• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.185-185
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• 2010

Programmable Metallization Cell (PMC) Random Access Memory is based on the electrochemical growth and removal of electrical nanoscale pathways in thin films of solid electrolytes. In this study, we investigated the nature of thin films formed by the photo doping of copper ions into chalcogenide materials for use in programmable metallization cell devices. These devices rely on metal ions transport in the film so produced to create electrically programmable resistance states. The results imply that a Cu-rich phase separates owing to the reaction of Cu with free atoms from chalcogenide materials.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1994.11a
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• pp.165-165
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• 1994

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.35-35
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• 1998

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.41.2-41.2
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• 2011

Recently, scaling down of ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) circuit of CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) based electronic devices become much faster speed and smaller size than ever before. However, very narrow interconnect line width causes some drawbacks. For example, deposition of conformal and thin barrier is not easy moreover metallization process needs deposition of diffusion barrier and glue layer. Therefore, there is not enough space for copper filling process. In order to overcome these negative effects, simple process of copper metallization is required. In this research, Cu-V thin alloy film was formed by using RF magnetron sputter deposition system. Cu-V alloy film was deposited on the plane $SiO_2$/Si bi-layer substrate with smooth and uniform surface. Cu-V film thickness was about 50 nm. Cu-V layer was deposited at RT, 100, 150, 200, and $250^{\circ}C$. XRD, AFM, Hall measurement system, and XPS were used to analyze Cu-V thin film. For the barrier formation, Cu-V film was annealed at 200, 300, 400, 500, and $600^{\circ}C$ (1 hour). As a result, V-based thin interlayer between Cu-V film and $SiO_2$ dielectric layer was formed by itself with annealing. Thin interlayer was confirmed by TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) analysis. Barrier thermal stability was tested with I-V (for measuring leakage current) and XRD analysis after 300, 400, 500, 600, and $700^{\circ}C$ (12 hour) annealing. With this research, over $500^{\circ}C$ annealed barrier has large leakage current. However V-based diffusion barrier annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ has good thermal stability. Thus, thermal stability of vanadium-based thin interlayer as diffusion barrier is good for copper interconnection.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2016

Screen printing of commercially available Ag paste is the most widely used method for the front side metallization of Si solar cells. However, the metallization using Ag paste is expensive and needs high temperature annealing for reliable contact. Among many metallization schemes, Ni/Cu/Sn plating is one of the most promising methods due to low contact resistance and mass production, resulting in high efficiency and low production cost. Ni layer serves as a barrier which would prevent copper atoms from diffusion into the silicon substrate. However, Ni based schemes by electroless deposition usually have low thermal stability, and require high annealing process due to phosphorus content in the Ni based films. These problems can be resolved by adding W element in Ni-based film. In this study, Ni-W-P alloys were formed by electroless plating and properties of it such as sheet resistance, resistivity, specific contact resistivity, crystallinity, and morphology were investigated before and after annealing process by means of transmission line method (TLM), 4-point probe, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.88-97
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• 1996

The metallization is the key to determining cell costs, cell performance, and system reliability. Screen printing technology suffers from several limitations affecting mainly the front grid. The buried contact solar cell (BCSC) was specifically desinged to be compatible with low cost, mass production techniques and avoid the conventional metallization problem. By using electroless plating technique, we performed this metallization inexpensively and reliably. This paper presents the details of the optimization procedure of metallization schemes on laser grooved cell surfaces. Commercially available Ni, Cu and Ag plating solutions were applied for the cell metallization. The application of those solutions on the buried contact front metallization has resulted in an cell efficiency of 18.8%. The cell parameters are an open circuit voltage of 651 mV, short circuit current density of 37.1 mA/$\textrm{cm}^2$, and fill factor of 77.8 %. The efficiency of over 18 % was achieved in the above 90% of the batch.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.222-226
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• 1998

