• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1996.02a
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• pp.88-88
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• 1996

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.53-54
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• 2005

We report on plasma damage free-sputtering technologies for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thin rim transistor (OTFT) and flexible displays by using a box cathode sputtering (BCS) method. Specially designed BCS system has two facing targets generating high magnetic fields ideally entering and leaving the targets, perpendicularly. This target geometry allows the formation of high-density plasma between targets and enables us to realize plasma damage free sputtering on organic layer without protection layer against plasma. The OLED with top cathode prepared by BCS shows electrical and optical characteristics comparable to OLED with thermally evaporated Mg-Ag cathode. It was found that TOLED with ITO or IZO top cathode layer prepared by BCS has much lower leakage current density ($1\times10^{-5}$ mA/cm2 at -6V) than that ($1\times10^{-1}\sim10^{\circ}mA/cm^2$)of OLED prepared by conventional DC sputtering system. This indicates that BCS technique is a promising electrode deposition method for substituting conventional thermal evaporation and dc/rf sputtering in fabrication process of organic based optoelectronics.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.5-8
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• 2009

MgO nanodots have been deposited and formed on top of the substrate surface. Mg was sputtered to form the MgO nanodots on the single crystal substrates by rf-sputtering method and followed by heat treatment in the oxygen ambient. The deposition and formation of MgO nanodots have been controlled systematically using the process variables such as substrate temperature, sputtering time, and rf-power. As the substrate temperature increased from the room temperature the density of MgO nanodots decreased. The optimal conditions of MgO nanodots formation using the rf-sputtering was investigated and the maximum density of more than $230/{\mu}m^2$ on single crystal substrates was obtained when the rf-power of 100 watts was applied for 30 seconds at room temperature. The typical size of MgO nanodots was identified to be <160 nm(diameter) and 4-30nm (height) by atomic force microscopy. The modulated surface morphology was examined through surface images and cross-section analysis and discussed for the artificial pinning sites in the superconducting films.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.76-81
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• 2006

Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to investigate physical sputtering of Fe(100) substrate due to energetic ion bombardments. Repulsive interatomic potentials at short internuclear distances were determined with ab initio calculations using the density functional theory. Bohr potentials were fitted to the ab initio results on diatomic pairs (Ar-Fe, Fe-Fe) and used as repulsive screened Coulombic potentials in sputtering simulations. The fitted-Bohr potentials improve the accuracy of the sputtering yields predicted by molecular dynamics for sputtering of Fe(100), whereas Moliere and ZBL potentials were found to be too repulsive and gave relatively high sputtering yields. In spite of assumptions and limitations in this simulation work, the sputtering yields predicted by the molecular dynamics method were in fairly good accordance with the obtainable experimental data in absolute values as well as in manner of the variation according to the Incident energy. Threshold energy for sputtering of Fe(100) substrate was found to be about 40 eV. Additionally, distributions of kinetic energies of sputtered atoms and their original depths could be obtained.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.109-124
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• 2023

For decades, sputtering as a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method has been a widely used technique for film coating processes. The sputtering enables oxides, metals, alloys, nitrides, etc to be deposited on a wide variety of substrates from silicon wafers to polymer substrates. Meanwhile, transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) have played important roles as electrodes in electrical applications such as displays, sensors, solar cells, and thin-film transistors. TCO films fabricated through a sputtering process have a higher quality leading to an improved device performance than other films prepared with other methods. In this review, we discuss the mechanism of sputtering deposition and detail the TCO materials. Related technologies (processing conditions, materials, and applications) are introduced for electrical applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.96-97
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• 2012

