• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.400-407
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• 2024

The reversible metal electrodeposition (RME) process is used to prepare electrochromic mirrors with reflective-transparent optical states, by depositing metal particles on transparent conductive substrates. These RME based devices can be used in smart windows to regulate indoor temperatures and light levels, serving dual purposes as lighting elements. Commercialization efforts are focused on achieving large-scale production, long-term durability, and a memory effect that maintains coloration without applied voltage. Enhancing durability has received particular attention, leading to the development of electrochromic mirrors that employ gel electrolytes, which are expected to reduce electrolyte leakage and improve mechanical stability compared to traditional liquid electrolyte devices. The gel electrolytes offer the additional advantage of various colors, by controlling the metal particle size and enabling smoother, denser formations. In this study, we investigated improving the durability of RME devices by adding polyvinyl butyral (PVB) to the liquid electrolyte and optimizing the concentration of PVB. Incorporating 10 % PVB resulted in excellent interfacial properties and superior electrochromic stability, with 92.6 % retention after 1,000 cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.500-506
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• 2024

The transparent electrode characteristics of the SnO₂/AgNi/SnO₂ (OMO) multilayer structures prepared by sputtering were investigated according to the annealing temperature. Ni-doped Ag of various compositions was selected as the metal layer and heat treatment was performed at 100~300℃ to evaluate the thermal stability of the metals. The manufactured OMO multilayer structures were heat treated for 6 hours at 400~600℃ in an N₂ atmosphere. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the OMO structures before and after annealing were evaluated and analyzed using a UV-VIS spectrophotometer, 4-point probe, XPS, FE-SEM, etc. OMO with Ni-doped Ag shows improved performance due to the reduction of structural defects of Ag during annealing, but OMO structure with pure Ag shows degradation characteristics due to Ag diffusion into the oxide layer during high-temperature annealing. The figure of merit (FOM) of SnO₂/Ag/SnO₂ was highest at room temperature and gradually decreased as the heat treatment temperature increased. On the other hand, the FOM value of SnO₂/AgNi/SnO₂ mostly showed its maximum value at high temperature(~550℃). In particular, the FOM value of SnO₂/Ag-Ni (3.2 at%)/SnO₂ was estimated to be approximately 2.38×10^-2 Ω^-1. Compared to transparent electrodes made of other similar materials, the FOM value of the SnO₂/Ag-Ni (3.2 at%)/SnO₂ multilayer structure is competitive and is expected to be used as an alternative transparent conductive electrode in various devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the structure and properties of a highly heat conductive metal-ceramic core-shell CoAl₂O₄@Al micro-composite for heterogeneous catalysts support. The CoAl₂O₄@Al was prepared by hydrothermal surface oxidation of Al metal powder, which resulted in the structure with a high heat conductive Al metal core encapsulated by a high surface area CoAl₂O₄ shell. For comparison, CoAl₂O₄ was also prepared by co-precipitation method and also utilized for a catalyst support. Rh catalysts supported on CoAl₂O₄@Al and CoAl₂O₄ were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by N₂ adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), CO chemisorption, and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The properties of catalysts were investigated for glycerol steam reforming reaction for hydrogen production at 550 ℃. Rh/CoAl₂O₄@Al exhibited about 2.8 times higher glycerol conversion turnover frequency (TOF) than Rh/CoAl₂O₄ due to facilitated heat transport through the core-shell structure. The CoAl₂O₄@Al and CoAl₂O₄ also showed some catalytic activities due to a partial reduction of Co on the support, and a higher catalytic activity was also found on the CoAl₂O₄@Al core-shell than CoAl₂O₄. These catalysts, however, displayed deactivation on the reaction stream due to carbon deposition on the catalysts surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.151-151
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• 2009

Recently, there has been increasing interest in amorphous oxide semiconductors to find alternative materials for an amorphous silicon or organic semiconductor layer as a channel in thin film transistors(TFTs) for transparent electronic devices owing to their high mobility and low photo-sensitivity. The fabriction of amorphous oxide-based TFTs at room temperature on plastic substrates is a key technology to realize transparent flexible electronics. Amorphous oxides allows for controllable conductivity, which permits it to be used both as a transparent semiconductor or conductor, and so to be used both as active and source/drain layers in TFTs. One of the materials that is being responsible for this revolution in the electronics is indium-zinc-tin oxide(IZTO). Since this is relatively new material, it is important to study the properties of room-temperature deposited IZTO thin films and exploration in a possible integration of the material in flexible TFT devices. In this research, we deposited IZTO thin films on polyethylene naphthalate substrate at room temperature by using magnetron sputtering system and investigated their properties. Furthermore, we revealed the fabrication and characteristics of top-gate-type transparent TFTs with IZTO layers, seen in Fig. 1. The experimental results show that by varying the oxygen flow rate during deposition, it can be prepared the IZTO thin films of two-types; One a conductive film that exhibits a resistivity of $2\times10^{-4}$ ohm${\cdot}$cm; the other, semiconductor film with a resistivity of 9 ohm${\cdot}$cm. The TFT devices with IZTO layers are optically transparent in visible region and operate in enhancement mode. The threshold voltage, field effect mobility, on-off current ratio, and sub-threshold slope of the TFT are -0.5 V, $7.2\;cm^2/Vs$, $\sim10^7$ and 0.2 V/decade, respectively. These results will contribute to applications of select TFT to transparent flexible electronics.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.994-1000
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• 2002

