• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.556-560
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• 2012

Nanocrystalline CrN coatings were deposited by DC and ICP-assisted magnetron sputtering on Si (100) substrates. The influences of the ICP power on the microstructural and crystallographic properties of the coatings were investigated. For the generation of the ICP, radio frequency was applied using a dielectric-encapsulated coil antenna installed inside the deposition chamber. As the ICP power increased from 0 to 500W, the crystalline grain size decreased. It is believed that the decrease in the crystal grain size at higher ICP powers is due to resputtering of the coatings as a result of ion bombardment as well as film densification. The preferential orientation of CrN coatings changed from (111) to (200) with an increase in the ICP power. The ICP magnetron sputtering CrN coatings showed excellent surface roughness compared to the DC magnetron sputtering coatings.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 2010

Surface roughness of deposited or etched film strongly depends on ion bombardment. Relationships between ion bombardment variables and surface roughness are too complicated to model analytically. To overcome this, an empirical neural network model was constructed and applied to a deposition process of silicon nitride (SiN) films. The films were deposited by using a pulsed plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system in $SiH_4$-$NH_4$ plasma. Radio frequency source power and duty ratio were varied in the range of 200-800 W and 40-100%. A total of 20 experiments were conducted. A non-invasive ion energy analyzer was used to collect ion energy distribution. The diagnostic variables examined include high (or) low ion energy and high (or low) ion energy flux. Mean surface roughness was measured by using atomic force microscopy. A neural network model relating the diagnostic variables to the surface roughness was constructed and its prediction performance was optimized by using a genetic algorithm. The optimized model yielded an improved performance of about 58% over statistical regression model. The model revealed very interesting features useful for optimization of surface roughness. This includes a reduction in surface roughness either by an increase in ion energy flux at lower ion energy or by an increase in higher ion energy at lower ion energy flux.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.237-243
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• 2018

In-rich InGaN epilayers were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE). InGaN epilayers grown at various growth condition were observed by SEM, XRD, and RHEED. When plasma power of nitrogen increased from 290 to 350 W, surface morphology and crystal quality became worse according to more active nitrogen on the surface of InGaN at N-rich growth condition. As In composition was reduced from 89 to 71% by changing the incoming flux of In and Ga, surface morphology and crystal quality became worse. In addition, weak peaks of cubic InGaN phase was observed from InGaN layer with 71% In composition by XRD ${\Phi}$ scan measurement. When growth temperature decreased from 500 to $400^{\circ}C$, RHEED diffraction pattern was changed to be from streaky to spotty which means atomically rough surface, and spotty pattern showed cubic symmetry of InGaN clearly. XRD ${\Phi}$ scan measurement gave clear evidence that more cubic InGaN phase was formed at low growth temperature. All these results indicates that extremely low surface mobility of Ga adatom caused inferior crystal quality and cubic InGaN phase.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.31-37
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• 2009

This paper presents one and two dimensional simulation results with discontinuous features (shocks) of capacitively coupled rf plasmas. The model consists of the first two and three moments of the Boltzmann equation for the ion and electron fluids respectively, coupled to Poisson's equation for the self-consistent electric field. The local field and drift-diffusion approximations are not employed, and as a result the charged species conservation equations are hyperbolic in nature. Hyperbolic equations may develop discontinuous solutions even if their initial conditions are smooth. Indeed, in this work, secondary electron emission is shown to produce transient electron shock waves. These shocks form at the boundary between the cathodic sheath (CS) and the quasi-neutral (QN) bulk region. In the CS, the electrons emitted from the electrode are accelerated to supersonic velocities due to the large electric field. On the other hand, in the QN the electric field is not significant and electrons have small directed velocities. Therefore, at the transition between these regions, the electron fluid decelerates from a supersonic to a subsonic velocity in the direction of flow and a jump in the electron velocity develops. The presented numerical results are consistent with both experimental observations and kinetic simulations.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.51-55
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• 2011

