• 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.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38B no.5
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• pp.355-367
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• 2013

In the Policy and Charging Control(PCC) architecture of the 3GPP and WiMAX forum, the Policy and Charging Rule Function(PCRF) controls and configures the policies of quality of services(QoS) and accounting to a Policy and Charging Rule Enforcement Function(PCEF). In this paper, we categorize the errors into three types that include a disconnection with peer entity, a delayed or no response and a response with failure result, and propose a scheme to automatically synchronize the data between the PCRF and the PCEF for each type of error. Also, we conduct a quantitative analysis to see how much it can help to maintain the cell capacity of the mobile VoIP service in a WiBro network, which is implemented in Korea according to the standards of WiMAX. We can see that our proposed scheme improves the performances of PCC by preventing the waste of radio resources, the overload of systems, the memory leakage of servers, the system shutdown, and so on. We have validated the scheme by implementation, and reflected it in WiMAX standard documents.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.21-21
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• 2010

(Ba,Sr)$TiO_3$ (BST) thin film with a perovskite structure has potential for the practical application in various functional devices such as nonvolatile-memory components, capacitor, gate insulator of thin-film transistors, and electro-optic devices for display. Normally, the BST thin films derived from sol-gel and sputtering are amorphous or partially crystalline when processed below $600^{\circ}C$. For the purpose of integrating BST thin film directly into a Si-based read-out integrated circuit (ROIC), it is necessary to process the BST film below $400^{\circ}C$. The microstructural and electrical properties of low-temperature crystallized BST film were studied. The BST thin films have been fabricated at $350^{\circ}C$ by UV-assisted rapidly thermal annealing (RTA). The BST films are in a single perovskite phase and have well-defined electrical properties such as high dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, low leakage current density, and high breakdown voltage. Photoexcitation of the organics contained in the sol-gel-derived films by high-intensity UV irradiation facilitates elimination of the organics and formation of the single-crystalline phase films at low temperatures. The amorphous BST thin film was transformed to a highly (h00)-oriented perovskite structure by high oxygen pressure processing (HOPP) at as low as $350^{\circ}C$. The dielectric properties of BST film were comparable to (or even better than) those of the conventionally processed BST films prepared by sputtering or post-annealing at temperature above $600^{\circ}C$. When external pressure was applied to the well-known contractive BST system during annealing, the nucleation energy barrier was reduced; correspondingly, the crystallization temperature decreased. The UV-assisted RTA and HOPP, as compatible with existing MOS technology, let the BST films be integrated into radio-frequency circuit and mixed-signal integrated circuit below the critical temperature of $400^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.223-226
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• 2004

The PZT thin films are one of well-known materials that has been widely studied for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM). We etched the PZT thin films by $CF_{4}/(Cl_{2}+Ar)$ plasma and investigated improvement in etching damage by $O_{2}$ annealing. The maximum etch rate of the PZT thin films was 157 nrn/min and that the selectivity of the PZT thin films to Pt was 3.1 when $CF_{4}(30{\%})$ was added to a $Cl_{2}(80{\%})/Ar(20{\%})$ gas mixing ratio. To improve the ferroelectric properties of PZT thin films after etching, the samples were annealed for 10 min at various temperatures in $O_{2}$ atmosphere. After $O_{2}$ annealing, the remanent polarization of the asdeposited films was $34.6{\mu}/cm^{2}$ and the sample annealed at 650, 550, and $450^{\circ}C$ was 32.8, 22.3, and $18.6{\mu}/cm^{2}$, respectively. PZT thin films with $O_{2}$ annealing at $450^{\circ}C$ retained $77{\%}$ of their original polarization at 106 cycles. Also as the annealing temperature increased, the fatigue properties improved. And the leakage current was decreased gradually and almost recovered to the as-deposited value after the annealing at $450^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.382-386
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• 2002

We studied growth and characterization of $SrBi_2Ta_2O_9$ (SBT) thin films fabricated by low temperature process under vacuum and/or oxygen ambient. A metal organic decomposition (MOD) method based on a spin-on technique and annealing process using a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) method was used to prepare the SBT films. The crystallinity of a ferroelectric phase of SBT thin films is related to the oxygen partial pressure during RTA process. Under an oxygen partial pressure higher than 30 Torr, the crystallization temperature inducing the ferroelectric SBT phase can be lowered to $650^{\circ}C$. Those films annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ in vacuum and oxygen ambient showed good ferroelectric properties, that is, the memory window of 0.5~0.9 V at applied voltage of 3~7 V and the leakage current density of 1.80{\times}10^{-8}$ A/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at an applied voltage of 5V. In comparison with the SBT thin films prepared at 80$0^{\circ}C$ in $O_2$ ambient by furnace annealing process, the SBT thin films prepared at $650^{\circ}C$ in vacuum and oxygen ambient using the RTA process showed a good crystallization and electrical properties which would be able to apply to the virtul device fabrication precess.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.321-322
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• 2006

