• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.66-71
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• 2023

This paper describes a hybrid cleaning method of silicon wafer combining nano-bubble and ultrasound to remove sub-micron particles and contaminants with minimal damage to the wafer surface. In the megasonic cleaning process of semiconductor manufacturing, the cavitation induced by ultrasound can oscillate and collapse violently often with re-entrant jet formation leading to surface damage. The smaller size of cavitation bubbles leads to more stable oscillations with more thermal and viscous damping, thus to less erosive surface cleaning. In this study, ultrasonic energy was applied to the wafer surface in the DI water to excite nano-bubbles at resonance to remove contaminant particles from the surface. A patented nano-bubble generator was developed for the generation of nano-bubbles with concentration of 1×10⁹ bubbles/ml and nominal nano-bubble diameter of 150 nm. Ultrasonic nano-bubble technology improved a contaminant removal efficiency more than 97% for artificial nano-sized particles of alumina and Latex with significant reduction in cleaning time without damage to the wafer surface.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.436-442
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• 2022

Gallium nitride (GaN) substrates were ground in two different grinding wheel abrasive sizes of 270 and 800-mesh, and thechange in surface morphologies of the substrates and the depth of subsurface damage (SSD) were observed. With the 800-meshgrinding wheel, the surface roughness (SR) and the depth of SSD of the sample tended to decrease, which was not the casewith the 270-mesh grinding wheel. In the X-ray rocking curve, the sample exhibited some compressive stress with the 270-meshgrinding wheel, but with the 800-mesh grinding wheel, it demonstrated the occurrence of tensile stresses in the sample and adecrease in full width at half maximum (FWHM), which confirms an improvement in the crystallinity. In the Raman spectra,the compressive stress of the 270-mesh grinding wheel and the tensile stress of the 800-mesh grinding wheel were confirmedthrough peak shifts. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra confirmed that the intensity ratio of the yellow luminescence increasedat the 800-mesh grinding wheel, and a blue shift occurred further. These results indicate that the SR and the depth of SSDwere proportional to the abrasive grain size of the grinding wheel. At the same time, the increase in PL intensity at specificpeak positions indicates that the stress stemming from the grinding process was concentrated at the crystal surface. The abovemechanism is illustrated in a schematic diagram, which confirms the possibility of improving the grinding efficiency andsubsequent polishing processes in future applications.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.159-163
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• 2007

Micron size Co-alloy 800 (T800) powder is coated on the high temperature, oxidation and corrosion resistant super alloy Inconel 718 substrate by the optimal high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray coating process developed by this laboratory. For the study of durability improvement of high speed spindle operating without lubricants, friction and sliding wear behaviors of the coatings are investigated both at room and at an elevated temperature of $1000^{\circ}F(538^{\circ}C)$. Friction coefficients, wear traces and wear debris of coatings are drastically reduced compared to those of non-coated surface of Inconel 718 substrate both at room temperature and at $538^{\circ}C$. Friction coefficients and wear traces of both coated and non-coated surfaces are drastically reduced at higher temperature of $538^{\circ}C$ compared with those at room temperature. At high temperature, the brittle oxides such as CoO, $Co_{3}O_{4}$, $MoO_2$ and $MoO_3$ are formed rapidly on the sliding surfaces, and the brittle oxide phases are easily attrited by reciprocating slides at high temperature through oxidation and abrasive wear mechanisms. The brittle solid oxide particles, softens, melts and partial-melts play roles as solid and liquid lubricants reducing friction coefficient and wear. These show that the coating is highly recommendable for the durability improvement coating on the machine component surfaces vulnerable to frictional heat and wear.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.771-775
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• 2002

$Gd_2$$O_3$:Eu phosphor particles with nano-sized and non-aggregation characteristics were prepared by spray pyrolysis using the spray solution containing polymeric precursor and $Li_2$$CO_3$ flux material. Nano-sized $Gd_2$$O_3$:Eu phosphor particles had higher brightness than the commercial $Y_2$$O_3$:Eu phosphor particles. The $Gd_2$$O_3$:Eu phosphor particles had nano-size and non-aggregation characteristics after heat-treatment at $1000^{\circ}C$ when the addition amount of $Li_2$$CO_3$ flux was 1 wt.% and 3 wt.%. The mean size of particles were 200 nm and 400 nm when the amount of flux was 1 wt.% and 3 wt.%, respectively. The prepared phosphor particles had higher photoluminescence intensity than that of the commercial product regardless of the content of$ Li_2$$CO_3$ flux and had the maximum brightness when the content of flux was 5 wt %. The photoluminescence intensity of the nano-sized $Gd_2$$O_3$:Eu phosphor particles containing 3 wt.% $Li_2$$CO_3$ flux was 125% in comparison with that of the micron-sized $Y_2$$O_3$:Eu commercial product.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2012

Crystalline silicon solar cell remains the major player in the photovoltaic marketplace with 80% of the market, despite the development of various thin film technologies. Silicon's excellent efficiency, stability, material abundance and low toxicity have helped to maintain its position of dominance. However, the cost of silicon materials remains a major barrier to reducing the cost of silicon photovoltaics. Using the crystalline silicon wafer with thinner thickness is the promising way for cost and material reduction in the solar cell production. However, the thinner the silicon wafer is, the worse bow phenomenon is induced. The bow phenomenon is observed when two or more layers of materials with different temperature expansion coefficiencies are in contact, in this case silicon and aluminum. In this paper, the solar cells were fabricated with different thicknesses of Al layer in order to reduce the bow phenomenon. With less amount of paste applications, we observed that the bow could be reduced by up to 40% of the largest value with 120 micron thickness of the wafer even though the conversion efficiency decrease by 0.5% occurred. Since the bowed wafers lead to unacceptable yield losses during the module construction, the reduction of bow is indispensable on thin crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, we have studied on the counterbalance between the bow and conversion efficiency and also suggest the formation of enough back surface field (BSF) with thinner Al layer application.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.223-223
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• 2012

