• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.128-135
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• 1995

Atomic force microscopy/friction force microscopy (AFM/FFM) techniques are increasingly used for tribological studies of engineering surfaces at scales, ranging from atomic and molecular to microscales. These techniques have been used to study surface roughness, adhesion, friction, scratching/wear, indentation, detection of material transfer, and boundary lubrication and for nanofabrication/nanomachining purposes. Micro/nanotribological studies of single-crystal silicon, natural diamond, magnetic media (magnetic tapes and disks) and magnetic heads have been conducted. Commonly measured roughness parameters are found to be scale dependent, requiring the need of scale-independent fractal parameters to characterize surface roughness. Measurements of atomic-scale friction of a freshly-cleaved highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite exhibited the same periodicity as that of corresponding topography. However, the peaks in friction and those in corresponding topography were displaced relative to each other. Variations in atomic-scale friction and the observed displacement has been explained by the variations in interatomic forces in the normal and lateral directions. Local variation in microscale friction is found to correspond to the local slope suggesting that a ratchet mechanism is responsible for this variation. Directionality in the friction is observed on both micro- and macro scales which results from the surface preparation and anisotropy in surface roughness. Microscale friction is generally found to be smaller than the macrofriction as there is less ploughing contribution in microscale measurements. Microscale friction is load dependent and friction values increase with an increase in the normal load approaching to the macrofriction at contact stresses higher than the hardness of the softer material. Wear rate for single-crystal silicon is approximately constant for various loads and test durations. However, for magnetic disks with a multilayered thin-film structure, the wear of the diamond like carbon overcoat is catastrophic. Breakdown of thin films can be detected with AFM. Evolution of the wear has also been studied using AFM. Wear is found to be initiated at nono scratches. AFM has been modified to obtain load-displacement curves and for nanoindentation hardness measurements with depth of indentation as low as 1 mm. Scratching and indentation on nanoscales are the powerful ways to screen for adhesion and resistance to deformation of ultrathin fdms. Detection of material transfer on a nanoscale is possible with AFM. Boundary lubrication studies and measurement of lubricant-film thichness with a lateral resolution on a nanoscale have been conducted using AFM. Self-assembled monolyers and chemically-bonded lubricant films with a mobile fraction are superior in wear resistance. Finally, AFM has also shown to be useful for nanofabrication/nanomachining. Friction and wear on micro-and nanoscales have been found to be generally smaller compared to that at macroscales. Therefore, micro/nanotribological studies may help def'me the regimes for ultra-low friction and near zero wear.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.203-207
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• 2009

Copper is known as a replacement for aluminum wire which is used for semiconductor. Because specific resistance of Cu ($1.67{\mu}{\Omega}$-cm) is lower than that of Al ($2.66{\mu}{\Omega}$-cm), Cu reduce RC delay time. Although melting point of Cu($1085^{\circ}C$) is higher than melting point of Al, Cu have characteristic to easily react with Silicon(Si) in low temperature, and it isn't good at adhesive strength with Si. For above these reason, research of diffusion barrier to prevent reaction between Cu and Si and to raise adhesive strength is steadily advanced. Our study group have researched on W-C-N (tungsten-carbon-nitrogen) Diffusion barrier for preventing diffusion of Cu through semiconductor. By recent studies, It's reported that W-C-N diffusion barrier can even precent Cu and Si diffusing effectively at high temperature. In this treatise, we vaporized different proportion of N into diffusion barrier to research Cu's Electromigration based on the results and studied surface hardness in the heat process using nano scale indentation system. We gain that diffusion barrier containing nitrogen is more stable for Cu's electromigration and has stronger surface hardness in heat treatment 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.54 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 2021

