• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.364-367
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• 2015

Tin oxide thin films were fabricated on glass substrates by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method at room temperature and ambient pressure. Before measuring their properties, all samples were annealed at $500^{\circ}C$ for 2 h in air. Film thickness increased with the number of cycles; X-ray diffraction patterns for the annealed $SnO_2$ thin films indicated a $SnO_2$ single phase. Thickness of the $SnO_2$ films increased from 12 to 50 nm as the number of cycles increased from 20 to 60. Although the optical transmittance decreased with thickness, 50 nm $SnO_2$ thin films exhibited a high value of more than 85%. Regarding electronic properties, sheet resistance of the films decreased as thickness increased; however, the measured resistivity of the thin film was nearly constant with thickness ($3{\times}10^{-4}ohm/cm$). From Hall measurements, the 50 nm thickness $SnO_2$ thin film had the highest mobility of the samples ($8.6cm^2/(V{\cdot}s)$). In conclusion, optical and electronic properties of $SnO_2$ thin films could be controlled by adjusting the number of SILAR cycles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.86.2-86.2
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• 2015

Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cells have been fabricated using sputtered Cu/Sn/Zn metallic precursors on Mo coated sodalime glass substrate without using a toxic H2Se and H2S atmosphere. Cu/Sn/Zn metallic precursors with various thicknesses were prepared using DC magnetron sputtering process at room temperature. As-deposited metallic precursors were sulfo-selenized inside a graphite box containing S and Se pellets using rapid thermal processing furnace at various sulfur to selenium (S/Se) compositional ratio. Thin film solar cells were fabricated after sulfo-selenization process using a 65 nm CdS buffer, a 40 nm intrinsic ZnO, a 400 nm Al doped ZnO, and Al/Ni top metal contact. Effects of sulfur to selenium (S/Se) compositional ratio on the microstructure, crystallinity, electrical properties, and cell efficiencies have been studied using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscope, I-V measurement system, solar simulator, quantum efficiency measurement system, and time resolved photoluminescence spectrometer. Our fabricated Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cell shows the best conversion efficiency of 9.24 % (Voc : 454.6 mV, Jsc : 32.14 mA/cm2, FF : 63.29 %, and active area : 0.433 cm2), which is the highest efficiency among Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cells prepared using sputter deposited metallic precursors and without using a toxic H2Se gas. Details about other experimental results will be discussed during the presentation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.451-457
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• 2014

We developed a high-performance methane gas sensor based on a $SnO_2$ hollow hemisphere array structure of nano-thickness. The sensor structures were fabricated by sputter deposition of Sn metal over an array of polystyrene spheres distributed on a planar substrate, followed by an oxidation process to oxidize the Sn to $SnO_2$ while removing the polystyrene template cores. The surface morphology and structural properties were examined by scanning electron microscopy. An optimization of the structure for methane sensing was also carried out. The effects of oxidation temperature, film thickness, gold doping, and morphology were examined. An impressive response of ~220% was observed for a 200 ppm concentration of $CH_4$ gas at an operating temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ for a sample fabricated by 30 sec sputtering of Sn, and oxidation at $800^{\circ}C$ for 2 hr in air. This high response was enabled by the open structure of the hemisphere array thin films.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.43-48
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• 2017

Conductive $Sn_xO_y$ thin films were fabricated via RF reactive sputtering using SnO:Sn (80:20 mol%) composite target. The composite target was used to produce a chemically stable composition of $Sn_xO_y$ thin film while controlling structural defects by chemical reaction between tin and oxygen. During sputtering pressure, RF power, and substrate temperature were fixed, and oxygen partial pressure was varied from 0% to 12%. Annealing process was carried out at $300^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour in vacuum. Except $P_{O2}=0%$ sample, all samples showed the transmittance of 80~90% and amorphous phase before and after annealing. Electrically stable p-type $Sn_xO_y$ thin film with high transmittance was only obtained from the oxygen partial pressure at 12%. The carrier concentration and mobility for the $P_{O2}=12%$ were $6.36{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$ and $1.02cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$ respectively after annealing.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.578-584
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• 2017

$SiO_2$ buffer layer (100 nm) has been deposited on PET substrate by electron beam evaporation. And then, IZTO (In-Zn-Sn-O) thin film has been deposited on $SiO_2$/PET substrate with different RF power of 30 to 60 W, working pressure, 1 to 7 mTorr, by RF magnetron sputtering. Structural, electrical and optical properties of IZTO thin film have been analyzed with various RF powers and working pressures. IZTO thin film deposited on the process condition of 50 W and 3 mTorr exhibited the best characteristics, where figure of merit was $4.53{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}^{-1}$, resistivity, $4.42{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}-cm$, sheet resistance, $27.63{\Omega}/sq.$, average transmittance (400-800 nm), 81.24%. As a result of AFM, all the IZTO thin film has no defects such as pinhole and crack, and RMS surface roughness was 1.147 nm. Due to these characteristics, IZTO thin film deposited on $SiO_2$/PET structure was found to be a very compatible material that can be applied to the next generation flexible display device.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.494-499
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• 2010

