• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.387-387
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• 2013

Currently, the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) have been used in a variety of applications. However, the downsizing of devices and the increasing density of recording medias are now in progress. So there are many demands for development of new semiconductor memory for next generation. Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is one of the prospective semiconductor memories with excellent features including non-volatility, fast access time, unlimited read/write endurance, low operating voltage, and high storage density. MRAM is composed of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). The MTJ stack consists of various magnetic materials, metals, and a tunneling barrier layer. Recently, MgO thin films have attracted a great attention as the prominent candidates for a tunneling barrier layer in the MTJ stack instead of the conventional Al2O3 films, because it has low Gibbs energy, low dielectric constant and high tunneling magnetoresistance value. For the successful etching of high density MRAM, the etching characteristics of MgO thin films as a tunneling barrier layer should be developed. In this study, the etch characteristics of MgO thin films have been investigated in various gas mixes using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE). The Cl2/Ar, CH3OH/Ar, and CH4/Ar gas mix were employed to find an optimized etching gas for MgO thin film etching. TiN thin films were employed as a hard mask to increase the etch selectivity. The etch rates were obtained using surface profilometer and etch profiles were observed by using the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.676-680
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• 2008

TiN thin films were deposited on a $SiO_2(2000{\AA})/Si$ substrate by radio-frequency(rf) magnetron sputtering. TiN films were prepared under varying $N_2$ concentration in $N_2/Ar$ gas mix, rf power and gas pressure, and investigated in terms of deposition rate, resistivity and surface morphology. As $N_2$ concentration increased, the deposition rate and the surface roughness of the films decreased and the resistivity increased. With increasing rf power, the deposition rate increased but the resistivity was decreased. As gas pressure increased, little change in deposition rate was obtained but the resistivity rapidly increased. TiN film with resistivity of $2.46{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ at 1 mTorr was formed. It was observed that there existed a correlation between the deposition rate and resistivity. In particular, the gas pressure has a strong influence on the resistivity of thin films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.71-72
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated the fabrication of MLR (multi-layer resist) with a very thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) layer. ArF PR/$SiO_2$/DLC MLR structure was investigated and etching characteristics of the DLC layer was patterned using $SiO_2$ hard-mask by varying the process parameters such as different high-frequency/low-frequency combination ($f_{LF}/f_{HF}$), HF/LF power ratio ($P_{HF}/P_{LF}$), $O_2$ flow and $N_2$ flow rate in $O_2/N_2$/Ar plasmas. The results indicated an increased etch rate of DLC for the higher $f_{LF}/f_{HF}$ combination and for the increased low-frequency power ($P_{LF}$). And the etch rate of DLC was decreased with increasing the $N_2$ flow rate in $O_2/N_2$/Ar plasmas. In order to confirm the application of DLC MLR for the etching process of silicon oxide, the stack of ArF PR/BARC/$SiO_2$/DLC/TEOS/Si was investigated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.669-681
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• 2019

Bridge collapses may deliver a huge impact on our society in a very negative way. Out of many reasons why bridges collapse, poor maintenance is becoming a main contributing factor to many recent collapses. Furthermore, the aging of bridges is able to make the situation much worse. In order to prevent this unwanted event, it is indispensable to conduct continuous bridge monitoring and timely maintenance. Visual inspection is the most widely used method, but it is heavily dependent on the experience of the inspectors. It is also time-consuming, labor-intensive, costly, disruptive, and even unsafe for the inspectors. In order to address its limitations, in recent years increasing interests have been paid to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which is expected to make the inspection process safer, faster and more cost-effective. In addition, it can cover the area where it is too hard to reach by inspectors. However, this strategy is still in a primitive stage because there are many things to be addressed for real implementation. In this paper, a typical procedure of bridge inspection using UAVs consisting of three phases (i.e., pre-inspection, inspection, and post-inspection phases) and the detailed tasks by phase are described. Also, three major challenges, which are related to a UAV's flight, image data acquisition, and damage identification, respectively, are identified from a practical perspective (e.g., localization of a UAV under the bridge, high-quality image capture, etc.) and their possible solutions are discussed by examining recently developed or currently developing techniques such as the graph-based localization algorithm, and the image quality assessment and enhancement strategy. In particular, deep learning based algorithms such as R-CNN and Mask R-CNN for classifying, localizing and quantifying several damage types (e.g., cracks, corrosion, spalling, efflorescence, etc.) in an automatic manner are discussed. This strategy is based on a huge amount of image data obtained from unmanned inspection equipment consisting of the UAV and imaging devices (vision and IR cameras).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.230-234
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• 2011

In this work, the primary material for a single layered hardmask which can afford a spin-on process was prepared by the minture of organic and inorganic sources. The preparation of hybrid polymer was attempted by esterification from silanol terminated siloxane compounds and acetonide-2,2-bis(methoxy)propionic acid. The optical, thermal and morphological properties of the test hardmask film was examined in terms of cross-linking agent and additives. In addition, the etch rate of hardmask film and photo resist layer were compared. The hybrid polymer prepared from organic and inorganic materials was found to be useful for hardmask film to form the nano-patterns.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.174-175
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• 2012

