• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.466-468
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• 2012

Amorphous InGaZnO (${\alpha}$-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are are very promising due to their potential use in thin film electronics and display drivers [1]. However, the stability of AOS-TFTs under the various stresses has been issued for the practical AOSs applications [2]. Up to now, many researchers have studied to understand the sub-gap density of states (DOS) as the root cause of instability [3]. Nomura et al. reported that these deep defects are located in the surface layer of the ${\alpha}$-IGZO channel [4]. Also, Kim et al. reported that the interfacial traps can be affected by different RF-power during RF magnetron sputtering process [5]. It is well known that these trap states can influence on the performances and stabilities of ${\alpha}$-IGZO TFTs. Nevertheless, it has not been reported how these defect states are created during conventional RF magnetron sputtering. In general, during conventional RF magnetron sputtering process, negative oxygen ions (NOI) can be generated by electron attachment in oxygen atom near target surface and accelerated up to few hundreds eV by self-bias of RF magnetron sputter; the high energy bombardment of NOIs generates bulk defects in oxide thin films [6-10] and can change the defect states of ${\alpha}$-IGZO thin film. In this paper, we have confirmed that the NOIs accelerated by the self-bias were one of the dominant causes of instability in ${\alpha}$-IGZO TFTs when the channel layer was deposited by conventional RF magnetron sputtering system. Finally, we will introduce our novel technology named as Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process [9-10] to eliminate the NOI bombardment effects and present how much to be improved the instability of ${\alpha}$-IGZO TFTs by this new deposition method.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.426-431
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• 2016

The Fe-Cr-Al alloy system shows an excellent heat resistance because of the formation of an $Al_2O_3$ film on the metal surface in an oxidizing atmosphere at high temperatures up to $1400^{\circ}C$. The Fecralloy needs an additive that can act as a binder because of its bad compactability. In this study, the green compacts of STS434L and Al powder added to Fecralloy are oxidized at $950^{\circ}C$ for up to 210 h. Fecralloy and Al is mixed by two types of ball milling. One is vented to air and the other was performed in a sealed jar. In the case of Al addition, there are no significant changes in the electrical resistance. Before the oxidation test, Al oxides are present in the Fecralloy surface, as determined from the energy dispersive spectroscopy results. The addition of Al improves the compactability because of an increased density, and the addition of STS434L increases the electrical resistivity by forming a composite oxide.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.676-680
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• 2010

Most TCOs such as ITO, AZO(Al-doped ZnO), FTO(F-doped $SnO_2$) etc., which have been widely used in LCD, touch panel, solar cell, and organic LEDs etc. as transparent electrode material reveal n-type conductivity. But in order to realize transparent circuit, transparent p-n junction, and introduction of transparent p-type materials are prerequisite. Additional prerequisite condition is optical transparency in visible spectral region. Oxide based materials usually have a wide optical bandgap more than ~3.0 eV. In this study, single-phase transparent semiconductor of $SrCu_2O_2$, which shows p-type conductivity, have been synthesized by 2-step solid state reaction at $950^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ atmosphere, and single-phase $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films of p-type TCOs have been deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on alkali-free glass substrate from single-phase target at $500^{\circ}C$, 1% $H_2$/(Ar + $H_2$) atmosphere. 3% $H_2$/(Ar + $H_2$) resulted in formation of second phases. Hall measurements confirmed the p-type nature of the fabricated $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films. The electrical conductivity, mobility of carrier and carrier density $5.27{\times}10^{-2}S/cm$, $2.2cm^2$/Vs, $1.53{\times}10^{17}/cm^3$ a room temperature, respectively. Transmittance and optical band-gap of the $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films revealed 62% at 550 nm and 3.28 eV. The electrical and optical properties of the obtained $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering were compared with those deposited by PLD and e-beam.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.190-193
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• 2006

we implemented pentacene TFTs able to operate at low voltage less than 2V by using ultrathin Al2O3 layer as a gate insulator. The OTFTs exhibited a mobility of $0.27{\pm}0.05\;cm^2/Vs$, an outstanding subthreshold slope of $0.109{\pm}0.027$, and an on/off current ratio of $2.87{\pm}1.07{\times}10^4$. OTFT operated at low voltage, producing 3.5uA at $V_GS$= 2V and $V_DS$= 1.5V.