The properties of tetrahedral amorphous Carbon (ta-C) film can be determined by multiple parameters and comprehensive effects of those parameters during a deposition process with filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA). In this study, Taguchi method was adopted to design the optimized FCVA deposition process of ta-C for improving deposition efficiency and mechanical properties of the deposited ta-C thin film. The influence and contribution of variables, such as arc current, substrate bias voltage, frequency, and duty cycle, on the properties of ta-C were investigated in terms of deposition efficiency and mechanical properties. It was revealed that the deposition rate was linearly increased following the increasing arc current (around 10 nm/min @ 60 A and 17 nm/min @ 100A). The hardness and I_D/I_G showed a correlation with substrate bias voltage (over 30 GPa @ 50 V and under 30 GPa @ 250 V). The scratch tests were conducted to specify the effect of each parameter on the resistance to plastic deformation of films. The analysis on variances showed that the arc current and substrate bias voltage were the most effective controlling parameters influencing properties of ta-C films. The optimized parameters were extracted for the target applications in various industrial fields.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.65-68
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• 2005

The effect of crystal orientation and microstructure on the mechanical properties of $TaN_x$ was investigated. $TaN_x$ films were grown on $SiO_2$ substrates by ultrahigh vacuum unbalanced magnetron sputter deposition in mixed $Ar/N_2$ discharges at 20 mTorr (2.67 Pa) and at $350^{\circ}C$. Unlike the Ti-N system, in which TiN is the terminal phase, a large number of N-rich phases in the Ta-N system could lead to layers which had nano-sized lamella structure of coherent cubic and hexagonal phases, with a correct choice of nitrogen fraction in the sputtering mixture and ion irradiation energy during growth. The preferred orientations and the micro-structure of $TaN_x$ layers were controlled by varing incident ion energy $E_i\;(=30eV\~50eV)$ and nitrogen fractions $f_{N2}\;(=0.1\~0.15)$. $TaN_x$ layers were grown on (0002)-Ti underlayer as a crystallographic template in order to relieve the stress on the films. The structure of the $TaN_x$ film transformed from Bl-NaCl $\delta-TaN_x$ to lamellar structured Bl-NaCl $\delta-TaN_x$ + hexagonal $\varepsilon-TaN_x$ or Bl-NaCl $\delta-TaN_x$ + hexagonal $\gamma-TaN_x$ with increasing the ion energy at the same nitrogen fraction $f_{N2}$. The hardness of the films also increased by the structural change. At the nitrogen fraction of $0.1\~0.125$, the structure of the $TaN_x$ films was changed from $\delta-TaN_x\;+\;\varepsilon-TaN_x\;to\;\delta-TaN_x\;+\;\gamma-TaN_x$ with increasing the ion energy. However, at the nitrogen fraction of 0.15 the film structure did not change from $\delta-TaN_x\;+\;\varepsilon-TaN_x$ over the whole range of the applied ion energy. The hardness increased significantly from 21.1 GPa to 45.5 GPa with increasing the ion energy.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Purpose: To observe changes of coatings and lens materials with varying temperature to understand effect of temperature on plastic lens. Methods: In this study, three lenses of different refractive indices (2 of thiourethane oriented lenses, an allyl diglycol carbonate oriented lens) were exposed to high temperature (50, 80, and 100 degree) for 5 hours and changes of individual coating (anti-refractive coating, hard coating, and water repellent coating) were measured. Results: As a result, high-refractive index lenses did not exhibit significant variation of hardness. However, hardness of mid-refractive index lens were decreased when exposed to high temperature and destructions of hard coating layer was inferred. Surface contact angles of lens were decreased with increasing temperature and water repellent coating layer were damaged at higher than 80 degree. Conclusions: Multi including water repellent coatings on all three lenses with different refractive indices were damaged when exposed to at or higher than 80 degree. The degree of changes in mechanical and physical properties were depended on polymer material type.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.230-237
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• 2021