$Cu_3N$ film deposited on silicon oxide substrate by r.f. reactive sputtering technique. Synthesis and properties of copper nitride film were investigated for its possible application to Cu metallization as adhesive interlayer between copper and $SiO_2. Cu_3N$ film was synthesized at the substrate temperature ranging from $100^{\circ}C$ to $200^{\circ}C$ and at nitrogen gas ratio above $X_{N2}=0.4. Cu_3N, CuN_x$, and FGM-structured $Cu/CuN_x$ films prepared in this work passed Scotch-tape test and showed improved adhesion property to silicon oxide substrate compared with Cu film. Electrical resistivity of copper nitride film had a dependency on its lattice constant and was ranged from 10-7 to 10-1 $\Omega$cm. Copper nitride film was, however, unstable when it was annealed at the temperature above $400^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.93-94
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• 2005

Cu metallization using electrochemical plating(ECP) has played an important role in back end of line(BEOL) interconnect formation. In this work, we studied the optimized copper thickness using Bottom-up Gap-fill in Cu ECP, which is closely related with the pattern dependencies in Cu ECP and Cu dual damascene process at 0.13 ${\mu}m$ technology node. In order to select an optimized Cu ECP thickness, we examined Cu ECP bulge, Cu CMP dishing and electrical properties of via hole and line trench over dual damascene patterned wafers split into different ECP Cu thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.169-169
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• 2000

최근 반도체 소자의 초고집적화 현상에 따라 기존의 Al-base 합금에 대한 한계에 달하면서 그에 대한 대체 물질로 Cu가 관심을 모으게 되었고 그럼으로써 Cu metallization을 위한 많은 연구가 진행되어 왔다. Cu는 Al-base 합금계보다 비저항이 낮고, 녹는점이 높으며, 또한 electromigration 특성이 뛰어난 것으로 알려져 있다. 공학적인 면에서 이미 이들 계에 대한 adhesion 및 전기적 특성에 대한 많은 연구가 있어왔지만, 이들 특성 변화에 대한 물리적 의미를 제공할 만한 기초 자료들이 부족한 상태이다. 본 연구에서는 부도체인 polyimide 박막과 diffusion barrier인 TiN 박막위에서의 Cu 박막성장에 따르는 interface chemical reaction의 변화를 XPS를 이용하여 관찰함으로서 이들 계에 있어서의 adhesion과의 관계를 조사하였다. 그리고 XPS를 이용한 modified surface accumulation method를 적용시켜 TiN diffusion barrier를 통한 Cu의 grain boundary diffusion 상수들을 측정하였다. Cu/TiN system의 경우에는 interface chemical reaction이 일어나지 않았지만 Cu/polymide system에 있어서는 boundary diffusivity는 특히 40$0^{\circ}C$에서 $650^{\circ}C$ 영역에서, Db=60$\times$10-11exp[-0.29/(kBT)]cm2/sec 이었다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2001

The deposition characteristics of MOCVO Cu using the (hfac)Cu(I) (1,5-DMCOD)(1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedionato Cu(I) 1,5-dimethyl-cyclooctadine) as a precursor have been investigated in terms of the effects of hydrogen and H(hfac) ligand addition with He carrier gas. MOCVD Cu using a Helium carrier gas showed a low deposition rate (20~$125{\AA}/min$) at the substrate temperature range of 180~$230^{\circ}C$. Moreover, the Cu film deposited at 19$0^{\circ}C$ was very thin (~$700{\AA}$) and showed the lowest resistivity value of $2.8{\mu}{\Omega}-cm$. The deposition rate of MOCVD Cu using $H_2$or H(hfac) addition was significantly enhanced especially at the low temperature region (180~$190^{\circ}C$). Furthermore, thinner Cu films (~$500{\AA}$) provided low resistivity (3.6~$2.86{\mu}{\Omega}-cm$). From surface reflectance measurement, very thin films deposited by using different gas system revealed good surface morphology comparable with sputtered Cu film ($300^{\circ}C$, vacuum-anneal). Hence, Cu film using (hfac)Cu(1,5-DMCOD) as a precursor is expected as a good seed layer in the electrochemical deposition process for Cu metallization.