• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.68-79
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• 2016

The power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells has remarkably increased from 3.81% to 22.1% in the past 6 years. Perovskite solar cells, which are based on the perovskite crystal structure, are fabricated using organic-inorganic hybrid materials. The advantages of these solar cells are their low cost and simple fabrication procedure. Also, they have a band gap of about 1.6 eV and effectively absorb light in the visible region. For the commercialization of perovskite solar cells in the field of photovoltaics, the issue of their long term stability cannot be overlooked. Although the development of perovskite solar cells is unprecedented, their main drawback is the degradation of the perovskite structure by moisture. This degradation is accelerated by exposure to UV light, temperature, and external bias. This paper reviews the aforesaid reasons for perovskite solar cell degradation. We also discuss the research directions that can lead to the development of perovskite solar cells with high stability.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.445-457
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• 2017

In this study, we developed an approach to better account for uncertainties in estimated contributions from fine particulate matter ($PM_{2.5}$) modeling. Our approach computes a Concentration Correction Factor (CCF) which is a ratio of observed concentrations to baseline model concentrations. We multiply modeled direct contribution estimates with CCF to obtain revised contributions. Overall, the modeling system showed reasonably good performance, correlation coefficient R of 0.82 and normalized mean bias of 2%, although the model underestimated some PM species concentrations. We also noticed that model biases vary seasonally. We compared contribution estimates of major source sectors before and after applying CCFs. We observed that different source sectors showed variable magnitudes of sensitivities to the CCF application. For example, the total primary $PM_{2.5}$ contribution was increased $2.4{\mu}g/m^3$ or 63% after the CCF application. Out of a $2.4{\mu}g/m^3$ increment, line sources and area source made up $1.3{\mu}g/m^3$ and $0.9{\mu}g/m^3$ which is 92% of the total contribution changes. We postulated two major reasons for variations in estimated contributions after the CCF application: (1) monthly variability of unadjusted contributions due to emission source characteristics and (2) physico-chemical differences in environmental conditions that emitted precursors undergo. Since emissions-to-$PM_{2.5}$ concentration conversion rate is an important piece of information to prioritize control strategy, we examined the effects of CCF application on the estimated conversion rates. We found that the application of CCFs can alter the rank of conversion efficiencies of source sectors. Finally, we discussed caveats of our current approach such as no consideration of ion neutralization which warrants further studies.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.1 s.53
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• pp.45-57
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• 2007

The mean shear wave velocity to the depth of 30 m (Vs30) derived from the western Vs is the current site classification criterion for determining the design seismic ground motion taking into account the site amplification potential. In order to evaluate the Vs30 at a site, a shear wave velocity (Vs) Profile extending to at least 30 m in depth must be acquired from in-situ seismic test. In many cases, however, the resultant depth of the Vs profile may not extend to 30 m, owing to the unfavorable field condition and the limitation of adopted testing techniques. In this study, the Vs30 and the mean shear wave velocity to a depth shallower, than 30 m (VsDs) were computed from the Vs profiles more than 30 m in depth obtained by performing various seismic tests at total 72 sites in Korea, and a correlation between Vs30 and VsDs was drawn based on the computed mean Vs data. In addition, a method for extrapolating the Vs profile from shallow depth to 30 m was developed by building a shape curve based on the average data of all Vs profiles. For evaluating the Vs30 from the shallow Vs profiles, both the methods using VsDs and shape curve result in less bias than the simplest method of extending the lowermost Vs equally to 30 m in depth, and are usefully applicable particularly in the cases of the Vs profiles extending to at least 10 m in depth.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.43 no.10 s.352
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• pp.90-97
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• 2006

