• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.86-86
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• 2010

Micro- and nanoscale texturing and control of surface energy have been considered for superhydrophobicity on polymer and silicon. However these surfaces have been reported to be difficult to meet the robustness and transparency requirements for further applications, from self cleaning windows to biochip technology. Here we provided a novel method to fabricate a nearly superhydrophobic soda-lime glass using two-step method. The first step involved wet etching process to fabricate micro-sale patterns on soda-lime glass. The second step involved application of $SiO_x$-incorporated DLC to generate high intrinsic contact angle on the surface using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. To investigate the effect of surface roughness, we used both positive and negative micro-scale patterns on soda-limeglass, which is relatively hard for surface texturing in comparison to quartz or Pyrex glasses due to the presence of impurities, but cheaper. For all samples we tested the static wetting angle and transparency before and after 100 cycles of wear test using woolen steel. The surface morphology is observed using optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results shows that negative patterns had a greater wear resistance while the hydrophobicity was best achieved using positive patterns having static contact angle up to 140 deg. with about 80% transparency. The overall experiment shows that positive patterns at etching time of 1 min shows the optimum transparency and hydrophobicity. The optimization of micro-scale pattern to achieve a robust, transparent, superhydrophobic soda-lime glass will be further investigated in the future works.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.71-72
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated the fabrication of MLR (multi-layer resist) with a very thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) layer. ArF PR/$SiO_2$/DLC MLR structure was investigated and etching characteristics of the DLC layer was patterned using $SiO_2$ hard-mask by varying the process parameters such as different high-frequency/low-frequency combination ($f_{LF}/f_{HF}$), HF/LF power ratio ($P_{HF}/P_{LF}$), $O_2$ flow and $N_2$ flow rate in $O_2/N_2$/Ar plasmas. The results indicated an increased etch rate of DLC for the higher $f_{LF}/f_{HF}$ combination and for the increased low-frequency power ($P_{LF}$). And the etch rate of DLC was decreased with increasing the $N_2$ flow rate in $O_2/N_2$/Ar plasmas. In order to confirm the application of DLC MLR for the etching process of silicon oxide, the stack of ArF PR/BARC/$SiO_2$/DLC/TEOS/Si was investigated.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.197-202
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• 2023

Recently, research on experimental and analytical techniques utilizing microfluidic devices has been pursued. For example, lab-on-a-chip devices that integrate micro-devices onto a single chip for processing small sample quantities have gained significant attention. However, during sample preparation, unnecessary gases can be introduced into the internal channels, thus, impeding device flow and compromising specific function efficiency, including that of analysis and separation. Several methods have been proposed to mitigate this issue, however, many involve cumbersome procedures or suffer from complexities owing to intricate structures. Recently, some approaches have been introduced that utilize hydrophobic device structures to remove gases within channels. In such cases, the permeability of gases passing through the structure becomes a crucial performance factor. In this study, a method involving the deposition and sintering of diluted Ag-ink onto a silicon wafer surface is presented. This is followed by unstructured nano-pattern creation using a Metal Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE) process, which yields a nanostructured surface with unstructured pillar shapes. Subsequently, gas permeability in the spaces formed by these surface structures is investigated. This is achieved by experiments conducted to incorporate a pressure chamber and measure gas permeability. Trends are subsequently analyzed by comparing the results with existing theories. Finally, it can be confirmed that the significance of this study primarily lies in its capability to effectively evaluate gas permeability through unstructured pillar-like nanostructures, thus, providing quantitative values for the appropriate driving pressure and expected gas removal time in practical device operation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.444-448
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• 2016

