• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2009

Iridium oxide films (IROFs) have been extensively studied as a material for electrical stimulation of neurons, as iridium oxide has higher charge storage capacity than other metal films. More recently, sputtered iridium oxide film (SIROF) has been studied, because it can be made more conveniently than activated iridium oxide film (AIROF). Typically, the SIROFs are grown at temperatures from 400 to 600 $^{\circ}C$. However, such high temperatures cannot be used when the iridium oxide (IrOx) film is to be deposited on a flexible polymer material, such as polyimide. In this paper, we show that we can still obtain excellent characteristics in SIROFs grown without heating (cold SIROF), by optimizing the growth conditions. We show that the oxygen flow rate is a critical parameter for controlling the surface properties of a cold SIROF. At an oxygen flow rate of 12 seem, the cold SIROF exhibited a charge storage capacity (CSC) of 60 mC/cm$^2$, which is comparable to or better than other published values for iridium oxide films including heated SIROFs. The film produced under these conditions also had the minimum impedance value of all cold SIROFs deposited for this study. A stability test and biocompatibility test also demonstrated the superiority of the optimized cold SIROF.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.247-257
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• 2004

Electrodes were fabricated based on activated carbon powder BP-20, conducting agent such as Super P, vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCF) and acetylene black (AB), and the mixed binders of flexible poly(vinylidenefluoridehexafluoropropylene) [P(VdF-co-HFP)] and cross linking dispersion agent of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to increase mechanical strength. According to impedance measurement of the electrode with the addition of conducting agent, we found that it was possible to charge rapidly by the fast steady-state current convergence due to low equivalent series resistance (AC-ESR, fast charge transfer rate at interface between electrode and electrolyte and low RC time constant. The self-discharge of unit cell showed that diffusion process was controlled by the ion concentration difference of initial electrolyte due to the characteristics of Electric Double Layer Capacitor (EDLC) charged by ion adsorption in the beginning, but this by current leakage through the double-layer at the electrode/electrolyte interface had a minor effect and voltages of curves were remained constant regardless of electrode material. We found that the 2.3V/230F grade EDLC would be applied to industrial safety usage such as uninterrupted power supply (UPS) because of the constant DC-ESR by IR drop regardless of discharge current.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.238-243
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• 2018

A nanofiber was fabricated with carbon nanotubes for transparent electrodes. It was prepared with a composite solution of bio-molecules polycaprolactone (PCL) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by electrospinning on a glass substrate, following which its electrical characteristics were investigated. The content of MWCNTs was varied during electrospinning, while that of PCL was fixed. Further, a nanometer-thick thin film of silver was deposited on the nanofiber layer using a thermal evaporator to improve the electrical characteristics; the sheet resistance significantly reduced after this deposition. The results showed that this carbon nanotube nanofiber has potential applications in biotechnology and as a flexible transparent display material.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.34-46
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• 2004

Copper films were prepared by using ECR-MOCVD(Electron Cyclotron Resonance Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) coupled with a DC bias system. The DC bias is connected to the electrode which placed 1∼3cm above the polymer substrate. The pulse electrical field around the electrode attracts the positive charged copper ions generated from the dissociation of copper precursor, $Cu(hfac)_2$, under ECR plasma. Condensation of supersaturated copper ions in the space between the electrode and substrate, makes it possible to deposit copper film on the polymer substrate even at room temperature. In this study, optimization of the electrode configuration was carried out in order to obtain the uniform films. The uniformity of the deposited films were closely related to the parameters of electrode geometry such as electrode shape, thickness, grid size and the spacing between electrodes. The most uniform copper film was observed with the electrode that enabled uniform electrical field distribution across the whole dimension of electrode.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.164-170
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• 2021

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) have emerged as large-scale energy storage systems (ESS) due to their advantages such as low cross-contamination, long life, and flexible design. However, Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the negative half-cell causes a harmful influence on the performance of the VRFB by consuming current. Moreover, HER hinders V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction between electrode and electrolyte by forming a bubble. To address the HER problem, carbon nanotube/graphite felt electrode (CNT/GF) with oxygen functional groups was synthesized through the hydrothermal method in the H₂SO₄ + HNO₃ (3:1) mixed acid solution. These oxygen functional groups on the CNT/GF succeed in suppressing the HER and improving charge transfer for V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction. As a result, the oxygen functional group applied electrode exhibited a low overpotential of 0.395 V for V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction. Hence, this work could offer a new strategy to design and synthesize effective electrodes for HER suppression and improving the energy density of VRFB.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated the optical, electrical and exothermic characteristics of ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer structures prepared with various Ag thicknesses on quartz and PI substrates. The transparent conducting properties of the ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer films depended on the thickness of the mid-layer metal film. The ITO/Ag (14 nm)/ITO showed the highest Haccke's figure of merit (FOM) of approximately 19.3×10^-3 Ω^-1. In addition, the exothermic property depended on the substrate. For an applied voltage of 3.7 V, the ITO/Ag (14 nm)/ITO multilayers on quartz and PI substrates were heated up to 110℃ and 200℃, respectively. The bending tests demonstrated a comparable flexibility of the ITO/Ag/IT multilayer to other transparent electrodes, indicating the potential of ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer as a flexible transparent conducting heater.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.107-113
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• 2022

