• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.26 no.B
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• pp.173-181
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• 2006

We analyzed systematically particle growth in the pulsed $SiH_4$ plasmas by a numerical method and investigated the effects of pulse modulations (pulse frequencies, duty ratios) on the particle growth. We considered effects of particle charging on the particle growth by coagulation during plasma-on. During plasma-on ($t_{on}$), the particle size distribution in plasma reactor becomes bimodal (small sized and large sized particles groups). During plasma-off ($t_{off}$), there is a single mode of large sized particles which is widely dispersed in the particle size distribution. During plasma on, the large sized particles grows more quickly by fast coagulation between small and large sized particles than during plasma-off. As the pulse frequency decreases, or as the duty ratio increases, $t_{on}$ increases and the large sized particles grow faster. On the basis of these results, the pulsed plasma process can be a good method to suppress efficiently the generation and growth of particles in $SiH_4$ PCVD process. This systematical analysis can be applied to design a pulsed plasma process for the preparation of high quality thin films.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.339-346
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• 2015

Aerodynamic flow control phenomena were investigated with a low-current DC surface discharge plasma actuator. The plasma actuator was found to operate in three different discharge modes with similar discharge currents of about 1 mA or less. Stable continuous DC discharge without audible noise was obtained at higher ballast resistances and lower discharge currents. However, even with continuous DC power input, a low-frequency self-pulsed discharge was obtained at lower ballast resistances, and a high-frequency self-pulsed discharge was obtained at higher set-point currents and higher ballast resistances, both with audible noise. The Schlieren image reveals that the low-frequency self-pulsed mode produces a synthetic jet-like flow implying that a gas heating effect plays a role, even though the discharge current is small. The high-frequency self-pulsed mode produces pulsed jets in a tangent direction, and the continuous DC mode produces a steady straight pressure wave. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) images reveal that the induced flow field by the low-frequency self-pulsed mode has flow propagating in the radial direction and centered between the electrodes. The high-frequency self-pulsed mode and continuous DC mode produce flow from the anode to the cathode. The perturbed region downstream of the cathode is larger in the high-frequency self-pulsed mode with similar maximum speeds.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.25 no.A
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• pp.141-149
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• 2005

We investigated numerically the evolutions of several chemical species which are important for film growth and particle generation in the pulsed $SiH_4$ plasmas. During the plasma-on, the $SiH_x$ concentration increases with time mainly by the generation reaction from $SiH_4$, but, during the plasma-off, decreases because of the hydrogen adsorption reaction. During the plasma-on, the concentrations of negative ions increase with time by the polymerization reactions of negative ions and those become almost zero in the sheath regions because of the electrostatic repulsion. During the plasma-off, the concentrations of negative ions decrease with time by the neutralization reactions with positive ions and some negative ions can diffuse toward the sheath regions because there is no electric field inside the reactor. The polymerized negative ions of higher mass can be reduced successfully by using the pulsed plasma process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.320-320
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• 2016

Nanocrystalline Carbon thin films have numerous applications in different areas such as mechanical, biotechnology and optoelectronic devices due to attractive properties like high excellent hardness, low friction coefficient, good chemical inertness, low surface roughness, non-toxic and biocompatibility. In this work, we studied the comparison of pure DC power and pulsed DC power in plasma sputtering process of carbon thin films synthesis. Using a close field unbalanced magnetron sputtering system, films were deposited on glass and Si wafer substrates by varying the power density and pulsed DC frequency variations. The plasma characteristics has been studied using the I-V discharge characteristics and optical emission spectroscopy. The films properties were studied using Raman spectroscopy, Hall effect measurement, contact angle measurement. Through the Raman results, ID/IG ratio was found to be increased by increasing either of DC power density and pulsed DC frequency. Film deposition rate, measured by Alpha step measurement, increased with increasing DC power density and decreased with pulsed DC frequency. The electrical resistivity results show that the resistivity increased with increasing DC power density and pulsed DC frequency. The film surface energy was estimated using the calculated values of contact angle of DI water and di-iodo-methane. Our results exhibit a tailoring of surface energies from 52.69 to $55.42mJ/m^2$ by controlling the plasma parameters.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2010

SCM440 steels were nitrided using pulsed dc plasma combined with inductively coupled plasma (ICP) generated by 13.56 MHz rf power in order to enhance case hardening depth. The case hardening depth was increased with rf power. The effective case-depth with ICP at 900 watt was as 1.6 times as that nitrided without ICP. The hardening depth was also increased up to 1.45 times. The compound layers formed on top surface were dense and thin when pulsed dc plasma was combined with ICP.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.360-370
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• 2015