In this study, the influence of silicon contents on the microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of Ti-Al-Si-N coatings were systematically investigated for application of cutting tools. The composition of the Ti-Al-Si-N coatings were controlled by different combinations of TiAl₂ and Ti₄Si composite target powers using an arc ion plating technique in a reactive gas mixture of high purity Ar and N₂ during depositions. Ti-Al-Si-N films were nanocomposite consisting of nanosized (Ti,Al,Si)N crystallites embedded in an amorphous Si₃N₄/SiO₂ matrix. The instrumental analyses revealed that the synthesized Ti-Al-Si-N film with Si content of 5.63 at.% was a nanocomposites consisting of nano-sized crystallites (5-7 nm in dia.) and a three dimensional thin layer of amorphous Si₃N₄ phase. The hardness of the Ti-Al-Si-N coatings also exhibited the maximum hardness value of about 47 GPa at a silicon content of ~5.63 at.% due to the microstructural change to a nanocomposite as well as the solid-solution hardening. The coating has a low friction coefficient of 0.55 at room temperature against an Inconel alloy ball. These excellent mechanical and tribological properties of the Ti-Al-Si-N coatings could help to improve the performance of machining and cutting tool applications.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.55-70
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• 1990

SIMOX SOI is known to be one of the most useful technologies for fabrications of new generation ULSI devices. This paper describes the current status of SIMOX SOI technology for ULSI applications. The SIMOX wafer is vertically composed of buried oxide layer and silicon epitaxial layer on top of the silicon substrate. The buried oxide layer is used for the vertical isolation of devices The oxide layer is formed by high energy ion implantation of high dose oxygen into the silicon wafer, followed by high temperature annealing. SIMOX-based CMOS fabrication is transparent to the conventional IC processing steps without well formation. Furthermore, thin film CMOX/SIMOX can overcome the technological limitations which encountered in submicron bulk-based CMOS devices, i.e., soft-error rate, subthreshold slope, threshold voltage roll-off, and hot electron degradation can be improved. SIMOX-based bipolar devices are expected to have high density which comparable to the CMOX circuits. Radiation hardness properties of SIMOX SOI extend its application fields to space and military devices, since military ICs should be operational in radiation-hardened and harsh environments. The cost of SIMOX wafer preparation is high at present, but it is expected to reduce as volume increases. Recent studies about SIMOX SOI technology have demonstrated that the performance of the SIMOX-based submicron devices is superior to the circuits using the bulk silicon.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 1994

Aluminum oxide($Al_2{O_3}$) offers some unique advantages over the conventional silicon dioxide( $SiO_{2}$) gate insulator: greater resistance to ionic motion, better radiation hardness, possibility of obtaining low threshold voltage MOS FETs, and possibility of use as the gate insulator in nonvolatile memory devices. We have undertaken a study of the dielectric breakdown of $Al_2{O_3}$ on Si deposited by GAIVBE technique. In our experiments, we have varied the $Al_2{O_3}$ thickness from 300.angs. to 1400.angs. The resistivity of $Al_2{O_3}$ films varies from 108 ohm-cm for films less than 100.angs. to 10$_{13}$ ohm-cm for flims on the order of 1000.angs. The flat band shift is positive, indicating negative charging of oxide. The magnitude of the flat band shift is less for negative bias than for positive bias. The relative dielectric constant was 8.5-10.5 and the electric breakdown fields were 6-7 MV/cm(+bias) and 11-12 MV/cm (-bias).

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.92-108
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• 1986

An electroplating on the lead frame fabricated from domestic copper plate was studied experimentally. In this study, nickel was plated on the thin copper lead frame and silver layer was coated on the nickel film in the cyanide electrolyte. The effect of process variables such as current density, plating time, coating thickness and flow rate of electrolytic solution on the properties of coating was investigated. Some samples on each step were fabricated during electroplating. The results obtained from polarization measurement, observation of SEM photograph, adhesion test of coating and microhardness test are as follows. On silver plating, polarization resistance of potentiostatic cathodic polarization curve is reduced as the flow rate of Ag electrolytic solution increases. And above resistance is also reduced when the minor chemicals of sodium cyanide and sodium carbonate are added in potassium silver cyanide bath. The reduced polarization resistance makes silver deposition on the cathode easy. An increase in the current density and the coating thickness causes the particle size of deposit to coarsen, and consequently the Knoop microhardness of the coating decreases. On selective plating an increase in the flow rate of plating solution lead to do high speed plating with high current density. In this case, the surface morphology of deposit is of fine microstructure with high Knoop hardness. An increasing trend of the adhesion of coating was shown with increasing the current density and flow rate of electrolytic solution.