• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2001

Dielectric passivation effects on the EM(electromigration) have been a great interest with recent ULSI and multilevel structure tends in thin film interconnections of a microelectronic device. SiO$_2$, PSG(phosphosilicate glass), and Si$_3$N$_4$ passivation materials effects on the EM resistance were investigated by utilizing widely used Al-1%Si thin film interconnections. A standard photolithography process was applied for the fabrication of 0.7㎛ thick 3㎛ wide, and 200㎛ ~1600㎛ long Al-1%Si EM test patterns. SiO$_2$, PSG, and Si$_3$N$_4$ dielectric passivation with the thickness of 300 nm were singly deposited onto the Al-1%Si thin film interconnections by using an APCVD(atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition) and a PECVD(plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) in order to investigate the passivation materials effects on the EM characteristics. EM tests were performed at the direct current densities of 3.2 $\times$ 10$\^$6/∼4.5 $\times$ 10$\^$6/ A/cm$^2$ and at the temperatures of 180 $\^{C}$, 210$\^{C}$, 240$\^{C}$, and 270$\^{C}$ for measuring the activation energies(Q) and for accelerated test conditions. Activation energies were calculated from the measured MTF(mean-time-to-failure) values. The calculated activation energies for the electromigration were 0.44 eV, 0.45 eV, and 0.50 eV, and 0.66 eV for the case of nonpassivated-, Si$_3$N$_4$passivated-, PSG passivated-, and SiO$_2$ passivated Al-1%Si thin film interconnections, respectively. Thus SiO$_2$ passivation showed the best characteristics on the EM resistance followed by the order of PSG, Si$_3$N$_4$ and nonpassivation. It is believed that the passivation sequences as well as the passivation materials also influence on the EM characteristics in multilevel passivation structures.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.356-362
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• 1998

Hertzian crack suppression phenomena and relatively high damage tolerance were investigated in hard/soft silicon nitride ($Si_3N_4$) bilayers. Coarse $\alpha}-Si_3N_4$ powder was wsed for the hard coating layer and fine $\alpha}-Si_3N_4$ powder was used for the soft substrate layer. The two layers were designed with a strong interface. Hertzian indentation was used to investigate contact fracture and damage tolerance property. Hertzian crack suppression has occurred with increasing applied load and decreasing coating thickness. The crack suppression contributed strength improvement, especially in the bilayers with thinner coatings. Ultimately, the combination of hard coating with soft but tough underlayer improved the damage tolerance of brittle $Si_3N_4$ ceramics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.92-100
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• 1985

New N+N/P HLE solar cells with N+ surface charge accumulated layer in the emitter region are fabricated on the N/P Si epiwafer by incorporating high fixed positive charge density (Qss) at the Si-AR layer interface. Solar cells are classified into two categories, i.e, OCI and NCI Cell depending on AR layer, SiOl and Si3 N4/sioxynitride layer respectively. The distribution of Qss in the Si-AR layer interface is examined by C-V plot. It shows that the surface charge accumulated layer is formed more effectively in the NCI cell (Qss=1.79-1.84$\times$1012cm-2) than in the OCI cell (Qss=3.03~4.40$\times$1011 cm-2). The efficiency characteristics are evaluated under the JCR halogen lamp of 100 mw/cm2. The average (maximum) conversion efficiency for active area is 15.18 (15.46)% in the OCI cell and 16.31 (17.07)% in the NCI cell.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2003

In this study, the decision of dressing time for diamond wheel was analyzed by observing with acoustic emission signals and surface roughness, and also obtained the machining characteristics by weibull distribution plot for the values of bending strength. From the experimental study, it was possible to predict the time of re-dressing for the diamond grinding wheel with the analysis of acoustic emission signals and surface roughness values, and following conclusions were obtained. The root-mem-square values of acoustic emission signals were obtained low as the increased of table speed for different abrasive grain size. This is caused by the lack of grinding power which is not able to get rid of all real grinding mass of depth as the table speed is increased. The values of bending strength for ground $Si_3 N_4$ specimens were decreased for gain size of #400 than that of #60, but it was found that the surface roughness values for gain size of #60 were better than that of #400. As compared the shape parameter of weibull distribution plot for the values of bending strength, it was found that the reliability of bending strength for grain size of #60 increased than that of #400.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.662-666
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• 2005

Silicon nitride $(SiN_x)$ film is a promising material for anti-reflection coating and passivation of multicrystalline silicon (me-Si) solar cells. In this work, a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system with batch-type reactor tube was used to prepare highly robust $SiN_x$ films for screen-printed mc-Si solar cells. The Gas flow ratio, $R=[SiH_4]/[NH_3]$, in a mixture of silane and ammonia was varied in the range of 0.0910.235 while maintaining the total flow rate of the process gases to 4,200 sccm. The refractive index of the $SiN_x$ film deposited with a gas flow ratio of 0.091 was measured to be 2.03 and increased to 2.37 as the gas flow ratio increased to 0.235. The highest efficiency of the cell was $14.99\%$ when the flow rate of $SiH_4$ was 350 sccm (R=0.091). Generally, we observed that the efficiency of the mc-Si solar cell decreased with increasing R. From the analysis of the reflectance and the quantum efficiency of the cell, the decrease in the efficiency was shown to originate mainly from an increase in the surface reflectance for a high flow rate of $SiH_4$ during the deposition of $SiN_x$ films.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.245-248
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• 2014

$Pt/Al_2O_3/Si_3N_4/SiO_2/Si$ charge trap flash memory structures with various thicknesses of the $Si_3N_4$ charge trapping layer were fabricated. According to the calculated and measured results, we depicted electron loss in a schematic diagram that illustrates how the trap to band tunneling and thermal excitation affects electrons loss behavior with the change of $Si_3N_4$ thickness, temperature and trap energy levels. As a result, we deduce that $Si_3N_4$ thicknesses of more than 6 or less than 4.3 nm give no contribution to improving memory performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.2597-2605
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• 1994

