• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.192-202
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• 1993

The characteristics of the high-performance ceramic coatings fabricated on the optimum processings con-ditions for the atmospheric plasma spraying are evaluated by various material tests and analyses. The opti-mum processing parameters for the plasma spraying are determined by using the two-level orthogonal arrays of fractional factorial testing method as a statistical approach. Material tests for the coating specimens are carried out to evaluate microstructure, hardness, adhesion strength, and deposition efficiency. The properties of Al2O3-13%TiO2 coating are discussed with regard to the effective processings parameters. The decarburization effects of WC-12%Co coating is examined by XRD analysis in terms of the arc power and the secondary gas species. The hardness of Al2O2-13%TiO2 coating is increased with the arc power and shows the maximum value at around 40 lpm of Ar gas flowrate, which appears to be the most critical parame-ter on the deposition efficiency. For reducing the decarburization of WC-12%Co coating, the injection of inert He gas instead of reactive H2 gas as a secondary gas is more effective than the dropping of arc power to lessen the plasma enthalpy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2014

The present work proposes an improved numerical simulator for design and modification of large area capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) processing chamber. CCP, as notoriously well-known, demands the tremendously huge computational cost for carrying out transient analyses in realistic multi-dimensional models, because electron dissociations take place in a much smaller time scale (${\Delta}t{\approx}10-8{\sim}10-10$) than time scale of those happened between neutrals (${\Delta}t{\approx}10-1{\sim}10-3$), due to the rf drive frequencies of external electric field. And also, for spatial discretization of electron flux (Je), exponential scheme such as Scharfetter-Gummel method needs to be used in order to alleviate the numerical stiffness and resolve exponential change of spatial distribution of electron temperature (Te) and electron number density (Ne) in the vicinity of electrodes. Due to such computational intractability, it is prohibited to simulate CCP deposition in a three-dimension within acceptable calculation runtimes (<24 h). Under the situation where process conditions require thickness non-uniformity below 5%, however, detailed flow features of reactive gases induced from three-dimensional geometric effects such as gas distribution through the perforated plates (showerhead) should be considered. Without considering plasma chemistry, we therefore simulated flow, temperature and species fields in three-dimensional geometry first, and then, based on that data, boundary conditions of two-dimensional plasma discharge model are set. In the particular case of SiH4-NH3-N2-He CCP discharge to produce deposition of SiNxHy thin film, a cylindrical showerhead electrode reactor was studied by numerical modeling of mass, momentum and energy transports for charged particles in an axi-symmetric geometry. By solving transport equations of electron and radicals simultaneously, we observed that the way how source gases are consumed in the non-isothermal flow field and such consequences on active species production were outlined as playing the leading parts in the processes. As an example of application of the model for the prediction of the deposited thickness uniformity in a 300 mm wafer plasma processing chamber, the results were compared with the experimentally measured deposition profiles along the radius of the wafer varying inter-electrode gap. The simulation results were in good agreement with experimental data.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

Recently developed polyketone fiber has various applications in the mechanical rubber goods as reinforcement because of its good mechanical properties. However, its surface is not suitable for good adhesion with the rubber matrix. Thus, a surface modification is essential to obtain the good interfacial adhesion. Plasma treatment, in this study, has been conducted to modify the surface of the polyketone fiber. The morphological changes of the fibers by oxygen plasma treatment were observed by using SEM and AFM. The chemical composition changes of PK fiber surface treated with oxygen plasma were investigated using an XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Finally, the effect of these changes on the interfacial adhesion between fiber and rubber was analyzed by using a microdroplet debonding test. By the plasma treatment, oxygen moieties on the fiber surface increased with processing time and power. The surface RMS roughness increases until the proper processing condition, but a long plasma processing time resulted in a rather reduced roughness because of surface degradation. When the treatment time and power were 60 s and 80 W, respectively, the highest interfacial shear strength (IFSS) was obtained between the PK fiber and natural rubber. However, as the treatment time and power were higher than 60 s and 80 W, respectively, the IFSS decreased because of degradation of the PK fiber surface by severe plasma treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.218.1-218.1
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• 2014

