• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.200-206
• /
• 1997

Using $SiCl_{2}H_{2}$, $NH_{3}$ and $N_{2}O$, we have fabricated silicon oxynitride ($Si_{x}O_{y}N_{z}$) layers on thermally oxidized silicon wafer by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. Three different compositions were achieved by controlling gas flow ratios($NH_{3}/N_{2}O$)) to 0.2, 0.5 and 2 with fixed gas flow of $SiCl_{2}H_{2}$. Ellipsometry and high frequency capacitance-voltage(HFCV) measurements were adapted to investigate the difference of the refractive index, dielectric constant, and composition, respectively. Regardless of nitride content, silicon oxynitrides had similar stability to silicon nitrides. The relative standing of alkali ion sensitivity in silicon oxynitride layers was influenced by nitride content. The better alkali ion-sensitivity was achieved by increasing oxide content in bulk of silicon oxynitrides.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.21-30
• /
• 2018

Driven by the recent energy saving trend, conventional silicon based power conversion modules are being replaced by modules using silicon carbide. Previous papers have focused mainly on the electrical advantages of silicon carbide semiconductors that can be used to design switching devices with much lower losses than conventional silicon based devices. However, no systematic study of their thermomechanical reliability in power conversion modules using finite element method (FEM) simulation has been presented. In this paper, silicon and silicon carbide based power devices with three-phase switching were designed and compared from the viewpoint of thermomechanical reliability. The switching loss of power conversion module was measured by the switching loss evaluation system and measured switching loss data was used for the thermal FEM simulation. Temperature and stress/strain distributions were analyzed. Finally, a thermal fatigue simulation was conducted to analyze the creep phenomenon of the joining materials. It was shown that at the working frequency of 20 kHz, the maximum temperature and stress of the power conversion module with SiC chips were reduced by 56% and 47%, respectively, compared with Si chips. In addition, the creep equivalent strain of joining material in SiC chip was reduced by 53% after thermal cycle, compared with the joining material in Si chip.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.35 no.12
• /
• pp.1249-1256
• /
• 1998

${\beta}$-Silicon carbide(${\beta}$-SiC) whiskers could be synthesized by the carbothermal reduction of kaolin at tem-peratures between 1400 and 1500$^{\circ}C$. The whiskers were grown up to about 1150 of aspect ratio by VS mechanism (showing tapering tips) and to about 45 of that by VLS mechanism (showing round droplet tips) respectively. Hydrocarbon like methane in the reaction atmosphere promoted the formation of gaseous il-icon monoxide(SiO) from silicon dioxide(SiO2) and subsequently reacted with it to form whiskers. The for-mation of ${\beta}$-SiC whiskers increased with increasing carbon content(to 30 wt%) and reaction temperatures. The max. yield of ${\beta}$-SiC whiskers was 15% at 1500$^{\circ}C$ under 20%CH4/80%H2.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2005

A novel silicon-containing epoxy resin, the diglycidylether of bisphenol A-silicon (DGEBA-Si), was synthesized and characterized. The properties of the DGEBA-Si epoxy resin cured with 4,4-diaminodiphenyl methane (DDM), including its cure behavior, glass transition temperature, thermal stability, and mechanical strength were investigated. The char yield of the DGEBA-Si/DDM system was higher than that of a commercial DGEBA/DDM system, indicating that the DGEBA-Si epoxy resin showed good flame-retardance. The cured DGEBA-Si/DDM specimens possessed lower glass transition temperatures and higher mechanical properties than DGEBA/DDM specimens. These features were attributed to the introduction of siloxane groups into the main chain of the epoxy resin, which resulted in the improved flexibility of the cured DGEBA-Si/DDM system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.24 no.7
• /
• pp.525-531
• /
• 2011

In this paper, experimental analyses have been performed to compare the electrical characteristics of n channel LT(low temperature) and HT(high temperature) poly-Si TFTs(polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors) on quartz substrate according to activated step annealing. The size of the particles step annealed at low temperature are bigger than high temperature poly-Si TFTs and measurements show that the electric characteristics those are transconductance, threshold voltage, electric effective mobility, on and off current of step annealed at LT poly-Si TFTs are high more than HT poly-Si TFT's. Especially we can estimated the defect in the activated grade poly crystalline silicon and the grain boundary of LT poly-Si TFT have more high than HT poly-Si TFT's due to high off electric current. Even though the size of particles of step annealed at low temperature, the electrical characteristics of LT poly-Si TFTs were investigated deterioration phenomena that is decrease on/off current ratio depend on high off current due to defects in active silicon layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.321-326
• /
• 2016

