• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2005

YSZ layer containing nano-sized particles has been deposited on the commercial A1203 substrate by Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition (EB-PVD). The role of coating rnjcrostructures of YSZ to indentation damage is studied. The different coating microsouctures are prepared by varying the substrate temperatures from $600^{circ}C$ to $800^{circ}C$ during the deposition. Microhardness test and Hertzian indentation are conducted on the $YSZ/Al_{2}O_{3}$ layered systems. The damage and flilure behaviors have been investigated according to the effect of microstructures and indentation loads. With increasing the substrate temperature during EB-PVD, the overall grain sizes are coarser and more faceted, which microsoucture ultimately influences on the indentation behavior, thus, YSZ/Al_{2}O_{3}$ layered system prepared at the substrate temperature of $800^{circ}C$ shows relatively higher damage tolerance.

• Composites Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.93-97
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• 2012

Carbon nano fibers (CNFs) reinforced magnesium alloy (AZ91) matrix composites have been fabricated by liquid pressing process. In order to improve the dispersibility of CNFs and the wettability with magnesium alloy melt, CNFs were mixed with submicron sized SiC particles ($SiC_p$). Also, the mixture of CNFs and $SiC_p$ were coated with Ni by electroless plating. In liquid pressing process, AZ91 melts have been pressed hydrostatically and infiltrated into three reinforcement preforms of only CNFs, the mixture of CNFs and $SiC_p$ (CNF+$SiC_p$), and Ni coated CNFs and $SiC_p$ ((CNF+$SiC_p$)/Ni). Some CNFs agglomerates were observed in only CNFs reinforced composite. In cases of the composites reinforce with CNF+$SiC_p$ and (CNF+$SiC_p$)/Ni, CNFs were dispersed homogeneously in the matrix, which resulted in the improvement of mechanical properties. The compressive strengths of CNF+$SiC_p$ and (CNF+$SiC_p$)/Ni reinforced composites were 38% and 28% higher than that of only CNFs composite.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2012

The promise of nano-crystalites (nc) as a technological material, for applications including display backplane, and solar cells, may ultimately depend on tailoring their behavior through doping and crystallinity. Impurities can strongly modify electronic and optical properties of bulk and nc semiconductors. Highly doped dopant also effect structural properties (both grain size, crystal fraction) of nc-Si thin film. As discussed in several literatures, P atoms or radicals have the tendency to reside on the surface of nc. The P-radical segregation on the nano-grain surfaces that called self-purification may reduce the possibility of new nucleation because of the five-coordination of P. In addition, the P doping levels of ${\sim}2{\times}10^{21}\;at/cm^3$ is the solubility limitation of P in Si; the solubility of nc thin film should be smaller. Therefore, the non-activated P tends to segregate on the grain boundaries and the surface of nc. These mechanisms could prevent new nucleation on the existing grain surface. Therefore, most researches shown that highly doped nc-thin film by using conventional PECVD deposition system tended to have low crystallinity, where the formation energy of nucleation should be higher than the nc surface in the intrinsic materials. If the deposition technology that can make highly doped and simultaneously highly crystallized nc at low temperature, it can lead processes of next generation flexible devices. Recently, we are developing a novel CVD technology with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, named as neutral beam assisted CVD (NBaCVD), which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at low temperatures. During the formation of the nc-/pm-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. In the case of phosphorous doped Si thin films, the doping efficiency also increased as increasing the reflector bias (i.e. increasing NPB energy). At 330V of reflector bias, activation energy of the doped nc-Si thin film reduced as low as 0.001 eV. This means dopants are fully occupied as substitutional site, even though the Si thin film has nano-sized grain structure. And activated dopant concentration is recorded as high as up to 1020 #/$cm^3$ at very low process temperature (＜ $80^{\circ}C$) process without any post annealing. Theoretical solubility for the higher dopant concentration in Si thin film for order of 1020 #/$cm^3$ can be done only high temperature process or post annealing over $650^{\circ}C$. In general, as decreasing the grain size, the dopant binding energy increases as ratio of 1 of diameter of grain and the dopant hardly be activated. The highly doped nc-Si thin film by low-temperature NBaCVD process had smaller average grain size under 10 nm (measured by GIWAXS, GISAXS and TEM analysis), but achieved very higher activation of phosphorous dopant; NB energy sufficiently transports its energy to doping and crystallization even though without supplying additional thermal energy. TEM image shows that incubation layer does not formed between nc-Si film and SiO2 under later and highly crystallized nc-Si film is constructed with uniformly distributed nano-grains in polymorphous tissues. The nucleation should be start at the first layer on the SiO2 later, but it hardly growth to be cone-shaped micro-size grains. The nc-grain evenly embedded pm-Si thin film can be formatted by competition of the nucleation and the crystal growing, which depend on the NPB energies. In the evaluation of the light soaking degradation of photoconductivity, while conventional intrinsic and n-type doped a-Si thin films appeared typical degradation of photoconductivity, all of the nc-Si thin films processed by the NBaCVD show only a few % of degradation of it. From FTIR and RAMAN spectra, the energetic hydrogen NB atoms passivate nano-grain boundaries during the NBaCVD process because of the high diffusivity and chemical potential of hydrogen atoms.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.101-108
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• 2012

