• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2004

Silicon nitride thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique in a batch-type reactor by alternating exposures of precursors. XJAKO200414714156408$_4$ or$ SiH_2$$Cl_2$ was used as the Si precursor, $NH_3$ was used as the N precursor, and the deposited films were characterized comparatively. The thickness of the film linearly increased with the number of deposition cycles, so that the thickness of the film can be precisely controlled by adjusting the number of cycles. As compared with the deposition using$ SiCl_4$, the deposition using $SiH_2$$Cl_2$ exhibited larger deposition rate at lower precursor exposures, and the deposited films using $SiH_2$$Cl_2$ had lower wet etch rate in a diluted HF solution. Silicon nitride films with the Si:N ratio of approximately 1:1 were obtained using either Si precursors at $500^{\circ}C$, however, the films deposited using $SiH_2$$Cl_2$ exhibited higher concentration of H as compared with those of the $SiC_4$ case. Silicon nitride thin films deposited by ALD showed similar physical properties, such as composition or integrity, with the silicon nitride films deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition, lowering deposition temperature by more than $200^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2007

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a new lithographic method that offers a sub-10nm feature size, high throughput, and low cost. One of the most serious problems of NIL is the stiction between mold and resist. The antistiction layer coating is very effective to prevent this stiction and ensure the successful NIL results. In this paper, an antistiction layer was deposited by VSAM (vapor self assembly monolayer) method on silicon samples with FOTS (perfluoroctyltrichlorosilane) as a precursor for making an antistiction layer. A specially designed LPCVD (low pressure chemical vapor deposition) was used for this experiment. All experiments were achieved after removing the humidity. First, the evaporation test of FOTS was performed for checking the evaporation temperature at low pressure. FOTS was evaporated at 5 Tow and $110^{\circ}C$. In order to evaluate the temperature effect on antistiction layer, chamber temperature was changed from 50 to $170^{\circ}C$ with 0.1ml of FOTS for 1 minute. Good hydrophobicity of all samples was shown at about $110^{\circ}$ of contact angle and under $20^{\circ}$ of hysteresis. The surface energies of all samples calculated by Lewis acid/base theory was shown to be about 15mN/m. The deposited thicknesses of all samples measured by ellipsometry were almost 1nm that was similar value of the calculated molecular length. The surface roughness of all samples was not changed after deposition but the friction force showed relatively high values and deviations deposited at under $110^{\circ}$. Also the white circles were founded in LFM images under $110^{\circ}$. High friction forces were guessed based on this irregular deposition. The optimized VSAM process for FOTS was achieved at $170^{\circ}C$, 5 Torr for 1 hour. The hot embossing process with 4 inch Si mold was successfully achieved after VSAM deposition.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 1999

The Al oxide layer formed in 1M $H_2SO_4$ solution and the influence of applied frequency for electrodeposition of Mn on Al oxide layer were characterized using by impedance spectroscopy. Mn compounds were electrodeposited at the base of pores during deposition with applied low frequency voltage. For the Mn deposited oxide layer at 6OHz and 5Hz in 1 g/L $KMnO_4$ solution, in equivalent circuit for interpretation, the resistance ($R_2$) and capacitance ($C_2$) were considered to be due to deposition of Mn on base of pore. The electrochemical behavior of barrier layer and porous oxide layer on Al have been characterized by capacitance ($C_b$) and Young capacitance ($C_Y$) in equivalent circuit model.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.216-221
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• 2006

ZnO thin films prepared by PLD method exhibit an excellent optical property, but may have some problems such as incomplete surface roughness and crystallinity. In this study, undoped ZnO buffer layers were deposited on (0001) sapphire substrates by ultra high vacuum pulse laser deposition (UHV-PLD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) methods, respectively. After post annealing of ZnO buffer layer, undoped ZnO thin films were deposited under different oxygen pressure ($35{\sim}350$ mtorr) conditions. The Arsenic-doped (1, 3 wt%) ZnO thin layers were deposited on the buffer layer of undoped ZnO by UHV-PLD method. The optical property of the ZnO thin films was analyzed by photoluminescence (PL) measurement. The ${\theta}-2{\theta}$ XRD analysis exhibited a strong (002)-peak, which indicates c-axis preferred orientation. Field emission-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) revealed that microstructures of the ZnO thin films were varied by oxygen partial pressure, Arsenic doping concentration, and deposition method of the undoped ZnO buffer layer. The denser and smoother films were obtained when employing MBE-buffer layer under lower oxygen partial pressure. It was also found that higher Arsenic concentration gave the enhanced growing of columnar structure of the ZnO thin films.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.54-60
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• 2015