Minimizing the carrier recombination and electrical loss through surface passivation is required for high efficiency c-Si solar cell. Usually, $SiN_X$, $SiO_X$, $SiON_X$ and $AlO_X$ layers are used as passivation layer in solar cell application. Silicon oxide layer is one of the good passivation layer in Si based solar cell application. It has good selective carrier, low interface state density, good thermal stability and tunneling effect. Recently tunneling based passivation layer is used for high efficiency Si solar cell such as HIT, TOPCon and TRIEX structure. In this paper, we focused on silicon oxide grown by various the method (thermal, wet-chemical, plasma) and passivation effect in c-Si solar cell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.299.2-299.2
• /
• 2013

We investigated the potassium remaining on a crystalline silicon solar cell after potassium hydroxide (KOH) etching and its effect on the lifetime of the solar cell. KOH etching is generally used to remove the saw damage caused by cutting a Si ingot; it can also be used to etch the rear side of a textured crystalline silicon solar cell before atomic layer-deposited Al2O3 growth. However, the potassium remaining after KOH etching is known to be detrimental to the efficiency of Si solar cells. In this study, we etched a crystalline silicon solar cell in three ways in order to determine the effect of the potassium remnant on the efficiency of Si solar cells. After KOH etching, KOH and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) were used to etch the rear side of a crystalline silicon solar cell. To passivate the rear side, an Al2O3 layer was deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). After ALD Al2O3 growth on the KOH-etched Si surface, we measured the lifetime of the solar cell by quasi steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC, Sinton WCT-120) to analyze how effectively the Al2O3 layer passivated the interface of the Al2O3 layer and the Si surface. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was also used to measure how much potassium remained on the surface of the Si wafer and at the interface of the Al2O3 layer and the Si surface after KOH etching and wet cleaning.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.11a
• /
• pp.154-157
• /
• 2011

Hydrogenated silicon nitride deposited by LF-PECVD is commonly used for anti-reflection coating and passivation in silicon solar cell fabrication. The deposition of the optimized silicon nitride on the surface is elemental in crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, the carrier lifetimes were measured while the thicknesses of $SiN_x$ were changed from 700 ${\AA}$ to 1150 ${\AA}$ with the gas flow of $SiH_4$ as 40 sccm and $NH_3$ as 120 sccm,. The carrier lifetime enhanced as the thickness of $SiN_x$ increased due to improved passivation effect. To study the characteristics of $SiN_x$ with various gas ratios, the gas flow of $NH_3$ was changed from 40 sccm to 200 sccm with intervals of 40 sccm. The thickness of $SiN_x$ was fixed as 1000 ${\AA}$ and the gas flow of $SiH_4$ as 40 sccm. The refractive index of SiNx and the carrier lifetime were measured before and after heat treating at $650^{\circ}C$ to investigate their change by the firing process in solar cell fabrication. The index of refraction of SiNx decreased as the gas ratios increased and the longest carrier lifetime was measured with the gas ratio $NH_3/SiH_4$ of 3.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.325-325
• /
• 2011

Very initial stage of oxidation process of Si (001) surface at room temperature (300 K) and high temperature (1200 K) was investigated using large scale molecular dynamics simulation. Reactive force field potential [1] was used for the simulation owing to its ability to handle charge variation as well as breaking and forming of bonds associated with the oxidation reaction. The results show that oxygen molecules adsorb dissociatively or otherwise leave the silicon surface. Initial position and orientation of oxygen molecule above the surface play important role in determining final state and time needed to dissociate. At 300 K, continuous transformation of ion $Si^+$ (or suboxide Si2O) to $Si2^+$ (SiO), $Si3^+$ (Si2O3) and finally to $Si4^+$ (SiO2) clearly observed. High temperature silicon surface provide heat energy that enable oxygen atom to penetrate into deeper silicon surface. The heat energy also retards adsorption process. As a result, transformation of ion $Si^+$ is impeded at 1200 K.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 2013

Silicon (Si) wafer was grown by using direct growth from Si melt and contaminations of wafer during the process were investigated. In our process, BN was coated inside of all graphite parts including crucible in system to prevent carbon contamination. In addition, coated BN layer enhance the wettability, which ensures the favorable shape of grown wafer by proper flow of Si melt in casting mold. As a result, polycrystalline silicon wafer with dimension of $156{\times}156$ mm and thickness of $300{\pm}20$ um was successively obtained. There were, however, severe contaminations such as BN and SiC on surface of the as-grown wafer. While BN powders were easily removed by brushing surface, SiC could not be eliminated. As a result of BN analysis, C source for SiC was from binder contained in BN slurry. Therefore, to eliminate those C sources, additional flushing process was carried out before Si was melted. By adding 3-times flushing processes, SiC was not detected on the surface of as-grown Si wafer. Polycrystalline Si wafer directly grown from Si melt in this study can be applied for the cost-effective Si solar cells.