• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.154-154
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• 2012

Flexible complementary inverters based on thin-film transistors (TFTs) are important because they have low power consumption and high voltage gain compared to single type circuits. We have manufactured flexible complementary inverters using pentacene and amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) for the p-channel and n-channel, respectively. The circuits were fabricated on polyimide (PI) substrate. Firstly, a thin poly-4-vinyl phenol (PVP) layer was spin coated on PI substrate to make a smooth surface with rms surface roughness of 0.3 nm, which was required to grow high quality IGZO layers. Then, Ni gate electrode was deposited on the PVP layer by e-beam evaporator. 400-nm-thick PVP and 20-nm-thick ALD Al2O3 dielectric was deposited in sequence as a double gate dielectric layer for high flexibility and low leakage current. Then, IGZO and pentacene semiconductor layers were deposited by rf sputter and thermal evaporator, respectively, using shadow masks. Finally, Al and Au source/drain electrodes of 70 nm were respectively deposited on each semiconductor layer using shadow masks by thermal evaporator. The characteristics of TFTs and inverters were evaluated at different bending radii. The applied strain led to change in voltage transfer characteristics of complementary inverters as well as source-drain saturation current, field effect mobility and threshold voltage of TFTs. The switching threshold voltage of fabricated inverters was decreased with increasing bending radius, which is related to change in parameters of TFTs. Throughout the bending experiments, relationship between circuit performance and TFT characteristics under mechanical deformation could be elucidated.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.508-513
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• 2015

A capacitive-type touch screen panel (TSP) composed of silver nanowire (AgNW) crossing electrodes and transparent bridge structures was fabricated on a polycarbonate film. The transparent bridge structure was formed with a stack of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) electrodes and SU-8 insulator. The stable and robust continuity of the bridge electrode over the bridge insulator was achieved by making the side-wall slope of the bridge insulator low and depositing the conformal AZO film with atomic layer deposition. With an extended exposure time of photolithography, the lower part of the SU-8 layer around the region uncovered by the photomask can be exposed enough to the UV light scattered from the substrate. This leads to the low side-wall slope of the bridge insulator. The fabricated TSP sample showed a large capacitance change of 22.71% between with and without touching. Our work supplies the technological clue for ensuring long-term reliability to the highly flexible and transparent TSP made by using conventional fabrication processes.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.440-448
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• 2004

In this paper, to make a solar cell of II-Ⅵ ZnTe compound semiconductor, we studied for the property of the transparent electrode(AZO) and Buffer layer(ZnO), and for reducing the energyband gap of optical absorber layer which are most effective on its efficiency. The ZnTe thin film was used the optical absorber layer of solar cell. Zn and Te were deposited using the co-sputtering method. The thin film was sputtered RF power of Zn/50W and Te/30W, respectively and a substrate temperature of foot under Ar atmosphere of 10mTorr. The energy band gap of the thin film was 1.73ev Then the thin film was annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ for 10sec under a vacuum atmosphere. The energy band gap of 1.67eV was achieved and the film composition ratio of Zn and Te was 32% and 68%. At the best condition, the Solar Cell was manufactured and the efficiency of 6.85% (Voc: 0.69V, Jsc: 21.408㎃/$cm^2$, Fill factor (FF): 0.46) was achieved.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.150-155
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• 2021

Zinc oxide (ZnO) based transparent conducting oxides (TCO) thin films, are used in many applications such as solar cells, flat panel displays, and LEDs due to their wide bandgap nature and excellent electrical properties. In the present work, fluorine and aluminium-doped ZnO targets are prepared and thin films are deposited on soda-lime glass substrate using a RF magnetron sputtering unit. The aluminium concentration is fixed at 2 wt%, and the fluorine concentration is adjusted between 0 to 2.0 wt% with five different concentrations, namely, Al2ZnO98(AZO), F0.5AZO97.5(FAZO1), F1AZO97(FAZO2), F1.5AZO96.5(FAZO3), and F2AZO96(FAZO4). Thin films are deposited with an RF power of 40 W and working pressure of 5 m Torr at 270 ℃. The morphological analysis performed for the thin film reveals that surface roughness decreases in FAZO1 and FAZO2 samples when doped with a small amount of fluorine. Further, optical and electrical properties measured for FAZO1 sample show average optical transmissions of over 89 % in the visible region and 82.5 % in the infrared region, followed by low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.59 × 10-4 Ωcm and 5.52 Ω/sq, respectively. In future, these thin films with excellent optoelectronic properties can be used for thin-film solar cell and other optoelectronics applications.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.447-454
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• 2014

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have intensively studied in recent years due to their advantages such as cost effectiveness and possibility of applications in flexible devices. In spite of the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10 %, the OSCs still have a draw back of their low environmental stability due to the oxidization of aluminum cathode and etching of transparent conducting oxide as electrode. To solve these problems, the inverted structured OSCs (I-OSCs) having greatest potential for achieving an improvement of device performances are suggested. Therefore, there are a lot of studies to develope of interface layer based on organic/inorganic materials for the electron transport layer (ETL) and passivation layer, significant advancements in I-OSCs have driven the development of interface functional materials including electron transport layer. Recent efforts to employing 2D/3D zinc oxide (ZnO) based ETL into I-OSCs have produced OSCs with a power conversion efficiency level that matches the efficiency of ~9 %. In this review, the technical issues and recent progress of ZnO based ETL in I-OSCs to enhancement of device efficiency and stability in terms of materials, process and characterization have summarized.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2011

