• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.254-255
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• 2012

Interest in nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films has been growing because of their favorable processing conditions for certain electronic devices. In particular, there has been an increase in the use of nc-Si thin films in photovoltaics for large solar cell panels and in thin film transistors for large flat panel displays. One of the most important material properties for these device applications is the macroscopic charge-carrier mobility. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or nc-Si is a basic material in thin film transistors (TFTs). However, a-Si:H based devices have low carrier mobility and bias instability due to their metastable properties. The large number of trap sites and incomplete hydrogen passivation of a-Si:H film produce limited carrier transport. The basic electrical properties, including the carrier mobility and stability, of nc-Si TFTs might be superior to those of a-Si:H thin film. However, typical nc-Si thin films tend to have mobilities similar to a-Si films, although changes in the processing conditions can enhance the mobility. In polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films, the performance of the devices is strongly influenced by the boundaries between neighboring crystalline grains. These grain boundaries limit the conductance of macroscopic regions comprised of multiple grains. In much of the work on poly-Si thin films, it was shown that the performance of TFTs was largely determined by the number and location of the grain boundaries within the channel. Hence, efforts were made to reduce the total number of grain boundaries by increasing the average grain size. However, even a small number of grain boundaries can significantly reduce the macroscopic charge carrier mobility. The nano-crystalline or polymorphous-Si development for TFT and solar cells have been employed to compensate for disadvantage inherent to a-Si and micro-crystalline silicon (${\mu}$-Si). Recently, a novel process for deposition of nano-crystralline silicon (nc-Si) thin films at room temperature was developed using neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBaCVD) with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300 eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at room temperature. In previous our experiments, we verified favorable properties of nc-Si thin films for certain electronic devices. During the formation of the nc-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. The more resent work on nc-Si thin film transistors (TFT) was done. We identified the performance of nc-Si TFT active channeal layers. The dependence of the performance of nc-Si TFT on the primary process parameters is explored. Raman, FT-IR and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to study the microstructures and the crystalline volume fraction of nc-Si films. The electric properties were investigated on Cr/SiO2/nc-Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 1997

Most of heteroepitaxial $\beta$-SiC thin films have been successfully grown on Si(100) adapting a carburizing process, by which a few atomic layers of substrate surface is chemically converted to very thin SiC layer using hydrocarbon gas sources. Using an organo-silicon precursor, bis-trimethylsilymethane (BTMSM, [$C_7H_{20}Si_2$]), heteropitaxial $\beta$-SiC thin films were successfully grown directy on Si substrate without a carburized buffer layer. The defect density of the $\beta$-SiC thin films deposited without a carburized layer was as low as that of $\beta$-SiC films deposited on carburized buffer layer. In addition, void density was also reduced by the formation of self-buffer layer using BTMSM instead of carburized buffer layer. It seems to be mainly due to the characteristic bonding structure of BTMSM, in which Si-C was bonded alternately and tetrahedrally (SiC$_4$).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.532-534
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• 2000

Si thin films on p-type (100) Si substrate have been fabricated by pulsed laser deposition technique using a Nd:YAG laser. The pressure of the environmental gas during deposition was varied from 1 to 3 Torr. After deposition, Si thin film has been annealed again at nitrogen ambient. Strong violet-indigo photoluminescence have been observed from Si thin film annealed in nitrogen ambient gas. As increasing environmental gas pressure, weak green and red emissions from annealed Si thin films also observed by photoluminescence.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.196-205
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• 1991

Multi-level thin films are very important in ULSI applications because of their high electromigration resistance. This study presents the effects of titanium, titanium nitride and titanium tungsten underlayers of the stability of multi-aluminum thin films during isothermal annealing. High purity Al(99.999%) films have been electron-beam evaporated on Ti, TiN, TiW films formed on SiO2/Si (P-type(100))-wafer substrates by RF-sputtering in Ar gas ambient. The hillock growth was increased with annealing temperatures. Growth of hillocks was observed during isothermal annealing of the thin films by scanning electron microscopy. The hillock growth was believed to appear due to the recrystallization process driven by stress relaxation during isothermal annealing. Thermomigration damage was also presented in thin films by grain boundary grooving processes. It is shown that underlayers of Al/TiN/SiO2, Al/TiW/SiO2 thin films are preferrable to Al/SiO2 thin film metallization.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 2003

ZnO-Si-ZnO multi-layer thin films have been deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). And then, the films have been annealed at 300$^{\circ}C$ in oxygen ambient pressure. Peak positions of ultraviolet (UV) and visible region were changed by addition of Si layer. Mobility of the films was improved slightly than ZnO thin film without Si layer. The structural property changed by inserting intermediate Si layer in ZnO thin film. The optical properties and structural properties of ZnO-Si-ZnO multi-layer thin films were characterized by PL(Photoluminescence) and XRB(X-ray diffraction) method, respectively. Electrical properties were measured by van der Pauw Hall measurements

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.194-194
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• 2009

