• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.4 s.287
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• pp.230-234
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• 2006

Metal-Induced Crystallization (MIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) using aluminum and nickel as catalysts were performed with a variation of metal thickness and temperature. Raman results showed that the crystallization of a-Si depended on the thickness of aluminum while not on nickel. Nickel that forms silicide nodules during annealing simply catalyzed the formation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) while aluminum was consumed and transferred during MIC, which resulted in more complex microstructural characteristics. Crystalline silicons after NIC had elongated shape with a twin along the long axis. Morphological change after Aluminum-Induced Crystallization (AIC) showed more equiaxial grains. The nucleation and growth mechanism of AIC was discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.140.1-140.1
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• 2013

The native silicon-oxide (SiOx) layer at the metal/Silicon interface acts as an electrical resistance to the metal contact of devices. Various methods are proposed for removing this layer, such as sputtering before metal contact formation or high temperature annealing. We studied the chemical evolution of the Au/SiOx/Si system during the annealing at $500^{\circ}C$ using a spatially resolved photoelectron emission method. Scanning photoelectron emission microscopy (SPEM) and core level spectra from local area of the sample show the inhomogeneous oxidation and formation of silicide of Au, as well as valence band spectra reveals the role of Au atoms during the dissociation process of SiOx.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.440-440
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• 2009

Semiconductor nanowires offer exciting possibilities as components of solar cells and have already found applications as active elements in organic, dye-sensitized, quantum-dot sensitized, liquid-junction, and inorganic solid-state devices. Among many semiconductors, silicon is by far the dominant material used for worldwide photovoltaic energy conversion and solar cell manufacture. For silicon wire to be used for solar device, well aligned wire arrays need to be fabricated vertically or horizontally. Macroscopic silicon wire arrays suitable for photovoltaic applications have been commonly grown by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process using metal catalysts such as Au, Ni, Pt, Cu. In the case, the impurity issues inside wire originated from metal catalyst are inevitable, leading to lowering the efficiency of solar cell. To escape from the problem, the wires of purity of wafer are the best for high efficiency of photovoltaic device. The fabrication of wire arrays by the electrochemical etching of silicon wafer with photolithography can solve the contamination of metal catalyst. In this presentation, we introduce silicon wire arrays by electrochemical etching method and then fabrication methods of radial p-n junction wire array solar cell and the various merits compared with conventional silicon solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.461-465
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• 2008

The phase transformation in a film influences its surrounding. Effects of the precrystallization method, which removes influences on gate oxide caused by lateral crystallization, in metal-induced unilaterally crystallized polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor devices and circuits were studied. Device by the method was shown to have a higher current drive, compared with conventional postcrystallized device. Moreover, we studied DC bias-induced changes in the performance of ring oscillator. PMOS inverters fabricated using precrystallized silicon films have very high dynamic and stable performance, compared with inverters fabricated using postcrystallized silicon films.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1719-1721
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• 2012

We have investigated the $H_2$ adsorption structures and binding energies of the metal (M)-doped (M = Li, Na, K, Mg, and Al) silicon complexes, $M-Si_{19}H_{11}$ and $M-Si_{24}H_{12}$, using density functional calculations. Alkali metals are preferred as doping elements because the Mg-Si and Al-$H_2$ interactions are weak. The maximum numbers of $H_2$ molecules that can be adsorbed are four and five for M=Li and K, respectively. We propose that the K-decorated silicon material might be an effective hydrogen storage material with high hydrogen capacity and high reversibility.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2008

The electrical characteristics of Metal-Ferroelectric-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (MFNOS) structure is studied and compared to the conventional Silicon-Oixde-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS) capacitor. The ferroelectric blocking layer is SrBiNbO (SBN with Sr/Bi ratio 1-x/2+x) with the thickness of 200 nm and is fabricated by the RF sputter. The memory windows of MFNOS and SONOS capacitors with sweep voltage from +10 V to -10 V are 6.9 V and 5.9 V, respectively. The effect of ferroelectric blocking layer and charge trapping on the memory window was discussed. The retention of MFNOS capacitor also shows the 10-years and longer retention time than that of the SONOS capacitor. The better retention properties of the MFNOS capacitor may be attributed to the charge holding effect by the polarization of ferroelectric layer.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.1034-1040
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• 1997