• 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.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.202-208
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• 2001

In Recent results suggested that doping $Ta_2O_5$ with a small amount of $TiO_2$ using standard ceramic processing techniques can increase the dielectric constant of $Ta_2O_5$ significantly. In this paper, this concept is studied using RTCVD (Rapid Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition). Ti-doped $Ta_2O_5$ films are deposited using $TaC_{12}H_{30}O_5N$, $C_8H_{24}N_4Ti$, and $O_2$ on both Si and $NH_3$-nitrided Si substrates. An $NH_3$-based interface layer at the Si surface is used to prevent interfacial oxidation during the CVD process and post deposition annealing is performed in $H_2/O_2$ ambient to improve film quality and reduce leakage current. A sputtered TiN layer is used as a diffusion barrier between the Al gate electrode and the $TaTi_xO_y$ dielectric. XPS analyses confirm the formation of a ($Ta_2O_5)_{1-x}(TiO_2)_x$ composite oxide. A high quality $TaTi_xO_y$ gate stack with EOT (Equivalent Oxide Thickness) of $7{\AA}$ and leakage current $Jg=O.5A/textrm{cm}^2$ @ Vg=-1.0V has been achieved. We have also succeeded in forming a $TaTi_x/O_y$ composite oxide by rapid thermal oxidation of the as-deposited CVD TaTi films. The electrical properties and Jg-EOT characteristics of these composite oxides are remarkably similar to that of RTCVD $Ta_2O_5, suggesting that the dielectric constant of $Ta_2O_5$ is not affected by the addition of $TiO_2$.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.179-183
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• 2005

A photodiode capable of obtaining a sufficient photo/ dark current ratio at both forward bias state and reverse bias state is proposed. The photodiode includes a glass substrate, an aluminum film formed as a lower electrode over the glass substrate, an alumina film formed as an insulator barrier over the aluminum film, a hydrogenated amorphous silicon film formed as a photo conduction layer over a portion of the alumina film, and a transparent conduction film formed as an upper electrode over the hydro-generated amorphous silicon film. A good quality alumina $(Al_2O_3)$ film is formed by oxidation of aluminum film using electrolyte solution of succinic acid. Alumina is used as a potential barrier between amorphous silicon and aluminum. It controls dark-current restriction. In case of photodiodes made by changing the formation condition of alumina, we can obtain a stable dark current $(\~10^{-12}A)$ in alumina thickness below $1000{\AA}$. At the reverse bias state of the negative voltage in ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), the photo current has substantially constant value of $5{\times}10^{-9}$ A at light scan of 100 1x. On the other hand, the photo/dark current ratios become higher at smaller thicknesses of the alumina film. Therefore, the alumina film is used as a thin insulator barrier, which is distinct from the conventional concept of forming the insulator barrier layer near the transparent conduction film. Also, the structure with the insulator thin barrier layer formed near the lower electrode, opposed to the ITO film, solves the interface problem of the ITO film because it provides an improved photo current/dark current ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.137-137
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• 2009

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) that can be prepared at low temperatures have attracted much attention due to the great potential for flexible electronics. One of the mainstreams in this field is the use of organic semiconductors such as pentacene. But device performance of the organic TFTs is still limited by low field effect mobility or rapidly degraded after exposing to air in many cases. Another approach is amorphous oxide semiconductors. Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) have exactly attracted considerable attention because AOSs were fabricated at room temperature and used lots of application such as flexible display, electronic paper, large solar cells. Among the various AOSs, a-IGZO was considerable material because it has high mobility and uniform surface and good transparent. The high mobility is attributed to the result of the overlap of spherical s-orbital of the heavy pest-transition metal cations. This study is demonstrated the effect of thickness channel layer from 30nm to 200nm. when the thickness was increased, turn on voltage and subthreshold swing were decreased. a-IGZO TFTs have used a shadow mask to deposit channel and source/drain(S/D). a-IGZO were deposited on SiO2 wafer by rf magnetron sputtering. using power is 150W, working pressure is 3m Torr, and an O2/Ar(2/28 SCCM) atmosphere at room temperature. The electrodes were formed with Electron-beam evaporated Ti(30nm) and Au(70nm) structure. Finally, Al(150nm) as a gate metal was evaporated. TFT devices were heat treated in a furnace at $250^{\circ}C$ in nitrogen atmosphere for an hour. The electrical properties of the TFTs were measured using a probe-station to measure I-V characteristic. TFT whose thickness was 150nm exhibits a good subthreshold swing(S) of 0.72 V/decade and high on-off ratio of 1E+08. Field effect mobility, saturation effect mobility, and threshold voltage were evaluated 7.2, 5.8, 8V respectively.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2010

Aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) is studied with the structure of a glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si, in which the $SiO_2$ layer has micron-sized laser holes in the stack. An oxide layer between aluminum and a-Si thin films plays a significant role in the metal-induced crystallization (MIC) process determining the properties such as grain size and preferential orientation. In our case, the crystallization of a-Si is carried out only through the key hole because the $SiO_2$ layer is substantially thick enough to prevent a-Si from contacting aluminum. The crystal growth is successfully realized toward the only vertical direction, resulting a crystalline silicon grain with a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ under the hole. Lateral growth seems to be not occurred. For the AIC experiment, the glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si stacks were prepared where an Al layer was deposited on glass substrate by DC sputter, $SiO_2$ and a-Si films by PECVD method, respectively. Prior to the a-Si deposition, a $30{\times}30$ micron-sized hole array with a diameter of $1{\sim}2{\mu}m$ was fabricated utilizing the femtosecond laser pulses to induce the AIC process through the key holes and the prepared workpieces were annealed in a thermal chamber for 2 hours. After heat treatment, the surface morphology, grain size, and crystal orientation of the polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) film were evaluated by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and energy dispersive spectrometer. In conclusion, we observed that the vertical crystal growth was occurred in the case of the crystallization of a-Si with aluminum by the MIC process in a small area. The pc-Si grain grew under the key hole up to a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ with the workpiece.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.264-264
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• 2016

최근에 charge trap flash (CTF) 기술은 절연막에 전하를 트랩과 디트랩 시킬 때 인접한 셀 간의 간섭현상을 최소화하여 오동작을 줄일 수 있으며 낸드 플래시 메모리 소자에 적용되고 있다. 낸드 플래시 메모리는 고집적화, 대용량화와 비휘발성 등의 장점으로 인해 핸드폰, USB, MP3와 컴퓨터 등에 이용되고 있다. 기존의 실리콘 기반의 플래시 메모리 소자는 좁은 밴드갭으로 인해 투명하지 않고 고온에서의 공정이 요구되는 문제점이 있다. 따라서, 이러한 문제점을 개선하기 위해 실리콘의 대체 물질로 산화물 반도체 기반의 플래시 메모리 소자들이 연구되고 있다. 산화물 반도체 기반의 플래시 메모리 소자는 넓은 밴드갭으로 인한 투명성을 가지고 있으며 저온에서 공정이 가능하여 투명하고 유연한 기판에 적용이 가능하다. 다양한 산화물 반도체 중에서 비정질 In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO)는 비정질임에도 불구하고 우수한 전기적인 특성과 화학적 안정성을 갖기 때문에 많은 관심을 받고 있다. 플래시 메모리의 고집적화가 요구되면서 절연막에 high-k 물질을 atomic layer deposition (ALD) 방법으로 적용하고 있다. ALD 방법을 이용하면 우수한 계면 흡착력과 균일도를 가지는 박막을 정확한 두께로 형성할 수 있는 장점이 있다. 또한, high-k 물질을 절연막에 적용하면 높은 유전율로 인해 equivalent oxide thickness (EOT)를 줄일 수 있다. 특히, HfOx와 AlOx가 각각 trap layer와 blocking layer로 적용되면 program/erase 동작 속도를 증가시킬 수 있으며 넓은 밴드갭으로 인해 전하손실을 크게 줄일 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 ALD 방법으로 AlOx와 HfOx를 게이트 절연막으로 적용한 a-IGZO 기반의 thin-film transistor (TFT) 플래시 메모리 소자를 제작하여 메모리 특성을 평가하였다. 제작 방법으로는, p-Si 기판 위에 열성장을 통한 100 nm 두께의 SiO2를 형성한 뒤, 채널 형성을 위해 RF sputter를 이용하여 70 nm 두께의 a-IGZO를 증착하였다. 이후에 소스와 드레인 전극에는 150 nm 두께의 In-Sn-O (ITO)를 RF sputter를 이용하여 증착하였고, ALD 방법을 이용하여 tunnel layer에 AlOx 5 nm, trap layer에 HfOx 20 nm, blocking layer에 AlOx 30 nm를 증착하였다. 최종적으로, 상부 게이트 전극을 형성하기 위해 electron beam evaporator를 이용하여 platinum (Pt) 150 nm를 증착하였고, 계면 결함을 최소화하기 위해 퍼니스에서 질소 가스 분위기, $400^{\circ}C$, 30 분의 조건으로 열처리를 했다. 측정 결과, 103 번의 program/erase를 반복한 endurance와 104 초 동안의 retention 측정으로부터 큰 열화 없이 메모리 특성이 유지되는 것을 확인하였다. 결과적으로, high-k 물질과 산화물 반도체는 고성능과 고집적화가 요구되는 향후 플래시 메모리의 핵심적인 물질이 될 것으로 기대된다.