• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.7-11
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• 2015

In order to protect the patterned mask from contamination during lithography process, pellicle has become a critical component for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. According to EUV pellicle requirements, the pellicle should have high EUV transmittance and robust mechanical property. In this study, silicon nitride, which is well-known for its remarkable mechanical property, was used as a pellicle membrane material to achieve high EUV transmittance. Since long silicon wet etching process time aggravates notching effect causing stress concentration on the edge or corner of etched structure, the remaining membrane is prone to fracture at the end of etch process. To overcome this notching effect and attain high transmittance, we began preparing a rather thick (200 nm) $SiN_x$ membrane which can be stably manufactured and was thinned into 43 nm thickness with HF wet etching process. The measured EUV transmittance shows similar values to the simulated result. Therefore, the result shows possibilities of HF thinning processes for $SiN_x$ EUV pellicle fabrication.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2003

$H_2$ permeation flux though a $100{\mu}m-thick$ Pd-Ru (6wt%) membrane was measured at various temperatures and pressures. The permeation flux followed the Sievert's law and thus the rate-limiting step of the hydrogen permeation was the bulk atomic diffusion step. The activation energy of the permeation flux was obtained at 17.9 kJ/mol and this value is consistent with those published previously. While no degradation of the permeation flux wasfound in the membrane exposed to the $O_2$ and $CO_2$ environments for 100 hours, the membrane exposed to $N_2$ environment for 100 hours showed the degradation in the $H_2$ permeation flux. The $H_2$ permeation was decreased as the exposure temperature to $N_2$, environment was increased. The $H_2$ permeation flux was fully recovered after the membrane was kept in the $H_2$ environment for certain time. The permeation flux degradation might be caused by the formation of metal nitride on the membrane surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.152-156
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• 2004

A new tool of surface patterning technique for general purpose lithography was developed based on shadow mask method. This paper describes the fabrication of a new type of miniaturized shadow mask. The shadow mask is fabricated by photolithography and etching of 100-mm full wafer. The fabricated shadow mask has over 388 membranes with apertures of micrometer length scale ranging from 1${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ to 100s ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ made on each 2mm${\times}$2mm large low stress silicon nitride membrane. It allows micro scale patterns to be directly deposited on substrate surface through apertures of the membrane. This shadow mask method has much wider choice of deposit materials, and can be applied to wider class of surfaces including chemical functional layer, MEMS/NEMS surfaces, and biosensors.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.1461-1465
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• 2007

A micromachined sensor part for an infrared focal plane array has been designed and fabricated. Amorphous silicon was adapted as a sensing material, and silicon nitride was used as a membrane material. To get a good efficiency of infrared absorption, the sensor was made as a ${\lambda}/4$ cavity structure. All the processes were done in $0.5\;{\mu}m$ iMEMS fab. in the Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI). The processed MEMS sensor structure had a small membrane deflection less than $0.3\;{\mu}m$. This excellent deflection property can be attributed to the rigorous balancing of the stresses of individual layers. The efficiency of infrared absorption was more than 75% in the wavelength range $8\;-\;14\;{\mu}m$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.118-127
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• 2012

TiN or Ti/TiN was coated on stainless steel as bipolar plate in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to improve their corrosion resistance and electric conductivity, and their properties were examined under fuel cell operating condition. After 200 hours operation, the behaviors for the corrosion, crack and dissolution of coating layer were investigated by various techniques. The corrosion and exfoliation of coating layer were considerably generated except for SUS316L-Ti/TiN after fuel cell operation even if the electric conductivity and corrosion resistance of coated stainless steel bipolar plates were improved. The adoption of Ti layer between TiN layer and the surface of stainless steel enhanced the adhesion of TiN layer and decreased the possibility of corrosion by the increase of coating layer.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2482-2487
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• 2007

