• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11b
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• pp.300-315
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• 2005

Recently plasma surface-cleaning or surface-etching techniques have been focused in the respect of decontamination of spent or used nuclear parts and equipment. In this study decontamination rate of metallic cobalt surface was experimentally investigated via its surface etching rate with a $CF_4-O_2$ mixed gas plasma and metallic surface wastes of cobalt oxides were simulated and decontaminated with $NF_3$ - Ar mixed gas plasma. Experimental results revealed that a mixed etchant gas with about $80{\%}\;CF_4-20{\%}\;O_2$ gives the highest reaction rate of cobalt disk and the rate reaches with a negative 300 DC bias voltage up to $0.43\;{\mu}m$/min at $380^{\circ}C$ and $20{\%}\;NF_3-80\%$ Ar mixed gas gives $0.2\;{\mu}m$/min of reaction rate of cobalt oxide film.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.71-74
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• 2009

Electroplated Cu is a cost efficient metallization method in microelectronic packaging applications. Typically in 3-D chip staking technology, utilizing through silicon via (TSV), electroplated Cu metallization is inevitable for the throughput as well as reducing the cost of ownership (COO).To achieve a comparable film quality to sputtering or CVD, a pre-cleaning process as well as plating process is crucial. In this research, atmospheric plasma is employed to reduce the usage of chemicals, such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and sodium hydroxide (NaHO), by substituting the chemical assisted organic cleaning process with plasma surface treatment for Cu electroplating. By employing atmospheric plasma treatment, marginally acceptable electroplating and cleaning results are achieved without the use of hazardous chemicals. The experimental results show that the substitution of the chemical process with plasma treatment is plausible from an environmentally friendly aspect. In addition, plasma treatment on immersion Sn/Cu was also performed to find out the solderability of plasma treated Sn/Cu for practical industrial applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1117-1124
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• 2012

This study was a preliminary study to investigate the influence of surface morphology and characteristics on the self-cleaning of substrates. PI film was treated by $O_2$ plasma to modify the surface; in addition, AFM and Fe-SEM were employed to examine the morphological changes induced on a PI film treated by $O_2$ plasma and surface energies calculated from measured contact angles between several solutions and PI film based on the geometric mean and a Lewis acid base method. The surface roughness of PI film treated by $O_2$ plasma increased with the duration of the $O_2$ plasma on PI film due to the increased surface etching. The contact angle of film treated by $O_2$ plasma decreased with the increased treatment time in water and surfactant solution; in addition, the surface energy increased with the increased treatment times largely attributed to the increased portion on the polar surface energy of PI film. The coefficient of the correlation between surface roughness and surface polarity such as contact angle and surface energy was below 0.35; however, it was over 0.99 for the contact angle and surface energy.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.424-432
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• 2000

The plasma surface treatment, using hydrogen gas, of the silicon wafer was investigated as a pretreatment for the application to silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers using the silicon direct bonding technique. The chemical reactions of hydrogen plasma with surfaces were used for both the surface activation and the removal of surface contaminants. As a result of exposure of silicon wafer to the plasma, an active oxide layer was formed on the surface, which was rendered hydrophilic. The surface roughness and morphology were estimated as functions of plasma exposing time as well as of power. The surface became smoother with decreased incident hydrogen ion flux by reducing plasma exposing time and power. This process was very effective to reduce the carbon contaminants on the silicon surface, which was responsible for a high initial surface energy. The initial surface energy measured by the crack propagation method was 506 mJ/m2, which was up to about three times higher than that of a conventional RCA cleaning method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.230-230
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.31A no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 1994

The Ultrahigh Vacuum Electron Cyclotron Resonance Chemical Vapor Deposition(UHV-ECRCVD) system whose base pressure is 1${\times}10^{9}$ torr has been constructed. In-situ cleaning prior to the epitaxial growth was carried out at 56$0^{\circ}C$ by ECR generated uniform hydrogen plasma whose density is $10^{10}/cm{3}$. The natural oxide was effectively removed without damage by applying positive DC bias(+10V) to the substrate. RHEED(Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction) analysis has been used to confirm the removal of the surgace oxide and the streaky 2$\times$1 reconstruction of the Si surface, and the suppression of the substrate damage is anaylized by X-TEM(cross-sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy). Surface cleaning technique by ECR hydrogen plasma confirmed good quality epitaxial growth at low temperature.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.305-310
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• 2001