We report our research work on the millimeter-wave broadband amplifier integrating the shunt peaking technology with the cascode configuration. The millimeter-wave broadband cascode amplifier on MIMIC technology was designed and fabricated using $0.1{\mu}m\;{\Gamma}-gate$ GaAs PHEMT, CPW, and passive library. The fabricated PHEMT has shown a transconductance of 346.3 mS/mm, a current gain cut off frequency ($f_T$) of 113 GHz, and a maximum oscillation frequency ($f_{max}$) of 180 GHz. To prevent oscillation of designed cascode amplifier, a parallel resistor and capacitor were connected to drain of common-gate device. For expansion of the bandwidth and flatness of the gain, we inserted the short stub into bias circuits and the compensation transmission line between common-source device and common-gate device, and then their lengths were optimized. Also, the input and output stages were designed using the matching method to obtain the broadband characteristic. From the measurement, we could confirm to extend bandwidth and flat gain by integrating the shunt peaking technology with the cascode configuration. The cascode amplifier shows the broadband characteristic from 19 GHz to 53.5 GHz. Also, the average gain of this amplifier is about 6.5 dB over the bandwidth.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 1978

The 1/f noise spectrum of short-circuited output drain current due to the Shockley-Read-Hal] recombination centers with a single lifetime in homogeneous nondegenerate MOS-field effcte transtors with n-type channel is calculated under the assumptions that the quasi-Fermi level for the carriers in each energy band can not be defined if we include the fluctuation for time varying quantities. and so 1/f noise is a majority carrier effect. Under these assumptions the derived 1/f noise in this paper show some essential features of the 1/f noise in MOS-field effect transistors. That is, it has no lowfrequency plateau and is proportionnal to the channel cross area A and to the driain bias voltage Vd and inversely proportional to the channel length L3 in MOS field effect transistors. This model can explain the discrepancy between the transition frequency of the noise spectrum from 1/f- response to 1/f2 and the frequency corresponding to the relaxation time related to the surface centers in p-n junction diodes. In this paper the results show that the functional form of noise spectrum is greatly influenced by the functional forms of the electron capture probability cn (E) and the relaxation time r (E) for scattering and the case of lattice scattering show to be responsible for the 4 noise in MOS fold effect transistors. So we canconclude that the source of 1/f noise is due to lattice scattering.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2008

High-k materials have been paid much more attention for their characteristics with high permittivity to reduce the leakage current through the scaled gate oxide. Among the high-k materials, $ZrO_2$ is one of the most attractive ones combing such favorable properties as a high dielectric constant (k= 20 ~ 25), wide band gap (5 ~ 7 eV) as well as a close thermal expansion coefficient with Si that results in good thermal stability of the $ZrO_2$/Si structure. During the etching process, plasma etching has been widely used to define fine-line patterns, selectively remove materials over topography, planarize surfaces, and trip photoresist. About the high-k materials etching, the relation between the etch characteristics of high-k dielectric materials and plasma properties is required to be studied more to match standard processing procedure with low damaged removal process. Among several etching techniques, we chose the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for high-density plasma, easy control of ion energy and flux, low ownership and simple structure. And the $BCl_3$ was included in the gas due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of $BCl_xO_y$ compounds. During the etching process, the wafer surface temperature is an important parameter, until now, there is less study on temperature parameter. In this study, the etch mechanism of $ZrO_2$ thin film was investigated in function of $Cl_2$ addition to $BCl_3$/Ar gas mixture ratio, RF power and DC-bias power based on substrate temperature increased from $10^{\circ}C$ to $80^{\circ}C$. The variations of relative volume densities for the particles were measured with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The surface imagination was measured by scanning emission spectroscope (SEM). The chemical state of film was investigated using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX).

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2003

This paper proposes a CMOS readout circuit for uncooled micro-bolometer arrays adopting a four-point step calibration technique. The proposed readout circuit employing an 11b analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a 7b digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and an automatic gain control circuit (AGC) extracts minute infrared (IR) signals from the large output signals of uncooled micro-bolometer arrays including DC bias currents, inter-pixel process variations, and self-heating effects. Die area and Power consumption of the ADC are minimized with merged-capacitor switching (MCS) technique adopted. The current mirror with high linearity is proposed at the output stage of the DAC to calibrate inter-pixel process variations and self-heating effects. The prototype is fabricated on a double-poly double-metal 1.2 um CMOS process and the measured power consumption is 110 ㎽ from a 4.5 V supply. The measured differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integrat nonlinearity (INL) of the 11b ADC show $\pm$0.9 LSB and $\pm$1.8 LSB, while the DNL and INL of the 7b DAC show $\pm$0.1 LSB and $\pm$0.1 LSB.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3917-3925
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• 2012

