• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.319-323
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• 2008

The polarization resistance of mild steel in 0.5M hydrochloric acid has been evaluated by using impedance (Z) and linear polarization (LPR) techniques and compared to the noise resistance obtained from electrochemical noise data. The degree of localization of this general corrosion has also been discussed by evaluating localization index and power spectral density. Polarization resistance obtained by LPR technique ($28\Omega$) was higher than that obtained by impedance technique ($15\Omega$). Noise resistance ($11\Omega$) was much lower than polarization resistance measured by both of above techniques. Higher polarization resistance obtained by LPR technique is generally caused by passivation effect in the presence of scales or deposits which can introduce an increased resistance as can low conductivity electrolytes. The reason why noise resistance is lower than polarization resistance is the effect of background noise detected by using three platinum electrodes cell in 0.5M hydrochloric acid. Slope($-\beta$) of power spectral density (PSD) obtained from analysis of noise data ($-\beta$ = 3.3) was much higher than 2 which indicates mild steel corroded uniformly. Localization index (LI) calculated from statistical analysis (LI=0.08) is much lower than 1 which indicates that mild steel did not corroded locally. However, LI value is still higher than $1x10^{-3}$ and this indicates that mild steel corroded locally in microscopic point of view.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.251-252
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• 2012

Recently, the growing interest in organic microelectronic devices including OLEDs has led to an increasing amount of research into their many potential applications in the area of flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates. However, these organic devices require a gas barrier coating to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency OLEDs require an extremely low Water Vapor Transition Rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day. The Key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required ($1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day) is the suppression of defect sites and gas diffusion pathways between grain boundaries. In this study, we developed an $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer using a Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering (NBAS) process. The NBAS system is based on the conventional RF magnetron sputtering and neutral beam source. The neutral beam source consists of an electron cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma source and metal reflector. The Ar+ ions in the ECR plasma are accelerated in the plasma sheath between the plasma and reflector, which are then neutralized by Auger neutralization. The neutral beam energies were possible to estimate indirectly through previous experiments and binary collision model. The accelerating potential is the sum of the plasma potential and reflector bias. In previous experiments, while adjusting the reflector bias, changes in the plasma density and the plasma potential were not observed. The neutral beam energy is controlled by the metal reflector bias. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to nano-crystal phase of various grain sizes within a single inorganic thin film. These NBAS process effects can lead to the formation of a nano-crystal structure barrier layer which effectively limits gas diffusion through the pathways between grain boundaries. Our results verify the nano-crystal structure of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ single gas barrier layer through dielectric constant measurement, break down field measurement, and TEM analysis. Finally, the WVTR of $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer was measured to be under $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day therefore we can confirm that NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer is suitable for OLED application.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.254-255
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• 2012

Interest in nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films has been growing because of their favorable processing conditions for certain electronic devices. In particular, there has been an increase in the use of nc-Si thin films in photovoltaics for large solar cell panels and in thin film transistors for large flat panel displays. One of the most important material properties for these device applications is the macroscopic charge-carrier mobility. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or nc-Si is a basic material in thin film transistors (TFTs). However, a-Si:H based devices have low carrier mobility and bias instability due to their metastable properties. The large number of trap sites and incomplete hydrogen passivation of a-Si:H film produce limited carrier transport. The basic electrical properties, including the carrier mobility and stability, of nc-Si TFTs might be superior to those of a-Si:H thin film. However, typical nc-Si thin films tend to have mobilities similar to a-Si films, although changes in the processing conditions can enhance the mobility. In polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films, the performance of the devices is strongly influenced by the boundaries between neighboring crystalline grains. These grain boundaries limit the conductance of macroscopic regions comprised of multiple grains. In much of the work on poly-Si thin films, it was shown that the performance of TFTs was largely determined by the number and location of the grain boundaries within the channel. Hence, efforts were made to reduce the total number of grain boundaries by increasing the average grain size. However, even a small number of grain boundaries can significantly reduce the macroscopic charge carrier mobility. The nano-crystalline or polymorphous-Si development for TFT and solar cells have been employed to compensate for disadvantage inherent to a-Si and micro-crystalline silicon (${\mu}$-Si). Recently, a novel process for deposition of nano-crystralline silicon (nc-Si) thin films at room temperature was developed using neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBaCVD) with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300 eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at room temperature. In previous our experiments, we verified favorable properties of nc-Si thin films for certain electronic devices. During the formation of the nc-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. The more resent work on nc-Si thin film transistors (TFT) was done. We identified the performance of nc-Si TFT active channeal layers. The dependence of the performance of nc-Si TFT on the primary process parameters is explored. Raman, FT-IR and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to study the microstructures and the crystalline volume fraction of nc-Si films. The electric properties were investigated on Cr/SiO2/nc-Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.671-677
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• 2001

A RuO$_2$ Schottky photo-detector was designed and fabricated with GaN layers on the sapphire substrate. For good absorption of UV light, an epitaxial structure with undoped GaN(0.5 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$)/n￣-GaN(0.1${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$)/n＋-GaN(1.5${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) was grown by MOCVD. The structure had the carrier concentrations of 3.8$\times$10$^{18}$ cm￣$^3$, the mobility of 283$\textrm{cm}^2$/V.s. After ECR etching process for mesa structure with the diameter of about 500${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, Al ohmic contact was formed on GaN layer. After proper passivation between the contacts with Si$_3$/N$_4$, was formed on undoped GaN layer. The fabricated Schottky diode had a specific contact resistance of 1.15$\times$10$^{-5}$ ［$\Omega$.$\textrm{cm}^2$］. It has a low leakage current of 305 pA at -5 V, which was attributed by stable characteristics of RuO$_2$ Schottky contact. In optical measurement, it showed the high UV to visible extinction ratio of 10$^{5}$ and very high responsivity of 0.23 A/W at the wavelength of 365nm.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.447-454
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• 2014

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have intensively studied in recent years due to their advantages such as cost effectiveness and possibility of applications in flexible devices. In spite of the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10 %, the OSCs still have a draw back of their low environmental stability due to the oxidization of aluminum cathode and etching of transparent conducting oxide as electrode. To solve these problems, the inverted structured OSCs (I-OSCs) having greatest potential for achieving an improvement of device performances are suggested. Therefore, there are a lot of studies to develope of interface layer based on organic/inorganic materials for the electron transport layer (ETL) and passivation layer, significant advancements in I-OSCs have driven the development of interface functional materials including electron transport layer. Recent efforts to employing 2D/3D zinc oxide (ZnO) based ETL into I-OSCs have produced OSCs with a power conversion efficiency level that matches the efficiency of ~9 %. In this review, the technical issues and recent progress of ZnO based ETL in I-OSCs to enhancement of device efficiency and stability in terms of materials, process and characterization have summarized.