• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.04b
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• pp.79-80
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• 2009

The local oxidation using an atomic force microscopy (AFM) is useful for Si-base fabrication of nanoscale structures and devices. SiC is a wide band-gap material that has advantages such as high-power, high-temperature and high-frequency in applications, and among several SiC poly types, 4H-SiC is the most attractive poly type due to the high electron mobility. However, the AFM local oxidation of 4H-SiC for fabrication is still difficult, mainly due to the physical hardness and chemical inactivity of SiC. In this paper, we investigated the local oxidation of 4H-SiC surface using an AFM. We fabricated oxide patterns using a contact mode AFM with a Pt/Ir-coated Si tip (N-type, $0.01{\sim}0.025\;{\Omega}cm$) at room temperature, and the relative humidity ranged from 40 to 50%. The height of the fabricated oxide pattern ($1{\sim}3\;nm$) on SiC is similar to that of typically obtained on Si ($10^{15}{\sim}10^{17}\;cm^{-3}$). We perform the 2-D simulation to further analyze the electric field between the tip and the surface. Whereas the simulated electric field on Si surface is constant ($5\;{\times}\;10^7\;V/m$), the electric field on SiC surface increases with increasing the doping concentration from ${\sim}10^{15}$ to ${\sim}10^{17}\;cm^{-3}$. We demonstrated that a specific electric field ($4\;{\times}\;10^7\;V/m$) and a doping concentration (${\sim}10^{17}\;cm^{-3}$) is sufficient to switch on/off the growth of the local oxide on SiC.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2018

Low-cost and large-scale fabrication method of nanohole array, which comprises nanoscale voids separated by a few tens to a few hundreds of nanometers, has opened up new possibilities in biomolecular sensing as well as novel frontier optical devices. One of the key aspects of the nanohole array research is how to control the hole size following each specific needs of the hole structure. Here, we report the extensive study on the fine control of the hole size within the range of 500-2500 nm via surface-catalyzed chemical deposition. The initial hole structures were prepared via conventional photo-lithography, and the hole size was decreased to a designed value through the surface-catalyzed chemical reduction of the gold ion on the predefined hole surfaces, by simple dipping of the hole array device into the aqueous solution of gold chloride and hydroxylamine. The final hole size was controlled by adjusting reaction time, and the optimal experimental condition was obtained by doing a series of characterization experiments. The characterization of size-controlled hole array was systematically examined on the image results of optical microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy(FESEM), atomic-force microscopy(AFM), and total internal reflection microscopy.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.13-20
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• 2023

The process of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) fabrication involves surface treatment to impart functionality to the device. Such surface treatment method is the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) technique, which modifies and functionalizes the surface of MEMS components with organic molecule monolayer, possessing a precisely controllable strength that depends on immersion time and solution concentration. These monolayers spontaneously adsorb on polymeric substrates or metal/ceramic components offering high precision at the nanoscale and modifying surface properties. SAM technology has been utilized in various fields, such as tribological property control, mass-production lithography, and ultrasensitive organic/biomolecular sensor applications. This paper provides an overview of the development and application of SAM technology in various fields.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.2694-2698
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• 2012

Materials on the scale of nanoscale have widely been used as research topics because of their interesting characteristics and aspects they bring into the field. Out of the many metal oxides, zinc oxide (ZnO) was chosen to be fabricated as nanofibers using the electrospinning method for potential uses of solar cells and sensors. After ZnO nanofibers were obtained, calcination temperature effects on the ZnO nanofibers were studied and reported here. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the aggregation of the ZnO nanofibers progressed by calcination. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study showed the hcp ZnO structure was enhanced by calcination at 873 and 1173 K. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the crystallinity of the calcined ZnO nanofibers. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) verified the thermal oxidation of Zn species by calcination in the nanofibers. These techniques have helped us deduce the facts that the diameter of ZnO increases as the calcination temperature was raised; the process of calcination affects the crystallinity of ZnO nanofibers, and the thermal oxidation of Zn species was observed as the calcination temperature was raised.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.175-188
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• 2011

As complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) continues to scale down deeper into the nanoscale, various device non-idealities cause the I-V characteristics to be substantially different from well-tempered metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). The last few years witnessed a dramatic increase in nanotechnology research, especially the nanoelectronics. These technologies vary in their maturity. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are at the forefront of these new materials because of the unique mechanical and electronic properties. CNTFET is the most promising technology to extend or complement traditional silicon technology due to three reasons: first, the operation principle and the device structure are similar to CMOS devices and it is possible to reuse the established CMOS design infrastructure. Second, it is also possible to reuse CMOS fabrication process. And the most important reason is that CNTFET has the best experimentally demonstrated device current carrying ability to date. This paper discusses and reviewsthe feasibility of the CNTFET's application at this point of time in integrated circuits design by investigating different types of circuit blocks considering the advantages that the CNTFETs offer.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.6.1-6.1
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• 2011

