• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.413-419
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• 2004

Recently, Silicon On Insulator (SOI) devices emerged to achieve better device characteristics such as higher operation speed, lower power consumption and latch-up immunity. Nevertheless, there are many detrimental defects in SOI wafers such as hydrofluoric-acid (HF)-defects, pinhole, islands, threading dislocations (TD), pyramid stacking faults (PSF), and surface roughness originating from quality of buried oxide film layer. Although the number of defects in SOI wafers has been greatly reduced over the past decade, the turn over of high-speed microprocessors using SOI wafers has been delayed because of unknown defects in SOI wafers. A new characterization method is proposed to investigate the crystalline quality, the buried oxide integrity and some electrical parameters of bonded SOI wafers. In this study, major surface defects in bonded SOI are reviewed using HF dipping, Secco etching, Cu-decoration followed by focused ion beam (FIB) and transmission electron microscope (TEM).

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.250-258
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• 2023

Ceramic oxide layer was formed on the surface of high silicon aluminum alloy by using PEO (plasma electrolytic oxidation) process. The microstructure of the oxide layer was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction patterns (XRD). The high silicon aluminum alloy prior to PEO process consists of Al, Si and Al₂Cu phases in XRD analysis, whereas Al₂Cu phase selectively disappeared after PEO treatment. Considerable decrease of relative intensity in most of peaks in XRD results of the high silicon aluminum alloy treated by PEO process was observed. It may be attributed to the formation of amorphous phases after PEO treatment. The corrosion behavior of the high silicon aluminum alloy treated by PEO process was investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and other electrochemical techniques (i.e., open circuit potential and polarization curve). Electroanalytical studies indicated that the high silicon aluminum alloy treated by PEO process shows greater corrosion resistance than that untreated by PEO process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.222-222
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• 2012

Metal oxide gas sensors based on semiconductor type have attracted a great deal of attention due to their low cost, flexible production and simple usability. However, most works have been focused on n-type oxides, while the characteristics of p-type oxide gas sensors have been barely studied. An investigation on p-type oxides is very important in that the use of them makes possible the novel sensors such as p-n diode and tandem devices. Monoclinic cupric oxide (CuO) is p-type semiconductor with narrow band gap (~1.2 eV). This is composed of abundant, nontoxic elements on earth, and thus low-cost, environment-friendly devices can be realized. However, gas sensing properties of neat CuO were rarely explored and the mechanism still remains unclear. In this work, the neat CuO layers with highly ordered mesoporous structures were prepared by a template-free, one-pot solution-based method using novel ink solutions, formulated with copper formate tetrahydrate, hexylamine and ethyl cellulose. The shear viscosity of the formulated solutions was 5.79 Pa s at a shear rate of 1 s-1. The solutions were coated on SiO2/Si substrates by spin-coating (ink) and calcined for 1 h at the temperature of $200{\sim}600^{\circ}C$ in air. The surface and cross-sectional morphologies of the formed CuO layers were observed by a focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) and porosity was determined by image analysis using simple computer-programming. XRD analysis showed phase evolutions of the layers, depending on the calcination temperature, and thermal decompositions of the neat precursor and the formulated ink were investigated by TGA and DSC. As a result, the formation of the porous structures was attributed to the vaporization of ethyl cellulose contained in the solutions. Mesoporous CuO, formed with the ink solution, consisted of grains and pores with nano-meter size. All of them were strongly dependent on calcination temperature. Sensing properties toward H2 and C2H5OH gases were examined as a function of operating temperature. High and fast responses toward H2 and C2H5OH gases were discussed in terms of crystallinity, nonstoichiometry and morphological factors such as porosity, grain size and surface-to-volume ratio. To our knowledge, the responses toward H2 and C2H5OH gases of these CuO gas sensors are comparable to previously reported values.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.676-680
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• 2010

Most TCOs such as ITO, AZO(Al-doped ZnO), FTO(F-doped $SnO_2$) etc., which have been widely used in LCD, touch panel, solar cell, and organic LEDs etc. as transparent electrode material reveal n-type conductivity. But in order to realize transparent circuit, transparent p-n junction, and introduction of transparent p-type materials are prerequisite. Additional prerequisite condition is optical transparency in visible spectral region. Oxide based materials usually have a wide optical bandgap more than ~3.0 eV. In this study, single-phase transparent semiconductor of $SrCu_2O_2$, which shows p-type conductivity, have been synthesized by 2-step solid state reaction at $950^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ atmosphere, and single-phase $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films of p-type TCOs have been deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on alkali-free glass substrate from single-phase target at $500^{\circ}C$, 1% $H_2$/(Ar + $H_2$) atmosphere. 3% $H_2$/(Ar + $H_2$) resulted in formation of second phases. Hall measurements confirmed the p-type nature of the fabricated $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films. The electrical conductivity, mobility of carrier and carrier density $5.27{\times}10^{-2}S/cm$, $2.2cm^2$/Vs, $1.53{\times}10^{17}/cm^3$ a room temperature, respectively. Transmittance and optical band-gap of the $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films revealed 62% at 550 nm and 3.28 eV. The electrical and optical properties of the obtained $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering were compared with those deposited by PLD and e-beam.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.270-274
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• 2003

