• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2012년도 제42회 동계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.238-243
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• 2018

A nanofiber was fabricated with carbon nanotubes for transparent electrodes. It was prepared with a composite solution of bio-molecules polycaprolactone (PCL) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by electrospinning on a glass substrate, following which its electrical characteristics were investigated. The content of MWCNTs was varied during electrospinning, while that of PCL was fixed. Further, a nanometer-thick thin film of silver was deposited on the nanofiber layer using a thermal evaporator to improve the electrical characteristics; the sheet resistance significantly reduced after this deposition. The results showed that this carbon nanotube nanofiber has potential applications in biotechnology and as a flexible transparent display material.

• 산업진흥연구
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.21-29
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• 2024

급변하는 정보화 사회에서는 스마트폰와 태블릿을 비롯한 다양한 전자기기가 더욱 디지털화되고 플렉시블 디스플레이와 같은 고성능을 갖추며 발전하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 경제적 절감을 위한 플렉시블 디스플레이의 고가 소재를 대체하는 전도성 고분자인 PEDOT과 투명 기판인 PET를 적용한 TCF의 제조 공정 최적화를 진행하였다. PEDOT 코팅을 이용한 TCF 생산 공정에서 주요 변수인 생산 속도 (m/min), 코팅 최고 온도 (℃), PEDOT 공급 속도 (rpm)에 따른 표면 저항률 (Ω/□)을 반응표면분석법을 사용하여 최적화하였다. 결과적으로, 생산 속도 22.16 m/min, 코팅 최고 온도 125.28 ℃, PEDOT 공급 속도 522.79 rpm으로 최적 조건을 도출했다. F 값은 18.37, P-값은 < 0.0001, 결정계수(R²)는 0.9430으로 결과의 신뢰성이 높음을 확인했다. 최적 조건에서의 예측값은 145.75 Ω/□이며, 실험값은 142.97 Ω/□이었다. 이 연구 결과를 기반으로 대량 생산 공정에 적용하면 기존의 생산 수율 보다 높은 수율을 달성하고 불량 발생률을 줄일 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• 한국표면공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국표면공학회 2018년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.56-56
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• 2018

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) have attracted attention due to their high electrical conductivity and optical transparency in the visible region. Consequently, TCOs have been widely used as electrode materials in various electronic devices such as flat panel displays and solar cells. Previous studies on TCOs focused on their electrical and optical performances; there have been numerous attempts to improve these properties, such as chemical doping and crystallinity enhancement. Recently, due to rapidly increasing demand for flexible electronics, the academic interest in the mechanical stability of materials has come to the fore as a major issue. In particular, long-term stability under bending is a crucial requirement for flexible electrodes; however, research on this feature is still in the nascent stage. Hydrogen-incorporated amorphous In-Sn-O (a-ITO) thin films were fabricated by introducing hydrogen gas during deposition. The hydrogen concentration in the film was determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry and was found to vary from $4.7{\times}10^{20}$ to $8.1{\times}10^{20}cm^{-3}$ with increasing $H_2$ flow rate. The mechanical stability of the a-ITO thin films dramatically improved because of hydrogen incorporation, without any observable degradation in their electrical or optical properties. With increasing hydrogen concentration, the compressive residual stress gradually decreased and the subgap absorption at around 3.1 eV was suppressed. Considering that the residual stress and subgap absorption mainly originated from defects, hydrogen may be a promising candidate for defect passivation in flexible electronics.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2010년도 하계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.11-11
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• 2010

Thin-film-transistors (TFTs) that can be deposited at low temperature have recently attracted lots of applications such as sensors, solar cell and displays, because of the great flexible electronics and transparent. Transparent and flexible transistors are being required that high mobility and large-area uniformity at low temperature [1]. But, unfortunately most of TFT structures are used to be $SiO_2$ as gate dielectric layer. The $SiO_2$ has disadvantaged that it is required to high driving voltage to achieve the same operating efficiency compared with other high-k materials and its thickness is thicker than high-k materials [2]. To solve this problem, we find lots of high-k materials as $HfO_2$, $ZrO_2$, $SiN_x$, $TiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$. Among the High-k materials, $Al_2O_3$ is one of the outstanding materials due to its properties are high dielectric constant ( ~9 ), relatively low leakage current, wide bandgap ( 8.7 eV ) and good device stability. For the realization of flexible displays, all processes should be performed at very low temperatures, but low temperature $Al_2O_3$ grown by sputtering showed deteriorated electrical performance. Further decrease in growth temperature induces a high density of charge traps in the gate oxide/channel. This study investigated the effect of growth temperatures of ALD grown $Al_2O_3$ layers on the TFT device performance. The ALD deposition showed high conformal and defect-free dielectric layers at low temperature compared with other deposition equipments [2]. After ITO was wet-chemically etched with HCl : $HNO_3$ = 3:1, $Al_2O_3$ layer was deposited by ALD at various growth temperatures or lift-off process. Amorphous InGaZnO channel layers were deposited by rf magnetron sputtering at a working pressure of 3 mTorr and $O_2$/Ar (1/29 sccm). The electrodes were formed with electron-beam evaporated Ti (30 nm) and Au (70 nm) bilayer. The TFT devices were heat-treated in a furnace at $300^{\circ}C$ and nitrogen atmosphere for 1 hour by rapid thermal treatment. The electrical properties of the oxide TFTs were measured using semiconductor parameter analyzer (4145B), and LCR meter.

