• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.14-17
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• 2002

The HDP (High Density Plasma) CVD process consists of a simultaneous sputter etch and chemical vapor deposition. As CMOS process continues to scale down to sub- quarter micron technology, HDP process has been widely used fur the gap-fill of small geometry metal spacing in inter-metal dielectric process. However, HBP CVD system has some potential problems including plasma-induced damage. Plasma-induced gate oxide damage has been an increasingly important issue for integrated circuit process technology. In this paper, thin gate oxide charge damage caused by HDP deposition of inter-metal dielectric was studied. Multiple step HDP deposition process was demonstrated in this work to prevent plasma-induced damage by introducing an in-situ top SiH$_4$ unbiased liner deposition before conventional deposition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.155.1-155.1
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• 2013

The goals of this study are to elucidate the plasma effects on DNA molecules to apply some plasma based applications and also to find out the mechanisms of plasma-induced DNA damage in biomolecule. Nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasma has much potential for medical, agricultural and food applications for the future. The atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) contains radicals, charged particles, low energy electrons, excited molecules and UV light. It has been started doing experiments using APPJ at the early 21th. And some recent results showed that APPJ has a possibility to apply to new fields like mentioned above. But it is kind of at the very early stages of plasma based application. It is definitely necessary much of theoretical and experimental studies to further understanding to use nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasma in biomedical, agriculture and food parts. Here we introduce a new experimental system to study plasma effects on biomolecules. And we will show some recent results of LEE-induced DNA damage using electron irradiation apparatus under ultra-high vacuum.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.167-178
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• 2000

The effect of oral vitamin e (800IU/day) and C (500mg/day) supplementation for 10 days and/or smoking cessation for 5 days on oxidative damage to the red blood cells (RBC) of male smokers (22.2$\pm$0.2 years old) was studied. RBC were tested for their ability to protect against smoking-induced oxidative damage by measuring heme proteins (carboxyhemoglobin, hemoglobin, methemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin), hemolysis and thiobarbiturinc acid reactive substances (TBARS). Plasma levels of vitamin c, A, E, $\beta$-catotene, total cholesterol, glutamic pyruvic transaminase(GPT) and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase(GOT) were also analyzed. In experiment one, a comparison was made of heme proteins and lipid damage to RBC, plasma antioxidant status (indexed by plasma levels of vitamin C, E, A and $\beta$-carotene) between smokers(n=56) and non-smokers (n=16). No differences were found in plasma antioxidant status, heme protein damage and TBARS concentration of RBC. In experiment two, 46 fasting male smokers from experiment one were divided into 4 groups. The groups were smoking with placebo group(SP, n=14), smoking cessation with vitamins supplementatin group (SV, n=13), smoking cessation with placebo group (NSP, n=9) and smoking cessation with vitamins supplementation group (NSV, n=10). After supplementing antioxidant vitamins, significant increases were seen in plasma vitamins supplementation group (NSV, n=10). After supplementing antioxidant vitamins, significant increases were seen plasma vitamin C (p<0.05) and vitamin E levels (p<0.05). The plasma vitamin E level was highest in the NSV group. Vitmain E and C supplementation provided some protection against heme proteins and lipid damage by lowering methemoglobin, hemolysis and TBARS concentration of RBC. Smoking cessation significantly decreased TBARS of RBC and plasma total cholesterol concentration. Supplementing vitamin E and C with smoking cessation considerably lowered plasma total cholesterol. These results point to a special association among smoking, oxidative damage and plasma antioxidant vitamin status. They indicate that increases in plasma antioxidant status can be detected after the supplementation of vitamin C and E and that smoking cessation had an additional effect on plasma vitamin E level. The present data suggest that improved antioxidant status induced by antioxidant supplementation or smoking cessation may help prevent oxidative damage in smokers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.326-332
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• 1998

The effect of mushroom extracts from Pleurotus ostreatus and Lentinus edodes on carbon tetrachloride(CCl4)-induced hepatotoxicity was investigated. Rats were administered orally each mushroom extract at the dose of 150mg/kg, foolwed by treatment with CCl4. Liver damage was produced in male Sprague-Dawley rats, after 21hrs from dosing with CCl4(0.25ml/kg) which were given intraperitoneally. Liver damage without renal injury was confirmed by measuring plasma enzyme, creatinine and blood analysis and liver analysis. Plasma aminotransferase activity, and levels of cholesterol and triglyceride were analyzed. Plasma alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities were decreased by 34% and 61.5% in pretreatment group of Lentinus edodes compared with CCl4 treated group, respectively. The adminstration of all mushroom extracts led the plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels decrease more than the CCl4-treated rats. These results suggest that Lentinus edodes extract protect liver from damage induced by CCl4.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.523-523
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• 2012

As the wafer geometric requirements continuously complicated and minutes in tens of nanometers, the expectation of real-time add-on sensors for in-situ plasma process monitoring is rapidly increasing. Various industry applications, utilizing plasma impedance monitor (PIM) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), on etch end point detection, etch chemistry investigation, health monitoring, fault detection and classification, and advanced process control are good examples. However, process monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing industry requires non-invasiveness. The hypothesis behind the optical monitoring of plasma induced ion current is for the monitoring of plasma induced charging damage in non-invasive optical way. In plasma dielectric via etching, the bombardment of reactive ions on exposed conductor patterns may induce electrical current. Induced electrical charge can further flow down to device level, and accumulated charges in the consecutive plasma processes during back-end metallization can create plasma induced charging damage to shift the threshold voltage of device. As a preliminary research for the hypothesis, we performed two phases experiment to measure the plasma induced current in etch environmental condition. We fabricated electrical test circuits to convert induced current to flickering frequency of LED output, and the flickering frequency was measured by high speed optical plasma monitoring system (OPMS) in 10 kHz. Current-frequency calibration was done in offline by applying stepwise current increase while LED flickering was measured. Once the performance of the test circuits was evaluated, a metal pad for collecting ion bombardment during plasma etch condition was placed inside etch chamber, and the LED output frequency was measured in real-time. It was successful to acquire high speed optical emission data acquisition in 10 kHz. Offline measurement with the test circuitry was satisfactory, and we are continuously investigating the potential of real-time in-situ plasma induce current measurement via OPMS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.287-287
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• 2011