At present, it is possible to manufacture electrodes down to several micrometers (~ ㎛) using inkjet printing technology owing to the development of precision ejection heads. Inkjet printing technology is also used in the manufacturing of bio-sensors, electronic sensors, and flexible displays. To reduce the difference between the electrode design/simulation performance and actual printing pattern performance, it is necessary to analyze and optimize the processable area of the ink material, which is a fluid. In this study, process optimization was conducted to manufacture an IDE pattern and fabricate an impedance sensor. A total of 25 IDE patterns were produced, with five for each lamination process. Electrode line width and height changes were measured by stacking the designed IDE pattern with a nanoparticle-based conductive ink multilayer. Furthermore, the optimal process area for securing a performance close to the design result was analyzed through impedance and capacitance. It was observed that the increase in the height of stack layer 4 was the lowest at 4.106%, and the increase in capacitance was measured to be the highest at 44.08%. The proposed stacking process pattern, which is optimized in terms of uniformity, reproducibility, and performance, can be efficiently applied to bio-applications such as biomaterial sensing with an impedance sensor.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.386-390
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• 2023

Stiffness-engineered stretchable substrate technology has been widely used to produce stretchable displays, transistors, and integrated circuits because it is compatible with various flexible electronics technologies. However, the stiffness-engineering technology has never been applied to transistor-based stretchable strain sensors. In this study, we developed thin-film transistor-based strain sensors on stiffness-engineered stretchable substrates. We designed and fabricated strain-sensitive stretchable resistors capable of inducing changes in drain currents of transistors when subjected to stretching forces. The resistors and source electrodes of the transistors were connected in series to integrate the developed stretchable resistors with thin-film transistors on stretchable substrates by printing the resistors after fabricating transistors. The thin-film transistor-based stretchable strain sensors demonstrate feasibility as strain sensors operating under strains of 0%-5%. This strain range can be extended with further investigations. The proposed stiffness-engineering approach will expand the potential for the advancement and manufacturing of innovative stretchable strain sensors.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.49-54
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• 2020

To attach a stretchable/flexible electrode to something or something to on electrode, conductive adhesives must be stretchable/flexible to suit the properties of the electrode. In particular, conductive adhesive require durability and heat resistance, and unlike conventional adhesives, they should also have conductivity. To this end, Epoxy, which has good strength and adhesion, was selected as an adhesive, and a plasticizer and a reinforcement were mixed instead of a two-liquid material consisting of a conventional theme and a hardener, and a four-liquid material was used to give stretchability/flexibility to high molecules. The conductive filler was selected as silver, a material with low resistance, and for high conductivity, three shapes of Ag particles were used to increase packing density. Conductivity was compared with these developed conductive adhesives and two epoxy-based conductive adhesives being sold in practice, and about 10 times better conductivity results were obtained than products being actually sold. In addition, conductivity, mechanical properties, adhesion and strength were evaluated according to the presence of plasticizers and reinforcement agent. There was also no problem with 60% tensile after 5 minutes of curing at 120℃, and pencil hardness was excellently measured at 6H. As a result of checking the adhesion of electrodes through 3M tape test, all of them showed excellent results regardless of the mixing ratio of binders. After attaching the Cu sheet on top of the electrode through conductive adhesive, the contact resistance was checked and showed excellent performance with 0.3 Ω.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.11-11
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• 2010

Thin-film-transistors (TFTs) that can be deposited at low temperature have recently attracted lots of applications such as sensors, solar cell and displays, because of the great flexible electronics and transparent. Transparent and flexible transistors are being required that high mobility and large-area uniformity at low temperature [1]. But, unfortunately most of TFT structures are used to be $SiO_2$ as gate dielectric layer. The $SiO_2$ has disadvantaged that it is required to high driving voltage to achieve the same operating efficiency compared with other high-k materials and its thickness is thicker than high-k materials [2]. To solve this problem, we find lots of high-k materials as $HfO_2$, $ZrO_2$, $SiN_x$, $TiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$. Among the High-k materials, $Al_2O_3$ is one of the outstanding materials due to its properties are high dielectric constant ( ~9 ), relatively low leakage current, wide bandgap ( 8.7 eV ) and good device stability. For the realization of flexible displays, all processes should be performed at very low temperatures, but low temperature $Al_2O_3$ grown by sputtering showed deteriorated electrical performance. Further decrease in growth temperature induces a high density of charge traps in the gate oxide/channel. This study investigated the effect of growth temperatures of ALD grown $Al_2O_3$ layers on the TFT device performance. The ALD deposition showed high conformal and defect-free dielectric layers at low temperature compared with other deposition equipments [2]. After ITO was wet-chemically etched with HCl : $HNO_3$ = 3:1, $Al_2O_3$ layer was deposited by ALD at various growth temperatures or lift-off process. Amorphous InGaZnO channel layers were deposited by rf magnetron sputtering at a working pressure of 3 mTorr and $O_2$/Ar (1/29 sccm). The electrodes were formed with electron-beam evaporated Ti (30 nm) and Au (70 nm) bilayer. The TFT devices were heat-treated in a furnace at $300^{\circ}C$ and nitrogen atmosphere for 1 hour by rapid thermal treatment. The electrical properties of the oxide TFTs were measured using semiconductor parameter analyzer (4145B), and LCR meter.