• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.96-96
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• 2016

Nanotechnology mostly employs nano-materials and nano-structures with distinctive properties based on their size, structure, and composition. It is quite difficult to produce nano-materials and nano-structures with identical sizes, structures, and compositions in large quantities, because of spatiotemporal fluctuation of production processes. In other words, fluctuation is the bottleneck in nanotechnology. We propose three strategies to suppress such fluctuations: employing 1) difference between linear and nonlinear phenomena, 2) difference in time constants, and 3) nucleation as a bottleneck phenomenon. We are also developing nano- and micro-scale guided assembly using plasmas as a plasma nanofabrication.1-5) We manipulate nano- and micro-objects using electrostatic, electromagnetic, ion drag, neutral drag, and optical forces. The accuracy of positioning the objects depends on fluctuation of position and energy of an object in plasmas. Here we evaluate such fluctuations and discuss the mechanism behind them. We conducted in-situ evaluation of local plasma potential fluctuation using tracking analysis of fine particles (=objects) in plasmas. Experiments were carried out with a radio frequency low-pressure plasma reactor, where we set two quartz windows at the top and bottom of the reactor. Ar plasmas were generated at 200 Pa by applying 13.56MHz, 450V peak-to-peak voltage. The injected fine particles were monodisperse methyl methacrylate-polymer spheres of $10{\mu}m$ in diameter. Fine particles were injected into the reactor and were suspended around the plasma/sheath boundary near the powered electrode. We observed binary collision of fine particles with a high-speed camera. The frame rate was 1000-10000 fps. Time evolution of their distance from the center of mass was measured by tracking analysis of the two particles. Kinetic energy during the collision was obtained from the result. Potential energy formed between the two particles was deduced by assuming the potential energy plus the kinetic energy is constant. The interaction potential is fluctuated during the collision. Maximum amplitude of the fluctuation is 25eV, and the average is 8eV. The fluctuation can be caused by neutral molecule collisions, ion collisions, and fluctuation of electrostatic force. Among theses possible causes, fluctuation of electrostatic force may be main one, because the fine particle has a large negative charge of -17000e and the corresponding electrostatic force is large compared to other forces.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.205-217
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• 2008

Objectives : We investigated the effects of Herba Ephedrae and Rhizoma Amorphophalli on high fat diet induced obese male mice. Methods : 8 weeks old, high fat diet induced obese male mice were divided into 5 groups: C57BL/6 normal control, obese vehicle control, GGEx55 (Herba Ephedrae), GGEx61 (Rhizoma Amorphophalli), GGEx62 (Herba Ephedrae + Rhizoma Amorphophalli). After mice were treated with GGEx for 8 weeks, we measured body weight gain, food intake, feeding efficiency ratio, rectal temperature, fat weight, plasma leptin and lipid levels. We also took micro-computerized axial tomography (micro-CT) on the mice. Results : 1. GGEx55 and GGEx62 groups significantly decreased body weight gain and feeding efficiency ratio compared with vehicle control. But they significantly increased rectal temperature. 2. Plasma total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol concentrations were significantly increased by GGEx55 groups, whereas were significantly decreased by GGEx62 groups compared with vehicle control. 3. GGEx55 and GGEx62 groups significantly decreased total, subcutaneous and visceral fat as well as fat areas in micro-CT analysis of abdomen compared with vehicle control. 4. Plasma GOT and GPT concentrations were significantly increased by GGEx55 groups compared with vehicle control. Conclusions : These results demonstrate that GGEx55 and GGEx62 effectively reduces body weight gain, feeding efficiency ratio in high fat diet induced obese mice, leading to the modulation of obesity. In addition, GGEx55 and GGEx62 decreases visceral adipose tissue mass and improves plasma lipids, suggesting that GGEx55 and GGEx62 may act as a therapeutic agent for obesity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.149-156
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• 2017

Graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)-reinforced alumina ($Al_2O_3$) is a promising material for micro-partapplications, particularly micro-nozzle shapes, because of its excellent wearresistance. In this study, a $Al_2O_3$/GNPcomposite with 15 vol% graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) was highly densified and fabricated via spark plasma sintering for micro-electrical discharge drilling (Micro-ED drilling) and the wear resistance property of the composite is evaluated via the ball-on-disk method. In addition, the diameter and shape of the micro-electrodes machined by wire electrical discharge grinding (WEDG), block electrical discharge grinding (BEDG), and new linear block moving electrical discharge grinding (LBMEDG) methods are systematically compared and analyzed to observe the micro-hole machining in the micro-ED drilling of the $Al_2O_3$/15vol% GNP composite.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.32-32
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• 2011

Plasma etching is used in microelectronic processing for patterning of micro- and nano-scale devices. Commonly, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is widely used for real-time endpoint detection for plasma etching. However, if the viewport for optical-emission monitoring becomes blurred by polymer film due to prolonged use of the etching system, optical-emission monitoring becomes impossible. In addition, when the exposed area ratio on the wafer is small, changes in the optical emission are so slight that it is almost impossible to detect the endpoint of etching. For this reason, as a simple method of detecting variations in plasma without contamination of the reaction chamber at low cost, a method of measuring plasma impedance is being examined. The object in this research is to investigate the suitability of using plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) with statistical approach for real-time endpoint detection of $SiO_2$ etching. The endpoint was determined by impedance signal variation from I-V monitor (VI probe). However, the signal variation at the endpoint is too weak to determine endpoint when $SiO_2$ film on Si wafer is etched by fluorocarbon plasma on inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etcher. Therefore, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) is applied to them for increasing sensitivity. For verifying this method, detected endpoint from impedance analysis is compared with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). From impedance data, we tried to analyze physical properties of plasma, and real-time endpoint detection can be achieved.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.119-126
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• 2014

Micro-holes of conductive ceramic are required in micro structures. Micro-electrical discharge machining (Micro-EDM) is an effective machining method since EDM is as process for shaping hard metals and complex-shaped holes by spark erosion in all kinds of electro-conductive materials. However, as the depth of micro hole increases, the machining condition becomes more unstable due to inefficient removal of debris between the electrode and the workpiece. In this paper, micro-EDM was performed to evaluate machining characteristic such as electrode wear, machining time, taper angle, radial clearance with varying voltage and ultrasonic vibration on 10 vol.% Carbon-nanotube reinforced conductive $Al_2O_3$ composite fabricated by spark plasma sintering in previous research.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1486-1489
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• 2009

Micro wall is fabricated using iterative screen printing that it is able to fabricate the pattern as low cost, simple process, formation of pattern at large area on the various substrates. In the process of micro wall fabrication using screen printing, the printing result with pressure change in process and improvement of surface roughness using hydrophillic plasma treatment are included. Height of micro wall increase linearly and precision of iteration is very high. Error rate of printed pattern width is very high, but change rate of width is under 10 %. Fabricated micro pattern have minimum width $48.75{\mu}m$ and maximum height $75.45{\mu}m$ with aspect ratio 1.55.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.44-45
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• 2010