The wear behavior of two types of $Si_3N_4$ exposed to high and low humidity was examined at various sliding speeds, using bearing steel as disk material under pin-on-disk type sliding conditions. Higher wear rates were obtained at a high humidity than at a low humidity. As the sliding speed was increased, the wear rates were decreased and the effect of humidity on the wear rates of $Si_3N_4$ was reduced. The result that the $Si_3N_4$ pin showed higher wear rate under the high humidity condition was explained by the decrease in microhardness of $Si_3N_4$ due to the chemisorbed moisture on the pin and plowing action by the hard particles of $Fe_2O_3$ from the disk. An increase in the sliding speed is supposed to reduce the effect of humidity on the wear rate of $Si_3N_4$ by raising the average temperature of the disk surface and the local temperature at pin-disk contact point.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.197-200
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• 2001

In this letter, we report on the investigation of Ni/Si/Ni Ohmic contacts to n-type 4H-SiC. Ohmic contacts have been formed by a vacuum annealing and $N_2$ gas ambient annealing method at $950^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The specific contact resistivity ( $\rho_{c}$ ), sheet resistance($R_s$), contact resistance($R_c$), transfer length($L_T$) were calculated from resistance($R_T$) versus contact spacing(d) measurements obtained from 10 TLM(transmission line method) structures. The resulting average values of vacuum annealing sample were $\rho_{c}=3.8{\times}10^{-5}\Omega cm^{3}$, $R_{c}=4.9{\Omega}$, $R_{T}=9.8{\Omega}$ and $L_{T}=15.5{\mu}m$, resulting average values of another sample were $\rho_{c}=2.29{\times}10^{-4}\Omega cm^{3}$, $R_{c}=12.9{\Omega}$ and $R_{T}=25.8{\Omega}$. The physical properties of contacts were examined using X-Ray Diffraction and Auger analysis, there was a uniform intermixing of the Si and Ni, migration of Ni into the SiC.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.538-539
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• 2013

여러 장점으로 인해 OLED는 디스플레이 및 조명 등 적용분야가 넓어지고 있지만, 수분 및 산소에 취약하여 그 수명이 제한되는 단점이 있다. 이를 해결하고자 현재까지는 glass cap을 이용한 encapsulation 기술이 적용되고 있지만, flexible 기판에 적용하지 못하는 문제가 있다. 이러한 문제를 해결하고자 여러 가지 thin film encapsulation 기술이 적용되고 있으나 보다 신뢰성이 높은 기술의 개발이 절실한 때이다. Encapsulation 무기 박막 물질로서 $Si_3N_4$ 박막은 PE-CVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) 등의 박막 증착법을 사용한 많은 연구가 진행되어, 저온에서의 좋은 품질의 박막 증착이 가능하지만, 100도 이하의 thermal budget을 갖는 OLED Encapsulation에 사용하기에는 충분하지 않았다. CVD 박막의 특성을 더욱 개선하기 위해 최근 ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) 방법을 통한 $Al_2O_3$ film 증착 방법이 연구되고 있지만, 낮은 증착 속도로 인해 양산에 걸림돌이 되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 또 다른 해결책으로서 Digital CVD 방법을 이용한 양질의 $Si_3N_4$ 박막의 증착을 연구하였다. 이것은 ALD 증착법과 유사하며, 1st step에서 PECVD 방법으로 4~5 ${\AA}$의 얇은 silicon 박막을 증착하고, 2nd step에서 nitrogen plasma를 이용하여 질화 반응을 진행하고, 이러한 cycle을 원하는 두께가 될 때까지 반복적으로 진행된다. 이 때 1 cycle 당 증착속도는 7 ${\AA}$/cycle 정도였다. 최적의 증착 방법과 조건으로 기존의 CVD $Si_3N_4$ 박막 대비 1/5 이하로 pinhole을 최소화 할 수는 있지만 완벽하게 제거하기는 힘든 문제가 있고, 이를 해결하기 위한 개선을 위한 접근 방법이 필요하다고 판단하였다. 본 연구에서는 무기물 박막인 carbon nitride를 이용한 SiN/C:N multilayer 증착 연구를 진행하였다. Fig. 1은 CVD 조건으로 증착된 두께 750 nm SiN film에서 여러 층의 C:N film layer를 삽입했을 때, 38 시간의 85%/$85^{\circ}C$ 가속실험에 따라 OLED의 발광 사진이다. 그림에서 볼 수 있듯이 C:N 층을 삽입하고 또한 그 박막의 수가 증가함에 따라서 OLED에 대한 encapsulation 특성이 크게 개선됨을 확인할 수 있다.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.201-209
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• 1989

Fine Si-Al-OH coprecipitate powders were prepared from Si- and Al-alkoxides by the hydrolysis method. $\beta$-Sialon powder was obtained from prepared Si-Al-OH coprecipitate by the simultaneous reduction and nitridation method. The syntehsized Sialon powder was pressureless sintered at 175$0^{\circ}C$ for 90 min in N2 atmosphere. The characterization of the Sialon powder was performed with XRD, BET, SEM, TEM and particle size analysis. The sinterability and mechanical properties of sintered bodies were investigated in terms of relative density, M.O.R., fracture toughness, hardness and the morphology of microstructure. The highest values of their mechanical properties were obtained for the $\beta$-Sialon ceramics at Z=1 and those values are as follows : M.O.R., KIC and HV of $\beta$-Sialon ceramics(Z=1) are 499.1 MPa, 5.9MN/m3/2 and 18.7GPa, respectively.