ZnSnO thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) process using diethyl zinc ($Zn(C_2H_5)_2$) and tetrakis (dimethylamino) tin ($Sn(C_2H_6N)_4$) as metal precursors and water vapor as a reactant. ALD process has several advantages over other deposition methods such as precise thickness control, good conformality, and good uniformity for large area. The composition of ZnSnO thin films was controlled by varying the ratio of ZnO and $SnO_2$ ALD cycles. The ALD ZnSnO film was an amorphous state. The band gap of ZnSnO thin films increased as the Sn content increased. The CIGS solar cell using ZnSnO buffer layer showed about 18% energy conversion efficiency. With such a high efficiency with the ALD ZnSnO buffer and no light soaking effect, AlD ZnSnO buffer mighty be a good candidate to replace Zn(S,O) buffer in CIGSsolar cells.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• v.9
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• pp.392-396
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• 1999

Superconducting YBa$_2Cu_3O_{7-{\delta}}$(YBCO) thin films were grown on Hastelloy(Ni-Cr-Mo alloys) with CeO$_2$ buffer layer in-situ by pulsed laser deposition in a multi-target processing chamber. To apply superconducting property on power transmission line, we have deposited YBCO thin film on flexible metallic substrate. However, it is difficult to grow the YBCO films on flexible metallic substrates due to both interdiffusion problem between metallic substrate and superconducting overlayers and non-crystallization of YBCO on amorphous substrate. It is necessary to use a buffer layer to overcome the difficulties. We have chosen CeO$_2$ as a buffer layer which has cubic structure of 5.41 ${\AA}$ lattice parameter and only 0.2% of lattice mismatch with 3.82 ${\AA}$ of a-axis lattice parameter of YBCO on [110] direction of CeO$_2$ In order to enhance the crystallization of YBCO films on metallic substrates, we deposited CeO$_2$ buffer layers with varying temperature and 02 pressure. By XRD, it is observed that dominated film orientation is strongly depending on the deposition temperature of CeO$_2$ layer. The dominated orientation of CeO$_2$ buffer layer is changed from (200) to(111) by increasing the deposition temperature and this transition affects the crystallization of YBCO superconducting film on CeO$_2$ buffered Hastelloy.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2010

The Cu(In,Ga)Se2(CIGS) thin film solar cells have been achieved until almost 20% efficiency by NREL. These solar cells include chemically deposited CdS as buffer layer between CIGS absorber layer and ZnO window layer. Although CIGS solar cells with CdS buffer layer show excellent performance, many groups made hard efforts to overcome its disadvantages in terms of high absorption of short wavelength, Cd hazardous element. Among Cd-free candidate materials, the CIGS thin film solar cells with Zn compound buffer layer seem to be promising with 15.2%(module by showa shell K.K.), 18.6%(small area by NREL). However, few groups were successful to report high-efficiency CIGS solar cells with Zn compound buffer layer, compared to be known how to fabricate these solar cells. Each group's chemical bah deposition (CBD) condition is seriously different. It may mean that it is not fully understood to grow high quality Zn compound thin film on the CIGS using CBD. In this study, we focused to clarify growth mechanism of chemically deposited Zn compound thin film on the CIGS, especially. Additionally, we tried to characterize junction properties with unfavorable issues, that is, slow growth rate, imperfect film coverage and minimize these issues. Early works reported that film deposition rate increased with reagent concentration and film covered whole rough CIGS surface. But they did not mention well how film growth of zinc compound evolves homogeneously or heterogeneously and what kinds of defects exist within film that can cause low solar performance. We observed sufficient correlation between growth quality and concentration of NH3 as complex agent. When NH3 concentration increased, thickness of zinc compound increased with dominant heterogeneous growth for high quality film. But the large amounts of NH3 in the solution made many particles of zinc hydroxide due to hydroxide ions. The zinc hydroxides bonded weakly to the CIGS surface have been removed at rinsing after CBD.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2010