In nitride and oxide film deposition, sputtered metals react with nitrogen or oxygen gas in a vacuum chamber to form metal nitride or oxide films on a substrate. The physical properties of sputtered films (metals, oxides, and nitrides) are strongly influenced by magnetron plasma density during the deposition process. Typical target power densities on the magnetron during the deposition process are ~ (5-30) W/cm2, which gives a relatively low plasma density. The main challenge in reactive sputtering is the ability to generate a stable, arc free discharge at high plasma densities. Arcs occur due to formation of an insulating layer on the target surface caused by the re-deposition effect. One current method of generating an arc free discharge is to use the commercially available Pinnacle Plus+ Pulsed DC plasma generator manufactured by Advanced Energy Inc. This plasma generator uses a positive voltage pulse between negative pulses to attract electrons and discharge the target surface, thus preventing arc formation. However, this method can only generate low density plasma and therefore cannot allow full control of film properties. Also, after long runs ~ (1-3) hours, depends on duty cycle the stability of the reactive process is reduced due to increased probability of arc formation. Between 1995 and 1999, a new way of magnetron sputtering called HIPIMS (highly ionized pulse impulse magnetron sputtering) was developed. The main idea of this approach is to apply short ${\sim}(50-100){\mu}s$ high power pulses with a target power densities during the pulse between ~ (1-3) kW/cm2. These high power pulses generate high-density magnetron plasma that can significantly improve and control film properties. From the beginning, HIPIMS method has been applied to reactive sputtering processes for deposition of conductive and nonconductive films. However, commercially available HIPIMS plasma generators have not been able to create a stable, arc-free discharge in most reactive magnetron sputtering processes. HIPIMS plasma generators have been successfully used in reactive sputtering of nitrides for hard coating applications and for Al2O3 films. But until now there has been no HIPIMS data presented on reactive sputtering in cluster tools for semiconductors and MEMs applications. In this presentation, a new method of generating an arc free discharge for reactive HIPIMS using the new Cyprium plasma generator from Zpulser LLC will be introduced. Data (or evidence) will be presented showing that arc formation in reactive HIPIMS can be controlled without applying a positive voltage pulse between high power pulses. Arc-free reactive HIPIMS processes for sputtering AlN, TiO2, TiN and Si3N4 on the Applied Materials ENDURA 200 mm cluster tool will be presented. A direct comparison of the properties of films sputtered with the Advanced Energy Pinnacle Plus + plasma generator and the Zpulser Cyprium plasma generator will be presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.36-39
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• 2002

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) technology is emerging as a key technology for active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD), allowing the integration of both active matrix and driving circuit on the same substrate (normally glass). As high temperature process is not used for glass substrate because of the low softening points below 450$^{\circ}C$. However, high temperature process is required for getting high crystallization volume fraction (i.e. crystallinity). A poly-Si thin film transistor has been fabricated to investigate the effect of high temperature process on the molybdenum (Mo) substrate. Improve of the crystallinity over 75% has been noticed. The properties of structural and electrical at high temperature poly-Si thin film transistor on Mo substrate have been also analyzed using a sputtering method

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.114-117
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• 2020

In this study, we performed the deposition of Al thin film using a DC magnetron sputtering method. To evaluate electrical and structural properties, the growth conditions were changed in terms of two functions, namely, sputtering power ranging from 41.6 to 216 W and film growth rate ranging from 5.35 to 26.39 nm/min. The growth rate and the microstructure were characterized by a scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The plane of crystalline growth showed that the preferential (111) direction and defects due to the grain boundary increased with DC power. The resistivity of the Al film over 50 nm showed a constant value by horizontal grain growth. Our results can be applicable for the preparation of nano-templates for anodic aluminum oxide.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.139-146
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• 2000

The development of high performance materials is very important subject in order to enhance the properties of bearings whose role is to transfer energy harmoniously by reducing the problem of friction and wear down, etc. between the interacting solid surfaces in relative motion under high loads in comply with mechanical operating mechanism of engines. In this study, several (100-x)Al-xSn coating films (where x=85, 75, 65 atomic % at Al) on substrates which are abt. 2mm thickenss of Kelmet layer sintered back steel were prepared by using RF sputtering system. These coating films were observed the morphology by SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) and investigated the crystal structure by XRD(X-ray Diffractor) for their properties. And friction coefficient of these films was measured by ball-on-disc tester for their tribological properties. From the experimental results, it was shown that high performance properties of bearing can be improved greatly by controlling the composition and morphology of material surface with effective use of the plasma-assisted sputtering process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.169-174
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• 2004

MgO thin films were reactively deposited using an internal inductively coupled plasma assisted sputtering method varying reactive gas ratio to get stoichiometric film composition, and bipolar dc substrate bias to suppress micro arcs. The minimum frequency required for arc suppression was about 10KHz depending on ICP power. Their crystallinity was analyzed using X-ray diffraction and surface morphology using AFM. The surface was very smooth with rms roughness less than 0.42nm. The preferred orientation of the films were changing from (200) to bulk-like characteristics as Ar: $O_2$ratio was controlled to 10 : 2. Optical emission spectroscopy revealed that there were two distinct discharge modes: a blue one and a green one, where enhanced emission from Ar and Mg were observed. This cannot simply be understood by metallic or oxide mode of reactive sputtering due to ICP coupled to magnetron discharge.