• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.347-354
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• 2019

Background: The aim of this study was to describe the types of diseases that developed in semiconductor workers who have registered with the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (KWCWS) and to identify potential common occupational characteristics by the type of claimed disease. Methods: A total of 55 semiconductor workers with cancer or rare diseases who claimed to the KWCWS were compared based on their work characteristics and types of claimed diseases. Leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and aplastic anemia were grouped into lymphohematopoietic (LHP) disorder. Results: Leukemia (n = 14) and breast cancer (n = 10) were the most common complaints, followed by brain cancer (n = 6), aplastic anemia (n = 6), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 4). LHP disorders (n = 24) accounted for 43%. Sixty percent (n = 33) of registered workers (n = 55) were found to have been employed before 2000. Seventy-six percent (n = 42) of registered workers and 79% (n = 19) among the registered workers with LHP (n = 24) were found to be diagnosed at a relatively young age, ${\leq}40years$. A total of 18 workers among the registered semiconductor workers were finally determined to deserve compensation for occupational disease by either the KWCWS (n = 10) or the administrative court (n = 8). Eleven fabrication workers who were compensated responded as having handled wafers smaller than eight inches in size. Eight among the 18 workers compensated (44 %) were found to have ever worked at etching operations. Conclusion: The distribution of cancer and rare diseases among registered semiconductor workers was closely related to the manufacturing era before 2005, ${\leq}8$ inches of wafer size handled, exposure to clean rooms of fabrication and chip assembly operations, and etching operations.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2019

Inspection and measurement of surface quality is one of the most critical processes for manufacturing products such as semiconductor wafers, sapphire substrates, and display panels. The vibrations of the inspection and measurement devices are supposed to be the most dominant factors for severe measurement errors and longer measuring time. In this study, dynamic characteristics of an inspection and measurement device are analyzed through frequency response experiment and computer simulation to obtain parameters such as frequencies, magnitudes, mode shapes, and periods of vibrations. And then an active damper which consists of sensor, interface board, and actuator is designed based on the parameters to formulate the most effective reaction signal to suppress the vibrations which is generated by an interface board, and provided by an actuator. If the vibrations are measured by the sensor, the active damper immediately generates and provides the corresponding reaction signal to inspection and measurement device. The result shows that the active damper can suppress structural vibrations effectively and reduce measuring time of the device and enhance the productivity.

• New Physics: Sae Mulli
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• v.68 no.11
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• pp.1203-1207
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• 2018

In this study, silica nanowires were formed using silicon oxide films with different oxygen contents, and their microstructure and physical properties were compared with those of silica nanowires formed using Si wafers. The silicon oxide films were fabricated by using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Silica nanowires were formed by thermally annealing silicon oxide films coated with nickel films as a catalyst. In the case of silicon oxide films having an oxygen content of approximately 50 at.% or less, the formation mechanism, microstructure, and physical properties of the nanowires were not substantially different from those of the silicon wafer. In particular, the uniformity of the thickness showed better behavior in the silicon oxide films. These results imply that silicon oxide films can be used as an alternative for fabricating high-quality silica nanowires at low cost.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.65-71
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• 2021

In the early days of laser invention, it was simply used as a measuring tool, but as lasers became more common, they became an indispensable processing tool in the industry. Short-wavelength lasers are used to make patterns on wafers used in semiconductors depending on the wavelength, such as CO2 laser, YAG laser, green laser, and UV laser. At first, the hole of the PCB board mainly used for electronic parts was not thin and the hole size was large, so a mechanical drill was used. However, in order to realize product miniaturization and high integration, small hole processing lasers have become essential, and pattern exposure for small hole sizes has become essential. This paper intends to analyze the characteristics through patterns by exposing the PCB substrate through DMD and polygon scanner, which are different optical systems. Since the optical systems are different, the size of the patterns was made the same, and exposure was performed under the optimal conditions for each system. Pattern characteristics were analyzed through a 3D profiler. As a result of the analysis, there was no significant difference in line width between the two systems. However, it was confirmed that dmd had better pattern precision and polygon scanner had better productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.115-120
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• 2022