(In, Ga) N-based III-nitride semiconductor materials have been viewed as the most promising materials for the applications of blue and green light emitting devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes. Although the InGaN alloy can have wide range of visible wavelength by changing the In composition, it is very hard to grow high quality epilayers of In-rich InGaN because of the thermal instability as well as the large lattice and thermal mismatches. In order to avoid phase separation of InGaN, various kinds of structures of InGaN have been studied. If high-quality In-rich InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures are available, it is expected to achieve highly efficient phosphor-free white LEDs. In this study, we proposed a novel InGaN double hetero-structure grown on GaN nano-pyramids to generate broad-band red-color emission with high quantum efficiency. In this work, we systematically studied the optical properties of the InGaN pyramid structures. The nano-sized hexagonal pyramid structures were grown on the n-type GaN template by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. SiNx mask was formed on the n-type GaN template with uniformly patterned circle pattern by laser holography. GaN pyramid structures were selectively grown on the opening area of mask by lateral over-growth followed by growth of InGaN/GaN double hetero-structure. The bird's eye-view scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows that uniform hexagonal pyramid structures are well arranged. We showed that the pyramid structures have high crystal quality and the thickness of InGaN is varied along the height of pyramids via transmission electron microscope. Because the InGaN/GaN double hetero-structure was grown on the nano-pyramid GaN and on the planar GaN, simultaneously, we investigated the comparative study of the optical properties. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of nano-pyramid sample and planar sample measured at 10 K. Although the growth condition were exactly the same for two samples, the nano-pyramid sample have much lower energy emission centered at 615 nm, compared to 438 nm for planar sample. Moreover, nano-pyramid sample shows broad-band spectrum, which is originate from structural properties of nano-pyramid structure. To study thermal activation energy and potential fluctuation, we measured PL with changing temperature from 10 K to 300 K. We also measured PL with changing the excitation power from 48 ${\mu}W$ to 48 mW. We can discriminate the origin of the broad-band spectra from the defect-related yellow luminescence of GaN by carrying out PL excitation experiments. The nano-pyramid structure provided highly efficient broad-band red-color emission for the future applications of phosphor-free white LEDs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.29-29
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• 2009

현재 고집적 비휘발성 메모리 소자로는 MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory)과 PRAM (Phase Magnetic Random Access Memory)이 활발하게 미국과 일본, 한국 등에서 다양한 연구가 진행되어 오고 있다. 이 중에서 MRAM은 DRAM과 비슷한 10 ns의 빠른 읽기/쓰기 속도와 비휘발성 특성을 가지고 있으며, 전하를 저장할 커패시터가 필요 없고, 두 개의 자성충에 약 10 mA 정도의 전류를 가하면 그때 발생하는 약 10 Oe의 자장을 개개의 비트를 write하고, read 시에는 각 비트의 자기저항을 측정함으로써 데이터를 저장하고 읽을 있으므로, 고집적화가 가능성하다 [1]. 현재 우수한 박막 재료가 개발 되었으나, 고집적 MRAM 소자의 양산에는 해결 하여야 하는 문제점이 있다. 특히 다층 박막으로 구성되어 있으므로 식각 공정의 개발이 필수적이다. 지금까지 MRAM 재료의 식각은 주로 Ion milling, ICP, ECR등의 플라즈마 장치를 되었고, 식각 가스로는 할로겐 기체와 금속카보닐 형성을 위한 Co/$NH_3$와 $Ch_3OH$ 기체가 이용되고 있다. 그러나 할로겐 계열의 기체를 사용할 경우, 식각 부산물들의 높은 끓는점 때문에 식각 부산물이 박막의 표면에서 열적 탈착에 의하여 제거되지 않기 때문에 높은 에너지를 가지는 이온의 도움에 의한 식각이 필요하다. 또한 Cl 계열의 기체를 사용할 경우, 식각 공정 후, 시료가 대기에 노출되면 대기 중의 수분과 식각 부산물이 결합하여 부식 현상이 발생하게 된다. 그러므로 이를 방지하기 위한 추가 공정이 요구된다. 최근에는 부식 현상이 없고, MTJ 상부에 사용되는 Ta 또는 Ti Hard mask와의 높은 선택비를 가지는 $CH_3OH$ 또는 CO/$NH_3$가 사용되고 있다. 하부 박막에 따른 식각 특성에 연구와 다층의 박막의 식각 공정에 발생에 관한 발표는 거의 없다. MRAM을 양산에 적용하기 위하여서는 Main etch 공정에서 빠른 식각 공정이 필요하고, Over etch 공정에서 하부박막에 대한 높은 선택비가 요구된다. 그러므로 본 논문에서는 식각 변수에 따른 플라즈마 측정과 표면 반응을 비교하여 각 공정의 식각 메커니즘을 규명하고, Main Etch 공정에서는 $Cl_2$/Ar 또는 $BCl_3$/Ar 가스를 이용하여 식각 실험을 수행하고, Over etch 공정에는 낮은 Ta 박막 식각 속도를 가지는 $Ch_4/O_2$/Ar 또는 $Ch_3OH$/Ar 가스를 이용하고자 한다. 플라즈마 내의 식각종과 Ta 박막과의 반응을 XPS와 AES를 이용하여 분석하고, 식각 공정 변수에 따른 식각 속도, 식각 선택비와 식각 프로파일 변화를 SEM을 이용하여 관찰한다.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.81.2-81.2
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• 2012