• 한국재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국재료학회 2012년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.64.1-64.1
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• 2012

Next generation displays such as high performance LCD, AMOLED, flexible display and transparent display require specific TFT back-planes. For high performance TFT back-planes, low temperature poly silicon (LTPS), and metal-oxide semiconductors are studied. Flexible TFT backplanes require low temperature processible organic semiconductors. Not only development of active semiconducting materials but also design and synthesis of semiconductor corresponding gate dielectric materials are important issues in those display back-planes. In this study, we investigate the high heat resistant polymeric gate dielectric materials for organic TFT and inorganic TFT with good insulating properties and processing chemical resistance. We also controlled and optimized surface energy and morphology of gate dielectric layers for direct printing process with solution processible organic and inorganic semiconductors.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.219-222
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• 2007

Highly conductive and transparent aluminum doped ZnO thin films (AZO) films have been prepared by r.f. magnetron sputtering processes on poly carbonate (PC) and onto glass as reference. In addition, the electrical, optical properties of the films prepared at various sputtering powers were investigated. The XRD measurements revealed that all of the obtained films were polycrystalline with the hexagonal structure and had a preferred orientation with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The ZnO:Al films were increasingly dark gray colored as the sputter power increased, resulting in the loss of transmittance. High quality films with the resistivity as low as $9.7{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}-cm$ and transmittance over 90% have been obtained by suitably controlling the r.f. power.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제43권6호
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• pp.272-277
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• 2010

We investigated the life time characteristics of OLED device with aluminium oxide ($AlO_x$) passivation film on glass substrate and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by RF magnetron sputtering for the transparent barrier film applied to flexible OLED device. Basic buffer layer was determined as $Alq_3$(500 nm)-LiF(300 nm)-Al(1200 nm), and the most suitable aluminium oxide ($AlO_x$) film have been formed when the partial volume ratio of oxygen was 20% and the sputtering power was 100 watt and the minimum thickness of buffer was $2\;{\mu}m$. $AlO_x$/epoxy hybrid film was also used as a effective passivation layer for the purpose of improving life time characteristics of OLED devices with the glass substrate and the plastic substrate. Besides, the simultaneous deposition of $AlO_x$/epoxy film on back side of PET could result in better improvement of life time.

• 마이크로전자및패키징학회지
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.73-76
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• 2020

은 나노와이어는 금속 특유의 고전도 특성, 낮은 Percolation threshold 및 고투과 특성을 나타내어 차세대 투명전극 물질로 각광받고 있다. 이를 플렉서블 및 웨어러블 디바이스, 전자피부 디바이스 등과 같은 다양한 분야에 활용하기 위해서는 은 나노와이어 전극을 필요한 형태로 패터닝 하기 위한 기술이 필수적으로 요구된다. 일반적으로, 은 나노와이어를 패터닝하기 위한 공법으로는 포토리소그래피 및 에칭, 프린팅, 레이저 Ablation 등을 들 수 있으나, 이러한 패터닝 기술들은 공정 절차가 복잡하거나 높은 공정 비용 등의 단점이 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 UV-curable 점착제 기반의 low-cost 은 나노와이어 패터닝 공법을 개발하고자 하였다. 은 나노와이어 네트워크가 형성된 폴리우레탄 필름에 UV 경화형 테이프를 부착하고, UV를 선택적으로 조사한 뒤, 다시 UV 경화형 테이프를 벗겨내는 3단계의 간단한 공정만으로 은 나노와이어 패턴을 성공적으로 형성할 수 있었으며, 간단한 구현 원리 및 분석 결과를 본 논문에서 보고하고자 한다.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.95-95
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• 2014

An OLED(Organic Light-Emitting Diode) device based on the emissive electroluminescent layer a film of organic materials. OLED is used for many electronic devices such as TV, mobile phones, handheld games consoles. ULVAC's mass production systems are indispensable to the manufacturing of OLED device. ULVAC is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of equipment and vacuum systems for the OLED, LCD, Semiconductor, Electronics, Optical device and related high technology industries. The SMD Series are single-substrate sputtering systems for deposition of films such as metal films and TCO (Transparent Conductive Oxide) films. ULVAC has delivered a large number of these systems not only Organic Evaporating systems but also LTPS CVD systems. The most important technology of thin-film encapsulation (TFE) is preventing moisture($H_2O$) and oxygen permeation into flexible OLED devices. As a polymer substrate does not offer the same barrier performance as glass substrate, the TFE should be developed on both the bottom and top side of the device layers for sufficient lifetimes. This report provides a review of promising thin-film barrier technologies as well as the WVTR(Water Vapor Transmission Rate) properties. Multilayer thin-film deposition technology of organic and inorganic layer is very effective method for increasing barrier performance of OLED device. Gases and water in the organic evaporating system is having a strong influence as impurities to OLED device. CRYO pump is one of the very useful vacuum components to reduce above impurities. There for CRYO pump is faster than conventional TMP exhaust velocity of gases and water. So, we suggest new method to make a good vacuum condition which is CRYO Trap addition on OLED evaporator. Alignment accuracy is one of the key technologies to perform high resolution OLED device. In order to reduce vibration characteristic of CRYO pump, ULVAC has developed low vibration CRYO pumps to achieve high resolution alignment performance between Metal mask and substrate. This report also includes ULVAC's approach for these issues.