• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2002

For the evaluation of nucleation and growth behaviors influenced by substrate properties, such as surface energy, structure and electrical properties, chromium nitride films (CrN) were deposited on various substrates (glass, AISI 1040 steel and Si (110) by unbalanced magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were used to study the microstructure and grain growth as a function of deposition time. The diffraction patterns of CrN thin films deposited on Si (110) exhibited crystalline structure with highly preferred orientation of (200) plane parallel to the substrate, whereas the films deposited on glass and AISI 1040 exhibited preferred orientations (200) and minor orientation (111), (311) or (220) plane. The orientation of films deposited both on glass and Si substrates did not depend on the bias voltage (Vs). The grain growth and structure of film deposited on AISI 1040 steel substrate are strongly influenced by the substrate bias in comparison with that deposited onto glass and Si substrates. The differences in the structure and grain growth of CrN films deposited onto different substrates are predominantly related to the properties of the substrate (structure and electrical conductivity).

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.620-624
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• 2012

The role of moisture remaining inside the deposition chamber during the formation of the cubic boron nitride (c-BN) phase in BN film was investigated. BN films were deposited by an unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBM) method. Single-crystal (001) Si wafers were used as substrates. A hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) target was used as a sputter target which was connected to a 13.56 MHz radiofrequency electric power source at 400 W. The substrate was biased at -60 V using a 200 kHz high-frequency power supply. The deposition pressure was 0.27 Pa with a flow of Ar 18 sccm - $N_2$ 2 sccm mixed gas. The inside of the deposition chamber was maintained at a moisture level of 65% during the initial stage. The effects of the evacuation time, duration time of heating the substrate holder at $250^{\circ}C$ as well as the plasma treatment on the inside chamber wall on the formation of c-BN were studied. The effects of heating as well as the plasma treatment very effectively eliminated the moisture adsorbed on the chamber wall. A pre-deposition condition for the stable and repeatable deposition of c-BN is suggested.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2001

N- or O-doped STS304 stainless films were synthesized by an unbalanced magnetron sputtering process with various argon and reactive gas ($N_2$, $O_2$) mixtures. These films were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and Knoop microhardness tester. The Results from X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that a STS304 stainless steel film synthesized without reactive gas using a bulk STS304 stainless steel target had a ferrite bcc structure ($\alpha$ phase), while the N-doped STS304 stainless film was consisted of a nitrogen supersaturated fcc structure, which hsa a strong ${\gamma}$(200) phase. In the O-doped films, oxide Phases ($Fe_2$$O_3$ and $Cr_2$$O_3$) were observed from the films synthesized under an excess $O_2$ flow rate of 9sccm. AES analysis showed that nitrogen content in N-doped films increased as the nitrogen flow rate increased. Approximately 43 at.%N in the N-doped film was measured using a nitrogen flow rate of 8sccm. In O-doped film, approximately 15 at.%O was detected using a $O_2$ flow rate of 12sccm. the Knoop microhardness value of N-doped film using a nitrogen flow rate of 8 sccm was measured to be approximately $H_{ k}$ 1200 and this high value could be attributed to the fine grain size and increased residual stress in the N-doped film.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.281-286
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• 2019

Raman spectra of a-C:H thin films deposited with an unbalanced magnetron sputtering system showed that the G peak shifted to a higher wavenumber as the target power density increased and $I_D/I_G$ ratio increased from 0.902 to 1.012. Moreover, the transmittance of a-C:H films fabricated at 60 nm tended to decrease with increasing target power density; at 550 nm in the visible light region, the transmittance decreased from 69% to 58%. The rms surface roughness values of the a-C:H thin films decreased with increasing target power density, and varied from 1.11 nm to 0.71 nm. In order to achieve efficient light trapping, the light scattering at the rough interface must be enhanced. Consequently, the surface roughness of the thin film will decrease with the target power density. Further, the refractive index and reflectivity of the a-C:H thin films increased with increasing target power density; however, the Brewster angle decreased with the target power density. Hence, dye-sensitized solar cells using an a-C:H antireflective coating increased the CE, $V_{OC}$, and $J_{SC}$ by approximately 8.6%, 5.5%, and 4.5%, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.409-413
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• 2001

In this study, high rate deposition of thick CrNx films was carried out by crossed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering for the special application such as piston ring employed in automobile engine. For the high rate deposition and thick CrNx films formation with thickness of 30$\mu\textrm{m}$, high power density of $35W/cm^2$ in each target was induced and the multi-layer films of Cr/CrN and $\alpha$-Cr/CrN were synthesized by control of $N_2$ flow rate. The dynamic deposition rate of Cr and $\alpha$-CrN film was reached to 0.17$\mu\textrm{m}$/min and 0.12$\mu\textrm{m}$/rnin and the thick CrN$_{x}$. film of 30$\mu\textrm{m}$ could be obtained less than 5 hours. The maximum hardness was obtained above 2200 kg/mm$^2$ and adhesion strength was measured in about 70N, in case of multi-layers films. And the friction coefficient was measured by 0.4, which was similar to the value of CrN single-layer film.m.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.939-942
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• 2011