Hollow silicon/carbon (H-Si/C) composites as anode materials for lithium ion batteries were investigated to overcome the large volume expansion. H-Si/C composites were prepared as follows; hollow $SiO_2\;(H-SiO_2)$ was prepared by adding $NaBH_4$ to $SiO_2$ synthesized using $st{\ddot{o}}ber$ method followed by magnesiothermic reduction and carbonization of phenolic resin. The H-Si/C composites were analyzed by XRD, SEM, BET and EDX. To improve the capacity and cycle performance, the electrochemical characteristics of H-Si/C composites synthesized with various $NaBH_4$ contents were investigated by charge/discharge, cycle, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests. The coin cell using H-Si/C composite ($SiO_2:NaBH_4=1:1$ in weight) in the electrolyte of $LiPF_6$ dissolved in organic solvents (EC : DMC : EMC = 1 : 1 : 1 vol%) has better capacity (1459 mAh/g) than those of other composition coin cells. It is found that the coin cell ($SiO_2:NaBH_4=1:1$ in weight) has an excellent capacity retention from 2nd cycle to 40th cycle.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.213-217
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• 2020

In this study we report a wet-etching-based fabrication method for adiabatic optical-fiber tapers (OFTs), and describe their adiabaticity and HE₁₁ mode evolution at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The profile of the fabricated system satisfies the adiabaticity properties well, and the far-field pattern from the etched OFT shows that the fundamental HE₁₁ mode is maintained without a higher-order mode coupling throughout the tapers. In addition, the measured far-field pattern agrees well with the simulated result. The proposed adiabatic OFTs can be applied to a number of photonic applications, especially fiber-chip packages. Based on the fabricated adiabatic OFT structures, the optical transmission to the inversely tapered silicon waveguide shows large spatial-dimensional tolerances for 1 dB excess loss of ~60 ㎛ (silicon waveguide angle of 1°) and insertion loss of less than 0.4 dB (silicon waveguide angle of 4°), from the numerical simulation. The proposed adiabatic coupler shows the ultrabroadband coupling efficiency over the O- and C-bands.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2013

Lowering surface reflectance of Si wafers by texturization is one of the most important processes for improving the efficiency of Si solar cells. This paper presents the results on the effect of texturing using acidic solution mixtures containing the catalytic agents to moderate etching rates on the surface morphology of mc-Si wafer as well as on the performance parameters of solar cell. It was found that the treatment of contaminated crystalline silicon wafer with $HNO_3-H_2O_2-H_2O$ solution before the texturing helps the removal of organic contaminants due to its oxidizing properties and thereby allows the formation of nucleation centers for texturing. This treatment combined with the use of a catalytic agent such as phosphoric acid improved the effects of the texturing effects. This reduced the reflectance of the surface, thereby increased the short circuit current and the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. Employing this technique, we were able to fabricate mc-Si solar cell of 16.4% conversion efficiency with anti-reflective (AR) coating of silicon nitride film using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and Si wafers can be texturized in a short time.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2005

This paper describes design, fabrication, and application of the silicon based temperature controllable micro reactor. In order to achieve fast temperature variation and low energy consumption, reaction chamber of the micro reactor was thermally isolated by etching the highly conductive silicon around the reaction chamber. Compared with the model not having thermally isolated structure, the thermally isolated micro reactor showed enhanced thermal performances such as fast temperature variation and low energy consumption. The performance enhancements of the micro reactor due to etched holes were verified by thermal experiment and numerical analysis. Regarding to 42 percents reduction of the thermal mass achieved by the etched holes, approximately 4 times faster thermal variation and 5 times smaller energy consumption were acquired. The total size of the fabricated micro reactor was $37{\times}30{\times}1mm^{3}$. Microchannel and reaction chamber were formed on the silicon substrate. The openings of channel and chamber were covered by the glass substrate. The Pt electrodes for heater and sensor are fabricated on the backside of silicon substrate below the reaction chamber. The dimension of channel cross section was $200{\times}100{\mu}m^{2}$. The volume of reaction chamber was $4{\mu}l$. The temperature of the micro reactor was controlled and measured simultaneously with NI DAQ PCI-MIO-16E-l board and LabVIEW program. Finally, the fabricated micro reactor and the temperature control system were applied to the thermal denaturation and the trypsin digestion of protein. BSA(bovine serum albumin) was chosen for the test sample. It was successfully shown that BSA was successfully denatured at $75^{\circ}C$ for 1 min and digested by trypsin at $37^{\circ}C$ for 10 min.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.346-355
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• 1997