A solar cell conversion effiency was degraded by grain boundary effect in polycrystalline silicon. Grain boundaries acted as potential barriers as well as recombination centers for the photo-generated carriers. To reduce these effects of the grain boundaries we investigated various influencing factors such as emitter thickness thermal treatment preferential chemical etching of grain boundaries grid design contact metal and top metallization along boundaries. Pretreatment in $N_2$atmosphere and gettering by POCl$_3$and Al were performed to obtain multicrystalline silicon of the reduced defect density. Structural electrical and optical properties of slar cells were characterized before and after each fabrication process. Improved conversion efficiencies of solar cell were obtained by a combination of pretreatment above 90$0^{\circ}C$ emitter layer of 0.43${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ Al diffusion in to grain boundaries on rear side fine grid finger top Yb metal and buried contact metallization along grain boundaries.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.137-142
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• 2008

The parasitic resistance is studied to silicon/metal contact junction for improving device performance and to lower contact/serial resistance silicide in natural sequence. In this paper constructs the stepwise Ni silicide process for parasitic resistance reduction for silicon/metal contact junction. We have investigated multi-step Ni silicide on SiGe substrate with stepwise annealing method as an alternative to compose more thermally reliable Ni silicide layer. Stepwise annealing for silicide formation is exposed to heating environment with $5^{\circ}C/sec$ for 10 seconds and a dwelling for both 10 and 30 seconds, and ramping-up and the dwelling was repeated until the final annealing temperature of $700\;^{\circ}C$ is achieved. Finally a direct comparison for single step and stepwise annealing process is obtained for 20 nm nickel silicide through stepwise annealing is $5.64\;{\Omega}/square$ at $600\;^{\circ}C$, and it is 42 % lower than that of as nickel sputtered. The proposed stepwise annealing for Ni silicidation can provide the least amount of NiSi at the interface of nickel silicide and silicon, and it provides lower resistance, higher thermal-stability, and superior morphology than other thermal treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 1996

Aligning a cathode tip at the center of a gate hole is important in gated filed emission devices. We have fabricated a silicon field emitter using a following process so that a cathode and a gate hole are automatically aligned . After forming silicon tips on a silicon wafer, the wafer was covered with the $SiO_2$, gate metal, and photoresistive(PR) films. Because of the viscosity of the PR films, a spot where cathode tips were located protruded above the surface. By ashing the surface of the PR film, the gate metal above the tip apex was exposed when other area was still covered with the PR film. The exposed gate metal and subsequenlty the $SiO_2$ layer were selectively etched. The result produced a field emitter in which the gate film was in volcano shape and the cathode tip was located at the center of the gate hole. Computer simulation showed that the volcano shape and the cathode tip was located at the center of the gat hole. Computer simulation showed that the volcano shape emitter higher current and the electron beam which was focused better than the emitter for which the gate film was flat.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.83-83
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• 2008

Metal-oxide-silicon-on-insulator (MOSOI) structures were fabricated to study the effect caused by reactive ion etching (RIE) and sacrificial oxidation process on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) layer. The MOSOI capacitors with an etch-damaged SOI layer were characterized by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements and compared to the sacrificial oxidation treated samples and the reference samples without etching treatment. The measured C-V curves were compared to the numerical results from 2-dimensional (2-D) simulations. The measurements revealed that the profile of C-V curves significantly changes depending on the SOI surface condition of the MOSOI capacitors. The shift in the measured C-V curves, due to the difference of the fixed oxide charge ($Q_f$), together with the numerical simulation analysis and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis, allowed extracting the fixed oxide charges ($Q_f$) in the structures as well as 2-D carrier distribution profiles.