• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 1996

Considering that polycrystalline silicon, a structural material of the micromachining, is affected by a sacrificial oxide layer, the poly-oxide obtained by the thermal oxidation of polycrystalline silicon is newly proposed and estimated as the sacrificial oxide layer. The grain size of the polycrystalline silicon grown on the poly-oxide is larger than that of poly crystalline silicon grown on the conventional sacrificial oxide layer. As a result of XRD, increase of (111) textures and formation of additional (220) textures are observed on the polycrystaIline silicon deposited on the poly-oxide. Also, the polycrystalline silicon grown on the poly-oxide represents small and uniform stress.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.373-377
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• 2004

We have investigated the electrical characterization of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors formed on the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch-damaged both n- and p-type 4H-SiC. We found that there was an effect of a sacrificial oxidation treatment on the etch-damaged surfaces. Current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements of these MOS capacitors were used and referenced to those of prepared control samples without etch damage. It has been found that a sacrificial oxidation treatment can improve the electrical characteristics of MOS capacitors on etch-damaged 4H-SiC since the effective interface density and fixed oxide charges of etch-damaged samples have been found to increase while the breakdown field strength of the oxide decreased and the barrier height at the SiC-SiO$_2$ interface decreased for MOS capacitors on etch-damaged surfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.435-439
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• 2016

We developed a Ag nanowire patterning technique using a water-soluble sacrificial layer. To form a water-soluble sacrificial layer, germanium was deposited on the substrate and then water-soluble germanium oxide was simply formed by thermal oxidation of germanium using a conventional furnace. The formation of Ag nanowire patterns with various line and space arrangements was successfully demonstrated using this patterning process. The main advantage of this patterning technique is that it does not use a strong acid etchant, thereby preventing damage to the Ag nanowire during the patterning process.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.414-420
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• 1999

The oxide sacrificial layer technology is one of the key technologies in surface micromachining. However, the commonly used aqueous HF solutions, including the $NH_4F$ buffered HF solutions (BHF), are known to attack the Al metal layers during the oxide sacrificial etch. A mixed $NH_4F$/HF/glycerine aqueous solution of 4:1:2 ratio is known to have the best etch selectivity between oxide and AI, but even this sacrificial etchant has a significant etch rate for AI. This paper reports an extensive experimental study on various concentration ratios for HF, $NH_4F$ and glycerine, and develops the optimal mixture ratio for sacrificial etching. At the $NH_4F$/HF/glycerine ratio of 2:1:4, the etch selectivity between PSG and Al improves by approximately 6 times over the previously known best selectivity, to a value of 7,700. At this condition, the measured etch rate of PSG film is approximately $2.1\;{\mu}m/min$, which is sufficiently fast. The developed sacrificial etchant allows the addition of a Al metal layer in surface micromachining, without the worry of Al layer erosion during sacrificial etch.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.2001-2003
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• 1996

In this study, Allied Signal 211 SOG was used as a sacrificial material. After researching its etching properties, we adapted it to bottom-drive micrometers. SOG was superior etch rate and roughness to them of PSG or CVD-oxide and possible to low-temperature processing. Etching properties of SOG depended on the temperature and duration of its bake and cure. SOG used in the fabrication of bottom-drive micrometers showed us usefulness as a sacrificial layer and haying a least influence on machines on it in comparison with conventional sacrificial materials.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.33-37
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• 2014

We have developed a novel passivation process employing a sacrificial gallium oxide process in order to recover the surface damage in AlGaN/GaN HFETs. Even with a conventional prepassivation process, surface damage during high temperature ohmic annealing cannot be avoided completely. Therefore, it is necessary to recover the damaged surface to avoid the characteristic degradation. In this work, a sacrificial gallium oxide process has been proposed in which the damaged surface after ohmic annealing was oxidized by oxygen plasma treatment and thereafter etched back using HCl. As a result, the leakage current was dramatically reduced and thus the subthreshold slope was significantly improved. In addition, the maximum drain current level was increased from 594 to 634 mA/mm. To verify the effects, the surface conditions were carefully investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.83-83
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• 2008

Metal-oxide-silicon-on-insulator (MOSOI) structures were fabricated to study the effect caused by reactive ion etching (RIE) and sacrificial oxidation process on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) layer. The MOSOI capacitors with an etch-damaged SOI layer were characterized by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements and compared to the sacrificial oxidation treated samples and the reference samples without etching treatment. The measured C-V curves were compared to the numerical results from 2-dimensional (2-D) simulations. The measurements revealed that the profile of C-V curves significantly changes depending on the SOI surface condition of the MOSOI capacitors. The shift in the measured C-V curves, due to the difference of the fixed oxide charge ($Q_f$), together with the numerical simulation analysis and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis, allowed extracting the fixed oxide charges ($Q_f$) in the structures as well as 2-D carrier distribution profiles.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.328-333
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• 2023

This study experimentally verified the etch rate of the SiO₂ sacrificial layer etching process with a single etch hole using vapor-phase hydrogen fluoride (VHF) etching. To fabricate small-sized polysilicon etch holes, both circular and triangular pattern masks were employed. Etch holes were fabricated in the polysilicon thin film on the SiO₂ sacrificial layer, and VHF etching was performed to release the polysilicon thin film. The lateral etch rate was measured for varying etch hole sizes and sacrificial layer thicknesses. Based on the measured results, we obtained an approximate equation for the etch rate as a function of the etch hole size and sacrificial layer thickness. The etch rates obtained in this study can be utilized to minimize structural damage caused by incomplete or excessive etching in sacrificial layer processes. In addition, the results of this study provide insights for optimizing sacrificial layer etching and properly designing the size and spacing of the etch holes. In the future, further research will be conducted to explore the formation of structures using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes to simultaneously seal etch hole and prevent adhesion owing to polysilicon film vibration.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.379-384
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• 2015

An infrared image sensor is a core device in a thermal imaging system. The fabrication method of a focal plane array (FPA) is a key technology for a high resolution infrared image sensor. Each pixels in the FPA have $Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ membranes including legs to deposit bolometric materials and electrodes on Si readout circuits (ROIC). Instead of polyimide used to form a sacrificial layer, the feasibility of an amorphous silicon (${\alpha}-Si$) was verified experimentally in a $8{\times}8$ micro-bolometer array with a $50{\mu}m$ pitch. The elimination of the polyimide sacrificial layer hardened by a following plasma assisted deposition process is sometimes far from perfect, and thus requires longer plasma ashing times leading to the deformation of the membrane and leg. Since the amorphous Si could be removed in $XeF_2$ gas at room temperature, however, the fabricated micro-bolomertic structure was not damaged seriously. A radio frequency (RF) sputtered nickel oxide film was grown on a $Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ membrane fabricated using a low stress silicon nitride (LSSiN) technology with a LPCVD system. The deformation of the membrane was effectively reduced by a combining the ${\alpha}-Si$ and LSSiN process for a nickel oxide micro-bolometer.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1995.11a
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• pp.609-611
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• 1995

In this study, we experimented the properties of SOG film as sacrificials layers in surface micromachining and made $SiO_2$ films through spin, bake, cure process. When we culled SOG films once, SOG film thickness is 1000 $\sim$ 3000 ${\AA}$. Then we coaled 200-${\AA}$ SOG film on 9000 ${\AA}$-CVD oxide and then we fabricated test structure, cantilever and ring/beam structure. We estimated deformed structure by SEM. As the results, The deformation of the structure layer in the SOG-coated sacrificial layers is small compared with that or the structure layer on CVD oxide or PSG. In the future, we use multi coated SOG films, SOG film become adequate material as sacrificial layer.