• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2019

Most high-efficiency n-type silicon solar cells are based on the high quality surface passivation and ohmic contact between the emitter and the metal. Currently, various metalization methods such as screen printing using metal paste and physical vapor deposition are being used in forming electrodes of n-type silicon solar cell. In this paper, we analyzed the degradation factors induced by the front electrode formation process using e-beam evaporation of double passivation structure of p-type emitter and $Al_2O_3/SiN_x$ for high efficiency solar cell using n-type bulk silicon. In order to confirm the cause of the degradation, the passivation characteristics of each electrode region were determined through a quasi-steady-state photo-conductance (QSSPC).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.26-26
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• 2010

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin film for flexible optical device applications were prepared at $H_2(Ar+H_2)$ flow ratios on polyethersulfon(PES) flexible polymer substrates at room temperature by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The CdS thin films deposited at room temperature showed a (002) preferred orientation and the smooth surface morphologies. Films deposited at a hydrogen flow ratio of 25% exhibited a photo- and dark-sheet resistance of about 50 and $2.7{\times}10^5{\Omega}$/square, respectively. From the result of the bending test, CdS films exhibit a strong adhesion with the PES polymer substrates and the $Al_2O_3$ passivation layer deposited on the CdS films only shows an increase of the resistance of 8.4% after exposure for 120 h in air atmosphere.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.31-36
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• 2018

This research scrutinizes the reason of failure after pressure cooker test (PCT) for DRAM device. We use the physical inspecting tools, such as microscope, SEM and TEM, and finally find the discolor phenomenon, corrosion of Al and delamination of inter-metal dielectric (IMD) in the failed devices after PCT. Furthermore, we discover the abnormal $Al_XO_Y$ layer on Al through the careful additional measurements. To find the reason, we evaluate the effect of package ball size and pinhole in passivation layer. Unfortunately, those aren't related to the problems. We also estimate halide effect of Al. The halogens such like Cl are contained within EMC material. Those result in the slight improving of PCT characteristics but do not perfectly solve the problems. We make a hypothesis of Galvanic corrosion. We can find the residue of Ti at the edge of pad open area. We can see the improving the PCT characteristics by the time split of repair etch. The possible mechanism of the PCT failure can be deduced as such following sequence of reactions. The remained Ti reacts on the pad Al by Galvanic corrosion. The ionized Al is easily react with the $H_2O$ supplied under PCT environment, and finally transfers to the abnormal $Al_XO_Y$ layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.251-252
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• 2012

Recently, the growing interest in organic microelectronic devices including OLEDs has led to an increasing amount of research into their many potential applications in the area of flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates. However, these organic devices require a gas barrier coating to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency OLEDs require an extremely low Water Vapor Transition Rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day. The Key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required ($1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day) is the suppression of defect sites and gas diffusion pathways between grain boundaries. In this study, we developed an $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer using a Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering (NBAS) process. The NBAS system is based on the conventional RF magnetron sputtering and neutral beam source. The neutral beam source consists of an electron cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma source and metal reflector. The Ar+ ions in the ECR plasma are accelerated in the plasma sheath between the plasma and reflector, which are then neutralized by Auger neutralization. The neutral beam energies were possible to estimate indirectly through previous experiments and binary collision model. The accelerating potential is the sum of the plasma potential and reflector bias. In previous experiments, while adjusting the reflector bias, changes in the plasma density and the plasma potential were not observed. The neutral beam energy is controlled by the metal reflector bias. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to nano-crystal phase of various grain sizes within a single inorganic thin film. These NBAS process effects can lead to the formation of a nano-crystal structure barrier layer which effectively limits gas diffusion through the pathways between grain boundaries. Our results verify the nano-crystal structure of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ single gas barrier layer through dielectric constant measurement, break down field measurement, and TEM analysis. Finally, the WVTR of $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer was measured to be under $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day therefore we can confirm that NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer is suitable for OLED application.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.12S
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• pp.1181-1186
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• 2003

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) is an essential dielectric planarization in multilayer microelectronic device fabrication. In the CMP process, it is necessary to minimize the extent of surface defect formation while maintaining good planarity and optimal material removal rates. The polishing mechanism of W-CMP process has been reported as the repeated process of passive layer formation by oxidizer and abrasion action by slurry abrasives. Thus, it is important to understand the effect of oxidizer on W passivation layer, in order to obtain higher removal rate (RR) and very low non-uniformity (NU %) during W-CMP process. In this paper, we compared the effects of oxidizer or W-CMP process with three different kind of oxidizers with 5 wt% hydrogen peroxide such as Fe(NO$_3$)$_3$, H$_2$O$_2$, and KIO$_3$. The difference in removal rate and roughness of W in stable and unstable slurries are believed to caused by modification in the mechanical behavior of Al$_2$O$_3$ particles in presence of surfactant stabilizing the slurry.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.449-457
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• 2012

