• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.188-192
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• 2013

Many studies have been conducted for preventing from diffusion between silicon wafer and metallic thin film due to a decrease of line-width and multi-layer thin film for miniaturization and high integration of semiconductor. This paper has focused on the nano-mechanical property of diffusion barrier which sample is prepared for various gas flow rate of nitrogen with tungsten (W) base from 2.5 to 10 sccm. The deposition rate, resistivity and crystallographic properties were measured by a ${\beta}$-ray back-scattering spectroscopy, 4-point probe and x-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. We also has investigated the nano-mechanical property using the nano-indenter. As a result, the surface hardness of W-N thin film was increased rapidly from 10.07 to 15.55 GPa when the nitrogen gas flow was increased from 2.5 to 5 sccm. And the surface hardness of W-N thin film had 12.65 and 12.77 GPa at the nitrogen gas flow of 7.5 and 10 sccm respectively. These results were decreased by the comparison with the W-N thin film at nitrogen gas flow of 5 sccm. It was inferred that these severe changes were caused by the stoichiometric difference between the crystalline and amorphous state in W-N thin film. In addition, these results were caused by increased compressive stress.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2023

Accurate overlay metrology is essential to achieve high yields of semiconductor products. Overlay metrology performance is greatly affected by overlay target design and measurement method. Therefore, in order to improve the performance of the overlay target, measurement methods applicable to various targets are required. In this study, we propose a new algorithm that can measure image-based overlay. The proposed measurement algorithm can estimate the sub-pixel position by using a motion vector. The motion vector may estimate the position of the sub-pixel unit by applying a quadratic equation model through polynomial expansion using pixels in the selected region. The measurement method using the motion vector can calculate the stacking error in all directions at once, unlike the existing correlation coefficient-based measurement method that calculates the stacking error on the X-axis and the Y-axis, respectively. Therefore, more accurate overlay measurement is possible by reflecting the relationship between the X-axis and the Y-axis. However, since the amount of computation is increased compared to the existing correlation coefficient-based algorithm, more computation time may be required. The purpose of this study is not to present an algorithm improved over the existing method, but to suggest a direction for a new measurement method. Through the experimental results, it was confirmed that measurement results similar to those of the existing method could be obtained.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2022

In this research, a ring-shaped silicon carbide (SiC) single crystal manufactured using the PVT (Physical Vapor Transport) method was proposed to be applied to a SiC focus ring in semiconductor etching equipment. A cylindrical graphite structure was placed inside the graphite crucible to grow a ring-shaped SiC single crystal by the PVT method. SiC single crystal ring without crack was successfully obtained in case of using SiC single crystal wafer as a seed. A plasma etching process was performed to compare plasma resistance between the CVD-SiC focus ring and the PVT-SiC focus ring. The etch rate of ring materials in PVT-single crystal SiC focus ring was definitely lower than that of CVD-SiC focus ring, indicating better plasma resistance of PVT-SiC focus ring.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.375-375
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• 2010

CdTe as an absorber material is widely used in thin film solar cells with the heterostructure due to its almost ideal band gap energy of 1.45 eV, high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, low cost and stable performance. The deposition methods and preparation conditions for the fabrication of CdTe are very important for the achievement of high solar cell conversion efficiency. There are some rearranged reports about the deposition methods available for the preparation of CdTe thin films such as close spaced sublimation (CSS), physical vapor deposition (PVD), vacuum evaporation, vapor transport deposition (VTD), closed space vapor transport, electrodeposition, screen printing, spray pyrolysis, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and RF sputtering. The RF sputtering method for the preparation of CdTe thin films has important advantages in that the thin films can be prepared at low growth temperatures with large-area deposition suitable for mass-production. The authors reported that the optical and electrical properties of CdTe thin film were closely connected by the thickness-uniformity of the film in the previous study [1], which means that the better optical absorbance and the higher carrier concentration could be obtained in the better condition of thickness-uniformity for CdTe thin film. The thickness-uniformity could be controlled and improved by the some process parameters such as vacuum level and RF power in the sputtering process of CdTe thin films. However, there is a limitation to improve the thickness-uniformity only in the preparation process [1]. So it is necessary to introduce the external or additional method for improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film because the cell size of thin film solar cell will be enlarged. Therefore, the authors firstly applied the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin films with a G&P POLI-450 CMP polisher [2]. CMP process is the most important process in semiconductor manufacturing processes in order to planarize the surface of the wafer even over 300 mm and to form the copper interconnects with damascene process. Some important CMP characteristics for CdTe were obtained including removal rate (RR), WIWNU%, RMS roughness, and peak-to-valley roughness [2]. With these important results, the CMP process for CdTe thin films was performed to improve the thickness-uniformity of the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film which had the worst two thickness-uniformities of them. Some optical properties including optical transmittance and absorbance of the CdTe thin films were measured by using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Varian Techtron, Cary500scan) in the range of 400 - 800 nm. After CMP process, the thickness-uniformities became better than that of the best condition in the previous sputtering process of CdTe thin films. Consequently, the optical properties were directly affected by the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film. The absorbance of CdTe thin films was improved although the thickness of CdTe thin film was not changed.