Numerical simulations are conducted for the analysis of a thermal mass air flow sensor with periodic heating pulses on silicon-nitride ($Si_3N_4$) thin membrane structure. This study aims to find the locations of temperature sensors on the thin membrane and the heating pulse conditions, that the higher sensitivity can be achieved, for the development of a MEMS fabricated mass air flow sensor which is driven in periodic heating pulse. The simulations, thus, focus on the membrane temperature profile according to variation of the flow velocity, heating duration time and imposed power. The flow velocity of the simulations is ranging from 3 m/s to 35 m/s, heating duration time from 1 ms to 3 ms and imposed power from 50 mW to 90 mW. The corresponding Reynolds numbers vary from 1000 to 10000.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07g
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• pp.2501-2503
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• 1998

In this paper, the silicon-nitride membrane structure for IR sensor was fabricated through the etching and the direct bonding. The PTO layer as a IR detection layer was deposited on the membrane and its characteristics were measured. The attack of PTO layer during the etching of silicon wafer as well as the thermal isolation of the IR detection layer can be solved through the method of bonding/etching of silicon wafer. Because the PTO layer of c-axial orientation raised thermal polarization without polling, the more integration capability can be achieved. The surface roughness of the membrane was measured by AFM, the micro voids and the non-contacted area were inspected by IR detector, and the bonding interface was observed by SEM. The polarization characteristics and the dielectric characteristics of the PTO layer were measured, too.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

In this paper, a MEMS tunable capacitor was successfully designed and fabricated using an aluminum nitride film and a gold suspended membrane with two air gap structure for commercial RF applications. Unlike conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors, the proposed tunable capacitor consists of one air suspended top electrode and two fixed bottom electrodes. One fixed and the top movable electrodes form a variable capacitor, while the other one provides necessary electrostatic actuation. The fabricated tunable capacitor exhibited a capacitance tuning range of 375% at 2 GHz, exceeding the theoretical limit of conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors. In case of the contact state, the maximal quality factor was approximately 25 at 1.5 GHz. The developed fabrication process is also compatible with the existing standard IC (integrated circuit) technology, which makes it suitable for on chip intelligent transceivers and radios.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.28-33
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• 1985

ISFETS for physiological applications have been developed using the techniques for integrated circuit fabrication. The silicon nitride layer was used as a H+ sensing membrane. However, K+, Na+ and Ca++ sensing ISFETS were fabricated by forming tach specification sensing membranes over the silicon nitride gate insulator. The sensitivities of the fabricated devices were very good. The typical values of measured sentivities were iEmV/pH, 42mv1, pH,5 gmV/pNa and 28mv1p0a. However, the selectivity and stability should be somewhat improved for practical physiological uses with good reliability. The response times were, less than one second, short enough for the practical uses in physiological applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.630-630
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• 2013

Recently, atomically smooth hexagonal boron nitride(h-BN) known as a white graphene has drawn great attention since the discovery of graphene. h-BN is a III-V compound and has a honeycomb structure very similar to graphene with smaller lattice mismatch. Because of strong covalent sp2bonds like graphene, h-BN provides a high thermal conductivity and mechanical strength as well as chemical stability of h-BN superior to graphene. While graphene has a high electrical conductivity, h-BN has a highly dielectric property as an insulator with optical band gap up to 6eV. Similar to the graphene, h-BN can be applied to a variety of field, such as gate dielectric layers/substrate, ultraviolet emitter, transparent membrane, and protective coatings. However, up until recently, obtaining and controlling good quality monolayer h-BN layers have been too difficult and challenging. In this work, we investigate the controlled synthesis of h-BN layers according to the growth condition, time, temperature, and gas partial pressure. h-BN is obtained by using chemical vapor deposition on Cu foil with ammonia borane (BH3NH3) as a source for h-BN. Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM, JEOL-JEM-ARM200F) is used for imaging and structural analysis of h-BN layer. Sample's surface morphology is characterized by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JEOL JSM-7100F). h-BN is analyzed by Raman spectroscopy (HORIBA, ARAMIS) and its topographic variations by Atomic force microscopy (AFM, Park Systems XE-100).