We investigated the etching characteristics of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited by the atomic layer deposition method. The gases of the inductively coupled plasma chemistry consisted of $Cl_2$, Ar, and $O_2$. The maximum etch rate was 40.3 nm/min at a gas flow ratio of $Cl_2$/Ar=15:5 sccm, radio-frequency power of 600 W, bias power of 200 W, and process pressure of 2 Pa. We also investigated the plasma induced damage in the etched ZnO thin films using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence (PL). A highly oriented (100) peak was present in the XRD spectroscopy of the ZnO samples. The full width at half maximum value of the ZnO sample etched using the $O_2/Cl_2$/Ar chemistry was higher than that of the as-deposited sample. The roughness of the ZnO thin films increased from 1.91 nm to 2.45 nm after etching in the $O_2/Cl_2$/Ar plasma chemistry. Also, we obtained a strong band edge emission at 380 nm. The intensities of the peaks in the PL spectra from the samples etched in all of the chemistries were increased. However, there was no deep level emission.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.94-101
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• 2001

In this work, the effect of NE plasma treatment generated by radio-frequency was investigated in acid-base surface values, ion adsorption characteristics, and surface free energies of carbon blacks. As the results, it was clearly found that the obvious improvement of the treatment is in the London dispersive component (${\gamma}s^L$) of surface free energy of carbon blacks. Also both electron-acceptor ( ${\gamma}s^+$) and -donor (${\gamma}s^-$) parameters for the specific component (${\gamma}s^{sp}$) were also increased with increasing the treatment time, resulting in increasing the surface functional groups of the carbon blacks studied, together with a consequence of the increases of acidic and basic surface functional groups, ion exchange, zeta potential, and ion mobility.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.319-325
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• 1999

Direct current(d.c.)leakage current voltage characteristics of radio-frequencymagnetron sputtered BaTa\sub 2\O\sub 6\ film capacitors with aluminum(A1) top and indium tin oxide (ITO) bottom electrodes have been investigatedas a function of applied field and temperature. In order to study surfacetreatment effect on the electrical characteristics of as-deposited film weperformed exposure of oxygen plasma on $BaTa_2O_6$ surface. d. c.current-voltage (I-V), bipolar pulse charge-voltage (Q-V), d. c. current-time (I-t) andcapacitance-frequency (C-f) analysis were performed on films. All ofthe films exhibita low leakage current, a high breakdown field strength (3MV/cm-4.5MV/cm), and high dielectric constant (20-30). From the temperature dependence of leakage current,we can conclude that the dominant conduction mechanism is ascribed toSchottky emission at high electric field (>1MV/cm) and hopping conduction at lowelectric field (<1MV/cm). According to our results, the oxide plasma surfacetreatmenton as-deposited $BaTa_2O_6$ resulted in lowering interfacebarrier height and thus, leakage current when a negative voltage applied to the A1 electrode. This can be explained by reduction of surface contamination via etching surface and filling defects such as oxygen vacancies.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2009

Indium tin oxide(ITO) thin films were deposited on the glass substrates by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. The influence of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment on the optical and electrical properties of the films were investigated for the purpose of fabricating plasma display signboard. Structural properties, surface roughness, sheet resistance and transmittance of the ITO film were analysed by using x-ray diffraction method, atomic force microscopy (AFM), four point prove, and ultraviolet-visible spectrometer, respectively. It was found that the RTA treatment increased the transmittance and decreased the resistivity of the ITO film, respectively. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrated the direct-current plasma signboard by using ITO electrode and phosphors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.146-147
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• 2011

