• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.398-400
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• 1998

In this paper, the etching studies for n-GaN were carried out using the wet chemical, the photo-enhanced-chemical, and the electro-chemical etching methods. The experimental results show that n-GaN is etched in diluted NaOH solution at room temperture and the etched thickness of NaOH and electron concentrations. Te etching rate of n-GaN samples with n.simeq.1*10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$ were used to compare the photo-enhanced-chemical etching with the electrochemical etching methods. The removed thickness was 680.angs./25min by the electrochemical etching methods. The removed thickness was 680 .angs./25min by the electrochemical etching method ad 784.angs./25min by the photoenhanced-chemical etching method. The patterns are 100.mu.m*100.mu.m rectangulars covered with SiO$_{2}$film. It is shown that the profile of etched side-wall of the pattern is vertical without dependance of the n-GaN orientations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2006

Two methods that can reduce reflectance in solar cells are surface texturing and anti-reflection coating. Wet chemical etching is a typical method that surface texturing of multi-crystalline silicon. Wet chemical etching methods are the acid texturization of saw damage on the surface of multi-crystalline silicon or double-step chemical etching after KOH saw damage removal too. These methods of surface texturing are realized by chemical etching in acid solutions HF-$HNO_3$-$H_2O$. In this solutions we can reduce reflectance spectra by simple process etching of multi-crystalline silicon surface. We have obtained reflectance of 27.19% m 400~1100nm from acidic chemical etching after KOH saw damage removal. This result is about 7% less than just saw damage removal substrate. The surface morphology observed by microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.301-306
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• 2016

The effects of nanotexturing and post-etching on the reflection and quantum efficiency properties of diamond wire sawn (DWS) multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cell have been investigated. The chemical solutions, which are acidic etching solution (HF-$HNO_3$), metal assisted chemical etching (MAC etch) solutions ($AgNO_3$-HF-DI, HF-$H_2O_2$-DI) and post-etching solution (diluted KOH at $80^{\circ}C$), were used for micro- and nano-texturing at the surface of diamond wire sawn (DWS) mc-Si wafer. Experiments were performed with various post-etching time conditions in order to determine the optimized etching condition for solar cell. The reflectance of mc-Si wafer texturing with acidic etching solution showed a very high reflectance value of about 30% (w/o anti-reflection coating), which indicates the insufficient light absorption for solar cell. The formation of nano-texture on the surface of mc-Si contributed to the enhancement of light absorption. Also, post-etching time condition of 240 s was found adequate to the nano-texturing of mc-Si due to its high external quantum efficiency of about 30% at short wavelengths and high short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) of $35.4mA/cm^2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.667-667
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• 2013

Optimizing morphology of the front surface with three dimensional structures (3D) in solar cell is essential element for not only effectivelight harvesting but also carrier collection and separation without the cost burden in process. We designed a three-dimensionally ordered front surface with wet chemical etching. Wet chemical etching is a proper way to have three dimensional structures. The method efficiently transmits the incident light at the front surface to a Si absorber and has competitive price in manufacturing when comparing with reactive ion etching (RIE) to have three dimensional structures. This indicates that optimized front surface with three dimensional structures by wet chemical etching will bring effective light management in solar cells.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.501-506
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• 2017

Surface morphology and optical properties such as transmittance and haze effect of glass etched by physical and chemical etching processes were investigated. The physical etching process was carried out by pen type sandblasting process with $15{\sim}20{\mu}m$ dia. of $Al_2O_3$ media; the chemical etching process was conducted using HF-based mixed etchant. Sandblasting was performed in terms of variables such as the distance of 8 cm between the gun nozzle and the glass substrate, the fixed air pressure of 0.5bar, and the constant speed control of the specimen stage. The chemical etching process was conducted with mixed etching solution prepared by combination of BHF (Buffered Hydrofluoric Acid), HCl, and distilled water. The morphology of the glass surface after sandblasting process displayed sharp collision vestiges with nonuniform shapes that could initiate fractures. The haze values of the sandblasted glass were quantitatively acceptable. However, based on visual observation, the desirable Anti-Glare effect was not achieved. On the other hand, irregularly shaped and sharp vestiges transformed into enlarged and smooth micro-spherical craters with the subsequent chemical etching process. The curvature of the spherical crater increased distinctly by 60 minutes and decreased gradually with increasing etching time. Further, the spherical craters with reduced curvature were uniformly distributed over the etched glass surface. The haze value increased sharply up to 55 % and the transmittance decreased by 90 % at 60 minutes of etching time. The ideal haze value range of 3~7 % and transmittance value range of above 90 % were achieved in the period of 240 to 720 minutes of etching time for the selected concentration of the chemical etchant.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.249-254
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• 1998

