• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.285-285
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• 2011

EUVL (Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography) is one of competitive lithographic technologies for sub-30nm fabrication of nano-scale Si devices that can possibly replace the conventional photolithography used to make today's microcircuits. Among the core EUVL technologies, mask fabrication is of considerable importance since the use of new reflective optics having a completely different configuration compared to those of conventional photolithography. Therefore new materials and new mask fabrication process are required for high performance EUVL mask fabrication. This study investigated the etching properties of SnO2 (Tin Oxide) as a new absorber material for EUVL binary mask. The EUVL mask structure used for etching is SnO2 (absorber layer) / Ru (capping / etch stop layer) / Mo-Si multilayer (reflective layer) / Si (substrate). Since the Ru etch stop layer should not be etched, infinitely high selectivity of SnO2 layer to Ru ESL is required. To obtain infinitely high etch selectivity and very low LER (line edge roughness) values, etch parameters of gas flow ratio, top electrode power, dc self - bias voltage (Vdc), and etch time were varied in inductively coupled Cl2/Ar plasmas. For certain process window, infinitely high etch selectivity of SnO2 to Ru ESL could be obtained by optimizing the process parameters. Etch characteristics were measured by on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. Detailed mechanisms for ultra-high etch selectivity will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.88.1-88.1
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• 2012

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs), due to their unusual quantum-confinement effects that lead to superior electrical and optical properties compared to those of the bulk silicon, have been widely researched as a potential building block in a variety of novel electronic devices. The conventional means for the synthesis of SiNWs has been the vapor-liquid-solid method using chemical vapor deposition; however, this method is time consuming, environmentally unfriendly, and do not support vertical growth. As an alternate, the electroless etching method has been proposed, which uses metal catalysts contained in aqueous hydrofluoric acids (HF) for vertically etching the bulk silicon substrate. This new method can support large-area growth in a short time, and vertically aligned SiNWs with high aspect ratio can be readily synthesized with excellent reproducibility. Nonetheless, there still are rooms for improvement such as the poor surface characteristics that lead to degradation in electrical performance, and non-uniformity of the diameter and shapes of the synthesized SiNWs. Here, we report a facile method of SiNWs synthesis having uniform sizes, diameters, and shapes, which may be other than just cylindrical shapes using a modified nanosphere lithography technique. The diameters of the polystyrene nanospheres can be adjustable through varying the time of O2 plasma treatment, which serve as a mask template for metal deposition on a silicon substrate. After the removal of the nanospheres, SiNWs having the exact same shape as the mask are synthesized using wet etching technique in a solution of HF, hydrogen peroxide, and deionized water. Different electrical and optical characteristics were obtained according to the shapes and sizes of the SiNWs, which implies that they can serve specific purposes according to their types.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.848-852
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• 2008

Characteristics of microcrystalline-silicon thin-films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) method were studied. There were optimum values of RF power density and $H_2$ dilution ratio $(H_2/(SiH_4+H_2))$; maximum grain size of about 35 nm was obtained at substrate temperature of 250 $^{\circ}C$ with RF power density of 1.1 W/$cm^2$ and $H_2$ dilution ratio of 0.91. Larger grain was obtained with higher substrate temperature up to 350 $^{\circ}C$. Grain size dependence on RF power density and $H_2$ dilution ratio could be explained by etching effects of hydrogen ions and changes of species of reactive precursors on growing surface. Surface-mobility activation of reactive precursors by temperature could be a reason of grain-size dependence on the substrate temperature. Microcrystalline-silicon thin-films that could be used for flat-panel electronics such as active-matrix organic-light-emitting-diodes are expected to be fabricated successfully using these results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2000

Cerium oxide thin film has been proposed as a buffer layer between the ferroelectric film and the Si substrate in Metal-Ferroelectric-Insulator-Silicon (MFIS ) structures for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) applications. In this study, CeO$_2$thin films were etched with Cl$_2$/Ar gas combination in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The highest etch rate of CeO$_2$film is 230 $\AA$/min at Cl$_2$/(Cl$_2$+Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2. This result confirms that CeO$_2$thin film is dominantly etched by Ar ions bombardment and is assisted by chemical reaction of Cl radicals. The selectivity of CeO$_2$to YMnO$_3$was 1.83. As a XPS analysis, the surface of etched CeO$_2$thin films was existed in Ce-Cl bond by chemical reaction between Ce and Cl. The results of XPS analysis were confirmed by SIMS analysis. The existence of Ce-Cl bonding was proven at 176.15 (a.m.u.).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.618-618
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• 2013

Graphene is only one atom thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb crystal lattice, which has flexible and transparent characteristics with extremely high mobility. These noteworthy properties of graphene have given various applicable opportunities as electrode and/or channel for various flexible devices via suitable physical and chemical modifications. In this work, for the development of all-graphene devices, we performed to synthesize alternately patterned structure of mono- and multi-layer graphene by using the patterned Ni film on Cu foil, having much different carbon solid solubilities. Depending on the process temperature, Ni film thickness, introducing occasion of methane and gas ratio of CH4/H2, the thickness and width of the multi-layer graphene were considerably changed, while the formation of monolayer graphene on just Cu foil was not seriously influenced. Based on the alternately patterned structure of mono- and multi-layer graphene as a channel and electrode, respectively, the flexible TFT (thin film transistor) on SiO2/Si substrate was fabricated by simple transfer and O2 plasma etching process, and the I-V characteristics were measured. As comparing the change of resistance for bending radius and the stability for a various number of repeated bending, we could confirm that multi-layer graphene electrode is better than Au/Ti electrode for flexible applications.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.543-549
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• 2006

