• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.61-66
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• 2016

Total thickness variation (TTV), BOW, and surface roughness are essential characteristics for high quality sapphire substrates. Many researchers have attempted to increase removal rate by controlling the key process parameters like pressure and velocity owing to the high cost of consumables in sapphire chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). In case of the pressure approach, increased pressure owing to higher deviation of pressure over the wafer leads to significant degradation of the TTV. In this study, the authors focused on reducing TTV under the high-pressure conditions. When the production equipment polishes multiple wafers attached on a carrier, higher loads seem to be concentrated around the leading edge of the head; this occurs because of frictional force generated by the combination of table rotation and the height of the gimbal of the polishing head. We believe the skewed pressure distribution during polishing to be the main reason of within-wafer non-uniformity (WIWNU). The insertion of a hub ring between the polishing head and substrate carrier helped reduce the pressure deviation. Adjusting the location of the hub ring enables tuning of the pressure distribution. The results indicated that the position of the hub ring strongly affected the removal profile, which confirmed that the position of the hub ring changes the pressure distribution. Furthermore, we analyzed the deformation of the head via finite element method (FEM) to verify the pressure non-uniformity over the contact area Based on experiment and FEM results, we determined the optimal position of hub ring for achieving uniform polishing of the substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2005

During oxidation process, several type of defects are formed on the surface of the silicon crystal which was damaged mechanically before oxidation. As the size of abrasive particle increases multiple dislocation loops are produced favorably over oxidation-induced stacking faults, which are dominantly produced when ground with finer abrasive particle. These defects are not related with the crystal growth process like Czochralski or directional solidification. During directional solidification process, twins and stacking faults are the two major defects observed in the bulk of the silicon crystal. On the other hand, slip dislocations produced by the thermal stress are not observed. Thus, not only in single crystalline silicon crystal but also in multi-crystalline silicon, extrinsic gettering process with programmed production of surface defects might be highly applicable to silicon wafers for purification.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.20-20
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• 2003

We developed 30 ㎽-AlInGaN based violet laser diodes. The fabrication procedures of the laser diodes are described as follows. Firstly, GaN layers having very low defect density were grown on sapphire substrates by lateral epitaxial overgrowth method. The typical dislocation density was about 1-3$\times$10$^{6}$ /$\textrm{cm}^2$ at the wing region. Secondly, AlInGaN laser structures were grown on LEO-GaN/sapphire substrates by MOCVD. UV activation method, instead of conventional annealing, was conducted to achieve good p-type conduction. Thirdly, ridge stripe laser structures were fabricated. The cavity mirrors were formed by cleaving method. Three pairs of SiO$_2$ and TiO$_2$ layers were deposited on the rear facet for mirror coating. Lastly, laser diode chips were mounted on AlN submount wafers by epi-down bonding method. The lifetime of the laser diodes was over 10,000 hrs at room temperature under automatic power controlled condition. We expect the performance of the LDs to be improved by the optimization of the growth and fabrication process. The detailed characteristics and important issues of the laser diodes will be discussed at the conference.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.400-406
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• 2024

Next-generation wide-bandgap semiconductors such as SiC, GaN, and Ga2O3 are being considered as potential replacements for current silicon-based power devices due to their high mobility, larger size, and production of high-quality wafers at a moderate cost. In this study, we investigate the gradual modulation of chemical composition in multi-stacked metal oxide semiconductor thin films to enhance the performance and bias stability of thin-film transistors (TFTs). It demonstrates that adjusting the Ga ratio in the indium gallium oxide (IGO) semiconductor allows for precise control over the threshold voltage and enhances device stability. Moreover, employing multiple deposition techniques addresses the inherent limitations of solution-processed amorphous oxide semiconductor TFTs by mitigating porosity induced by solvent evaporation. It is anticipated that solution-processed indium gallium oxide (IGO) semiconductors, with a Ga ratio exceeding 50%, can be utilized in the production of oxide semiconductors with wide band gaps. These materials hold promise for power electronic applications necessitating high voltage and current capabilities.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.11D no.3
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• pp.709-716
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• 2004