Oxygen permeability and the mechanical properties of mixed ionic-electronic conductive $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_{3-{\delta}}$ perovskite-type membrane, fabricated by solid state reaction, were investigated with regard to microstructure. The microstructure of the membrane was controlled by changing the sintering temperature and holding time. The average grain size and relative density were evaluated as a function of sintering conditions. As the fraction of grain boundary decreased, oxygen permeability showed a tendency to increase. Especially the maximum oxygen flux of 0.37 ml/$cm^2$${\cdot}$min was measured for the specimen sintered at 1300${\circ}C$ for 10 h, which has high density and relatively large grain size. Fracture strength was dependent on the relative density of sintered body, while fracture toughness increased with average grain size.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.336-341
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• 2018

In general, the synthesis of poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT)-based block copolymers requires at least a 4-5 step process. To control the molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, and block ratio, the reaction conversion and time should be monitored. In addition, the reaction scale usually limited to several mg to g was difficult to increase due to the limitations of living radical polymerizations. In this study, we synthesized P3HT-b-poly(4-vinylprydine) (P3HT-b-P4VP) with a final product quantity of > 19 g via a 2-step synthetic method with an anionic polymerization. In this method, the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of P3HT-b-P4VP can be well controlled without monitoring the reaction conversion. We also studied physical properties of P3HT-b-P4VP depending on different solvent systems, which were investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.213-220
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• 2009

The optimal condition of low temperature deposition of transparent conductive Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films is studied by RF magnetron sputtering method. To achieve enhanced-electrical property and good crystallites quality, we tried to deposit on glass using a two-step growth process. This process was to deposit AZO buffer layer with optimal growth condition on glass in-situ state. The AZO film grown at rf 120 W on buffer layer prepared at RF $50{\sim}60\;W$ shows the electrical resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, Carrier concentration $1.22{\times}10^{21}/cm^3$, and mobility $9.9\;cm^2/Vs$ in these results, The crystallinity of AZO film on buffer layer was similar to that of AZO film on glass with no buffer later but the electrical properties of the AZO film were 30% improved than that of the AZO film with no buffer layer. Therefore, the cause of enhanced electrical properties was explained to be dependent on degree of crystallization and on buffer layer's compressive stress by variation of $Ar^+$ ion impinging energy.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.119-125
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• 2013

In this study, we studied the properties of ZnO(Al) and ZnO(AlGa) thin film according to film thickness deposited on SLG by In-line magnetron sputtering system. XRD, FESEM, 4-point probe, Hall measurement system and UV/Vis-NIR spectrophotometer were employed to analyze the properties of ZnO(Al) and ZnO(AlGa) thin film. The all films exhibited (002) preferential orientation with clear peak shape and high intensity. The carrier concentration and Hall mobility of ZnO(Al) and ZnO(AlGa) thin film were improved with increasing thickness. The resistivity of both films decreased when the film thickness was raised from 500 nm to 1,450 nm. And then relatively the resistivity of ZnO(AlGa) film was lower than that of ZnO(Al) film. The transmittance of the films decreased with increasing film thickness but all films exhibited optical transmittances of over 83.3% in the visible region.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.436-442
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• 2005

We have performed multiple geophysical surveys comprised of gravity, magnetic and resistivity methods at the Yangsan fault zone which runs through the Eonyang area, the eastern part of Kyeongsang in southeast Korea. The gravity and magnetic data provide information about geological structures. Furthermore, sections of electrical resistivity show the sharp contrast of electrical resistivity distribution across the fault zone. Since the fractured zone tends to be more conductive than fresh host rocks, the electrical resistivity survey is effective in determining the detailed structure of the fault zone. We have made gravity measurements at a total of 71 points alongside two profiles across the fault zone, and carried out an electrical resistivity survey with a dipole-dipole array at the same location using 40m dipole length. In addition, we have analyzed the aeromagnetic data on the corresponding area. The multiple geophysical properties appear to be abruptly changed in electrical resistivity, gravity and aeromagneticclearly show the different appearance across the fault zone. The fault is identified by its sub vertical attitude which is well known in the Yangsan fault zone. We have also confirmed that the magnitude of the response of the fault is much larger in the southern part of the survey area than the northern area. These results most likely to provide basic information for the further studies about the physical properties and the structures at the Yangsan fault.