• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.34-41
• /
• 2017

A 2.45 GHz microwave plasma with linear antenna has been prepared for hydrophobic and wear-resistible surface coating of carbon steel. Wear-resistible properties are required for the surface protection of cutting tools and achieved by depositing a hydrogenated amorphous carbon film on steel surface through linear microwave plasma source that has $TE_{10}-TEM$ waveguide. Compared to the existing RF plasma source driven by 13.56 MHz, linear microwave plasma source can easily generate high density plasma and provide faster deposition rate and wider process windows. In this study, $Ar/CH_4$ gas mixtures are used for hydrogenated amorphous carbon film deposition. When microwave power of 1000 W is applied, 40 cm long uniform $Ar/CH_4$ plasma could be obtained in gas pressure of 200~400 mTorr. The Vickers hardness measurement of hydrogenated amorphous carbon film on steel surface was evaluated. It was found the optimized deposition condition at $Ar:CH_4=25:25$ sccm, 300 mTorr with microwave power of 1000W and RF bias power of 100W. By deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon film, contact angle on steel surfaces increases from $43.9^{\circ}$ to $93.2^{\circ}$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.109-116
• /
• 2016

To achieve the fabrication of high-quality Ag-coated Cu particles through a wet chemical process, we reported herein pretreatment conditions using an ammonium-based mixed solvent for the removal of a $Cu_2O$ layer on Cu particles that were oxidized in air for 1 hr at $200^{\circ}C$ or for 3 days at room temperature. Furthermore, we discussed the results of post-Ag plating with respect to removal level of the oxide layer. X-ray diffraction results revealed that the removal rate of the oxide layer is directly proportional to the concentration of the pretreatment solvent. With the results of Auger electron spectroscopy using oxidized Cu plates, the concentrations required to completely remove 50-nm-thick and 2-nm-thick oxides within 5 min were determined to be X2.5 and X0.13. However, the optimal concentrations in an actual Ag plating process using Cu powder increased to X0.4 and X0.5, respectively, because the oxidation in powder may be accelerated and the complete removal of oxide should be tuned to the thickest oxide layer among all the particles. Back-scattered electron images showed the formation of pure fine Ag particles instead of a uniform and smooth Ag coating in the Ag plating performed after incomplete removal of the oxide layer, indicating that the remaining oxide layer obstructs heterogeneous nucleation and plating by reduced Ag atoms.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.4 no.S2
• /
• pp.40-48
• /
• 1995

$TiB_2$-TiN double-layer coating have been prepared by ion beam enhanced deposition. AES, XRD, TEM and HRTEM were employed to characterize the $TiB_2$ layer. The microhardness of the coatings was evaluated by an ultra low-load microhardness indenter system, and the tribological behavior was examined by a ball-on-disc tribology wear tester. It was found that in a single titanium diboride layer, the composition is uniform along the depth of the film, and it is mainly composed of nanocrystalline $TiB_2$ with hexagonal structure, which resulted from the ion bombardment during the film growth. The hardness of the $TiB_2$ films increases with increasing ion energy, and approaches a maximum value of the $TiB_2$ films increases with increasing ion energy, and approaches a maximum value of 39 Gpa at ion energy of 85 keV. The tribological property of the TiB2 films is also improved by higher energy of 85keV. The tribological property of the $TiB_2$ films is also improved by higher energy ion beam bombardment. There is no major disparity in the mechanical properties of double-layer $TiB_2$/TiN coatings and TiN/$TiB_2$ coatings. Both show an improved wear resistance compared with single-layer $TiB_2$ films. The adhesion of double-layer coatings is also superior to that of single-layer films.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.182-188
• /
• 2011