Recently, the fabrication process of W-Cu nanocomposite powders has been researched to improve the sinterability by mechanochemical process (MCP), which consists of ball milling and hydrogen-reduction with W- and Cu-oxide mixture. However, there are many control variables in this process because the W oxides are hydrogen-reduced via several reduction stages at high temperature over 80$0^{\circ}C$ with susceptive reduction conditions. In this experiment, the W-15 wt%Cu nanocomposite powder was fabricated with the ball-milling and hydrogen-reduction process using W and CuO powder. The microstructure of the fabricated W-Cu nanocomposite powder was homogeneously composed of the fine W particles embedded in the Cu matrix. In the sintering process, the solid state sintering was certainly observed around 85$0^{\circ}C$ at the heating rate of 1$0^{\circ}C$/min. It is considered that the solid state sintering at low temperature range should occur as a result of the sintering of Cu phase between aggregates. The specimen was fully densified over 98% for theoretical density at 120$0^{\circ}C$ for 1 h with the heating rate of 1$0^{\circ}C$/min.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.817-824
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• 1996

Removal of Cu impurities on Si substrates using remote H-plasma was investigated. Si substrates were intentionally contaminated by 1ppm ${CuCI}_{2}$, standard chemical solution. To determine the optimal process condition, remote H-plasma cleaning was conducted varying the parameters of rf power, cleaning time and remoteness(the distance between the center of plasma and the surface of Si substrate). After remote H-plasma cleaning was conducted, Si surfaces were analysed by TXRF(total x-ray reflection fluorescence) and AFM(atomic force microscope). The concentration of Cu impurity was reduced by more than a factor of 10 and its RMS roughness was improved by more than 30% after remote H-plasma cleaning. TXRF analysis results show that remote H-plasma cleaning is effective in eliminating Cu impurity on Si surface when it is performed under the optimal process condition. AFM analysis results also verifies that remote H-plasma cleaning makes no damage to the Si surface. The deposition mechanism of Cu impurity may be explained by the redox potential(oxidation-reduction reaction potential) theory. Based on the XPS analysis results we could draw a conclusion that Cu impurities on the Si substrate are removed together with the oxide by a "lift-off" mechanism when the chemical oxide( which forms when Cu ions are adsorbed on the Si surface) is etched off by reactive hydrogen atoms.gen atoms.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.47-52
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• 2003

Ferromagnetic tunnel junctions were fabricated by dc magnetron sputtering and plasma oxidation process. The local transport properties of the ferromagnetic tunnel junctions were studied using contact-mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and the local current-voltage analysis. Tunnel junctions with the structure of sub./Ta/Cu/Ta/NiFe/Cu/Mn$\_$75/Ir$\_$25//Co$\_$70/Fe$\_$30//Al-oxide were prepared on thermally oxidized Si wafers. Al-oxide layers were formed with microwave excited plasma using radial line slot antenna (RLSA) for 5 and 7 sec. Kr gas was used as the inert gas mixed with $O_2$ gas for the plasma oxidization. No correlation between topography and current image was observed while they were measured simultaneously. The local current distribution was well identified with the distribution of local barrier height. Assuming the gaussian distribution of the local barrier height, the ferromagnetic tunnel junction with longer oxidation time was well fitted with the experimental results. As contrast, in the case of the shorter time oxidation junction, the current mainly flow through the low barrier height area for its insufficient oxygen. Such leakage current might result in the decrease of tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.196-201
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• 2014

In this study, nanocrystalline Cu-Ni bulk materials with various compositions were cold compacted by a shock compaction method using a single-stage gas gun system. Since the oxide layers on powder surface disturbs bonding between powder particles during the shock compaction process, each nanopowder was hydrogen-reduced to remove the oxide layers. X-ray peak analysis shows that hydrogen reduction successfully removed the oxide layers from the nano powders. For the shock compaction process, mixed powder samples with various compositions were prepared using a roller mixer. After the shock compaction process, the density of specimens increased up to 95% of the relative density. Longitudinal cross-sections of the shock compacted specimen demonstrates that a boundary between two powders are clearly distinguished and agglomerated powder particles remained in the compacted bulk. Internal crack tended to decrease with an increase in volumetric ratio of nano Cu powders in compacted bulk, showing that nano Cu powders has a higher coherency than nano Ni powders. On the other hand, hardness results are dominated by volume fraction of the nano Ni powder. The crystalline size of the shock compacted bulk materials was greatly reduced from the initial powder crystalline size since the shock wave severely deformed the powders.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.20-20
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• 1997

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.248-252
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• 2006

An investigation is reported on the coating of ZnS:Cu,Cl phosphors by $HfO_2$ using atomic layer deposition method. Hafnium oxide films were prepared at the chamber temperature of $280^{\circ}C$ using $Hf[N(CH_3)_2]_4\;and\;O_2$ as precursors and reactant gas, respectively. XPS and ICP-MS analysis showed the surface composition of coated phosphor powder was hafnium oxide. In FE-SEM analysis, the surface morphology of uncoated phosphors became smoother and clearer as the number of ALD cycle increased from 900 to 1800. The photoluminescence intensity for coated phosphors showed $7.3{\sim}13.4%$ higher than that of uncoated. The effect means that the reactive surface is uniformly coated with stable hafnium oxide to reduce the dead surface layer without change of bulk properties and also its absorptance is almost negligible due to ultrathin(nano-scaled) films. The growth rate is about $1.1{\AA}/cycle$.