ITRS(international technology roadmap for semiconductors)에 따르면 MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor)의 CD(critical dimension)가 45 nm node이하로 줄어들면서 poly-Si/SiO2를 대체할 수 있는 poly-Si/metal gate/high-k dielectric이 대두되고 있다. 일반적으로 metal gate를 식각시 정확한 CD를 형성시키기 위해서 plasma를 이용한 RIE(reactive ion etching)를 사용하고 있지만 PIDs(plasma induced damages)의 하나인 PICD(plasma induced charging damage)의 발생이 문제가 되고 있다. PICD의 원인으로 plasma의 non-uniform으로 locally imbalanced한 ion과 electron이 PICC(plasma induced charging current)를 gate oxide에 발생시켜 gate oxide의 interface에 trap을 형성시키므로 그 결과 소자 특성 저하가 보고되고 있다. 그러므로 본 연구에서는 이에 차세대 MOS의 metal gate의 식각공정에 HDP(high density plasma)의 ICP(inductively coupled plasma) source를 이용한 중성빔 시스템을 사용하여 PICD를 줄일 수 있는 새로운 식각 공정에 대한 연구를 하였다. 식각공정조건으로 gas는 HBr 12 sccm (80%)와 Cl2 3 sccm (20%)와 power는 300 w를 사용하였고 200 eV의 에너지로 식각공정시 TEM(transmission electron microscopy)으로 TiN의 anisotropic한 형상을 볼 수 있었고 100 eV 이하의 에너지로 식각공정시 하부층인 HfO2와 높은 etch selectivity로 etch stop을 시킬 수 있었다. 실제 공정을 MOS의 metal gate에 적용시켜 metal gate/high-k dielectric CMOSFETs의 NCSU(North Carolina State University) CVC model로 effective electric field electron mobility를 구한 결과 electorn mobility의 증가를 볼 수 있었고 또한 mos parameter인 transconductance (Gm)의 증가를 볼 수 있었다. 그 원인으로 CP(Charge pumping) 1MHz로 gate oxide의 inteface의 분석 결과 이러한 결과가 gate oxide의 interface trap양의 감소로 개선으로 기인함을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.179-184
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate effects of onion, red onion, or quercetin on plasma antioxidant vitamin, lipid peroxidation, and leukocyte DNA damage in rats fed a high fat-cholesterol diet. Forty SD male rats were assigned to normal control, high fat-cholesterol diet (HF), or HF+5% onion powder, HF+5% red onion powder, or HF+0.0l% quercetin. The HF diet resulted in significantly higher plasma lipid peroxidation which decreased with onion, red onion, or quercetin supplementation. Leukocyte DNA damage induced by HF diet decreased significantly in rats fed onion and red onion, while quercetin supplementation had no effect on preventing leukocyte DNA damage. $H_2O_2$ induced leukocyte DNA damage exhibited a highly significant negative correlation with plasma retinol and tocopherols. These results suggest that onion or red onion powder exerts a protective effect with regard to DNA damage in rats fed HF diet. However, 0.01% quercetin in pure form might not be effective at preventing DNA damage.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.549-552
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• 1998

Recently, the gate oxide damage induced by the plasma processes has been one of the most significant reliability issues as the gate oxide thickness falls below 10 nm. The process-induced damage was studied with the metal antenna test structures. In addition to the electron trapping, the hole trapping in a 10 nm thick gate oxide due to the plasma-induced charging was observed in the NMOS's with a metal antenna. The hole trapping gave rise to the decrease of the transconductance (gm) similarly to the case of the electron trapping, but to the extent much less than the electron trapping. It would be because the electrical stress that the plasma-induced charging forced to the gate oxide for the devices with the hole trapping was much smaller than for those with the electron trapping. This hypothesis was strongly supported by the measured characteristics of the Fowler-Nordheim current in the gate oxide.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.551-552
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• 2006

Plasma-induced charging damage was been measured during TaN gate electrode of MISFET(TaN/$HfO_2$/Si) or interconnection metal etching step using large antenna structures. The results of these experiments were obtained that $HfO_2$ gate dielectric layer was affected about plasma charging effects and damage increased with F-N tunneling. Therefore, the etching conditions should be optimized to avoid the defects caused by plasma charging.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.08b
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• pp.1220-1224
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• 2007

The effects of plasma damages to the organic thin film transistor (OTFT) during the fabrication process are investigated; metal deposition process on the organic gate insulator by plasma sputtering mainly generates the process induced damages of bottom contact structured OTFTs. For this study, various deposition methods (thermal evaporation, plasma sputtering, and neutral beam based sputtering) and metals (gold and Indium-Tin Oxide) have been tested for their damage effects onto the Poly 4-vinylphenol(PVP) layer surface as an organic gate insulator. The surface damages are estimated by measuring surface energies and grain shapes of organic semiconductor on the gate insulator. Unlike thermal evaporation and neutral beam based sputtering, conventional plasma sputtering process induces serious damages onto the organic surface as increasing surface energy, decreasing grain sizes, and degrading TFT performance.