Polysilazane and polymethylsilazane based precursor films were deposited on Si-substrate by spin-coating, subsequently annealed at $150{\sim}850^{\circ}C$, and characterized. Structural analysis, shrink, compositional change, etch rate, and gap-filling were observed. Annealing the precursor films led to formation of spin-on dielectric films. C-containing precursor films showed that less loss of N, H, and C while less gain of O than that of C-free precursor films at $400^{\circ}C$, but more loss of N, H, and C while more gain of O at $850^{\circ}C$. Thus polysilazane based precursor films exhibited less reduction in thickness of 14.5% than silazane based one of 15.6% at $400^{\circ}C$ but more 37.4% than 19.4% at $850^{\circ}C$. FTIR indicated that C induced smaller amount of Si-O bond, non-uniform property, and lower resistance to chemical etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.276-279
• /
• 2004

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of silicon nitride (SiN) is a proven technique for obtaining layers that meet the needs of surface passivation and anti-reflection coating. In addition, the deposition process appears to provoke bulk passivation as well due to diffusion of atomic hydrogen. This bulk passivation is an important advantage of PECVD deposition when compared to the conventional CVD techniques. A further advantage of PECVD is that the process takes place at a relatively low temperature of 300t, keeping the total thermal budget of the cell processing to a minimum. In this work SiN deposition was performed using a horizontal PECVD reactor system consisting of a long horizontal quartz tube that was radiantly heated. Special and long rectangular graphite plates served as both the electrodes to establish the plasma and holders of the wafers. The electrode configuration was designed to provide a uniform plasma environment for each wafer and to ensure the film uniformity. These horizontally oriented graphite electrodes were stacked parallel to one another, side by side, with alternating plates serving as power and ground electrodes for the RF power supply. The plasma was formed in the space between each pair of plates. Also this paper deals with the fabrication of multicrystalline silicon solar cells with PECVD SiN layers combined with high-throughput screen printing and RTP firing. Using this sequence we were able to obtain solar cells with an efficiency of 14% for polished multi crystalline Si wafers of size 125 m square.

• Nano
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.1850146.1-1850146.9
• /
• 2018

The rapid development of smart textiles requires the large-scale fabrication of conductive fibers. In this study, we develop a simple, scalable and low-cost capillary-driven self-assembly method to prepare conductive fibers with uniform morphology, high conductivity and good mechanical strength. Fiber-shaped flexible and stretchable conductors are obtained by coating highly conductive and flexible silver nanowires (Ag NWs) on the surfaces of yarn and PDMS fibers through evaporation-induced flow and capillary-driven self-assembly, which is proven by the in situ optical microscopic observation. The density of Ag NWs and linear resistance of the conductive fibers could be regulated by tuning the assembly cycles. A linear resistance of $1.4{\Omega}/cm$ could be achieved for the Ag NWs-coated nylon, which increases only 8% after 200 bending cycle, demonstrating high flexibility and mechanical stability. The flexible and stretchable conductive fibers have great potential for the application in wearable devices.

• Particle and aerosol research
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.89-95
• /
• 2018

People's environmental concerns for fine particles in Korea lead to the strong necessity of improving the performance of environmental control systems. Wet electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are considered as one of the alternatives to overcome the limit of previous dry ESPs, the re-entrainment of collected particles during rapping and back corona problem for high electrical resistivity dusts etc. In this study, a wire-cylindrical ESP with a thin water film has been developed. Particle collection characteristics were compared in the ESP with operations of water film on and off. Particle collection efficiencies at various applied voltages as well as voltage-current curves were almost the same in the ESP with and without a water film. Particle collection performance for PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 in the wet ESP with a water film was constantly maintained with operation time even in the high dust loading environment. This results indicate that a uniform water film in our wet ESP was successfully formed with a very thin layer without any dry spot and therefore could continuously clean the collected particles on the inner wall of the ESP without any performance degradation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.588-593
• /
• 2023