Polyimides (PI) are treated with $He/O_2$ and $He/O_2/NF_3$ atmospheric pressure rf dielectric barrier discharge in order to investigate the roles of $NF_3$ that is one of the PI etching gases. Surface changes are analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle measurement. The surface roughness of PI and the ratio of C=O, which is hydrophilic functional group, is more increased by $He/O_2/NF_3$ discharge than by $He/O_2$ discharge. The C=O species on the PI surface is increased up to 30 percent with rf power. The surface roughness of PI is increased from 0.4 to 11 nm with rf power. The water drop contact angles on PI, however, are reduced from $65^{\circ}\;to\;9^{\circ}$ by plasma treatment independently of $NF_3$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2000

Cerium oxide thin film has been proposed as a buffer layer between the ferroelectric film and the Si substrate in Metal-Ferroelectric-Insulator-Silicon (MFIS ) structures for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) applications. In this study, CeO$_2$ thin films were etched with Cl$_2$/Ar gas combination in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The highest etch rate of CeO$_2$ film is 230 $\AA$/min at Cl$_2$/(Cl$_2$+Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2. This result confirms that CeO$_2$ thin film is dominantly etched by Ar ions bombardment and is assisted by chemical reaction of Cl radicals. The selectivity of CeO$_2$ to YMnO$_3$ was 1.83. As a XPS analysis, the surface of etched CeO$_2$ thin films was existed in Ce-Cl bond by chemical reaction between Ce and Cl. The results of XPS analysis were confirmed by SIMS analysis. The existence of Ce-Cl bonding was proven at 176.15 (a.m.u.).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.250-251
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• 2009

For the fabrication of a multilevel resist (MLR) based on a very thin amorphous carbon (a-C) layer an $Si_{3}N_{4}$ hard-mask layer, the selective etching of the $Si_{3}N_{4}$ layer using physical-vapor-deposited (PVD) a-C mask was investigated in a dual-frequency superimposed capacitively coupled plasma etcher by varying the following process parameters in $CH_{2}F_{2}/H_{2}/Ar$ plasmas : HF/LF powr ratio ($P_{HF}/P_{LF}$), and $CH_{2}F_{2}$ and $H_2$ flow rates. It was found that infinitely high etch selectivities of the $Si_{3}N_{4}$ layers to the PVD a-C on both the blanket and patterned wafers could be obtained for certain gas flow conditions. The $H_2$ and $CH_{2}F_{2}$ flow ratio was found to play a critical role in determining the process window for infinite $Si_{3}N_{4}$/PVDa-C etch selectivity, due to the change in the degree of polymerization. Etching of ArF PR/BARC/$SiO_x$/PVDa-C/$Si_{3}N_{4}$ MLR structure supported the possibility of using a very thin PVD a-C layer as an etch-mask layer for the $Si_{3}N_{4}$ layer.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.72-77
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• 2021

The radial distribution of etch rate was analyzed using the ion energy flux model in VHF-CCP. In order to exclude the effects of polymer passivation and F radical depletion on the etching. The experiment was performed in Ar/SF6 plasma with an SF6 molar ratio of 80% of operating pressure 10 and 20 mTorr. The radial distribution of Ar/SF6 plasma was diagnosed with RF compensated Langmuir Probe(cLP) and Retarding Field Energy Analyzer(RFEA). The radial distribution of ion energy flux was calculated with Bohm current times the sheath voltage which is determined by the potential difference between the plasma space potential (measured by cLP) and the surface floating potential (by RFEA). To analyze the etch rate uniformity, Si coupon samples were etched under the same condition. The ion energy flux and the etch rate show a close correlation of more than 0.94 of R² value. It means that the etch rate distribution is explained by the ion energy flux.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2012

고종횡비 10:1 비아를 Si wafer 상에 형성하기 위해 $7{\mu}m$ 직경의 마스크로 포토작업하여 Cr층을 100nm 스퍼터링하여 PR(photo resistor) 대신의 에칭 barrier 막으로 사용하였다. 얼라인, 노광, 현상을 거쳐 Cr에칭, PR 제거후 ICP(inductively coupled plasma) 공정으로 Si deep etching하여 via 직경 $10.16{\mu}m$, 깊이 $102.5{\mu}m$의 고종횡비 비아를 형성하였다. 구리필링도금을 위해서 필수적인 seed layer는 단층 또는 다층의 금속막을 스퍼터링 법으로 형성하였다. 형성된 seed layer 단면을 FE-SEM(Field emission scanning electron microscope)으로 관찰하여 내부에 seed 층의 형성 유무를 확인하였다.