To fabricate a metal mold for injection molding, hot-embossing and imprinting process, mechanical machining, electro discharge machining (EDM), electrochemical machining (ECM), laser process and wet etching ($FeCl_3$ process) have been widely used. However it is hard to get precise structure with these processes. Electrochemical etching has been also employed to fabricate a micro structure in metal mold. A through mask electrochemical micro machining (TMEMM) is one of the electrochemical etching processes which can obtain finely precise structure. In this process, many parameters such as current density, process time, temperature of electrolyte and distance between electrodes should be controlled. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the result because it has low reliability and reproducibility. To improve it, we investigated this process numerically and experimentally. To search the relation between processing parameters and the results, we used finite element simulation and the commercial finite element method (FEM) software ANSYS was used to analyze the electric field. In this study, it was supposed that the anodic dissolution process is predicted depending on the current density which is one of major parameters with finite element method. In experiment, we used stainless steel (SS304) substrate with various sized square and circular array patterns as an anode and copper (Cu) plate as a cathode. A mixture of $H_2SO_4$, $H_3PO_4$ and DIW was used as an electrolyte. After electrochemical etching process, we compared the results of experiment and simulation. As a result, we got the current distribution in the electrolyte and line profile of current density of the patterns from simulation. And etching profile and surface morphologies were characterized by 3D-profiler(${\mu}$-surf, Nanofocus, Germany) and FE-SEM(S-4800, Hitachi, Japan) measurement. From comparison of these data, it was confirmed that current distribution and line profile of the patterns from simulation are similar to surface morphology and etching profile of the sample from the process, respectively. Then we concluded that current density is more concentrated at the edge of pattern and the depth of etched area is proportional to current density.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.717-723
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• 2007

Statement of problem. Unreasonable distal cantilevered implant-supported prosthesis can mask functional problems of reconstruction temporarily, but it can cause serious strain and stress around its supported implant and surrounding alveolar bone. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate strain of implants supporting distal cantilevered fixed prosthesis with two different cantilevered length under distal cantilevered static load. Material and methods. A partially edentulous mandibular test model was fabricated with auto-polymerizing resin (POLYUROCK; Metalor technologies, Stuttgart, Swiss) and artificial denture teeth (Endura; Shofu inc., Kyoto, Japan). Two implants-supported 5-unit screw-retained cantilevered fixed prosthesis was made using standard methods with Type III gold alloy (Harmony C&B55; Ivoclar-vivadent, Liechtenstein, Germany) for superstructure and reinforced hard resin (Tescera; Ivoclar-vivadent, Liechtenstein, Germany) for occlusal material. Two strain gauges (KFG-1-120-C1-11L1M2R; KYOWA electronic instruments, Tokyo, Japan) were then attached to the mesial and the distal surface of each standard abutment with adhesive (M-bond 200; Tokuyama, Tokyo, Japan). Total four strain gauges were attached to test model and connected to dynamic signal conditioning strain amplifier (CTA1000; Curiotech inc., Paju, Korea). The stepped $20{\sim}100$ N in 25 N increments, cantilevered static load 8mm apart (Group I) or 16mm apart (Group II), were applied using digital push-pull gauge (Push-Pull Scale & Digital Force Gauge, Axis inc., Seoul, Korea). Each step was performed ten times and every strain signal was monitored and recorded. Results. In case of Group I, the strain values were surveyed by $80.7{\sim}353.8{\mu}m$ in Ch1, $7.5{\sim}47.9{\mu}m/m$ in Ch2, $45.7{\sim}278.6{\mu}m/m$ in Ch3 and $-212.2{\sim}718.7{\mu}m/m$ in Ch4 depending on increasing cantilevered static load. On the other hand, the strain values of Group II were surveyed by $149.9{\sim}612.8{\mu}m/m$ in Ch1, $26.0{\sim}168.5{\mu}m/m$ in Ch2, $114.3{\sim}632.3{\mu}m/m$ in Ch3, and $-323.2{\sim}-894.7{\mu}m/m$ in Ch4. Conclusion. A comparative statistical analysis using paired sample t-test about Group I Vs Group II under distal cantilevered load shows that there are statistical significant differences for all 4 channels (P<0.05).