The advantage of OTFT technology is that large-area circuits can be manufactured on flexible substrates using a low-cost solution process such as inkjet printing. Compared to silicon-based inorganic semiconductor processes, the process temperature is lower and the process time is shorter, so it can be widely applied to fields that do not require high electron mobility. Materials that have utility as electrode materials include carbon that can be solution-processed, transparent carbon thin films, and metallic nanoparticles, etc. are being studied. Recently, a technology has been developed to facilitate charge injection by coating the surface of the Al electrode with solution-processable titanium oxide (TiOx), which can greatly improve the performance of OTFT. In order to commercialize OTFT technology, an appropriate method is to use a complementary circuit with excellent reliability and stability. For this, insulators and channel semiconductors using organic materials must have stability in the air. In this study, carbon-doped Mo (MoC) thin films were fabricated with different graphite target power densities via unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBM). The influence of graphite target power density on the structural, surface area, physical, and electrical properties of MoC films was investigated. MoC thin films deposited by the unbalanced magnetron sputtering method exhibited a smooth and uniform surface. However, as the graphite target power density increased, the rms surface roughness of the MoC film increased, and the hardness and elastic modulus of the MoC thin film increased. Additionally, as the graphite target power density increased, the resistivity value of the MoC film increased. In the performance of an organic thin film transistor using a MoC gate electrode, the carrier mobility, threshold voltage, and drain current on/off ratio (I_on/I_off) showed 0.15 cm²/V·s, -5.6 V, and 7.5×10⁴, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.33 no.12
• /
• pp.530-536
• /
• 2023

The theoretical capacity of silicon-based anode materials is more than 10 times higher than the capacity of graphite, so silicon can be used as an alternative to graphite anode materials. However, silicon has a much higher contraction and expansion rate due to lithiation of the anode material during the charge and discharge processes, compared to graphite anode materials, resulting in the pulverization of silicon particles during repeated charge and discharge. To compensate for the above issues, there is a growing interest in SiO_x materials with a silica or carbon coating to minimize the expansion of the silicon. In this study, spherical silica (SiO₂) was synthesized using TEOS as a starting material for the fabrication of such SiO_x through heating in a reduction atmosphere. SiO_x powder was produced by adding PVA as a carbon source and inducing the reduction of silica by the carbothermal reduction method. The ratio of TEOS to distilled water, the stirring time, and the amount of PVA added were adjusted to induce size and morphology, resulting in uniform nanosized spherical silica particles. For the reduction of the spherical monodisperse silica particles, a nitrogen gas atmosphere mixed with 5 % hydrogen was applied, and oxygen atoms in the silica were selectively removed by the carbothermal reduction method. The produced SiO_x powder was characterized by FE-SEM to examine the morphology and size changes of the particles, and XPS and FT-IR were used to examine the x value (O/Si ratio) of the synthesized SiO_x.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.218-226
• /
• 2022

As a result of the recent social transformation towards a hydrogen economy and carbon-neutrality, the demands for hydrogen energy have been increasing rapidly worldwide. As such, eco-friendly hydrogen production technologies that do not produce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are being focused on. Among them, ammonia (NH₃) is an economical hydrogen carrier that can easily produce hydrogen (H₂). In this study, Ru/Al₂O₃ catalyst coated onmetallic monolith for hydrogen production from ammonia was prepared by a dip-coating method using a catalyst slurry mixture composed of Ru/Al₂O₃ catalyst, inorganic binder (alumina sol) and organic binder (methyl cellulose). At the optimized 1:1:0.1 weight ratio of catalyst/inorganic binder/organic binder, the amount of catalyst coated on the metallic monolith after one cycle coating was about 61.6 g L^-1. The uniform thickness (about 42 ㎛) and crystal structure of the catalyst coated on the metallic monolith surface were confirmed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Also, a numerical optimization regression equation for NH3 conversion according to the independent variables of reaction temperature (400-600 ℃) and gas hourly space velocity (1,000-5,000 h^-1) was calculated by response surface methodology (RSM). This model indicated a determination coefficient (R²) of 0.991 and had statistically significant predictors. This regression model could contribute to the commercial process design of hydrogen production by ammonia decomposition.