While the substrate-type solar cells with Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorbers yield conversion efficiencies of up 20%[1], the highest published efficiency of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 superstrate solar cell is only 12.8% [2]. The commerciallized Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells are made in the substrate configuration having the stacking sequence of substrate (soda lime glass)/back contact (molybdenum)/absorber layer (Cu(In,Ga)Se2)/buffer layer (cadmium sulfide)/window layer (transparent conductive oxide)/anti reflection layer (MgF2) /grid contact. Thus, it is not possible to illuminate the substrate-type cell through the glass substrate. Rather, it is necessary to illuminate from the opposite side which requires an elaborate transparent encapsulation. In contrast to that, the configuration of superstrate solar cell allows the illumination through the glass substrate. This saves the expensive transparent encapsulation. Usually, the high quality Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber requires a high deposition temperature over 550C. Therefore, the front contact should be thermally stable in the temperature range to realize a successful superstrate-type solar cell. In this study, it was tried to make a decent superstrate-type solar cell with the thermally stable ZnO:Al layer obtained by adjusting its deposition parameters in magnetron sputtering process. The effect of deposition condition of the layer on the cell performance will be discussed together with hall measurement results and current-voltage characteristics of the cells.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2018

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been studied extensively due to their excellent physical, chemical, and electrical properties. Among them, we report the material and device characteristics of tin disulfide ($SnS_2$). To apply $SnS_2$ as a channel layer in a transistor, $SnS_2$ channels were formed by a stripping method and a transfer method. The limitation of this method is that it is difficult to produce uniform device characteristics over a large area. Therefore, we directly deposited $SnS_2$ by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and then performed lithography. This method was able to produce devices with repeatable characteristics over a large area. However, the $SnS_2$ film was damaged by the acetone used as a photoresist (PR) developer during the lithography process, with the electrical properties of mobility of $2.6{\times}10^{-4}cm^2/Vs$, S.S. of 58.1 V/decade, and on/off current ratio of $1.8{\times}10^2$. These results are not suitable for advanced electronic devices. In this study, we analyzed the effect of acetone on $SnS_2$ and studied the device process to prevent such damage. Using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a passivation layer during the lithography process, the electrical characteristics of the $SnS_2$ transistor had $2.11{\times}10^{-3}cm^2/Vs$ of mobility, 11.3 V/decade of S.S, and $2.5{\times}10^3$ of the on/off current ratio, which were 10x improvements to the $SnS_2$ transistor fabricated by the conventional method.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.430-437
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• 2016

Aluminum oxide ($Al_2O_3$) thin films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using a new Al metalorganic precursor, dimethyl aluminum sec-butoxide ($C_{12}H_{30}Al_2O_2$), and water vapor ($H_2O$) as the reactant at deposition temperatures ranging from 150 to $300^{\circ}C$. The ALD process showed typical self-limited film growth with precursor and reactant pulsing time at $250^{\circ}C$; the growth rate was 0.095 nm/cycle, with no incubation cycle. This is relatively lower and more controllable than the growth rate in the typical $ALD-Al_2O_3$ process, which uses trimethyl aluminum (TMA) and shows a growth rate of 0.11 nm/cycle. The as-deposited $ALD-Al_2O_3$ film was amorphous; X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy confirmed that its amorphous state was maintained even after annealing at $1000^{\circ}C$. The refractive index of the $ALD-Al_2O_3$ films ranged from 1.45 to 1.67; these values were dependent on the deposition temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that the $ALD-Al_2O_3$ films deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ were stoichiometric, with no carbon impurity. The step coverage of the $ALD-Al_2O_3$ film was perfect, at approximately 100%, at the dual trench structure, with an aspect ratio of approximately 6.3 (top opening size of 40 nm). With capacitance-voltage measurements of the $Al/ALD-Al_2O_3/p-Si$ structure, the dielectric constant of the $ALD-Al_2O_3$ films deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ was determined to be ~8.1, with a leakage current density on the order of $10^{-8}A/cm^2$ at 1 V.