In order to measure the absolute plasma density, various probes are proposed and investigated and microwave probes are widely used for its advantages (Insensitivity to thin non-conducting material deposited by processing plasmas, High reliability, Simple process for determination of plasma density, no complicate assumptions and so forth). There are representative microwave probes such as the cutoff probe, the hairpin probe, the impedance probe, the absorption probe and the plasma transmission probe. These probes utilize the microwave interactions with the plasma-sheath and inserted structure (probe), but frequency range used by each probe and specific mechanisms for determining the plasma density for each probe are different. In the recent studies, behaviors of each microwave probe with respect to the plasma parameters of the plasma density, the pressure (the collision frequency), and the sheath width is abundant and reasonably investigated, whereas relative diagnostic characteristics of the probes by a comparative study is insufficient in spite of importance for comprehensive applications of the probes. However, experimental comparative study suffers from spatially different plasma characteristics in the same discharge chamber, a low-reproducibility of ignited plasma for an uncertainty in external discharge parameters (the power, the pressure, the flow rate and so forth), impossibility of independently control of the density, the pressure, and the sheath width as well as expensive and complicate experimental setup. In this paper, various microwave probes are simulated by finite-different time-domain simulation and the error between the input plasma density in FDTD simulations and the measured that by the unique microwave spectrums of each probe is obtained under possible conditions of plasma density, pressure, and sheath width for general low-temperature plasmas. This result shows that the each probe has an optimum applicable plasma condition and reliability of plasma density measurement using the microwave probes can be improved by the complementary use of each probe.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.516-520
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• 2009

Atmosphere Plasmas of Gas Discharge (APGD) have been used in plasma sources for material processing such as etching, deposition, surface modification, etc. This study is to investigate and understand the fundamental plasma discharge properties. Especially, $SF_6/N_2$ mixed gas would be used in power transformer, GIS (Gas insulated switchgear) and so on. In this paper, we developed a one dimensional fluid simulation model with capacitively coupled plasma chamber at the atmosphere pressure (760 [Torr]). 38 kinds of $SF_6/N_2$ plasma particles which are an electron, two positive ions (${SF_5}^+$, ${N_2}^+$), five negative ions (${SF_6}^-$, ${SF_5}^-$, ${SF_4}^-$, ${F_2}^-$, ${F_1}^-$), thirty excitation and vibrational particles for $N_2$ were considered in this computation. The $N_2$ gases of 20%, 50%, 80% were mixed in $SF_6$ gas. As the amount of $N_2$ gas was increased, the properties of electro-negative plasma moved toward the electro-positive plasma.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2012

A study to replace a high temperature thermal carbonization process with microwave plasma process is carried for PAN fiber as a starting material. Near atmospheric pressure microwave plasma (1 Torr~45 Torr) was used to control to get the fiber temperature up to $1,000^{\circ}C$. Even argon is an inert gas, its plasma state include high internal energy particles; ion (15.76 eV) and metastable (11.52 eV). They are very effective to lower the necessary thermal temperature for carbonization of PAN fiber and the resultant thermal budget. The carbonization process was confirmed by both EDS (energy dispersive spectroscopy) of plasma treated fibers and OES (optical emission spectroscopy) during processing step as a real time monitoring tool. The same trend of decreasing oxygen content was observed in both diagnostic methods.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2506-2511
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• 2007

The coupled simulation is performed to find out the interaction of arc plasmas with surrounding materials in a thermal puffer plasma chamber. In order to be more realistic, PTFE nozzle ablation and Cu electrode evaporation, which are caused by high temperature of arc plasmas, are considered together. Pressure rise and temperature inside the chamber generated during the whole arcing history are investigated with the applied currents. It is very important to define how thermal flow and mass transfer are processing between the arc plasma and surrounding materials for further understanding complex physics inside the chamber. It is concluded that the result might be very useful to understand the mechanism happened inside and to design thermal puffer plasma chambers, but further experimental studies are required to verify the results for the more practical applications.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2012

The fabrication of internal diffraction gratings with photoinduced refractive index modification in transparent materials was demonstrated using low-density plasma formation excited by a femtosecond (130 fs) Ti: sapphire laser (${\lambda}_p$=800 nm). The refractive index modifications with diameters ranging from $1{\mu}m$ to $3{\mu}m$ were photoinduced after plasma formation occurred upon irradiation with peak intensities of more than $2.0{\times}10^{13}W/cm^2$. The graded refractive index profile was fabricated to be a symmetric around from the center of the point at which low-density plasma occurred.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.401-408
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• 2001

The information of the ion composition in plasma applications is required to characterize a plasma. A better understanding of ion species composition ratio and its spacial distribution, etc. is thus necessary in plasma-related processes, such as thin film deposition, plasma-based ion implantation, semiconductor processing, and so on. In this research, a compact ion mass analyzer that is based on magnetic sector analyzer was developed and its operational characteristics were studied in nitrogen plasma.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.281-283
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• 2005

Processing Plasmas are very sensitive to a variation in process parameters, To maintain process quality and device field, plasma malfunction should be tightly monitored with high sensitivity. A new monitoring method is presented and this was accomplished by applying discrete wavelet transformation to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. XPS data were collected during a plasma etching of silicon carbide. Various effects of DWT factor on fault sensitivity were optimized experimentally. Compared to raw data, total percent sensitivity for DWT data demonstrated a significantly improved sensitivity to plasma faults induced by bias power.