• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.449-452
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• 2007

An intelligent robot with RSSI based indoor location estimation function was designed and implemented. A wireless sensor node was attached to the robot to received the location data from the indoor location estimation function. Spartan III was used as the main control device in the mobile robot. The current location data collected from the indoor location estimation system was transferred to the mobile robot and server through Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4 wireless communication of the sensor node. Once the location data is received, the sensor node senses the direction of the robot head and directs the robot to move to its destination. Indoor location estimation intelligent robot is able to move efficiently and actively to the user appointed location by implementing the proposed obstacles avoidance algorithm. This system is able to monitor real-time environmental data and location of the robot using PC program. Indoor location estimation intelligent robot also can be controlled by executing the instructions sent from the PC program.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.471.2-471.2
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• 2014

We demonstrate here that an improvement in precursor film density (green density) leads to a great enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of CuInSe2 (CISe) thin film solar cells fabricated with Cu-In nanoparticle precursor films via chemical solution deposition. A cold-isostatic pressing (CIP) technique was applied to uniformly compress the precursor film over the entire surface (measuring 3~4 cm2) and was found to increase its relative density (particle packing density) by ca. 20%, which resulted in an appreciable improvement in the microstructural features of the sintered CISe film in terms of lower porosity, reduced grain boundaries, and a more uniform surface morphology. The low-bandgap (Eg=1.0 eV) CISe PV devices with the CIP-treated film exhibited greatly enhanced open-circuit voltage (VOC, from 0.265 V to 0.413 V) and fill factor (FF, from 0.34 to 0.55), as compared to the control devices. As a consequence, an almost 3-fold increase in the average power conversion efficiency, 3.0 to 8.2% (with the highest value of 9.02%), was realized without an anti-reflection coating. A diode analysis revealed that the enhanced VOC and FF were essentially attributed to the reduced reverse saturation current density (j0) and diode ideality factor (n). This is associated with the suppressed recombination, likely due to the reduction in recombination sites such as grain/air surfaces (pores), inter-granular interfaces, and defective CISe/CdS junctions in the CIP-treated device. From the temperature dependences of VOC, it was confirmed that the CIP-treated devices suffer less from interface recombination.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.372-380
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• 2004

This paper proposes a single-power-stage high frequency resonant AC-DC converter with high power factor using ZVS(Zero Voltage Switching), and integrates a conventional converter with two stage into single stage converter. Input power factor is possible to be improved as a high power factor because inductor for power factor correction(PFC) is connected in input and converter is operated in discontinued current mode(DCM) with constant duty cycle and variable switching frequency. The conventional converter with two stage need to add a switch in order to control a power factor, but single stage converter have a advantage that system is simple and cost is down, confidence is improved, etc. This paper described a operation principle and characteristic analysis for single stage AC-DC converter with high power factor and have evaluated characteristic values by using normalized parameter. We make a experimental equipment using MOSFET as a switching device on the basis of characteristic values obtained from characteristic evaluations and we conform a rightfulness of theoretical analysis by comparing theoretical waveforms and experimental waveforms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.107-107
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• 2017