The electrical properties of PZT thin film capacitor on TiN/W plug structure were investigated for high density ferroelectric memory devices. In order to enhance the ferroelectric properties of PZT capacitor, the process conditions of bottom electrodes were optimized. The fabricated PZT capacitor on TiN/W plug showed good remanent polarization, leakage current, and contact resistance of TiN/W plug, which were $33\;{\mu}C/cm^2$, $1.2{\times}10^{-6}\;A/cm^2$, and 5.3 ohm/contact, respectively.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.675-687
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• 2010

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the science and technology of monitoring and assessing the condition of aerospace, civil and mechanical infrastructures using a sensing system integrated into the structure. Impedance-based SHM measures impedance of a structure using a PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate) patch. This paper presents a low-power wireless autonomous and active SHM node called Autonomous SHM Sensor 2 (ASN-2), which is based on the impedance method. In this study, we incorporated three methods to save power. First, entire data processing is performed on-board, which minimizes radio transmission time. Considering that the radio of a wireless sensor node consumes the highest power among all modules, reduction of the transmission time saves substantial power. Second, a rectangular pulse train is used to excite a PZT patch instead of a sinusoidal wave. This eliminates a digital-to-analog converter and reduces the memory space. Third, ASN-2 senses the phase of the response signal instead of the magnitude. Sensing the phase of the signal eliminates an analog-to-digital converter and Fast Fourier Transform operation, which not only saves power, but also enables us to use a low-end low-power processor. Our SHM sensor node ASN-2 is implemented using a TI MSP430 microcontroller evaluation board. A cluster of ASN-2 nodes forms a wireless network. Each node wakes up at a predetermined interval, such as once in four hours, performs an SHM operation, reports the result to the central node wirelessly, and returns to sleep. The power consumption of our ASN-2 is 0.15 mW during the inactive mode and 18 mW during the active mode. Each SHM operation takes about 13 seconds to consume 236 mJ. When our ASN-2 operates once in every four hours, it is estimated to run for about 2.5 years with two AAA-size batteries ignoring the internal battery leakage.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.400-407
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• 2024

The reversible metal electrodeposition (RME) process is used to prepare electrochromic mirrors with reflective-transparent optical states, by depositing metal particles on transparent conductive substrates. These RME based devices can be used in smart windows to regulate indoor temperatures and light levels, serving dual purposes as lighting elements. Commercialization efforts are focused on achieving large-scale production, long-term durability, and a memory effect that maintains coloration without applied voltage. Enhancing durability has received particular attention, leading to the development of electrochromic mirrors that employ gel electrolytes, which are expected to reduce electrolyte leakage and improve mechanical stability compared to traditional liquid electrolyte devices. The gel electrolytes offer the additional advantage of various colors, by controlling the metal particle size and enabling smoother, denser formations. In this study, we investigated improving the durability of RME devices by adding polyvinyl butyral (PVB) to the liquid electrolyte and optimizing the concentration of PVB. Incorporating 10 % PVB resulted in excellent interfacial properties and superior electrochromic stability, with 92.6 % retention after 1,000 cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.327-332
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• 2011

Plasma polymerized styrene (ppS) thin films were prepared on ITO coated glass substrates for a MIM (metal-insulator-metal) structure with thermally evaporated Au thin film as metal contact. Also the ppS thin films were applied as organic insulator to a MIS (metal-insulatorsemiconductor) device with thermally evaporated pentacene thin film as organic semiconductor layer. After the I-V and C-V measurements with MIM and MIS structures, the ppS revealed relatively higher dielectric constant of k=3.7 than those of the conventional poly styrene and very low leakage current density of $1{\times}10^{-8}Acm^{-2}$ at electric field strength of $1MVcm^{-1}$. The MIS structure with the ppS dielectric layer showed negligible hysteresis in C-V characteristics. It would be therefore expected that the proposed ppS could be applied as a promising dielectric/insulator to organic thin film transistors, organic memory devices, and flexible organic electronic devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.851-856
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• 2003

We have investigated the material and electrical properties of $Bi_{4-x}La_xTi_3O_{12}$ (BLT) ferroelectric thin film for ferroelectric nonvolatile memory applications of capacitor type and single transistor type. The 120nm thick BLT films were deposited on $Pt/Ti/SiO_2/Si$ and $SiO_2/Nitride/SiO_2$ (ONO) substrates by the sol-gel spin coating method and were annealed at $700^{\circ}C$. It was observed that the crystallographic orientation of BLT thin films were strongly affected by the excess Bi content and the intermediate rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment conditions regardeless of two type substrates. However, the surface microstructure and roughness of BLT films showed dependence of two different type substrates with orientation of (111) plane and amorphous phase. As increase excess Bi content, the crystallographic orientation of the BLT films varied drastically in BLT films and exhibited well-crystallized phase. Also, the conversion of crystallographic orientation at intermediate RTA temperature of above $450^{\circ}C$ started to be observed in BLT thin films with above excess 6.5% Bi content and the rms roughness of films is decreased. We found that the electrical properties of BLT films such as the P-V hysteresis loop and leakage current were effectively modulated by the crystallographic orientations change of thin films.