• 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 Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2005

The silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer fabrication technique has been developed by using ion-cut process, based on proton implantation and wafer bonding techniques. It has been shown by SRIM simulation that 65keV proton implantation is required for a SOI wafer (200nm SOI, 400nm BOX) fabrication. In order to investigate the optimum proton dose and primary annealing condition for wafer splitting, the surface morphologic change has been observed such as blistering and flaking. As a result, effective dose is found to be in the $6\~9\times10^{16}\;H^+/cm^2$ range, and the annealing at $550^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes is expected to be optimum for wafer splitting. Direct wafer bonding is performed by joining two wafers together after creating hydrophilic surfaces by a modified RCA cleaning, and IR inspection is followed to ensure a void free bonding. The wafer splitting was accomplished by annealing at the predetermined optimum condition, and high temperature annealing was then performed at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for 60 minutes to stabilize the bonding interface. TEM observation revealed no detectable defect at the SOI structure, and the interface trap charge density at the upper interface of the BOX was measured to be low enough to keep 'thermal' quality.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.98-103
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• 2013

In this work, we investigated the enhanced performance of IZO-based TFTs with $HfSiO_x$ gate insulators. Four types of $HfSiO_x$ gate insulators using different diposition powers were deposited by co-sputtering $HfO_2$ and Si target. To simplify the processing sequences, all of the layers composing of TFTs were deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering method using patterned shadow-masks without any intentional heating of substrate and subsequent thermal annealing. The four different $HfSiO_x$ structural properties were investigated x-ray diffraction(XRD), atomic force microscopy(AFM) and also analyzed the electrical characteristics. There were some noticeable differences depending on the composition of the $HfO_2$ and Si combination. The TFT based on $HfSiO_x$ gate insulator with $HfO_2$(100W)-Si(100W) showed the best results with a field effect mobility of 2.0[$cm^2/V{\cdot}s$], a threshold voltage of -0.5[V], an on/off ratio of 5.89E+05 and RMS of 0.26[nm]. This show that the composition of the $HfO_2$ and Si is an important factor in an $HfSiO_x$ insulator. In addition, the effective bonding of $HfO_2$ and Si reduced the defects in the insulator bulk and also improved the interface quality between the channel and the gate insulator.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.293-300
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• 1995

The radical centers detected in the reaction of metmyoglobin (MetMb) with hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) have been studied by using a spin trapping technique. A broad 5-line asymmetric electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrum, with $2A_{max}=4.07\;mT$ and $2A_{min}=2.97\;mT$, obtained after incubation of MetMb with $H_2O_2$ in the presence of a spin trap, 5,5-dimethyl pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) was gradually weakened with time and disappeared completely by 6 min after addition of guanidine-HCl (14 M). When a higher concentration (6 M) of the agent was added, the signal disappeared within 40 see and the DMPO/OH signal appeared immediately. Then, a new 8-line signal with similar intensities grew gradually and was fixed by 45 min, coexisting with the DMPO/OH signal. This new signal was found to be composite, consisting of two different radical species. One of the 6-line signals, with $a_N$ 1.49 mT and $a_H$ 0.988 mT, was assigned to the DMPO/phenoxyl radical adduct. The second 6-line signal with $a_N$ 1.55 mT and $a_H$ 2.22 mT was assigned to carbon-centered radical adduct. When 3,3,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolin-N-oxide (TMPO), was employed in the place of DMPO, another broad asymmetric 5-line signal was detected with $2A_{max}=3.99\;mT$ and $2A_{min}=3.04\;mT$, which is virtually identical to that obtained from the DMPO system The shape of the spectrum of the TMPO adduct changed drastically, with lapse of time resulting in a broad singlet after 40 min. The broad singlet was assigned to the porphyrin radical adduct. Incubation of globin with Fenton reagent in the presence of DMPO initially gave a DMPO/OH signal. Then, a new 12-line signal began to grow after one minute and fixed after 15 min. coexisting with the DMPO/OH signal, This 12-line signal was assigned to DMPO/phenoxyl with $a_N$ 1.47 mT, $a_{{\beta}H}$ 0.99 mT and $a_{{\gamma}H}$ 0.13 mT. A minor concentration of carbon-centered radical adduct was also detected. This radical composition is identical to that of guanidine HCl treated MetMb/DMPO/$H_2O_2$ system, indicating that the radical producing conditions are somehow common in both systems. Heme iron can be released by excess $H_2O_2$ in the MetMb/$H_2O_2$ system, providing for Fenton reagent. When MetMb was pretreated with tyrosine blocking agent, $KI_3$ the broad 5.line MetMb-derived signal was not detected in the MetMb/DMPO/$H_2O_2$ system, whereas no such effect was detected on such system of Hb in which the radical center was assigned to cysteine residue not tyrosine, indicating that tyrosine residue is a main radical center produced in the MetMb/$H_2O_2$ system Thus, the present data strongly support the previous indication that the apomyoglobin-derived radical center formed in the reaction of MetMb with $H_2O_2$ is a tyrosine residue.