The etching experiments for n-GaN were done using the wet chemical, photo-enhanced-chemical and electro-chemical etching methods. The experimental results show that n-GaN is etched is diluted NaOH solution at room temperature and the removed thickness of n-GaN is linearly increased with etching times. The etching rate of the photo-enhanced-chemical and electro-chemical etching methods are several times higher than that of the wet chemical method. The maximum etching rate of n-GaN with $n{\fallingdotseq}1{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ was 164 $\AA$/min under the experimental condition of the Photo-enhanced-chemical etching. The etching rates of n-GaN are very much dependant on the electron concentrations of the samples. The pattern is $100{\mu}m{\times}100{\mu}m$ rectangulars covered with $SiO_2$film. It is shown that the etched side-wall charactistics of the pattern is vertical without dependance of the n-GaN orientations, and the smoothness of etched n-GaN surface is fairly flat.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.410-415
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• 1999

The adhesion strength of sputtered copper films to Inconel substrates has been studied using the scratch test. The effects of substrate treatments before deposition such as chemical or ion bombardment etching were investigated by means of a mean critical load derived from a Weibull-like statistical analysis. It was found that the mean critical load was very weak unless the amorphous layer produced by mechanical polishing on the substrate surface was eliminated. Chemical etching in a nitric-hydrochloric acid bath was shown to have practically no effect on the enhancement of the adhesion. In contrast, the addition in this bath of nickel and copper sulphates allowed removal of the amorphous layer and an increase in the values of the mean critical load. However, it was observed that excessive chemical etching could cancel out the mean critical load enhancement. The results obtained in the case of ion bombardment etching pretreatments could be far higher than those obtained with chemical etching. Moreover, for a sufficiently long period of ion bombardment etching, the adhesion strength was so high that it was impossible to observe evidence of an adhesion failure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2011

These days, a growing demand for memory device is filled up with the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Although DRAM is a reasonable solution for current demand, the universal novel memory with high density, high speed and nonvolatility, needs to be developed. Among various new memories, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM) device is considered as one of good candidate memories because of excellent features including high density, high speed, low operating power and nonvolatility. The etching of MTJ stack which is composed of magnetic materials and insulator such as MgO is one of the vital process for MRAM. Recently, MgO has attracted great interest in the MTJ stack as tunneling barrier layer for its high tunneling magnetoresistance values. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of MgO thin films should be investigated. Until now, there were some works devoted to the investigations on etch characteristics of MgO thin films. Initially, ion milling was applied to the etching of MgO thin films. However, ion milling has many disadvantages such as sidewall redeposition and etching damage. High density plasma etching containing the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching and high density reactive ion etching have been employed for the improvement of etching process. In this work, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) system was adopted for the improvement of etching process using MgO thin films and etching gas mixes of $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4$/$O_2$/Ar have been employed. The etch rates are measured by a surface profilometer and etch profiles are observed using field emission scanning emission microscopy (FESEM). The effects of gas concentration and etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage to substrate, and gas pressure on etch characteristics will be systematically explored.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.1068-1071
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• 2001

Recently, the minimum line width shows a tendancy to decrease and the multi-level to increase in semiconductor. Therefore, a planarization technique is needed, which chemical polishing(CMP) is considered as one of the most important process. CMP accomplishes a high polishing performance and a global planarization of high quality. But there are several defects in CMP such as microscratches, abrasive contaminations, and non-uniformity of polished wafer edges. Spin Etching can improve the defects of CMP. It uses abrasive-free chemical solution instead of slurry. Wafer rotates and chemical solution is simultaneously dispensed on a whole surface of the wafer. Thereby chemical reaction is occurred on the surface of wafer, material is removed. On this study, TEOS film is removed by CMP and Spin Etching, the results are estimated at a viewpoint of material removal rate(MRR) and within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU).

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

This review article summarizes metal-assisted chemical etching (MAC etch or MACE), an anisotropic etching method for Si, and describes principles, main factors, and recent achievements in literature. In 1990, it was discovered that, with metal catalyst on surface and $H_2O_2$/HF as etchant, Si substrate can be etched anisotropically, in even in solution. In contrast to high-cost vacuum-based dry etching methods, MAC etch enables to fabricate a variety of high aspect ratio nanostructures through wet etching process.