As the size of the semiconductor devices shrinks to nanometer scale, the importance of plasma etching process to the fabrication of nanometer scale semiconductor devices is increasing further and further. But for the nanoscale devices, conventional plasma etching technique is extremely difficult to meet the requirement of the device fabrication, therefore, other etching techniques such as use of multi frequency plasma, source/bias/gas pulsing, etc. are investigated to meet the etching target. Until today, various pulsing techniques including pulsed plasma source and/or pulse-biased plasma etching have been tested on various materials. In this review, the experimental/theoretical studies of pulsed plasmas during the nanoscale plasma etching on etch profile, etch selectivity, uniformity, etc. have been summarized. Especially, the researches of pulsed plasma on the etching of silicon, $SiO_2$, and magnetic materials in the semiconductor industry for further device scaling have been discussed. Those results demonstrated the importance of pulse plasma on the pattern control for achieving the best performance. Although some of the pulsing mechanism is not well established, it is believed that this review will give a certain understanding on the pulsed plasma techniques.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.589-596
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• 2008

Performance of a pulsed heat source high temperature inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generator, which can be one of the candidates of space-based laser-to-electrical power converter, is examined by a time dependent two dimensional numerical simulation. In the present MHD generator, the inert gas is assumed to be ideally heated to about $10^4K$ pulsed-likely within short time(${\sim}1{\mu}s$) in a stagnant energy input volume, and the energy of high temperature inert gas is converted to the electricity with the medium of pure inert gas plasma without seeding. The numerical simulation results show that an enthalpy extraction ratio(=electrical output energy/pulsed heat energy) of several tens of % can be achieved, which is the same level as the conventional seeded non-equilibrium plasma MHD generator. Although there still exist many phenomena to be clarified and many problems to be overcome in order to realize the system, the pulsed heat source high temperature inert gas MHD generator is surely worth examining in more detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.136.2-136.2
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• 2015

반도체 제조는 chip의 성능 향상 및 단가 하락을 위해 지속적으로 pattern size가 nano size로 감소해 왔고, capacitor 용량은 증가해 왔다. 이러한 현상은 contact hole의 aspect ratio를 지속적으로 증가시킨바, 그에 따라 최적의 HARC (high aspect ratio contact)을 확보하는 적합한 dry etch process가 필수적이다. 그러나 HARC dry etch process는 많은 critical plasma properties 에 의존하는 매우 복잡한 공정이다. 따라서, critical plasma properties를 적절히 조절하여 higher aspect ratio, higher etch selectivity, tighter critical dimension control, lower P2ID과 같은 plasma characteristics을 확보하는 것이 요구된다. 현재 critical plasma properties를 제어하기 위해 다양한 plasma etching 방법이 연구 되어왔다. 이 중 plasma를 낮은 kHz의 frequency에서 on/off 하는 pulsed plasma etching technique은 nanoscale semiconductor material의 etch 특성을 효과적으로 향상 시킬 수 있다. 따라서 본 실험에서는 dual-frequency capacitive coupled plasma (DF-CCP)을 사용하여 plasma operation 동안 duty ratio와 pulse frequency와 같은 pulse parameters를 적용하여 plasma의 특성을 각각 제어함으로써 etch selectivity와 uniformity를 향상 시키고자 하였다. Selective SiO2 contact etching을 위해 top electrode에는 60 MHz pulsed RF source power를, bottom electrode에는 2MHz pulse plasma를 인가하여 synchronously pulsed dual-frequency capacitive coupled plasma (DF-CCP)에서의 plasma 특성과 dual pulsed plasma의 sync. pulsing duty ratio의 영향에 따른 etching 특성 등을 연구 진행하였다. 또한 emissive probe를 통해 전자온도, OES를 통한 radical 분석으로 critical Plasma properties를 분석하였고 SEM을 통한 etch 특성분석과 XPS를 통한 표면분석도 함께 진행하였다. 그 결과 60%의 source duty percentage와 50%의 bias duty percentage에서 가장 향상된 etch 특성을 얻을 수 있었다.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2012

The biodiesel production characteristics in a pulsed-corona plasma reactor has been investigated through parametric tests. Transesterification of rapeseed oil together with camelina oil was done with the change of such variables as voltage of power, molar ratio, KOH catalyst and temperature. The energetic electrons emitted from pulsed-corona plasma has contributed to the enhancement of yield on rapeseed oil in short time (15 min). The higher yield on camelina oil was observed in 5 min. The optimal parameters were shown as the voltage of 23 kV, the molar ratio of 5/1, the content of KOH catalyst of 0.6 wt% and the temperature of $28^{\circ}C$ under the rotating rate of spark gap of 900 rpm.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.1574-1575
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• 2011

The application of a pulsed power system is being extended to an environmental and industrial field. The non-destructive gaseous pollutants from industrial plants such as power generation plants and incinerators can be processed by applying high voltage pulses with a fast rising time (a few nanoseconds) and short duration (nano to microseconds) in a pulsed corona discharge reactor. The pulsed plasma generator with a triggered switch has been developed. Its corona current in load can be adjusted by applied voltage and repetition rate. We investigated the performance of the pulsed plasma generator by analyzing the concentration of ozone in small reactor. This paper describes the electrical characteristics of the pulse generator with a voltage of 30 kV at repetition rate of 50 PPS. In addition, we briefly discuss a configuration of the system and initial test results.