• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.130-138
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• 1996

It has been investigated that the ion nitriding effects of a STD61 steel in various time conditions of 3 to 9 hours, and the microstructure of compound and diffusion layers of the ion nitrided specimen for 6 hours and subsequently reheated for 1 hour at various temperatures of $400{\sim}800^{\circ}C$ As the nitriding time increased, the thickness of compound and diffusion layers was increased, but the hardness of surface was not considerably increased (Max Hv=1045 at 9hrs). Some of the nitrogen was denitrided out of the surfac and diffused into the core, and also the oxides ($Fe_3O_4$, $Fe_2O_3$) were formed on the surface of the specimen during reheating. The compound layer was partially decomposed at about $600^{\circ}C$ but the diffusion layer was increased up to $800^{\circ}C$. With increasing reheated temperture, the hardness of the surface was decreased, whereas the hardness depth of diffusion layer (0.25mm) was increased up to $600^{\circ}C$ more than that of ion nitrided (0.18mm). The blend-heat treated STD61 steel by ion nitriding is therefore expected to hold on the characteristics of ion nitriding up to $600^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.17-20
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• 2001

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices with reoxidized nitrided oxide(RONO) gate dielectric were fabricated, and nitrogen distribution and bonding species which contributing memory characteristics were analyzed. Also, memory characteristics of devices according to anneal temperatures were investigated. The devices were fabricated by 0.35$\mu\textrm{m}$ retrograde twin well CMOS processes. The processes could be simple by in-situ process of nitridation anneal and reoxidation. The nitrogen distribution and bonding state of gate dielectric were investigated by Dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry(D-SIMS), Time-of-Flight Secondary ton Mass Spectrometry(ToF-SIMS), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy(XPS). Nitrogen concentrations are proportional to nitridation anneal temperatures and the more time was required to form the same reoxidized layer thickness. ToF-SIMS results show that SiON species are detected at the initial oxide interface and Si$_2$NO species near the new Si-SiO$_2$ interface that formed after reoxidation. As the anneal temperatures increased, the device showed worse retention and degradation properties. These could be said that nitrogen concentration near initial interface is limited to a certain quantity, so excess nitrogen are redistributed near the Si-SiO$_2$ interface and contributed to electron trap generation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.29-30
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• 2001

This paper presents some results of plasma nitriding on hard chromium deposit. The substrates were C45 steel and $30~50{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$ of chromium deposit by electroplating was formed. Plasma nitriding was carried out in a plasma nitriding system with $95NH_3{\;}+{\;}SCH_4$ atmosphere at the pressure about 600 Pa and different temperature from $450^{\circ}C{\;}to{\;}720^{\circ}C$ for various time. Optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to evaluate the characteristics of surface nitride layer formed by nitrogen diffusion from plasma atmosphere inward iCr coating and interface carbide layer formed by carbon diffusion from substrate outward Cr coating. The microhardness was measured using microhareness tester at the load of 100 gf. Corrosion resistance was evaluated using the potentiodynamic measurement in 3.5% NaG solution. A saturated calomel electrode (SiCE) was used as the reference electrode. Fig.1 shows the typical microstructures of top surface and cross-section for nitrided and unnitrided samples. Aaer plasma nitriding a sandwich structure was formed consisting of surface nitride layer, center chromium layer and interface carbide layer. The thickness of nitride and carbide layers was increased with the increase of processing temperature and time. Hardness reached about 1000Hv after nitriding while 900Hv for unnitrided hard chromium deposit. X-ray diffraction indicated that surface nitrided layer was a mixture of $Cr_2N$ and CrN at low temperature and erN at high temperature (Fig.2). Anodic polarization curves showed that plasma nitriding can greatly improve the corrosion resistance of chromium e1ectrodeposit. After plasma nitriding, the corrosion potential moved to noble direction and passive current density was lower by 1 to 4 orders of magnitude compared with chromium deposit(Fig.3).

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.431-437
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• 1998

In this paper, we have investigated the electrical properties of ultra-thin nitrided oxide(NO) and re-oxidized nitrided oxide(ONO) films that are considered to be promising candidates for replacing conventional silicon dioxide film in ULSI level integration. Especially, we have studied a variation of I-V characteristics, gate voltage shift, and time-dependent dielectric breakdown(TDDB) of thin layer NO and ONO film depending on nitridation and reoxidation time, respectively, and measured a variation of leakage current and charge-to-breakdown(Q$\_bd$) of optimized NO and ONO film depending on ambient temperature, and then compared with the properties of conventional SIO$\_2$. From the results, we find that these NO and ONO thin films are strongly influenced by process time and the optimized ONO film shows superior dielectric characteristics, and (Q$\_bd$) performance over the NO film and SIO$\_2$, while maintaining a similar electric field dependence compared with NO layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.17-20
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• 2001