Conductive carbon films were prepared at room temperature by unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS) on silicon substrates using argon (Ar) gas, and the effects of post-annealing temperature on the structural, tribological, and electrical properties of carbon films were investigated. Films were annealed at temperatures ranging from $400^{\circ}C$ to $700^{\circ}C$ in increments of $100^{\circ}C$ using a rapid thermal annealing method by vacuum furnace in vacuum ambient. The increase of annealing temperature contributed to the increase of the ordering and formation of aromatic rings in the carbon film. Consequently, with increasing annealing temperature the tribological properties of sputtered carbon films are deteriorated while the resistivity of carbon films significantly decreased from $4.5{\times}10^{-3}$ to $1.0{\times}10^{-6}\;{\Omega}-cm$ and carrier concentration as well as mobility increased, respectively. This behavior can be explained by the increase of sp2 bonding fraction and ordering $sp^2$ clusters in the carbon networks caused by increasing annealing temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.11-17
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• 2001

Industrial use of physical vapor deposition(PVD) has been widely expanded during last two decades, and in the mean time plasma assistance in PVD has become an essential tool in preparing compound films with dense microstructure. The principles of electron beam-based plating, balanced and unbalanced magnetron sputtering and cathodic arc deposition. consisting three basic configuration of plasma assisted PVD(PAPVD)process, were reviewed. Recent technical development in PVD coating process were discussed. This paper tries to show tendency for developing new coating film on cutting tools.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.186-186
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• 2000

After LeComber et al. reported the first amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si: H) TFT, many laboratories started the development of an active matrix LCDs using a-Si:H TFTs formed on glass substrate. With increasing the display area and pixel density of TFT-LCD, however, high mobility TFTs are required for pixel driver of TF-LCD in order to shorten the charging time of the pixel electrodes. The most important of these drawbacks is a-Si's electron mobiliy, which is the speed at which electrons can move through each transistor. The problem of low carier mobility for the a-Si:H TFTs can be overcome by introducing polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film instead of a-Si:H as a semiconductor layer of TFTs. Therefore, poly-Si has gained increasing interest and has been investigated by many researchers. Recnetly, fabrication of such poly-Si TFT-LCD panels with VGA pixel size and monolithic drivers has been reported, . Especially, fabricating poly-Si TFTs at a temperature mach lower than the strain point of glass is needed in order to have high mobility TFTs on large-size glass substrate, and the monolithic drivers will reduce the cost of TFT-LCDs. The conventional methods to fabricate poly-Si films are low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD0 as well as solid phase crystallization (SPC), pulsed rapid thermal annealing(PRTA), and eximer laser annealing (ELA). However, these methods have some disadvantages such as high deposition temperature over $600^{\circ}C$, small grain size (<50nm), poor crystallinity, and high grain boundary states. Therefore the low temperature and large area processes using a cheap glass substrate are impossible because of high temperature process. In this study, therefore, we have deposited poly-Si thin films on si(100) and glass substrates at growth temperature of below 40$0^{\circ}C$ using newly developed high rate magnetron sputtering method. To improve the sputtering yield and the growth rate, a high power (10~30 W/cm2) sputtering source with unbalanced magnetron and Si ion extraction grid was designed and constructed based on the results of computer simulation. The maximum deposition rate could be reached to be 0.35$\mu$m/min due to a high ion bombardment. This is 5 times higher than that of conventional sputtering method, and the sputtering yield was also increased up to 80%. The best film was obtained on Si(100) using Si ion extraction grid under 9.0$\times$10-3Torr of working pressure and 11 W/cm2 of the target power density. The electron mobility of the poly-si film grown on Si(100) at 40$0^{\circ}C$ with ion extraction grid shows 96 cm2/V sec. During sputtering, moreover, the characteristics of si source were also analyzed with in situ Langmuir probe method and optical emission spectroscopy.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.366-366
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• 2008

Amorphous carbon (a-C) is an interesting materials and its characteristics can be varied by tuning it $sp^3$ fractions. The $sp^3$ fraction in a-C films depends on the kinetic energy of the deposited carbon ions. In this work, a-C films was synthesized on Si(100) and glass substrates at room temperature by closed-field unbalanced magnetron (CFUBM) sputtering with the increase of graphite target power density. The structural and physical properties of films were investigated by using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), nano- indentation, atomic force microscope (AFM) and contact-angle measurement. We obtained the good tribological properties, such as high hardness up to 26 GPa., friction coefficient lower than 0.1 and the smooth surface (rms roughness: 0.12 nm). The increase of the physical properties with the increase of target power density are related to the increase of nano-clusters in the carbon network. Also, these results might be due to the increase of the subplantation and resputtering by the increase of ions density in the plasma.