ZnO-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been fabricated and the mechanical characteristics of electric circuits, such as stress, strain, and deformation are analyzed by the finite element method (FEM). In this study, a mechanical-stability design guide for such systems is proposed; this design takes into account the stress and deformation of the bridge to estimate the stress distribution in an $SiO_2$ film with 0 to 5% stretched on 0.5-${\mu}m$-thick. The predicted buckle amplitude of $SiO_2$ bridges agrees well with experimental results within 0.5% error. The stress and strain at the contact point between bridges and a pad were measured in a previous structural analysis. These structural analysis suggest that the numerical measurement of deformation, SU-8 coating thickness for Neutral Mechanical Plane (NMP) and ITO electrode size on a dielectric layer was useful in enhancing the structural and electrical stabilities.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.110-115
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• 2010

Transparent conducting gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) thin films which were deposited on Corning glass substrate using an Gun-type rf magnetron sputtering deposition technology. The GZO thin films were fabricated with an GZO ceramic target (Zn : 97[wt%], $Ga_2O_3$ : 3[wt%]). The GZO thin films were deposited by varying the growth conditions such as the substrate temperature, oxygen pressure. Among the GZO thin films fabricated in this study, the one formed at conditions of the substrate temperature of 200[$^{\circ}C$], Ar flow rate of 50[sccm], $O_2$ flow rate of 5[sccm], rf power of 80[W] and working pressure of 5[mtorr] showed the best properties of an electrical resistivity of $2.536{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}{\cdot}cm]$, a carrier concentration of $7.746{\times}10^{20}[cm^{-3}]$, and a carrier mobility of 31.77[$cm^2/V{\cdot}S$], which indicates that it could be used as a transparent electrode for thin film transistor and flat panel display applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.6-13
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• 2006

Tin doped indium oxide(ITO) and Al doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) films, which are widely used as a transparent conductor in optoelectronic devices, were prepared by using the capacitively coupled DC magnetron sputtering method. ITO and ZnO:Al films with the optimum growth conditions showed each resistivity of $1.67{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm],\;2.2{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm]$ and transmittance of 89.61[%], 90.88[%] in the wavelength range of the visible spectrum. The two types of 5 inch-PDP cells with ZnO:Al and ITO transparent electrodes were made under the same manufacturing conditions. The PDP cell with ZnO:Al film was optimally operated in the mixing gas rate of Ne(base)-Xe(8[%]), and at gas pressure of 400[Torr]. It also shows the average measured brightness of $836[cd/m^2]$ at voltage range of $200{\sim}300$[V]. Luminous efficiency, one of the key parameter for high brightness and low power consumption, ranges from 1.2 to 1.6[lm/W] with increasing frequency of ac power supplier from 10 to 50[Khz]. The brightness and luminous efficiency are lower than those with ITO electrode by about 10[%]. However, these values are considered to be enough for the normal operation of PDP TV.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.94-102
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• 1981

To investigate the characteristics of anodic film formed on metals and the reactivities of organic inhibitor Di-iso-butylnitrosoamine (DBNA) in sea water. the cathodic reactions of anodic film formed on metals were carried out by using the potential drop method and galvanostatic method at $25^{\circ}C$. The investigated results are as follows: The anodic films formed on aluminum and zinc in 60mM $DBNA+9\%_{\circ}$ sea water did not show-changes of potential drop. However, those formed on lead and copper were reasonable electrodes. It was concluded that cathodic reactivities of proton through the anodic film in aqueous solution were constant without regard to the kinds of metals used with anodic film electrode at operated current density ranges, because the values of transition time obtained in 0.5M sodium chloride solution and $9\%_{\circ}$ sea water nearly coincided. The values of transition time of the first step by the galvanostatic method were obtained from 0.22 to 1.40 sec ranges far less than one minute. Therefore, it suggested that cathodic reactions of proton through the anodic film were mainly controlled by diffusion/adsorption process. The differences of between $\tau_{1}/4$ in $9\%_{\circ}$ sea water and $\tau_{1}/4$ in 60mM $DBNA+9\%_{\circ}$ sea water, and between $E_{1}/4$ in sea water and $E_{1}/4$ in 60mM $DBNA+9\%_{\circ}$ sea water at the constant current density with $1.9\times10^{-4}\sim5.0{\times}10^{-6}\;amp/cm^2$ were 0.06 sec and 0.53 v. respectively and cathodic reactions of DBNA on the anodic film electrodes were chiefly controlled by adsorption/diffusion process. The reason that adsorption quantities of proton on anodic film formed on aluminum and zinc in aqueous solutions were much more than those on lead and copper, seems to lie due mostly to the number of porosity produced on anodic film used.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

A transparent oxide thin film transistors (Transparent Oxide-TFT) have been fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature using amorphous indium zinc oxide (a-IZO) as both of active channel and source/drain, gate electrodes and co-sputtered $HfO_2-Al_2O_3$ (HfAIO) as gate dielectric. In spite of its high dielectric constant > 20), $HfO_2$ has some drawbacks including high leakage current and rough surface morphologies originated from small energy band gap (5.31eV) and microcrystalline structure. In this work, the incorporation of $Al_2O_3$ into $HfO_2$ was obtained by co-sputtering of $HfO_2$ and $Al_2O_3$ without any intentional substrate heating and its structural and electrical properties were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE) analyses. The XRD studies confirmed that the microcrystalline structures of $HfO_2$ were transformed to amorphous structures of HfAIO. By AFM analysis, HfAIO films (0.490nm) were considerably smoother than $HfO_2$ films (2.979nm) due to their amorphous structure. The energy band gap ($E_g$) deduced by spectroscopic ellipsometer was increased from 5.17eV ($HfO_2$) to 5.42eV (HfAIO). The electrical performances of TFTs which are made of well-controlled active/electrode IZO materials and co-sputtered HfAIO dielectric material, exhibited a field effect mobility of more than $10cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, a threshold voltage of ~2 V, an $I_{on/off}$ ratio of > $10^5$, and a max on-current of > 2 mA.