전자제품의 성능이 향상됨에 따라서 전자제품에 사용되는 부품의 고집적화가 필연적으로 요구되고 있으며, 고집적화 된 전자제품의 방열(heat dissipation)에 관한 문제점이 대두되고 있다. 방열은 전자기기의 성능과 수명을 유지하는데 있어서 중요한 문제 중 하나로서 방열 효과를 높이기 위해 다양한 연구 개발이 진행 중이다. 방열에 사용되는 소재로는 Cu가 있으며, 저렴한 가격과 상대적으로 높은 방열 효율을 가지는 장점이 있다. Cu는 전기 도금 증착 방법을 사용하여왔으나, 전기도금 방식으로 증착된 Cu 방열판은 제품에 열이 축적될 경우 Cu와 substrate 사이의 residual stress로 인해 박리나 뒤틀림 현상 등이 발생하여 high power를 사용하는 device의 방열 소재로 사용하기에는 개선해야 할 문제점이 있다. 이러한 문제점을 극복하기 위한 방법으로 magnetron sputter 증착 방법이 있으며, magnetron sputter은 대면적화가 용이하고, 다양한 물질의 증착이 가능한 장점으로 인해 hard coating 또는 thin film 증착과 같은 공정에 사용되고 있다. 특히 증착된 film의 특성을 조절하기 위해서 magnetron sputter에 pulse 또는 ICP (inductively coupled plasma) assisted 등을 적용하여 plasma 특성을 조절하는 방법 등에 관한 연구가 보고되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 pulsed magnetron sputtering 방식을 이용하여 증착된 Cu film 특성 변화를 확인하였다. 다양한 pulsing frequency와 pulsing duty ratio 조건에서, Si substrate 위에 증착된 Cu film과의 residual stress 변화를 측정하였다. Pulse duty ratio가 90% 에서 60%로 감소함에 따라서 Cu film의 residual stress가 감소하였고, pulsing frequency가 증가함에 따라 Cu film의 residual stress가 감소하는 것을 확인하였다. 증착 조건에 따른 plasma의 특성 분석을 위하여 oscilloscope를 이용하여 voltage와 current를 측정하였고, Plasma Sampling Mass spectrometer 를 이용하여 ion energy의 변화를 측정하였다. 이를 통해 plasma 특성 변화가 증착된 Cu film에 미치는 영향과 residual stress의 변화에 대한 연관성에 대하여 확인할 수 있었다.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.165-177
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• 2015

Purpose: Accurate monitoring of soil strength is a key technology applicable to various precision agricultural practices. Soil strength has been traditionally measured using a cone penetrometer, which is time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult to obtain the spatial data required for precision agriculture. To improve the current, inefficient method of measuring soil strength, our objective was to develop and evaluate an in-situ system that could measure horizontal soil strength in real-time, while moving across a soil bin. Methods: Multiple cone-shape penetrometers were horizontally assembled at the front of a vertical plow blade at intervals of 5 cm. Each penetrometer was directly connected to a load cell, which measured loads of 0-2.54 kN. In order to process the digital signals from every individual transducer concurrently, a microcontroller was embedded into the measurement system. Wireless data communication was used between a data storage device and this real-time horizontal soil strength (RHSS) measurement system travelling at 0.5 m/s through an indoor experimental soil bin. The horizontal soil strength index (HSSI) measured by the developed system was compared with the cone index (CI) measured by a traditional cone penetrometer. Results: The coefficient of determination between the CI and the HSSI at depths of 5 cm and 10 cm ($r^2=0.67$ and 0.88, respectively) were relatively less than those measured below 20 cm ($r^2{\geq}0.93$). Additionally, the measured HSSIs were typically greater than the CIs for a given numbers of compactor operations. For an all-depth regression, the coefficient of determination was 0.94, with a RMSE of 0.23. Conclusions: A HSSI measurement system was evaluated in comparison with the conventional soil strength measurement system, CI. Further study is needed, in the form of field tests, on this real-time measurement and control system, which would be applied to precision agriculture.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.179-184
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• 2014

In this study, we prepare polymer solar cells incorporating organic ligand-modified Ag nanoparticles (O-AgNPs) highly dispersed in the P3HT:PCBM layer. Ag nanoparticles decorated with water-dispersible ligands (WAgNPs) were also utilized as a control sample. The existence of the ligands on the Ag surface was confirmed by FT-IR spectra. Metal nanoparticles with different surface chemistries exhibited different dispersion tendencies. O-AgNPs were highly dispersed even at high concentrations, whereas W-AgNPs exhibited significant aggregation in the polymer layer. Both dispersion and blending concentration of the Ag nanoparticles in P3HT:PCBM matrix had critical effects on the device performance as well as light absorption. The significant changes in short-circuit current density ($J_{SC}$) of the solar cells seemed to be related to the change in the polymer morphology according to the concentration of AgNPs introduced. These findings suggested the importance of uniform dispersion of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and their blending concentration conditions in order to boost the solar cell performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.129-129
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• 2018