Tin oxide thin films were prepared on borosilicate glass by rf reactive sputtering at different deposition powers, process pressures and substrate temperatures. The ratio of oxygen/argon gas flow was fixed as 10 sccm / 60 sccm in this study. The structural, electrical and optical properties were examined by the design of experiment to evaluate the optimized processing conditions. The Taguchi method was used in this study. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectrometer, Hall effect measurements and atomic force microscope. Tin oxide thin films exhibited three types of crystal structures, namely, amorphous, SnO and $SnO_2$. In the case of amorphous thin films the optical band gap was widely spread from 2.30 to 3.36 eV and showed n-type conductivity. While the SnO thin films had an optical band gap of 2.24-2.49 eV and revealed p-type conductivity, the $SnO_2$ thin films showed an optical band gap of 3.33-3.63 eV and n-type conductivity. Among the three process parameters, the plasma power had the most impact on changing the structural, electrical and optical properties of the tin oxide thin films. It was also found that the grain size of the tin oxide thin films was dependent on the substrate temperature. However, the substrate temperature has very little effect on electrical and optical properties.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2017

Recently, three-dimensional (3D) light harvesting structures are highly attracted because of their high light harvesting capacity and charge collection efficiencies. In this study, we have fabricated $Cu_2ZnSn(S_xSe_{1-x})_4$ based 3D thin film solar cells on PR patterned Molybdenum (Mo) substrates using photolithography technique. Specifically, Mo patterns were deposited on PR patterned Mo substrates by sputtering and the thin Cu-Zn-Sn stacked layer was deposited over this Mo patterns by sputtering technique. The stacked Zn-Sn-Cu precursor thin films were sulfo-selenized to form CZTSSe pattern. Finally, CZTSSe absorbers were coated with thin CdS layer using chemical bath deposition and ZnO window layer was deposited over CZTSSe/CdS using DC sputtering technique. Fabricated 3-D solar cells were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) to study their structural, compositional and morphological properties, respectively. The 3% efficiency is achieved for this kind of solar cell. Further efforts will be carried out to improve the performance of solar cell through various optimizations.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.543-549
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• 2014

A zinc oxide (ZnO) hybrid structure was successfully fabricated on a glass substrate by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). In-situ growth of a multi-dimensional ZnO hybrid structure was achieved by adjusting the growth temperature to determine the morphologies of either film or nanorods without any catalysts such as Au, Cu, Co, or Sn. The ZnO hybrid structure was composed of one-dimensional (1D) nanorods grown continuously on the two-dimensional (2D) ZnO film. The ZnO film of 2D mode was grown at a relatively low temperature, whereas the ZnO nanorods of 1D mode were grown at a higher temperature. The change of the morphologies of these materials led to improvements of the electrical and optical properties. The ZnO hybrid structure was characterized using various analytical tools. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the surface morphology of the nanorods, which had grown well on the thin film. The structural characteristics of the polycrystalline ZnO hybrid grown on amorphous glass substrate were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Hall-effect measurement and a four-point probe were used to characterize the electrical properties. The hybrid structure was shown to be very effective at improving the electrical and the optical properties, decreasing the sheet resistance and the reflectance, and increasing the transmittance via refractive index (RI) engineering. The ZnO hybrid structure grown by MOCVD is very promising for opto-electronic devices as Photoconductive UV Detectors, anti-reflection coatings (ARC), and transparent conductive oxides (TCO).

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.55-57
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• 2017

Amorphous oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with 0.5 wt% silicon doped zinc tin oxide (a-0.5SZTO) thin film deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. In order to investigate the effect of annealing treatment on the electrical properties of TFTs, a-0.5SZTO thin films were annealed at three different temperatures ($300^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$, and $700^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours in a air atmosphere. The structural and electrical properties of a-0.5SZTO TFTs were measured using X-ray diffraction and a semiconductor analyzer. As annealing temperature increased from $300^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$, no peak was observed. This provided crystalline properties indicating that the amorphous phase was observed up to $500^{\circ}C$. The electrical properties of a-0.5SZTO TFTs, such as the field effect mobility (${\mu}_{FE}$) of $24.31cm^2/Vs$, on current ($I_{ON}$) of $2.38{\times}10^{-4}A$, and subthreshold swing (S.S) of 0.59 V/decade improved with the thermal annealing treatment. This improvement was mainly due to the increased carrier concentration and decreased structural defects by rearranged atoms. However, when a-0.5SZTO TFTs were annealed at $700^{\circ}C$, a crystalline peak was observed. As a result, electrical properties degraded. ${\mu}_{FE}$ was $0.06cm^2/Vs$, $I_{ON}$ was $5.27{\times}10^{-7}A$, and S.S was 2.09 V/decade. This degradation of electrical properties was mainly due to increased interfacial and bulk trap densities of forming grain boundaries caused by the annealing treatment.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 1999

A micro-gas sensor with heater and sensing electrode on the same plane was fabricated on phosphosilicate glass(PSG, 800nm)/$Si_3N_4$ (150nm) dielectric membrane. PSG film was provided by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition(APCVD), and $Si_3N_4$ film by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). Total area of the fabricated device was $3.78{\times}3.78mm^2$. The area of diaphragm was $1.5{\times}1.5mm^2$, and that of the sensing layer was $0.24{\times}0.24mm^2$. Finite-element simulation was employed to estimate temperature distribution for a square-shaped diaphragm. The power consumption of Pt heater was about 85mW at $350^{\circ}C$. Tin thin films were deposited on the silicon substrate by thermal evaporation at room temperature and $232^{\circ}C$, and tin oxide films($SnO_2$) were prepared by thermal oxidation of the metallic tin films at $650^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours in oxygen ambient. The film analyses were carried out by SEM and XRD techniques. Effects of humidity and ambient temperature on the resistance of the sensing layer were found to be negligible. The fabricated micro-gas sensor exhibited high sensitivity to butane gas.