays (diameter of $2{\mu}m$ and periodic distance of $2{\mu}m$) were used as an etch mask. A DRIE process (Tegal 200) is used for anisotropic deep silicon etching at room temperature. During the process, $SF_6$ and $C_4F_8$ gases were used for the etching and surface passivation, respectively. The length and shape of microwire arrays were controlled by etching time and $SF_6/C_4F_8$ ratio. By adjusting $SF_6/C_4F_8$ gas ratio, the shape of Si microwire can be controlled, resulting in the formation of tapered or vertical microwires. After DRIE process, the residual polymer and etching damage on the surface of the microwires were removed using piranha solution ($H_2SO_4:H_2O_2=4:1$) followed by thermal oxidation ($900^{\circ}C$, 40 min). The oxide layer formed through the thermal oxidation was etched by diluted hydrofluoric acid (1 wt% HF). The surface morphology of a Si microwire arrays was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, Hitachi S-4800). Optical reflection measurements were performed over 300~1100 nm wavelengths using a UV-Vis/NIR spectrophotometer (Cary 5000, Agilent) in which a 60 mm integrating sphere (Labsphere) is equipped to account for total light (diffuse and specular) reflected from the samples. The total reflection by the microwire arrays sample was reduced from 20 % to 10 % of the incident light over the visible region when the length of the microwire was increased from $10{\mu}m$ to $30{\mu}m$.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.350-357
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• 2017

Purpose: In-situ monitoring of water quality is fundamental to most environmental applications. The high cost and long delays of conventional laboratory methods used to determine water quality, including on-site sampling and chemical analysis, have limited their use in efficiently managing water sources while preventing environmental pollution. The objective of this study was to develop an on-site water monitoring system consisting mainly of an Arduino board and a sensor array of multiple ion selective electrodes (ISEs) to measure the concentration of $NO_3$ ions. Methods: The developed system includes a combination of three ISEs, double-junction reference electrode, solution container, sampling system consisting of three pumps and solenoid valves, signal processing circuit, and an Arduino board for data acquisition and system control. Prior to each sample measurement, a two-point normalization method was applied for a sensitivity adjustment followed by an offset adjustment to minimize the potential drift that could occur during continuous measurement and standardize the response of multiple electrodes. To investigate its utility in on-site nitrate monitoring, the prototype was tested in a facility where drinking water was collected from a water supply source. Results: Differences in the electric potentials of the $NO_3$ ISEs between 10 and $100mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ $NO_3$ concentration levels were nearly constant with negative sensitivities of 58 to 62 mV during the period of sample measurement, which is representative of a stable electrode response. The $NO_3$ concentrations determined by the ISEs were almost comparable to those obtained with standard instruments within 15% relative errors. Conclusions: The use of the developed on-site nitrate monitoring system based on automatic sampling and two-point normalization was feasible for detecting abrupt changes in nitrate concentration at various water supply sites, showing a maximum difference of $4.2mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ from an actual concentration of $14mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.64-71
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• 2020

eFuse OTP memory IP is required to trim the analog circuit of the gate driving chip of the power semiconductor device. Conventional NMOS diode-type eFuse OTP memory cells have a small cell size, but require one more deep N-well (DNW) mask. In this paper, we propose a small PMOS-diode type eFuse OTP memory cell without the need for additional processing in the CMOS process. The proposed PMOS-diode type eFuse OTP memory cell is composed of a PMOS transistor formed in the N-WELL and an eFuse link, which is a memory element and uses a pn junction diode parasitic in the PMOS transistor. A core driving circuit for driving the array of PMOS diode-type eFuse memory cells is proposed, and the SPICE simulation results show that the proposed core circuit can be used to sense post-program resistance of 61㏀. The layout sizes of PMOS-diode type eFuse OTP memory cell and 512b eFuse OTP memory IP designed using 0.13㎛ BCD process are 3.475㎛ × 4.21㎛ (= 14.62975㎛2) and 119.315㎛ × 341.95㎛ (= 0.0408mm2), respectively. After testing at the wafer level, it was confirmed that it was normally programmed.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.2366-2373
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• 2007

In this paper, a low-power and small-area asynchronous 1 kilobit EEPROM for passive UHF RFID tag chips is designed with $0.18{\mu}m$ EEPROM cells. As small area solutions, command and address buffers are removed since we design asynchronous I/O interface and data output buffer is also removed by using separate I/O. To supply stably high voltages VPP and VPPL used in the cell array from low voltage VDD, Dickson charge pump is designed with schottky diodes instead of a PN junction diodes. On that account, we can decrease the number of stages of the charge pump, which can decrease layout area of charge pump. As a low-power solution, we can reduce write current by using the proposed VPPL power switching circuit which selects each needed voltage at either program or write mode. A test chip of asynchronous 1 kilobit EEPROM is fabricated, and its layout area is $554.8{\times}306.9{\mu}m2$., 11% smaller than its synchronous counterpart.