Hard coating application is effective way of cutting tool for hard-to-machine materials such as Inconel, Ti and composite materials focused on high-tech industries which are widely employed in aerospace, automobile and the medical device industry also Information Technology. In cutting tool for hard-to-machine materials, high hardness is one of necessary condition along with high temperature stability and wear resistance. In recent years, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) which consist of five or more principal elements having an equi-atomic percentage were reported by Yeh. The main features of novel HEAs reveal thermodynamically stable, high strength, corrosion resistance and wear resistance by four characteristic features called high entropy, sluggish diffusion, several-lattice distortion and cocktail effect. It can be possible to significantly extend the field of application such as cutting tool for difficult-to-machine materials in extreme conditions. Base on this understanding, surface coatings using HEAs more recently have been developed with considerable interest due to their useful properties such as high hardness and phase transformation stability of high temperature. In present study, the nanocomposite coating layers with high hardness on WC substrate are investigated using high entropy alloy target made a powder metallurgy. Among the many surface coating methods, reactive magnetron sputtering is considered to be a proper process because of homogeneity of microstructure, improvement of productivity and simplicity of independent control for several critical deposition parameters. The N2 is applied to reactive gas to make nitride system with transition metals which is much harder than only alloy systems. The acceleration voltage from 100W to 300W is controlled by direct current power with various deposition times. The coating layers are systemically investigated by structural identification (XRD), evaluation of microstructure (FE-SEM, TEM) and mechanical properties (Nano-indenter).

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.438-442
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• 2005

Si nanocrystal (Si NC) memory device has several advantages such as better retention, lower operating voltage, reduced punch-through and consequently a smaller cell area, suppressed leakage current. However, the physical and electrical reasons for this behavior are not completely understood but could be related to interface states of Si NCs. In order to find out this effect, we characterized electrical properties of Si NCs embedded in a SiO$_{2}$ layer by scanning probe microscopy (SPM). The Si NCs were generated by the laser ablation method with compressed Si powder and followed by a sharpening oxidation. In this step Si NCs are capped with a thin oxide layer with the thickness of 1$\~$2 nm for isolation and the size control. The size of 51 NCs is in the range of 10$\~$50 m and the density around 10$^{11}$/cm$^{2}$ It also affects the interface states of Si NCs, resulting in the change of electrical properties. Using a conducting tip, the charge was injected directly into each Si NC, and the image contrast change and dC/dV curve shift due to the trapped charges were monitored. The results were compared with C-V characteristics of the conventional MOS capacitor structure.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.70-78
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• 2000

A novel capacitance deviation-to-time interval converter based on ramp-integration is presented. It consists of two current mirrors, two schmitt triggers, and control digital circuits by the upper and lower sides, symmetrically. Total circuit has been with discrete components. The results show that the proposed converter has a linearity error of less than 1% at the time interval(pulse width) over a capacitance deviation from 295 pF to 375 pF. A capacitance deviation of 40pF and time interval of 0.2 ms was measured for sensor capacitance of 335 pF. Therefore, the high-resolution can be known by counting the fast and stable clock pulses gated into a counter for time interval. The application of a novel capacitance deviation-to time interval converter to a digital humidity controller is also presented. The presented circuit is insensitive to the capacitance difference in disregard of voltage source or temperature deviation. Besides the accuracy, it features the small MOS device count integrable onto a small chip area. The circuit is thus particularly suitable for the on-chip interface.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.319-325
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• 2020

In this paper, a discontinuous-conduction mode (DCM) DC-DC buck converter is presented for mobile device applications. The buck converter consists of compensator for stable operations, pulse-width modulation (PWM) logic, and power switches. In order to achieve small hardware form-factor, the number of off-chip components should be kept to be minimum, which can be realized with simple and efficient frequency compensation and digital soft start-up circuits. Burst-mode operation is included for preventing the efficiency from degrading under very light load condition. The DCM DC-DC buck converter is fabricated with 0.18-um BCDMOS process. Programmable output with external resistors is typically set to be 1.8V for the input voltage between 2.8 and 5.0V. With a switching frequency of 1MHz, measured maximum efficiency is 92.6% for a load current of 100mA.