The program/erase (P/E) cyclic endurances including bias temperature instability (BTI) behaviors of Metal-$Al_2O_3$-Nitride-Oxide-Semiconductor (MANOS) memories are investigated in comparison with those of Semiconductor-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Semiconductor (SONOS) memories. In terms of BTI behaviors, the SONOS power-law exponent n is ~0.3 independent of the P/E cycle and the temperature in the case of programmed cell, and 0.36~0.66 sensitive to the temperature in case of erased cell. Physical mechanisms are observed with thermally activated $h^*$ diffusion-induced Si/$SiO_2$ interface trap ($N_{IT}$) curing and Poole-Frenkel emission of holes trapped in border trap in the bottom oxide ($N_{OT}$). In terms of the BTI behavior in MANOS memory cells, the power-law exponent is n=0.4~0.9 in the programmed cell and n=0.65~1.2 in the erased cell, which means that the power law is strong function of the number of P/E cycles, not of the temperature. Related mechanism is can be explained by the competition between the cycle-induced degradation of P/E efficiency and the temperature-controlled $h^*$ diffusion followed by $N_{IT}$ passivation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.889-894
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• 2001

2wt% $Al_2O_3-doped$ ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited on sapphire (0001) single crystal substrate by parellel type rf magnetron sputtering at 55$0^{\circ}C$. The as-grown AZO thin films was polycrystalline and showed only broad deep defect-level photoluminescence (PL). In order to examine the change of PL property, AZO thin films were annealed in $N_2$ (N-AZO) and $H_2$ (H-AZO) at the temperature of $600^{\circ}C$~$1000^{\circ}C$ through rapid thermal annealing. After annealed at $800^{\circ}C$, N-AZO shows near band edge emission (NBE) with very small deep-level emission, and then N-AZO annealed at $900^{\circ}C$ shows only sharp NBE with 219 meV FWHM. In Comparison with N-AZO, H-AZO exhibits very interesting PL features. After $600^{\circ}C$ annealing, deep defect-level emission was quire quenched and NBE around 382 nm (3.2 eV) was observed, which can be explained by the $H_2$passivation effect. At elevated temperature, two interesting peaks corresponding to violet (406 nm, 3.05 eV) and blue (436 nm, 2.84 eV) emission was firstly observed in AZO thin films. Moreover, peculiar PL peak around 694 nm (1.78 eV) is also firstly observed in all the H-AZO thin films and this is believed good evidence of hydrogenation of AZO. Based on defect-level scheme calculated by using the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO), the emission 3.2 eV, 3.05 eV, 3.84 eV and 1.78 eV of H-AZO are substantially deginated as exciton emission, transition from conduction band maximum to $V_{ Zn},$ from $Zn_i$, to valence band maximum $(V_{BM})$ and from $V_{o} to V_BM}$, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.88-91
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• 2003

Tungsten is widely used as a plug for the multi-level interconnection structures. However, due to the poor adhesive properties of tungsten (W) on $SiO_2$ layer, the Ti/TiN barrier layer is usually deposited onto $SiO_2$ for increasing adhesion ability with W film. Generally, for the W-CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) process, the passivation layer on the tungsten surface during CMP plays an important role. In this paper, the effect of oxidants controlling the polishing selectivity of W/Ti/TiN layer were investigated. The alumina ($Al_2O_3$) abrasive containing slurry with $H_2O_2$ as the oxidizer, was studied. As our preliminary experimental results, very low removal rates were observed for the case of no-oxidant slurry. This low removal rate is only due to the mechanical abrasive force. However, for Ti and TiN with $H_2O_2$ oxidizer, different removal rate was observed. The removal mechanism of Ti during CMP is mainly due to mechanical abrasive, whereas for TiN, it is due to the formation of metastable soluble peroxide complex.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.451-457
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• 2006

We synthesized phase pure CrN having surface areas up to $47m^2/g$ starting from $CrCl_{3}$ with $NH_{3}$. Thermal Gravimetric Analysis coupled with X-ray diffraction was carried out to identify solid state transition temperatures and the phase after each transition. In addition, the BET surface areas, pore size distributions, and crystalline diameters for the synthesized materials were analyzed. Space velocity influenced a little to the surface areas of the prepared materials, while heating rate did not. We believe it is due to the fast removal of reaction by-products from the system. Temperature programmed reduction results revealed that the CrN was hardly passivated by 1% $O_{2}$. Molecular nitrogen was detected from CrN at 700 and $950^{\circ}C$, which may be from lattice nitrogen. In temperature programmed oxidation with heating rate of 10 K/min in flowing air, oxidation started at or higher than $300^{\circ}C$ and resulting $Cr_{2}O_{3}$ phase was observed with XRD at around $800^{\circ}C$. However the oxidation was not completed even at $900^{\circ}C$. CrN catalysts were highly active for n-butane dehydrogenation reaction. Their activity is even higher than that of a commercial $Pt-Sn/Al_{2}O_{3}$ dehydrogenation catalyst in terms of volumetric reaction rate. However, CrN was not active in pyridine hydrodenitrogenation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.115-116
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• 2008

The ferroelectric vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene ($VF_2$-TrFE) and $Al_2O_3$ passivation layer for the Metal/Insulator/Ferroelectric/Semiconductor (MIFS) structure were deposited using spin coating and remote plasma atomic layer deposition (RPALD), respectively. A 2.5 ~ 3 wt % diluted solution of purified vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene ($VF_2$: TrFE=70:30) in a DMF solution were prepared and deposited on silicon wafer at a optimized spin speed. After annealing in a vacuum ambient at 150 ~ $200^{\circ}C$ for 60 min, upper insulator layer were deposited at temperature ranging from 100 ~ $150^{\circ}C$ by RPALD. We described electrical and structural properties of MIFS fabricated by spin coating and RPALD methods.