Narrowly dispersed poly(BMA-co-MMA) and PBMA latices (PSD : 1.002~1.008) were synthesized successfully by surfactant-free emulsion polymerization with 2,2' azobis(2-methyl-propionamidine) dihydrochloride (AIBA) and $K_2S_2O_8$ (KPS). The number average particle diameter and the number average molecule weight were found to be 160~494 nm and (1.25~7.55) ${\times}10^4$, respectively. The influences of BMA/MMA ratio, monomer and initiator concentrations, addition of DVB/EGDMA crosslink agent, and polymerization temperature on the polymerization rates and on the particle size and molecular weight were studied. The rate of polymerization increased with increasing MMA concentration in BMA/MMA weight ratio. The particle diameter as well as the polymer molecular weight could be controlled easily by controlling the BMA/MMA weight ratio, monomer concentration, AIBA and KPS concentration, and polymerization temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.99-99
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• 2009

Two different micro-flows during the evaporation of ink droplets were achieved by engineering both surface tension gradient and compositional gradient across the ink droplet: (1) Coffee-ring generating flow resulting from the outward flow inside the ink droplet & (2) Marangoni flow leading to the circulation flow inside the ink droplet. The surface tension gradient and the compositional gradient in the ink droplets were tailored by mixing two different solvents with difference surface tension and boiling point. In order to create the coffee-ring generating flow (outward flow), a single-solvent system using N,N-dimethylformamide with nano-sized spherical alumina particles was formulated, Marangoni flow (circulation flow) was created in the ink droplets by combining N,N-dimethylformamide and fotmamide with the spherical alumina powders as a co-solvent ink system. We have investigated the effect of these two different flows on the formation of ceramic films by inkjet printing method, The packing density of the ceramic films printed with two different ink systems (single- and co-solvent systems) and their surface roughness were characterized. The dielectric properties of these inkjet-printed ceramic films such as dielectric constant and dissipation factor were also studied in order to evaluate the feasibility of their application to the electronic ceramic package substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2018

Lead zinc niobate (PZN) added lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thick films with thickness of $5{\sim}10{\mu}m$ were fabricated on silicon and sapphire substrates using aerosol deposition method. The contents of PZN were varied from 0 %, 20 % and 40 %. The initial particles (PZT, 2PZN-8PZT, 4PZN-6PZT) had irregular shape and submicron sizes. The as-deposited film had fairly dense microstructure without any crack, and showed only a perovskite single phase formed with nano-sized grains. The as-deposited films on silicon were annealed at the temperatures of $700^{\circ}C$, and the films deposited on sapphire were annealed at $900^{\circ}C$ in the electrical furnace. The effects of PZN addition on the microstructural evolution were observed using by FE-SEM and HR-TEM.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2009

Introduction of proper impurity into $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x}$ (YBCO) thin films is an effective way to enhance its flux-pinning properties. We investigate effect of $Y_2O_3$ nanoparticles on the critical current density $J_c$ of the YBCO thin films. The $Y_2O_3$ nanoparticles were created perpendicular to the film surface (parallel with the c-axis) either between YBCO and substrate or on top of YBCO, YBCO/$Y_2O_3$/LAO or $Y_2O_3$/YBCO/STO, by pulsed laser deposition. The deposition temperature of the YBCO films were varied ($780^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$) to modify surface morphology of the YBCO films. Surface morphology characterization revealed that the lower deposition temperature of $780^{\circ}C$ created nano-sized holes on the YBCO film surface which may behave as intrinsic pinning centers, while the higher deposition temperature produced much denser and smoother surface. $J_c$ values of the YBCO films with $Y_2O_3$ particles were either remained nearly the same or decreased for the samples in which YBCO is grown at $780^{\circ}C$. On the other hand, $J_c$ values were enhanced for the samples in which YBCO is grown at higher temperature of $800^{\circ}C$. The difference in the effect of $Y_2O_3$ can be explained by the fact that the higher deposition temperature of $800^{\circ}C$ reduces intrinsic pinning centers and $J_c$ is enhanced by introduction of artificial pinning centers in the form of $Y_2O_3$ nanoparticles.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.258-265
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• 2016

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. The morphologies, crystal structures, chemical bonding states, and electrochemical properties of the nanoparticles are investigated. The FTO nanoparticles show uniform morphology and size distribution in the range of 6-10 nm. The FTO nanoparticles exhibit excellent electrochemical performance with high discharge specific capacity and good cycling stability ($620mAhg^{-1}$ capacity retention up to 50 cycles), as well as excellent high-rate performance ($250mAhg^{-1}$ at $700mAg^{-1}$) compared to that of commercial $SnO_2$. The improved electrochemical performance can be explained by two main effects. First, the excellent cycling stability with high discharge capacity is attributed to the nano-sized FTO particles, which are related to the increased electrochemical active area between the electrode and electrolyte. Second, the superb high-rate performance and the excellent cycling stability are ascribed to the increased electrical conductivity, which results from the introduction of fluorine doping in $SnO_2$. This noble electrode structure can provide powerful potential anode materials for high-performance lithiumion batteries.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.373-379
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• 2020

In this study, TiN-coated cBN (cubic-structure boron nitride) powders were successfully synthesized by a sol-gel method using titanium (IV) isopropoxide (TTIP) and by controlling the heat treatment conditions. After the sol-gel process, amorphous nano-sized TiO_x was uniformly coated on the surface of cBN powder particles. The obtained TiO_x-coated cBN powders were heated at 1,000~1,300℃ for 1 or 6 h in a flow of 95%N₂-5%H₂ mixed gas. With increasing temperature, the chemical composition of the TiO_x coating layer changed in the order of TiO₂→Ti₆O₁₁→Ti₄O₇→TiN due to reduction of the Ti ions. The TiN coating layer was observable in the samples heated at 1,200℃ and appeared as the main phase in the sample heated at 1,300℃. The resulting thickness of the TiN coating layer of the sample heated at 1,300℃ was approximately 45~50 nm.