A brown ring (hereinafter referred to as BR) on the inner surface of a quartz glass crucible used in the manufacturing process of a silicon ingot for semiconductor wafers was studied. BR is 20~30 ㎛ in size and has an asymmetric brown ring shape. The size and distribution of BR were different depending on the crucible location, and the size and distribution of BR were the largest and most abundant in the round part with the highest crucible temperature during Si ingot growth. BR contains cristobalite, which has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than quartz glass, so it is considered that surface cracks appear. The color development of BR and pin holes are presumed to be due to oxygen vacancies.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.396-402
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• 2022

In this study, surface roughness and interfacial defect characteristics were analyzed after forming a high-k oxide film on the surface of a prime wafer and a test wafer, to study the possibility of improving the quality of the test wafer. As a result of checking the roughness, the deviation in the test after raising the oxide film was 0.1 nm, which was twice as large as that of the Prime. As a result of current-voltage analysis, Prime after PMA was 1.07 × 10 A/cm² and Test was 5.61 × 10 A/cm², which was about 5 times lower than Prime. As a result of analyzing the defects inside the oxide film using the capacitance-voltage characteristic, before PMA Prime showed a higher electrical defect of 0.85 × 10¹² cm^-2 in slow state density and 0.41 × 10¹³ cm^-2 in fixed oxide charge. However, after PMA, it was confirmed that Prime had a lower defect of 4.79 × 10¹¹ cm^-2 in slow state density and 1.33 × 10¹² cm^-2 in fixed oxide charge. The above results confirm the difference in surface roughness and defects between the Test and Prime wafer.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.20-20
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• 2003

We developed 30 ㎽-AlInGaN based violet laser diodes. The fabrication procedures of the laser diodes are described as follows. Firstly, GaN layers having very low defect density were grown on sapphire substrates by lateral epitaxial overgrowth method. The typical dislocation density was about 1-3$\times$10$^{6}$ /$\textrm{cm}^2$ at the wing region. Secondly, AlInGaN laser structures were grown on LEO-GaN/sapphire substrates by MOCVD. UV activation method, instead of conventional annealing, was conducted to achieve good p-type conduction. Thirdly, ridge stripe laser structures were fabricated. The cavity mirrors were formed by cleaving method. Three pairs of SiO$_2$ and TiO$_2$ layers were deposited on the rear facet for mirror coating. Lastly, laser diode chips were mounted on AlN submount wafers by epi-down bonding method. The lifetime of the laser diodes was over 10,000 hrs at room temperature under automatic power controlled condition. We expect the performance of the LDs to be improved by the optimization of the growth and fabrication process. The detailed characteristics and important issues of the laser diodes will be discussed at the conference.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.247-253
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• 2009

Porous silicon films are electrochemically etched from crystalline silicon wafers in an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid(HF). Careful control of etching conditions (current density, etch time, HF concentration) provides films with precise, reproducible physical parameters (morphology, porosity and thickness). The etched pattern could be varied due to (1) current density controls pore size (2) etching time determines depth and (3) complex layered structures can be made using different current profiles (square wave, triangle, sinusoidal etc.). The optical interference spectrum from Fabry-Perot layer has been used for forensic applications, where changes in the optical reflectivity spectrum confirm the identity. We will explore a method of identifying the specific pattern code and can be used for identities of individual code with porous silicon based encoded nanosized smart particles.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.36-39
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• 2024

As interest in power semiconductors is growing recently, research on device design and application using light energy gap materials such as SiC and GaN is being actively conducted. Because AlN single crystals have a larger energy gap than the above mentioned materials, research on high-power devices is also in progress, but commercialized wafers have not yet been reported, so research is needed. In this study, we applied the HVPE (Hydride vapor phase epitaxy) method to produce AlN single crystals and attempted to obtain bulk single crystals using our own manufacturing equipment. To this end, we would like to report the results of securing the growth conditions for single crystals. we would like to report on the change in the shape of the grown crystal according to the change in temperature.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.37-40
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• 2024

One of the current innovation trends in the solar industry is the increase in the size of silicon wafers. As the wafer size increases, the series resistance of the module rises, highlighting the need for research on methods for cutting and bonding solar cells. Among these, the Infrared (IR) laser scribing technique has been extensively researched. However, there is still insufficient optimization research regarding the thermal damage caused by lasers on the Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) layer of Heterojunction (HJT) solar cells. Therefore, in this study, we systematically varied conditions such as IR laser scribing speed, frequency, power, and the number of scribes to investigate their impact on the performance of cut cells under each condition. Additionally, we conducted a comparative analysis of thermal damage effects on the TCO layer based on varying scribing depths.