This paper describes an intelligent real-time monitoring system of a semiconductor processing equipment, which determines normal or not for a wafer in processing, using multiple time-series pattern recognition. The proposed system consists of three phases, initialization, learning and real-time prediction. The initialization phase sets the weights and tile effective steps for all parameters of a monitoring equipment. The learning phase clusters time series patterns, which are producted and fathered for processing wafers by the equipment, using LBG algorithm. Each pattern has an ACI which is measured by a tester at the end of a process The real-time prediction phase corresponds a time series entered by real-time with the clustered patterns using Dynamic Time Warping, and finds the best matched pattern. Then it calculates a predicted ACI from a combination of the ACI, the difference and the weights. Finally it determines Spec in or out for the wafer. The proposed system is tested on the data acquired from etching device. The results show that the error between the estimated ACI and the actual measurement ACI is remarkably reduced according to the number of learning increases.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.475-480
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• 2017

In this paper, the conductivity of the fine pattern is improved in the insulating substrate by laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) process. The high laser beam energy generated in conventional laser induced deposition processes induces problems such as low deposition density and oxidation of micro-patterns. These problems were improved by using a polymer coating layer for improved deposition accuracy and conductivity. Chromium and copper were used to deposit micro-patterns on silicon wafers. A multi-pulse laser beam was irradiated on a metal thin film to form a seed layer on an insulating substrate(SiO2) and electroless plating was applied on the seed layer to form a micro-pattern and structure. Irradiating the laser beam with multiple scanning method revealed that the energy of the laser beam improved the deposition density and the surface quality of the deposition layer and that the electric conductivity can be used as the microelectrode pattern. Measuring the resistivity after depositing the microelectrode by using the laser direct drawing method and electroless plating indicated that the resistivity of the microelectrode pattern was $6.4{\Omega}$, the resistance after plating was $2.6{\Omega}$, and the surface texture of the microelectrode pattern was uniformly deposited. Because the surface texture was uniform and densely deposited, the electrical conductivity was improved about three fold.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.207-223
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• 2003

For last five years, we are developing the novel local drug delivery devices using biodegradable polymers, especially polylactide (PLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) due to its relatively good biocompatibility, easily controlled biodegradability, good processability and only FDA approved synthetic degradable polymers. The relationship between various kinds of drug [water soluble small molecule drugs: gentamicin sulfate (GS), fentanyl citrate (FC), BCNU, azidothymidine (AZT), pamidronate (ADP), $1,25(OH)_2$ vitamin $D_3$, water insoluble small molecule drugs: fentanyl, ipriflavone (IP) and nifedipine, and water soluble large peptide molecule drug: nerve growth factor (NGF), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)], different types of geometrical devices [microspheres (MSs), microcapsule, nanoparticle, wafers, pellet, beads, multiple-layered beads, implants, fiber, scaffolds, and films], and pharmacological activity are proposed and discussed for the application of pharmaceutics and tissue engineering. Also, local drug delivery devices proposed in this work are introduced in view of preparation method, drug release behavior, biocompatibility, pharmacological effect, and animal studies. In conclusion, we can control the drug release profiles varying with the preparation, formulation and geometrical parameters. Moreover, any types of drug were successfully applicable to achieve linear sustained release from short period ($1{\sim}3$ days) to long period (over 2 months). It is very important to design a suitable formulation for the wanting period of bioactive molecules loaded in biodegradable polymers for the local delivery of drug. The drug release is affected by many factors such as hydrophilicity of drug, electric charge of drug, drug loading amount, polymer molecular weight, the monomer composition, the size of implants, the applied fabrication techniques, and so on. It is well known that the commercialization of new drug needs a lot of cost of money (average: over 10 million US dollar per one drug) and time (average: above 9 years) whereas the development of DDS and high effective generic drug might be need relatively low investment with a short time period. Also, one core technology of DDS can be applicable to many drugs for the market needs. From these reasons, the DDS research on potent generic drugs might be suitable for less risk and high return.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.2075-2082
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• 2006

This paper presents modeling and optimization techniques for hish efficiency solar cell process on single-crystalline float zone (FZ) wafers. Among a sequence of multiple steps of fabrication, the followings are the most sensitive steps for the contact formation: 1) Emitter formation by diffusion; 2) Anti-reflection-coating (ARC) with silicon nitride using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD); 3) Screen-printing for front and back metalization; and 4) Contact formation by firing. In order to increase the performance of solar cells in terms of efficiency, the contact formation process is modeled and optimized using neural networks and genetic algorithms, respectively. This paper utilizes the design of experiments (DOE) in contact formation to reduce process time and fabrication costs. The experiments were designed by using central composite design which consists of 24 factorial design augmented by 8 axial points with three center points. After contact formation process, the efficiency of the fabricated solar cell is modeled using neural networks. Established efficiency model is then used for the analysis of the process characteristics and process optimization for more efficient solar cell fabrication.