In this paper, the analyses of the stress disturibution and frequency characteristics of silicon microstructures for an accelerometer were performed using the general purpose finite element simulation program, ANSYS. From the analyses, we determined the parameter values of a new 6-beam piezoresistive accelerometer applicable to the accelerometer's specification in airbag system of automobile. Then, the mass paddle radius, beam length, beam width, and beam thickness of the designed accelerometer were$500{\mu}m$, $350{\mu}m$, $100{\mu}m$, and $5{\mu}m$, respectively and two different seismic masses with 0.4 mg and 0.8 mg were defined on the same sensor structure. The designed 6- beam accelerometers were fabricated on the selectively diffused (111)-oriented $n/n^{+}/n$ silicon substrates and the characteristics of the fabricated accelerometers were investigated. Then, we used a micromachining technique using porous silicon etching method for the formation of the micromechanical structure of the accelerometer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1857-1863
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• 2010

We present the fabrication and characterization of transparent carbon nanotube film (CNF) piezoresistors. CNFs were fabricated by vacuum filtration methods with 65?92% transmittance and patterned on Au-deposited silicon wafer by photolithography and dry etching. The patterned CNFs were transferred onto poly-dimethysiloxane (PDMS) using the weak adhesion property between the silicon wafer and the Au layer. The transferred CNFs were confirmed to be piezoresistors using the equation of concentrated-force-derived resistance change. The gauge factor of the CNFs was measured to range from 10 to 20 as the resistance of the CNFs increased with applied pressure. In polymer microelectromechanical systems, CNF piezoresistors are the promising materials because of their high sensitivity and low-temperature process.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.89-89
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• 2009

높은 소수반송자 수명(life-time)을 가지는 고품위 실리콘 기판은 고효율 실리콘 이종접합 태양전지 제작을 위한 중요 요소 기술 중 하나이다. 본 연구에서는 n-type c-Si 기판을 이용한 고효율 실리콘 이종접합 태양전지제작을 위해 hot water oxidation(HWO) 공정을 이용하여 고품위 실리콘 기판을 제작하였다. 실리콘 기판의 특성 분석은 Qusi-steady state photoconductance (QSSPC)를 이용하여 소수반송자 수명을 측정하였으며, 기판의 면저항 및 wetting angle을 측정하여 공정에 따른 특성변화를 분석하였다. Saw damage etching 된 기판을 웨이퍼 표면으로부터 particle, 금속 불순물, 유기물 등의 오염을 제거하기 위해 $60{\sim}85^{\circ}C$로 가열된 Ammonia수, 과산화수소수($NH_4OH/H_2O_2/H_2O$), 염산 과산화수소수($HCL/H_2O_2/H_2O$) 및 실온 희석불산(DHF) 중에 기판을 각각 10분 정도씩 침적하여, 각각의 약액 처리 후에 매회 10분 정도씩 순수(DI water)에서 rinse하여 RCA 세정을 진행한 후 HWO 공정을 통해 기판 표면에 얇은 산화막 을 형성시켜 패시베이션 해주었다. HF를 이용하여 자연산화막을 제거시 HWO 공정을 거친 기판은 매끄러운 표면과 패시베이션 영향으로 기판의 소수 반송자 수명이 증가하며, 태양전지 제작시 접촉저항을 감소시켜 효율을 증가 시킬수 있다. HWO 공정은 반응조 안의 DI water 온도와 반응 시간에 따라 life-time을 측정하여 진행하였으며, 이후 PE-CVD법으로 증착된 a-Si:H layer 및 투명전도 산화막, 금속전극을 증착하여 실리콘 이종접합 태양전지를 제작하였다.