• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.361.1-361.1
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• 2016

Due to their high sensitivity, fast response, small energy consumption and ease of integration, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have attracted much interest in various applications such as high speed memory devices, energy harvesting devices, frequency tunable RF receivers, and ultra sensitive mass sensors. Since the device performance of NEMS is closely related with the mechanical and flexural properties of the material in NEMS, analysis of the mechanical and flexural properties such as intrinsic tensile stress and Young's modulus is a crucial factor for designing the NEMS structures. In the present work, the intrinsic mechanical properties of highly stressed silicon nitride (SiN) beams are investigated as a function of the beam length using two different techniques: (i) dynamic flexural measurement using optical interferometry and (ii) quasi-static flexural measurement using atomic force microscopy. The reliability of the results is analysed by comparing the results from the two different measurement techniques. In addition, the mass density, Young's modulus and internal stress of the SiN beams are estimated by combining the techniques, and the prospect of SiN based NEMS for application in high sensitive mass sensors is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.696-701
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• 2016

In this study, to increase output of road piezoelectric energy harvester, it was made into rack type in which many piezoelectric materials can be installed and load transfer device of the leverage type to transfer vehicle load was made. By paving it in the road, the output characteristics depending on vehicle load and speed were evaluated. Changing vehicle load, harvester output characteristics depending on speed changes were evaluated at the interval of 10 km/h from 10 km/h to 100 km/h. Also, by making a wireless switch and sending wireless signal with output of rack type harvester, whether to receive it was evaluated by distance. It was checked that all switches work up to front-to-back 100 m from harvester.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.199-207
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• 2023

Since seeds can be directly used as food resources as well as for crop cultivation or preservation of genetic resources, it is essential to develop high-quality seed processing technology to increase agricultural productivity. Seed treatment means processing technologies of seeds through physical or chemical treatment processes from after harvesting seeds to before sowing of seeds to improve germination and growth rate, durability, and immunity, etc. Since chemical seed treatment technology using pesticides or plant growth regulators has problems of environmental pollution and human toxicity, it is desired to develop an alternative technology. As a physical seed treatment method, various technologies such as ionizing radiation, plasma, microwave, and magnetic field are being developed, and some of them are being used practically. In this paper, I will summarize the mechanism of seed priming and disinfection, and the advantages and disadvantages of application, focusing on these physical seed treatment methods. Low dose or moderate intensity ionizing radiation, microwave, low-temperature plasma, and magnetic field treatments often promoted seed germination and seedling growth. However, effective removal of direct seed pathogens at these treatment intensities appears to be difficult. And it has been shown that relatively high-dose electron beam treatment using low-energy electron beams kills microorganisms on the seed surface and hull layer while not damaging the inner tissue of the seed, and is also effectively used for seed treatment on a commercial scale. In order to put the physical seed treatment technology to practical use in Korea, it is necessary to develop an economical scale treatment device along with the development of individual treatment technology to each crop.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.11-19
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• 2015

Since CMOS device scaling has stalled, three-dimensional (3-D) integration allows extending Moore's law to ever high density, higher functionality, higher performance, and more diversed materials and devices to be integrated with lower cost. 3-D integration has many benefits such as increased multi-functionality, increased performance, increased data bandwidth, reduced power, small form factor, reduced packaging volume, because it vertically stacks multiple materials, technologies, and functional components such as processor, memory, sensors, logic, analog, and power ICs into one stacked chip. Anticipated applications start with memory, handheld devices, and high-performance computers and especially extend to multifunctional convengence systems such as cloud networking for internet of things, exascale computing for big data server, electrical vehicle system for future automotive, radioactivity safety system, energy harvesting system and, wireless implantable medical system by flexible heterogeneous integrations involving CMOS, MEMS, sensors and photonic circuits. However, heterogeneous integration of different functional devices has many technical challenges owing to various types of size, thickness, and substrate of different functional devices, because they were fabricated by different technologies. This paper describes new 3-D heterogeneous integration technologies of chip self-assembling stacking and 3-D heterogeneous opto-electronics integration, backside TSV fabrication developed by Tohoku University for multifunctional convergence systems. The paper introduce a high speed sensing, highly parallel processing image sensor system comprising a 3-D stacked image sensor with extremely fast signal sensing and processing speed and a 3-D stacked microprocessor with a self-test and self-repair function for autonomous driving assist fabricated by 3-D heterogeneous integration technologies.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.119-126
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• 2019

A flexible thermoelectric module, which consisted of 18 pairs of Bi₂Te₃-based hot-pressed p-n thermoelectric legs, were processed by filling the module inside with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and removing the top and bottom substrates. Its power generation properties and bending characteristics were measured. With putting the flexible module on the wrist, an open circuit voltage of 2.23 mV and a maximum output power of 1.69 ㎼ were generated during staying still. On the other hand, an open circuit voltage of 3.32 mV and a maximum output power of 3.41 ㎼ were obtained with walking motion. The resistance variation of the module was kept below 1% even after applying 30,000 bending cycles with a bending curvature radius of 25 mm.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.149-156
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• 2019