Nanoscale block copolymer (BCP) patterns have been pursued for applications in sub-30 nm nanolithography. BCP self-assembly processing is scalable and low cost, and is well-suited for integration with existing semiconductor fabrication techniques. However, one of the major technical challenges for BCP self-assembly is limited tunability in pattern geometry, dimension, and functionality. We suggest methods for extending the degree of tunability by choosing highly incompatible polymer blocks and utilizing solvent vapor treatment techniques. Siloxane BCPs have been developed as self-assembling resists due to many advantages such as high etch-selectivity, good etch-resistance, long-range ordering, and reduced line-edge roughness. The large incompatibility leads to extensive degree of pattern tunability since the effective volume fraction can be easily manipulated by solvent-based treatment techniques. Thus, control of the microdomain size, periodicity, and morphology is possible by changing the vapor pressure and the mixing ratio of selective solvents. This allows a range of different pattern geometry such as dots, lines and holes and critical dimension simply by changing the processing conditions of a given block copolymer without changing a polymer chain length. We demonstrate highly extensive tunability (critical dimension ~6~30 nm) of self-assembled patterns prepared by a siloxane BCP with extreme incompatibility.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.269-275
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• 2016

Multiscale hybrid composites, which consist of polymeric resins, microscale fibers and nanoscale reinforcements, have drawn significant attention in the field of advanced, high-performance materials. Despite their advantages, multiscale hybrid composites show challenges associated with nanomaterial dispersion, viscosity, interfacial bonding and load transfer, and orientation control. In this paper, carbon nanotube(CNT)/carbon fiber(CF)/polycarbonate(PC) multiscale hybrid composite were fabricated by a solution process to overcome the difficulties associated with controlling the melt viscosity of thermoplastic resins. The dependence of CNT loading was studied by varying the method to add CNTs, i.e., impregnation of CF with CNT/PC/solvent solution and impregnation of CNT-coated CF with PC/solvent solution. In addition, hybrid composites were fabricated through surfactant-aided CNT dispersion followed by vacuum filtration. The morphologies of the surfaces of hybrid composites, as analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, revealed the quality of PC impregnation depends on the processing method. Dynamic mechanical analysis was performed to evaluate their mechanical performance. It was analyzed that if the position of the value of tan ${\delta}$ is closer to the ideal line, the adhesion between polymer and carbon fiber is stronger. The effect of mechanical interlocking has a great influence on the dynamic mechanical properties of the composites with CNT-coated CF, which indicates that coating CF with CNTs is a suitable method to fabricate CNT/CF/PC hybrid composites.

• Carbon letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.254-259
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• 2012

Nanoporous non-woven carbon fibers for a gas sensor were prepared from a pitch/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) mixed solution through an electrospinning process and their gas-sensing properties were investigated. In order to create nanoscale pores, magnesium oxide (MgO) powders were added as a pore-forming agent during the mixing of these carbon precursors. The prepared nanoporous carbon fibers derived from the MgO pore-forming agent were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), $N_2$-adsorption isotherms, and a gas-sensing analysis. The SEM images showed that the MgO powders affected the viscosity of the pitch/PAN solution, which led to the production of beaded fibers. The specific surface area of carbon fibers increased from 2.0 to $763.2m^2/g$ when using this method. The template method therefore improved the porous structure, which allows for more efficient gas adsorption. The sensing ability and the response time for the NO gas adsorption were improved by the increased surface area and micropore fraction. In conclusion, the carbon fibers with high micropore fractions created through the use of MgO as a pore-forming agent exhibited improved NO gas sensitivity.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.07a
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• pp.1484-1485
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• 2008

The control of the number and dimension of nanowires is essential for dielectrophoretic(DEP) nanoscale assembly process. However, it is difficult to control the number of nanowires assembled between the electrodes. We have developed a nanowire diluter device, which consists of a glass substrate with gold electrodes and a PDMS layer with microchannel. The diluter device is fabricated by the conventional and soft lithographies using a SU-8 mold. Nickel nanowires (30${\mu}m$-long) are fabricated by a template-directed electrodeposition process using nanoporous alumina templates. A solution containing nanowires is injected into an inlet whereby pulsed voltages are applied to 16 pairs of electrodes in this experiment. The nanowires are trapped or released depending on the pulsed electric field from inlet to outlet (the channel). Therefore, the number of nanowires can be decreased correspondingly if the fixed frequency at each electrode is decreased from electrode to electrode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.9-10
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• 2005

We report on the fabrication and characterization of self- and artificially-controlled ZnO nanostructures have been investigated to establish nanostructure blocks for ZnO-based nanoscale device application. Systematic realization of self- and artificially-controlled ZnO nanostructures on $SiO_2/Si$ substrates was proposed and successfully demonstrated utilizing metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in addition with a focused ion beam (FIB) technique. Widely well-aligned two-dimensional ZnO nanodot arrays ($4{\sim}10^4$ nanodots of 130-nm diameter and 9-nm height over $150{\sim}150{\mu}m^2$ with a period of 750 nm) have been realized by MOCVD on $SiO_2/Si$ substrates patterned by FIB. A low-magnification FIB nanopatterning mode allowed the periodical nanopatterning of the substrates over a large area in a short processing time. Ga atoms incorporated into the surface areas of FIB-patterned nanoholes during FIB engraving were found to play an important role in the artificial control of ZnO, resulting in the production of ZnO nanodot arrays on the FIB-nanopatterned areas. The nanodots evolved into dot clusters and rods with increasing MOCVD growth time.