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices with reoxidized nitrided oxide(RONO) gate dielectrics were fabricated, and nitrogen distribution and bonding species which contribute to memory characteristics were analyzed. Also, memory characteristics of devices depending on the anneal temperatures were investigated. The devices were fabricated by retrograde twin well CMOS processes with $0.35{\mu}m$ Nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices with reoxidized nitrided oxide(RONO) gate dielectric were fabricated, and nitrogen distribution and bonding species which contributing memory characteristics were analyzed. Also, memory characteristics of devices according to anneal temperatures were investigated. The devices were fabricated by $0.35{\mu}m$ retrograde twin well CMOS processes. The processes could be simple by in-situ process of nitridation anneal and reoxidation. The nitrogen distribution and bonding state of gate dielectric were investigated by Dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry(D-SIMS), Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry(ToF-SIMS), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy(XPS). Nitrogen concentrations are proportional to nitridation anneal temperatures and the more time was required to form the same reoxidized layer thickness. ToF-SIMS results show that SiON species are detected at the initial oxide interface and $Si_{2}NO$ species near the new $Si-SiO_{2}$ interface that formed after reoxidation. As the anneal temperatures increased, the device showed worse retention and degradation properties. These could be said that nitrogen concentration near initial interface is limited to a certain quantity, so excess nitrogen are redistributed near the $Si-SiO_{2}$ interface and contributed to electron trap generation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.99-110
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• 1998

The effects of pre-heat treatment(Q/T) on microstructure and hardness of SCM435 structural steel nitrided by micro-pulse plasma was investigated. The quenching and tempering temperatures for obtaining matrix hardness of SCM435 steel on range of HRC30 to HRC40 desired for machine parts were about $860^{\circ}C$ and $500^{\circ}C$ respectively. The case depth of SCM435 nitrided at $480^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours was independent of pre-heat treatment condition and was approximately $150{\mu}m$. However, hardness and compactness of nitrified layer on Q/T treated specimen were more heigher than annealed specimen. The case depth increased linearly with the increase of nitriding temperature, however, the hardness of nitrified layer decreased with the temperature. Phase mixture of ${\gamma}^{\prime}$-phase($Fe_4N$) and ${\varepsilon}$-phase($Fe_3N$) were detected by XRD analysis in the nitrified layer formed at optimum nitriding condition, and only single ${\gamma}^{\prime}$-phase was detected in the nitrified layer formed at higher nitriding temperature such as $540^{\circ}C$. The optimum nitriding temperature was approximately $480^{\circ}C$ which is lower than tempering temperature for preventing softening behavior of SCM435 matrix during nitriding process and the surface hardness of nitrified layer obtained by optimum preheat treatment condition was about Hv930.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.9-12
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• 1998

Film characteristics of thin reoxidized nitrided oxides were investigated by SIMS analysis and C-V method in order to use the gate dielectric for charge-trap type NVSMs instead of ONO stacked layers. Nitric oxide(NO) annealed film has the nitrogen content sharply peaked at the Si-SiO$_2$ interface, while it is broad for nitrous oxide($N_2$O) ambient. The nitrogen peak concentration increased with anneal temperature and time. The position of nitrogen content in the oxide layer was due to be precisely controlled. For the films annealed NO ambient at 80$0^{\circ}C$ for 30min. followed by reoxidized at 85$0^{\circ}C$, the maximum memory window of 3.5V was obtained and the program condition was +12V, 1msec for write and -l3V, 1msec for erase.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.268-275
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• 2006

In this study, effect of sputtering on the plasma-nitriding substrate and before PVD coating on the microstucture, microhardness, surface roughness and the adhesion strength of CrZrN thin films were investigated. Experimental results showed that this sputtering process not only removed surface compound layer which formed during a plasma nitriding process but also induced an alteration of the surface of plasma nitrided substrate in terms of microhardness distribution, surface roughness. This in turn affected the adhesion strength of PVD coatings. After sputtering, microhardness distribution showed general decrease and the surface roughness became increased slightly. The critical shear stress measured from the scratch test on the CrZrN coatings showed an approximately 1.4 times increase in the adhesion strength through the sputtering prior to the coating and this could be attributed to a complete removal of compound layer from the plasma nitrided surface and to an increase in the surface roughness after sputtering.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2006

In this study, effect of sputtering after plasma nitriding and before PVD coating on the microstucture, microhardness, surface roughness and the adhesion strength of CrN thin films were investigated. Experimental results showed that this sputtering process not only removed surface compound layer which formed during a plasma nitriding process but also induced an alteration of the surface of plasma nitrided substrate in terms of microhardness distribution and surface roughness, which in turn affected the adhesion strength of PVD coatings. After sputtering, microhardness distribution showed general decrease and the surface roughness became increased slightly. The critical shear stress measured from the scratch test on the CrN coatings showed an approximately twice increase in the binding strength through the sputtering prior to the coating and this could be attributed to a complete removal of compound layer from the plasma nitrided surface and to an increase in the surface roughness after sputtering.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.635-641
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• 2021

Cr thin films with O added are deposited on sapphire substrate by DC sputtering and are nitrided in NH₃ atmosphere between 300 and 900 ℃ for various times. X-ray diffraction results show that nitridation begins at 500 ℃, forming CrN and Cr₂N. Cr oxides of Cr₂O₃ are formed at 600 ℃. And, at temperatures higher than 900 ℃, the intermediate materials of Cr₂N and Cr₂O₃ disappear and CrN is dominant. The atomic concentration ratios of Cr and O are 77% and 23%, respectively, over the entire thickness of as-deposited Cr thin film. In the sample nitrided at 600 ℃, a CrN layer in which O is substituted with N is formed from the surface to 90 nm, and the concentrations of Cr and N in the layer are 60% and 40%, respectively. For this reason, CrN and Cr₂N are distributed in the CrN region, where O is substituted with N by nitridation, and Cr oxynitrides are formed in the region below this. The nitridation process is controlled by inter-diffusion of O and N and the parabolic growth law, with activation energy of 0.69 eV.