We are currently conducting studies on culturing and biocompatibility assessment of various cells such as neural stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells(IPS cells) on carbon nanotube (CNT), on nerve regeneration electrodes, and on silicon wafers with a focus on developing nerve integrated CNT based bio devices for interfacing with living organisms, in order to develop brain-machine interfaces (BMI). In addition, we are carried out the chemical modification of carbon nanotube (mainly SWCNTs)-based bio-nanosensors by the plasma ion irradiation (plasma activation) method, and provide a characteristic evaluation of a bio-nanosensor using bovine serum albumin (BSA)/anti-BSA binding and oligonucleotide hybridization. On the other hand, the researches in the case of "novel plasma" have been widely conducted in the fields of chemistry, solid physics, and nanomaterial science. From the above-mentioned background, we are conducting basic experiments on direct irradiation of body tissues and cells using a micro-spot atmospheric pressure plasma source. The device is a coaxial structure having a tungsten wire installed inside a glass capillary, and a grounded ring electrode wrapped on the outside. The conditions of plasma generation are as follows: applied voltage: 5-9 kV, frequency: 1-3 kHz, helium (He) gas flow: 1-1.5 L/min, and plasma irradiation time: 1-300 sec. The experiment was conducted by preparing a culture medium containing mouse fibroblasts (NIH3T3) on a culture dish. A culture dish irradiated with plasma was introduced into a $CO_2$-incubator. The small animals used in the experiment involving plasma irradiation into living tissue were rat, rabbit, and pick and are deeply anesthetized with the gas anesthesia. According to the dependency of cell numbers against the plasma irradiation time, when only He gas was flowed, the growth of cells was inhibited as the floatation of cells caused by gas agitation inside the culture was promoted. On the other hand, there was no floatation of cells and healthy growth was observed when plasma was irradiated. Furthermore, in an experiment testing the effects of plasma irradiation on rats that were artificially given burn wounds, no evidence of electric shock injuries was found in the irradiated areas. In fact, the observed evidence of healing and improvements of the burn wounds suggested the presence of healing effects due to the growth factors in the tissues. Therefore, it appears that the interaction due to ion/radicalcollisions causes a substantial effect on the proliferation of growth factors such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), nerve growth factor (NGF), and transforming growth factor (TGF) that are present in the cells.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.196-202
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• 2015

Human blood consists of 55% of plasma and 45% of blood cells such as white blood cell (WBC) and red blood cell (RBC). In plasma, there are many kinds of promising biomarkers, which can be used for the diagnosis of various diseases and biological analysis. For diagnostic tools such as a lab-on-a-chip (LOC), blood plasma separation is a fundamental step for accomplishing a high performance in the detection of a disease. Highly efficient separators can increase the sensitivity and selectivity of biosensors and reduce diagnostic time. In order to achieve a higher yield in blood plasma separation, we propose a novel fluid wing structure that is optimized by COMSOL simulations by varying the fluidic channel width and the angle of the bifurcation. The fluid wing structure is inspired by the inertial particle separator system in helicopters where sand particles are prevented from following the air flow to an engine. The structure is ameliorated in order to satisfy biological and fluidic requirements at the micro scale to achieve high plasma yield and separation efficiency. In this study, we fabricated the fluid wing structure for the efficient microfluidic blood plasma separation. The high plasma yield of 67% is achieved with a channel width of $20{\mu}m$ in the fabricated fluidic chip and the result was not affected by the angle of the bifurcation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.528-528
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• 2012

Recently, atmospheric pressure plasmas attract lots of interests for the useful applications such as surface modification and bio-medical treatment. In this study, a particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision (PIC-MCC) simulation was adopted to investigate the discharge characteristics of a planar micro dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) with a driving frequency from 13.56 MHz to 162.72 MHz and with a gap distance of 80 micrometers. The variation of frequency, in the change in the electron energy probability function (EEPF). Through the relation between the ion trajectories and the frequency, results in the change of EEPFs is achievable with the turning point of frequency mode. Therefore, it is possible to categorize the efficient operation range of DBDs for its applications by controlling the interactions between plasmas and neutral gas for the generation of preferable radicals.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.266-277
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• 1998

The effects of $H_2S$ gas ratio, temperature and time on the case depth, hardness, and sulfide and nitride formation on the surface of sulfnitrided SCM440 steel have been studied by micro-pulse plasma technique. The thickness of compound layer of sulfide and nitride increased with the increase of time, temperautre and $H_2S$ gas ratio. But surface hardness decreased with the increase of soft sulfide layer because the hard nitride layer formed beneath the sulfide. The thickness of sulfide layer was about 10$\mu\textrm{m}$ abpve 0.0088% of $H_2S$ gas. The highest surface hardness of the compound layer was Hv835 at $530^{\circ}C$, 1hr and 0.06% of $H_2S$ gas. X-ray diffraction indicated that the surface products were $Fe_{1_x}S$, $Fe_{2.5}N$ and $Fe_4N$. It was confirmed by EPMA that sulfide only existed in the surface.