UBM-coated Si-wafer was fluxlessly soldered with glass substrate in $N_2$ atmosphere using plasma cleaning method. The bulk Sn-37wt.%Pb solder was rolled to the sheet of $100\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness in order to bond a solder disk by fluxless 1st reflow process. The oxide layer on the solder surface was analysed by AES(Auger Electron Spectroscopy). Through rolling, the oxide layer on the solder surface became thin, and it was possible to bond a solder disk on the Si-wafer with fluxless process in $N_2$ gas. The Si-wafer with a solder disk was plasma-cleaned in order to remove oxide layer formed during 1st reflow and soldered to glass by 2nd reflow process without flux in $N_2$ atmosphere. The thickness of oxide layer decreased with increasing plasma power and cleaning time. The optimum plasma cleaning condition for soldering was 500W 12min. The joint was sound and the thicknesses of intermetallic compounds were less than $1\mu\textrm{m}$.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.403-408
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• 2001

In this work, the cyclic perfluorinated ether (c-C$_4$F$_{8}$O) with very high destructive removal efficiency (DRE) than other alternative gases, such as $C_3$F$_{8}$, c-C$_4$F$_{8}$ and NF$_3$ was used as an alternative process chemical. The plasma cleaning of silicon nitride using gas mixtures of c-C$_4$F$_{8}$O/O$_2$ and c-C$_4$F$_{8}$O/O$_2$+ $N_2$ was investigated in order to evaluate the effects of adding $N_2$ to c-C$_4$F$_{8}$O/O$_2$ on the global warming effects. Under optimum condition, the emitted net perfluorocompounds (PFCs) during cleaning of silicon nitride were quantified and then the effects of additive $N_2$ by obtaining the destructive removal efficiency (DRE) and the million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMT-CE) were calculated. DRE and MMTCE were obtained by evaluating the volumetric emission using. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). During the cleaning using c-C$_4$F$_{8}$O/O$_2$+$N_2$, DRE values as high as (equation omitted) 98% were obtained and MMTCE values were reduced by as high as 70% compared to the case of $C_2$F$_{6}$O$_2$. Recombination characteristics were indirectly investigated by combining the measurements of species in the chamber using optical emission spectroscopy (OES), before and after the cleaning, in order to understand any correlation between plasma and emission characteristics as well as cleaning rate of silicon nitride.silicon nitride.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.817-824
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• 1996

Removal of Cu impurities on Si substrates using remote H-plasma was investigated. Si substrates were intentionally contaminated by 1ppm ${CuCI}_{2}$, standard chemical solution. To determine the optimal process condition, remote H-plasma cleaning was conducted varying the parameters of rf power, cleaning time and remoteness(the distance between the center of plasma and the surface of Si substrate). After remote H-plasma cleaning was conducted, Si surfaces were analysed by TXRF(total x-ray reflection fluorescence) and AFM(atomic force microscope). The concentration of Cu impurity was reduced by more than a factor of 10 and its RMS roughness was improved by more than 30% after remote H-plasma cleaning. TXRF analysis results show that remote H-plasma cleaning is effective in eliminating Cu impurity on Si surface when it is performed under the optimal process condition. AFM analysis results also verifies that remote H-plasma cleaning makes no damage to the Si surface. The deposition mechanism of Cu impurity may be explained by the redox potential(oxidation-reduction reaction potential) theory. Based on the XPS analysis results we could draw a conclusion that Cu impurities on the Si substrate are removed together with the oxide by a "lift-off" mechanism when the chemical oxide( which forms when Cu ions are adsorbed on the Si surface) is etched off by reactive hydrogen atoms.gen atoms.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.102-109
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• 2000

It is difficult to meet the cleanliness requirement of $10^{10}/\textrm{cm}^2$ for the giga level device fabrication with mechanical cleaning techniques like scrubbing which is widely used to remove the particles generated during Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) processes. Therefore, the second cleaning process is needed to remove metallic contaminants which were not completely removed during the mechanical cleaning process. In this paper the experimental results for the removal of the metallic contaminants existing on the wafer surface using remote plasma $H_2$ cleaning and UV/$O_3$ cleaning techniques are reported. In the remote plasma $H_2$ cleaning the efficiency of contaminants removal increases with decreasing the plasma exposure time and increasing the rf-power. Also the optimum process conditions for the removal of K, Fe and Cu impurities which are easily found on the wafer surface after CMP processes are the plasma exposure time of 1min and the rf-power of 100 W. The surface roughness decreased by 30-50 % after remote plasma $H_2$ cleaning. On the other hand, the highest efficiency of K, Fe and Cu impurities removal was achieved for the UV exposure time of 30 sec. The removal mechanism of the metallic contaminants like K, Fe and Cu in the remote plasma $H_2$ and the UV/$O_3$ cleaning processes is as follows: the metal atoms are lifted off by $SiO^*$ when the $SiO^*$is evaporated after the chemical $SiO_2$ formed under the metal atoms reacts with $H^+ \; and\; e^-$ to form $SiO^*$.