• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.815-819
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• 2014

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film and TiN film as a buffer layer were deposited on INCONEL 600 substrate by reactive RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature(R.T.) under 25~75% $N_2/Ar$ atmosphere. The as-deposited AlN films at 25~50% $N_2/Ar$ showed a polycrystalline phase of hexagonal AlN, and an amorphous phase. The peak of AlN (002) plane, which was determinant on a performance of piezoelectric transducer, became strong with increasing the $N_2/Ar$ ratio. Any change in the preferential orientation of the as-deposited AlN films was not observed within our $N_2$ concentration range. The piezoelectric sensing properties of AlN module were performed using pressure-voltage measurement system. The output signal voltage of AlN module showed a linear behavior between 20~80 mV in 1~10 MPa range, and the pressure-sensing sensitivity was calculated as 3.6 mV/MPa.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.368-372
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• 2011

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has excellent thermal conductivity, whereas it has some disadvantage such as low sinterability. In this study, the effects of sintering additive content and sintering condition on thermal conductivity of pressureless sintered AlN ceramics were examined on the variables of 1~3 wt% sintering additive ($Y_2O_3$) content at $1900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ atmosphere with holding time of 2~10 h. All AlN specimens showed higher thermal conductivity as the $Y_2O_3$ content and holding time increase. The formation of secondary phases (yttrium aluminates) by reaction of $Y_2O_3$ and $Al_2O_3$ from AlN surface promoted the thermal conductivity of AlN specimens, because the secondary phases could reduce the oxygen contents in AlN lattice. Also, thermal conductivity was increased by long sintering time because of the uniform distribution and the elimination of the secondary phases at the grain boundary by the evaporation effect during long holding time. A carbothermal reduction reaction was also affected on the thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of AlN specimens sintered at $1900^{\circ}C$ for 10 h showed 130~200W/mK according to the content of sintering additive.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.138-143
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• 2015

Aluminum nitride, a compound semiconductor, has a Wurtzite structure; good material properties such as high thermal conductivity, great electric conductivity, high dielectric breakdown strength, a wide energy band gap (6.2eV), a fast elastic wave speed; and excellent in thermal and chemical stability. Furthermore, the thermal expansion coefficient of the aluminum nitride is similar to those of Si and GaAs. Due to these characteristics, aluminum nitride can be applied to electric packaging components, dielectric materials, SAW (surface acoustic wave) devices, and photoelectric devices. In this study, we surveyed the crystallization and preferred orientation of AlN thin films with an X-ray diffractometer. To fabricate the AlN thin film, we used the magnetron sputtering method with $N_2$, NH3 and Ar. According to an increase in the partial pressures of $N_2$ and $NH_3$, Al was nitrified and deposited onto a substrate in a molecular form. When AlN was fabricated with $N_2$, it showed a c-axis orientation and tended toward a high orientation with an increase in the temperature. On the other hand, when AlN was fabricated with $NH_3$, it showed a-axis orientation. This result is coincident with the proposed mechanism. We fabricated AlN thin films with an a-axis orientation by controlling the sputtering electric power, $NH_3$ pressure, deposition speed, and substrate temperature. According to the proposed mechanism, we also fabricated AlN thin films which demonstrated high a-axis and c-axis orientations.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.827-831
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• 2008

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) of AlN ceramics were carried out with ${Y_2}{O_3}$ as sintering additive at a sintering temperature $1,550{\sim}1,700^{\circ}C$. The effect of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ addition on sintering behavior and thermal conductivity of AlN ceramics was studied. ${Y_2}{O_3}$ added AlN showed higher densification rate than pure AlN noticeably, but the formation of yttrium aluminates phases by the solid-state reaction of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ and ${Al_2}{O_3}$ existed on AlN surface could delay the densification during the sintering process. The thermal conductivity of AlN specimens was promoted by the addition of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ up to 3 wt% in spite of the formation of YAG secondary phase in AlN grain boundaries because ${Y_2}{O_3}$ addition could reduced the oxygen contents in AlN lattice which is primary factor of thermal conductivity. However, the thermal conductivity rather decreased over 3 wt% addition because an immoderate formation of YAG phases in grain boundary could decrease thermal conductivity by a phonon scattering surpassing the contribution of ${Y_2}{O_3}$ addition.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.634-638
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• 2011