Processing a large area substrate for liquid crystal display (LCD) or solar panel applications in a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) reactor is becoming increasingly challenging because of the size of the substrate size is no longer negligible compared to the wavelength of the applied radio frequency (RF) power. The situation is even worse when the driving frequency is increased to the Very High Frequency (VHF) range. When the substrate size is still smaller than 1/8 of the wavelength, one can obtain reasonably uniform process results by utilizing with methods such as tailoring the precursor gas distribution by adjustingthrough shower head hole distribution or hole size modification, locally adjusting the distance between the substrate and the electrode, and shaping shower head holes to modulate the hollow cathode effect modifying theand plasma density distribution by shaping shower head holes to adjust the follow cathode effect. At higher frequencies, such as 40 MHz for Gen 8.5 (2.2 m${\times}$2.6 m substrate), these methods are not effective, because the substrate is large enough that first node of the standing wave appears within the substrate. In such a case, the plasma discharge cannot be sustained at the node and results in an extremely non-uniform process. At Applied Materials, we have studied several methods of modifying the standing wave pattern to adjusting improve process non-uniformity for a Gen 8.5 size CCP reactor operating in the VHF range. First, we used magnetic materials (ferrite) to modify wave propagation. We placed ferrite blocks along two opposing edges of the powered electrode. This changes the boundary condition for electro-magnetic waves, and as a result, the standing wave pattern is significantly stretched towards the ferrite lined edges. In conjunction with a phase modulation technique, we have seen improvement in process uniformity. Another method involves feeding 40 MHz from four feed points near the four corners of the electrode. The phase between each feed points are dynamically adjusted to modify the resulting interference pattern, which in turn modulate the plasma distribution in time and affect the process uniformity. We achieved process uniformity of <20% with this method. A third method involves using two frequencies. In this case 40 MHz is used in a supplementary manner to improve the performance of 13 MHz process. Even at 13 MHz, the RF electric field falls off around the corners and edges on a Gen 8.5 substrate. Although, the conventional methods mentioned above improve the uniformity, they have limitations, and they cannot compensate especially as the applied power is increased, which causes the wavelength becomes shorter. 40 MHz is used to overcome such limitations. 13 MHz is applied at the center, and 40 MHz at the four corners. By modulating the interference between the signals from the four feed points, we found that 40 MHz power is preferentially channeled towards the edges and corners. We will discuss an innovative method of controlling 40 MHz to achieve this effect.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.68.1-68.1
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• 2012

The best part of graphene is - charge-carriers in it are mass less particles which move in near relativistic speeds. Comparing to other materials, electrons in graphene travel much faster - at speeds of $10^8cm/s$. A graphene sheet is pure enough to ensure that electrons can travel a fair distance before colliding. Electronic devices few nanometers long that would be able to transmit charge at breath taking speeds for a fraction of power compared to present day CMOS transistors. Many researches try to check a possibility to make it a perfect replacement for silicon based devices. Graphene has shown high potential to be used as interconnects in the field of high frequency electrical devices. With all those advantages of graphene, we demonstrate characteristics of electrical and optical properties of graphene such as the effect of graphene geometry on the microwave properties using the measurements of S-parameter in range of 500 MHz - 40 GHz at room temperature condition. We confirm that impedance and resistance decrease with increasing the number of graphene layer and w/L ratio. This result shows proper geometry of graphene to be used as high frequency interconnects. This study also presents the optical properties of graphene oxide (GO), which were deposited in different substrate, or influenced by oxygen plasma, were confirmed using different characterization techniques. 4-6 layers of the polycrystalline GO layers, which were confirmed by High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron diffraction analysis, were shown short range order of crystallization by the substrate as well as interlayer effect with an increase in interplanar spacing, which can be attributed to the presence of oxygen functional groups on its layers. X-ray photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy confirms the presence of the $sp^2$ and $sp^3$ hybridization due to the disordered crystal structures of the carbon atoms results from oxidation, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and XPS analysis shows the changes in oxygen functional groups with nature of substrate. Moreover, the photoluminescent (PL) peak emission wavelength varies with substrate and the broad energy level distribution produces excitation dependent PL emission in a broad wavelength ranging from 400 to 650 nm. The structural and optical properties of oxygen plasma treated GO films for possible optoelectronic applications were also investigated using various characterization techniques. HRTEM and electron diffraction analysis confirmed that the oxygen plasma treatment results short range order crystallization in GO films with an increase in interplanar spacing, which can be attributed to the presence of oxygen functional groups. In addition, Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and Raman spectroscopy confirms the presence of the $sp^2$ and $sp^3$ hybridization due to the disordered crystal structures of the carbon atoms results from oxidation and XPS analysis shows that epoxy pairs convert to more stable C=O and O-C=O groups with oxygen plasma treatment. The broad energy level distribution resulting from the broad size distribution of the $sp^2$ clusters produces excitation dependent PL emission in a broad wavelength range from 400 to 650 nm. Our results suggest that substrate influenced, or oxygen treatment GO has higher potential for future optoelectronic devices by its various optical properties and visible PL emission.