A stretchable thermoelectric module consisting of 5 pairs of Bi₂Te₃-based hot-pressed p-n thermoelectric legs was processed by filling the module inside with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and removing the top and bottom substrates. Its stretchable characteristics and power generation properties were measured. The integrity of the module was kept well even after 10 strain cycles ranging from 0 to 0.1. With increasing the tensile strain to 0.2, the module circuitry became open because of joint failure between Cu electrodes and thermoelectric legs. The stretchable thermoelectric module exhibited an open circuit voltage of 4.6 mV with a temperature difference of 2.2K across both ends of thermoelectric legs, and changes in its open circuit voltage were below 5% for tensile strains of 0~0.1. Being elongated for a strain of 0.1, it exhibited the maximum output power of 18.5 ㎼ with the temperature difference of 2.2K across its both ends.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.740-745
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• 2015

This study investigated the effect of different collection methods on physical properties of pectin hydrogels in microfluidic synthetic approach. The pectin hydrogels were simply produced by the incorporation of calcium ions dissolved in continuous mineral oil. Then, different collection methods, pipetting, tubing, and settling, for harvesting pectin hydrogels were applied. The settling method showed most uniform and monodispersed hydrogels. In the case of settling, a coefficient of variation was 3.46 which was lower than pipetting method (18.60) and tubing method (14.76). Under the settling method, we could control the size of hydrogels, ranging from $30{\mu}m$ to $180{\mu}m$, by simple manipulation of the viscosity of pectin and volumetric flow rate of dispersed and continuous phase. Finally, according to the characteristics of simple encapsulation of biological materials, we envision that the pectin hydrogels can be applied to drug delivery, food, and biocompatible materials.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.249-254
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• 2022

With the rapid advance of the semiconductor and Information and communication technologies, remote environment monitoring technology, which can detect and analyze surrounding environmental conditions with various types of sensors and wireless communication technologies, is also drawing attention. However, since the conventional remote environmental monitoring systems require external power supplies, it causes time and space limitations on comfortable usage. In this study, we proposed the concept of the self-powered remote environmental monitoring system by supplying the power with the levitation-electromagnetic generator (L-EMG), which is rationally designed to effectively harvest biomechanical energy in consideration of the mechanical characteristics of biomechanical energy. In this regard, the proposed L-EMG is designed to effectively respond to the external vibration with the movable center magnet considering the mechanical characteristics of the biomechanical energy, such as relatively low-frequency and high amplitude of vibration. Hence the L-EMG based on the fragile force equilibrium can generate high-quality electrical energy to supply power. Additionally, the environmental detective sensor and wireless transmission module are composed of the micro control unit (MCU) to minimize the required power for electronic device operation by applying the sleep mode, resulting in the extension of operation time. Finally, in order to maximize user convenience, a mobile phone application was built to enable easy monitoring of the surrounding environment. Thus, the proposed concept not only verifies the possibility of establishing the self-powered remote environmental monitoring system using biomechanical energy but further suggests a design guideline.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.378-393
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• 2022

As an emerging power generation technology, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have received increasing attention due to their boundless promise in energy harvesting and self-powered sensing applications. The recent rise of soft robotics has sparked widespread enthusiasm for developing flexible and soft sensors and actuators. TENGs have been regarded as promising power sources for driving actuators and self-powered sensors, providing a unique approach for the development of soft robots with soft sensors and actuators. In this review, TENG-based soft robots with different morphologies and different functions are introduced. Among them, the design of biomimetic soft robots that imitate the structure, surface morphology, material properties, and sensing/generating mechanisms of nature has greatly benefited in improving the performance of TENGs. In addition, various bionic soft robots have been well improved compared to previous driving methods due to the simple structure, self-powering characteristics, and tunable output of TENGs. Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive review of various studies within specific areas of TENG-enabled soft robotics applications. We first explore various recently developed TENG-based soft robots and a comparative analysis of various device structures, surface morphologies, and nature-inspired materials, and the resulting improvements in TENG performance. Various ubiquitous sensing principles and generation mechanisms used in nature and their analogous artificial TENG designs are demonstrated. Finally, biomimetic applications of TENG enabled in tactile displays as well as in wearable devices, artificial electronic skin and other devices are discussed. System designs, challenges and prospects of TENGs-based sensing and actuation devices in the practical application of soft robotics are analyzed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.93-99
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• 2022

With the rapid development of ultra-small and wearable device technology, continuous electricity supply without spatiotemporal limitations for driving electronic devices is required. Accordingly, Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which utilizes static electricity generated by the contact and separation of two different materials, is being used as a means of effectively harvesting various types of energy dispersed without complex processes and designs due to its simple principle. However, to apply the TENG to real life, it is necessary to increase the electrical output. In addition, stable generation of electrical output, as well as increase in electrical output, is a task to be solved for the commercialization of TENG. In this study, we proposed a method to not only improve the output of TENG but also to stably represent the improved output. This was solved by using the contact layer, which is one of the components of TENG, as an electret for improved output and stability. The utilized electret was manufactured by sequentially performing corona charging-thermal annealing-corona charging on the Fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) film. Electric charges artificially injected due to corona charging enter a deep trap through the thermal annealing, so an electret that minimizes charge escape was fabricated and used in TENG. The output performance of the manufactured electret was verified by measuring the voltage output of the TENG in vertical contact separation mode, and the electret treated to the corona charging showed an output voltage 12 times higher than that of the pristine FEP film. The time and humidity stability of the electret was confirmed by measuring the output voltage of the TENG after exposing the electret to a general external environment and extreme humidity environment. In addition, it was shown that it can be applied to real-life by operating the LED by applying an electret to the clap-TENG with the motif of clap.