We report growth of epitaxial AlN thin films on c-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. To achieve two-dimensional growth the substrates were nitrided by nitrogen plasma prior to the AlN growth, which resulted in the formation of a two-dimensional single crystalline AlN layer. The formation of the two-dimensional AlN layer by the nitridation process was confirmed by the observation of streaky reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns. The growth of AlN thin films was performed on the nitrided AlN layer by changing the Al beam flux with the fixed nitrogen flux at 860$^{\circ}C$. The growth mode of AlN films was also affected by the beam flux. By increasing the Al beam flux, two-dimensional growth of AlN films was favored, and a very flat surface with a root mean square roughness of 0.196 nm (for the 2 ${\mu}m$ ${\times}$ 2 ${\mu}m$ area) was obtained. Interestingly, additional diffraction lines were observed for the two-dimensionally grown AlN films, which were probably caused by the Al adlayer, which was similar to a report of Ga adlayer in the two-dimensional growth of GaN. Al droplets were observed in the sample grown with a higher Al beam flux after cooling to room temperature, which resulted from the excessive Al flux.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.348-352
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• 2016

In this paper, GaN film was grown on AlN/PSS by hydride vapor phase epitaxy compared with GaN on planar sapphire. Thin AlN layer for buffer layer was deposited on patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Surface roughness of GaN/AlN on PSS was remarkably decreased from 28.31 to 5.53 nm. Transmittance of GaN/AlN grown on PSS was lower than that of planar sapphire at entire range. XRD spectra of GaN/AlN grown on PSS corresponded the wurzite structure and c-axis oriented. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of ${\omega}$-scan X-ray rocking curve (XRC) for GaN/AlN grown on PSS were 196 and 208 arcsec for symmetric (0 0 2) and asymmetric (1 0 2), respectively. FWHM of GaN on AlN/PSS was improved more than 50% because of lateral overgrowth and AlN buffer effect.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.89-94
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• 2003

Hard coatings are known to improve the performance of cutting tools in aggressive machining applications, such as high speed machining. New superhard Ti-Al-Si-W films, characterized by a nanocomposite nano-sized (Ti,Al,Si)N crystallites embedded in amorphous $Si_3 N_4$ matrix, could be successfully synthesized on WC-Co substrates by a hybrid coating system of arc ion plating(AIP) and sputtering method. The hardness of Ti-Al-Si-N film increased with incorporation of Si, and had the maximum value ~50 GPa at the Si content of 9 at.%, respectively. And the X-ray diffraction patterns of Ti-Al-Si-N films with various Si content is investigated. In this study, Ti-Al-Si-N coatings were applied to end-mill tools made of WC-Co material by a hybrid coating system. Cutting tests fir the high-hardened material (STD11,$H_R$)C62 and their performances in high speed cutting conditions were studied. Also, the tool wear and tool lift of Ti-Al-Si-N with various si(6, 9, 19) contents were measured.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.458-462
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• 2008

In this paper, we investigated the (002) preferred orientation and morphology characteristics of AlN thin film by using reactive rf sputtering. Additionally, AlN thin films grown in the range from 150 to 300 W were studied under room temperature without substrate heating and post annealing. Sputtered AlN thin films were well grown on Si substrates and the (002) main peak in XRD patterns showed the highest intensity at 300 W with $0.25^{\circ}$ degree of full width at half-maximum (FWHM). As increased RF power, the surface roughness was increased from 1.0 to 3.4 nm. In Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), $A_1$ (TO) and $E_1$ (TO) mode closed to AlN thin film confirmed the changes with increasing the intensity rate. From these results, we could confirm a chance of the growth of AlN thin film by only low temperature.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07c
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• pp.1577-1579
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• 2003

AlN thin films are prepared on Si (111) substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. Two-step deposition method is proposed to obtain AlN thin films with high c-axis (002)-TC value and low surface roughnesses. For all the deposited AlN films, the c-axis (002)-orientation, surface mophology, and roughness are characterized in terms of deposition conditions FEAR devices with Al/AlN/Mo/Si(111) configuration are also fabricated. From the frequency response characteristics, the return loss and electromechanical coupling contant($k_t{^2}$) are estimated.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.174-180
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• 2014

In this study, TiAlSiN coatings have been successfully synthesized on stainless steel and tungsten carbide substrate by a hybrid coating method employing a cathodic arc and a magnetron sputtering source. TiAl and Si target were vaporized with the cathodic arc source and the magnetron sputtering source, respectively. Process gas was the mixture of nitrogen and argon gas. With the increase of Si content, the crystallinity and the grain size of TiAlSiN film was decreased. At the Si content of more than 8 at.%, grain size of TiAlSiN was saturated at around 2 nm. The hardness value of the TiAlSiN film increased with incorporation of Si, and had the maximum value of ~ 3,233 Hv at the Si content of 9.2 at.%. The oxidation resistance of TiAlSiN film was enhanced with the increase of Si content.