Background: The relationship between postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) and invasive breast cancer has been extensively investigated, but that with breast carcinoma in situ (BCIS) has received relatively little attention. The aim of our present study was to review and summarize the evidence provided by longitudinal studies on the association between postmenopausal HT use and BCIS risk. Methods: A comprehensive literature search for articles published up to May 2012 was performed. Prior to performing a meta-analysis, the studies were evaluated for publication bias and heterogeneity. Relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) values were calculated using 14 reports (8 case-control studies and 6 cohort studies), published between 1986 and 2012. Results: There was evidence of an association between ever postmenopausal estrogen use and BCIS based on a random-effects model (RR = 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01, 1.55). However, we found no strong evidence of an association between ever postmenopausal estrogen combined with progesterone use and BCIS using a randomeffects model (RR = 1.55, 95% CI = 0.95, 2.51). Furthermore, our analysis showed a strong association between "> 5 years duration" of estrogen or estrogen combined with progesterone use and BCIS. Furthermore, current use of any HT is associated with increased risk of BCIS in cohort studies. Additional well-designed large studies are now required to validate this association in different populations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4077-4082
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• 2013

The purpose of this descriptive and comparative study was to examine gender differences relevant to pain intensity, opioid prescription patterns and opioid consumption in Taiwanese oncology outpatients. The 92 participants had been prescribed opioid analgesics for cancer-related pain at least once in the past week and were asked to complete the Brief Pain Inventory - Chinese questionnaire and to recall the dosage of each opioid analgesic that they had ingested within the previous 24 hours. For opioid prescriptions and consumption, all analgesics were converted to morphine equivalents. The results revealed a significant difference between males and female minimum pain thresholds (t = 2.38, p = 0.02) and current pain thresholds (t = 2.12, p = 0.04), with males reporting a higher intensity of pain than females. In addition, this study found that males tended to use prescribed opioid analgesics more frequently than females on the bases of both around the clock (ATC) (t = 1.90, p = 0.06) and ATC plus as needed (ATC + PRN) (t = 2.33, p = 0.02). However, there was no difference between males and females in opioid prescriptions on an ATC basis (t = 0.52, p = 0.60) or at an ATC + PRN basis (t = 0.40, p = 0.69). The results suggest that there may be a gender bias in the treatment of cancer pain, supporting the proposal of routine examination of the effect of gender on cancer pain management. These findings suggest that clinicians should be particularly aware of potential gender differences during pain monitoring and the consumption of prescribed opioid analgesics.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.72-77
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• 2009

In this paper, a 3.2Gb/s clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit for a high-speed serial data communication without the reference clock is described This CDR circuit consists of 5 parts as Phase and frequency detector(PD and FD), multi-phase Voltage Controlled-Oscillator(VCO), Charge-pumps (CP) and external Loop-Filter(KF). It is adapted the PD and FD, which incorporates a half-rate bang-bang type oversampling PD and a half-rate FD that can improve pull-in range. The VCO consists of four fully differential delay cells with rail-to-rail current bias scheme that can increase the tuning range and tuning linearity. Each delay cell has output buffers as a full-swing generator and a duty-cycle mismatch compensation. This materialized CDR can achieve wide pull-in range without an extra reference clock and it can be also reduced chip area and power consumption effectively because there is no additional Phase Locked- Loop(PLL) for generating reference clock. The CDR circuit was designed for fabrication using 0.18um 1P6M CMOS process and total chip area excepted LF is $1{\times}1mm^2$. The pk-pk jitter of recovered clock is 26ps at 3.2Gb/s input data rate and total power consumes 63mW from 1.8V supply voltage according to simulation results. According to test result, the pk-pk jitter of recovered clock is 55ps at the same input data-rate and the reliable range of input data-rate is about from 2.4Gb/s to 3.4Gb/s.