Surface engineering plays a significant role in fabricating highly functionalized materials applicable to industrial and biomedical fields. Surface wrinkles and folds formed by ion beam or plasma treatment are buckling-induced patterns and controlled formation of those patterns has recently gained considerable attention as a way of creating well-defined surface topographies for a wide range of applications. Surface wrinkles and folds can be observed when a stiff thin layer attached to a compliant substrate undergoes compression and plasma treatment is one of the techniques that can form stiff thin layers on compliant polymeric substrates, such as poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). Here, we report two effective methods using plasma modification techniques for controlling the formation of surface wrinkles and folds on flat or patterned PDMS substrates. First, we show a method of creating wrinkled diamond-like carbon (DLC) film on grooved PDMS substrates. Grooved PDMS substrates fabricated by a molding method using a grooved master prepared by photolithography and a dry etching process were treated with argon plasma and subsequently coated with DLC film, which resulted in the formation of wrinkled DLC film aligning perpendicular to the steps of the pre-patterned ridges. The wavelength and the amplitude of the wrinkled DLC film exhibited variation in the submicron- to micron-scale range according to the duration of argon plasma pre-treatment. Second, we present a method for controlled formation of folds on flat PDMS substrates treated with oxygen plasma under large compressive strains. Flat PDMS substrates were strained uniaxially and then treated with oxygen plasma, resulting in the formation of surface wrinkles at smaller strain levels, which evolved into surface folds at larger strain levels. Our results demonstrate that we can control the formation and evolution of surface folds simply by controlling the pre-strain applied to the substrates and/or the duration of oxygen plasma treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1285-1289
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• 2012

This study has been focused on application of ELID lapping process for mirror-surface machining of sapphire wafer. Sapphire wafer is a superior material with optic properties of high performance as light transmission, thermal conductivity, hardness and so on. High effective surface machining technology is necessary to use sapphire as various usages. The interval ELID lapping process has been set up for lapping of the sapphire material. According to the ELID lapping experimental results, it shows that 12.5 kg of load for lapping is most pertinent to ELID lapping. the surface of sapphire can be eliminated by metal bonded wheel with micron abrasives and the surface roughness of 60 nmRa can be gotten using grinding wheel of 2,000 mesh in 4.5 um, depth of cut. In this study, the chemical experiments after ELID grinding also has been conducted to check chemical reaction between workpiece and grinding wheel on ELID grinding process. It shows that the chemical reaction has not happened as the results of the chemical experiments.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.243-248
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• 2012

Nearby spiral galaxies M101 and M81 are considered to have undergone a galaxy-galaxy interaction. M101 has experienced HI gas infall due to the interaction. With AKARI far-infrared (IR) photometric observations, we found regions with enhanced star forming activity, which are spatially close to regions affected by the interaction. In addition, the relation between the star formation rate (SFR) and the gas content for such regions shows a significant difference from typical spiral arm regions. We discuss possible explanations for star formation processes on a kiloparsec scale and the association with interaction-triggered star formation. We also observed the compact group of galaxies Stephan's Quintet (SQ) with the AKARI Far-infrared Surveyor (FIS). The SQ shows diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) due to multiple collisions between the member galaxies and the IGM. The intruder galaxy NGC 7318b is currently colliding with the IGM and causes a large-scale shock. The 160 micron image clearly shows the structure along the shock ridge as seen in warm molecular hydrogen line emission and X-ray emission. The far-IR emission from the shocked region comes from the luminous [CII]$158{\mu}m$ line and cold dust (~ 20 K) that coexist with molecular hydrogen gas. Survival of dust grains is indispensable to form molecular hydrogen gas within the collision age (~ 5 Myr). At the stage of the dusty IGM environment, [CII] and $H_2$ lines rather than X-ray emission are powerful cooling channels to release the collision energy.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.195-200
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• 2012

We show how the rotation emission from isolated interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) can explain the so-called anomalous microwave emission (AME). AME has been discovered in the last decade as microwave interstellar emission (10 to 70 GHz) that is in excess compared to the classical emission processes: thermal dust, free-free and synchrotron. The PAHs are the interstellar planar nano-carbons responsible for the near infrared emission bands in the 3 to 15 micron range. Theoretical studies show that under the physical conditions of the interstellar medium (radiation and density) the PAHs adopt supra-thermal rotation velocities, and consequently they are responsible for emission in the microwave range. The first results from the PLANCK mission unexpectedly showed that the AME is not only emitted by specific galactic interstellar clouds, but it is present throughout the galactic plane, and is particularly strong in the cold molecular gas. The comparison of theory and observations shows that the measured emission is fully consistent with rotation emission from interstellar PAHs. We draw the main lines of our PLANCK-AKARI collaborative program which intends to progress on this question by direct comparison of the near infrared (AKARI) and microwave (PLANCK) emissions of the galactic plane.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5595-5600
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• 2012

This paper is to review and study about the crystallization nucleating agent to improve the heat-resistance properties of poly(lactic acid). Four sub-micron sized nucleating agents, metallic salts of 2,2'-methylene bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenol), were prepared and used as a crystallization nucleating agent. Thermal and mechanical properties of polymer compounds were investigated by DSC, HDT and UTM. As the results, While the heat-resistance properties of the polymer compound samples were increased linearly with the contents of nucleating agent as well as their smaller size. Among them, the highest heat-resistance property of compound was observed with 2 wt% of MPZ2. HDT values of PL98Z2 compound was $116^{\circ}C$ at 0.455Mpa.