3C-SiC thin films are widely used in extreme environments, radio frequency (RF) environments, and bio-materials for micro/nano electronic mechanical systems (M/NEMS). The mechanical properties of 3C-SiC thin films need to be considered when designing M/NEMS, so Young's Modulus and the hardness need to be accurately measured. Young's Modulus and the hardness are influenced by N-doping. In this paper, we show that the mechanical properties of poly (polycrystalline) 3C-SiC thin films are influenced by the N-doping concentration. Furthermore, we measure the mechanical properties of 3C-SiC thin films for N-doping concentrations of 1%, 3%, and 5%, by using nanoindentation. For films deposited using a 1% N-doping concentration, Young's Modulus and the hardness were measured as 270 GPa and 30 GPa, respectively. When the surface roughness of the thin films was investigated by using atomic force microscopy (AFM), the roughness of the 5% N-doped 3C-SiC thin film was the lowest of all the films, at 15 nm.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1083-1089
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• 2008

We studied the dielectric characteristics of low-k SiOCH thin films by Ellipsometry. The SiOCH thin films were prepared by deposition of BTMSM precursors on p-Si wafer by CCP-PECVD method. The nano-porous structural organic/inorganic hybrid-type of SiOCH thin films correlated directly to the formation of low dielectrics close to pore(k=1). The structural groups including highly dense pores in SiOCH thin films originated the anisotropic geometry type of network structure directing to complex refractive characteristics of SiOCH single layer on the p-Si wafer. The linearly polarized beam of Xe-ramp in the range from 190 nm to 2100 nm introduced to the surface of SiOCH thin film, and the reflected beam was Elliptically polarized by complex refractive coefficients of SiOCH dipole groups. The amplitude variation $\Psi$ and phase variation $\Delta$ of the relative reflective coefficients between perpendicular and parallel components to the incident plane were measured by Ellipsometry. The complex optical constants n and k as well as the dielectric constant and thickness of SiOCH thin films were driven by the measured value of $\Psi$ and $\Delta$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.228-233
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• 2010

We studied the optical characteristics correlated with low dielectric constants of low-k SiOCH thin films through ellipsometry. The low-k SiOCH thin films were prepared by CCP-PECVD method using BTMSM(Bis-trimethylsilylmethane) precursors deposited on p-Si wafer. The Si-O-CHx, Si-O-Si, Si-CHx, CHx and Si-H bonding groups were specified by FTIR spectroscopic spectra, and the groups coupled with the nano-porous structural organic/inorganic hybrid-type of SiOCH thin films which has extremely low dielectric constant close to 2.0. The structural groups includes highly dense pore as well as ions in SiOCH thin films affecting to complex refraction characteristics of single layer on the p-Si wafer. The structural complexity originate the complex refractive constants of the films, and resulted the elliptical polarization of the incident linearly polarized light source of Xe-light source in the range from 190 nm to 2100 nm. Phase difference and amplitude ratio between s wave and p wave propagating through SiOCH thin film was studied. After annealing, the amplitude of p wave was reduced more than s wave, and phase difference between p and s wave was also reduced.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07b
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• pp.648-651
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• 2004

Pb0.5Sr0.5TiO3(PST) thin films were deposited on the LaNiO3 (LNO(100))/Si and Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by the alkoxide-based sol-gel method. Structural and dielectric properties of PST thin films for the tunable microwave device applications were investigated. The PST films, which were directly grown on the Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates showed the random orientation. For the LNO/Si substrates, the PST thin films exhibited highly (100) orientation. Compared with randomly oriented films, the highly (100)-oriented PST thin films showed better dielectric constant, tunability, and figure of merit (FOM). The dielectric constant, tunability, and FOM of the highly (100)-oriented PST thin film increased with increasing annealing temperature due to the decrease in lattice distortion. The differences in dielectric properties may be attributed to the change in the film stress and the in-plane oriented Polar axis depending on the substrate was used. The dielectric constants, dielectric loss and tunability of the PST thin films deposited on the LNO/Si substrates measured at 1 MHz were 483, 0.002, and 60.1%, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Crystallography
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.98-110
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• 1992

B-SiC thin films were fabricated on Si(100) substrate under 1 atom by fVD. The effects of deposition conditions on the growth and the properties especially crystallinity and prefer ential alignment of these thin films were investigated. SiH4 and CH4 were used as source gases and H2 as Carrier gas. Th9 growth Of B-SiC thin films with changing parameters such as the growth temperature, the ratio of source gases (SiH4/CH4 ) and the total amount of source gases. The grown thin films were characterized by using SEM, a -step, XRD, Raman Spectro- scopy and TEM. Chemical conversion process improved the quality of thin films due to the formation of SiC buffer layer. The crystallinity of SiC thin films was improved when the growth temperature was higher than l150t and the amount of CH4 exceeded that of SiH4. The better crystallinity, the better alignment to the crystalline direction of substates. TEM analyses of the good quality thin films showed that the grain size was bigger at the surface than at the interface and the defect density is not depend on the ratio of the source gases.