• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.127-131
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• 2005

We report a nanometer scale mark formation using a $PtO_x$ thin film or a TbFeCo rare-earth transition metal film and the mechanism. The multi-layer samples($ZnS-SiO_2/PtOx/ZNS-SiO_2,\;ZnS-SiO_2/TbFeCo/ZnS-SiO_2$) were prepared with a magnetron sputtering method on a polycarbonate or a glass substrate. By laser irradiation of approximately a few nanoseconds, nanometer scale marks were fabricated. During the fabrication process, the thin films were thermally reacted or inter-diffused during the laser irradiation. 75 nm bubble marks in the PtOx multi-layer sample by an approximately 4-ns laser irradiation. Inside the bubble mark, Pt particles with a few nanometer sizes are distributed. The $50{\sim}100$ nm bubble marks in the TbFeCo multi-layer sample by a few nanosecond laser irradiations. We will report the detail structure of the samples, the bubble mark formation process and the mechanism.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.61-66
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• 2005

In order to make submicron cell for spin-injection device, lift-off method using Pt stencil and wet etching was chosen. This approach allows batch fabrication of stencil substrate with electron-beam lithography. It simplifies the process between magnetic film stack deposition and final device testing, thus enabling rapid turnaround in sample fabrication. Submicron junctions with size of $200nm{\times}300nm$ and $500nm{\times}500nm$ 500 nm and pseudo spin valve structure of $CoFe(30{\AA})/Cu(100{\AA})/CoFe(120{\AA}$) was deposited into the nanojunctions. MR ratio was 0.8 and $1.1{\%}$, respectively and spin transfer effect was confirmed with critical current of $7.65{\times}10^7A/cm^2$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.661-665
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• 2013

We investigated the characteristics of electroless plated Cu films on screen printed Ag/Anodized Al substrate. Cu plating was attempted using neutral electroless plating processes to minimize damage of the anodized Al substrate; this method used sodium hypophosphite instead of formaldehyde as a reducing agent. The basic electroless solution consisted of $CuSO_4{\cdot}5H_2O$ as the main metal source, $NaH_2PO_2{\cdot}H_2O$ as the reducing agent, $C_6H_5Na_3O_7{\cdot}2H_2O$ and $NH_4Cl$ as the complex agents, and $NiSO_4{\cdot}6H_2O$ as the catalyser for the oxidation of the reducing agent, dissolved in deionized water. The pH of the Cu plating solutions was adjusted using $NH_4OH$. According to the variation of pH in the range of 6.5~8, the electroless plated Cu films were coated on screen printed Ag pattern/anodized Al/Al at $70^{\circ}C$. We investigated the surface morphology change of the Cu films using FE-SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy). The chemical composition of the Cu film was determined using XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). The crystal structures of the Cu films were investigated using XRD (X-ray Diffraction). Using electroless plating at pH 7, the structures of the plated Cu-rich films were typical fcc-Cu; however, a slight Ni component was co-deposited. Finally, we found that the formation of Cu film plated selectively on PCB without any lithography is possible using a neutral electroless plating process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.589-593
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• 2005

Nanoimprinting lithography (NIL) is known as a suitable technique for fabricating nano and micro structures of high definition. Hot embossing is one of NIL techniques and can imprint on thin films and bulk polymers. Key issues of hot embossing are time and expense needed to produce a stamp withstanding a high temperature and pressure. Fabrication of a metal stamp such as an electroplated nickel is cost intensive and time consuming. A ceramic stamp made by silicon is easy to break when the pressure is applied. In this paper, a plastic stamp using a high temperature epoxy was fabricated and tested. The plastic stamp was relatively inexpensive, rapid to produce and durable enough to withstanding multiple hot embossing cycles. The merits of low viscosity epoxy solutions were a fast degassing and a rapid filling the microstructures. The hot embossing process with plastic stamp was performed on PMMA substrates. The hot embossing was conducted at 12.6 bar, $120^{\circ}C$ and 10 minutes. An imprinted PMMA wafer was almost same value of the plastic stamp after 10 times embossing. Entire fabrication process from silicon master to plastic stamp was completed within 12 hours.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.2187-2193
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• 2002

We present a novel method for 3D microfabrication with LIGA process that utilizes a deep X-ray mask in which a micro-actuator is integrated. The integrated micro-actuator oscillates the X-ray absorber, which is formed on the shuttle mass of the micro-actuator, during X-ray exposures to modify the absorbed dose profile in X-ray resist, typically PMMA. 3D PMMA microstructures according to the modulated dose contour are revealed after GG development. An X-ray mask with integrated comb drive actuator is fabricated using deep reactive ion etching, absorber electroplating, and bulk micromachining with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. 1mm $\times$ 1 mm, 20 $\mu$m thick silicon shuttle mass as a mask blank is supported by four 1 mm long suspension beams and is driven by the comb electrodes. A 10 $\mu$m thick, 50 $\mu$m line and spaced gold absorber pattern is electroplated on the shuttle mass before the release step. The fundamental frequency and amplitude are around 3.6 kHz and 20 $\mu$m, respectively, for a do bias of 100 V and an ac bias of 20 $V_{p-p}$ (peak-peak). Fabricated PMMA microstructure shows 15.4 $\mu$m deep, S-shaped cross section in the case of 1.6 kJ $cm^{-3}$ surface dose and GG development at 35$^{\circ}C$ for 40 minutes.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2018

In this research, we investigated the cleanliness by optimizing the water content of the aqueous stripper in fluidic strip process. The stripping properties of the photoresist with optimized aqueous stripper were compared with the commercial organic stripper. The stripping performance was evaluated by electrical and optical characteristics on the surface of the transparent electrode that compare with stripped the transparent electrode surface and the rare surface before patterning by the photoresist. As a result of the photoresist stripping process of the organic stripper and the aqueous stripper optimized for water content, the aqueous stripper exhibited better electrical and optical characteristics than the organic stripper. In the case of the fluidic strip process with organic stripper, the photoresist dissolves in the stripper solution during stripping which can cause re-adsorption by contamination. Whereas that the aqueous stripper under development seems to decrease the photoresist dissolution in the stripper solution. Because the cyclodextrin contained in the stripper captures organic photoresist into hall of cyclodextrin which stripped through swelling and tearing. The photoresist residue captured by the cyclodextrin can be filtered. After the fluidic stripping process by different chemical stripping mechanism, the cleanliness of the organic stripper and aqueous stripper was compared and analyzed.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.79-84
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• 2010

Formation of TSV (Through-Si-Via) with an Au seed layer and Cu filling to the via, simplification of bumping process for three dimensional stacking of Si dice were investigated. In order to produce the via holes, the Si wafer was etched by a DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion Etching) process using $SF_6$ and $C_4F_8$ plasmas alternately. The vias were 40 ${\mu}m$ in diameter, 80 ${\mu}m$ in depth, and were produced by etching for 1.92 ks. On the via side wall, a dielectric layer of $SiO_2$ was formed by thermal oxidation, and an adhesion layer of Ti, and a seed layer of Au were applied by sputtering. Electroplating with pulsed DC was applied to fill the via holes with Cu. The plating condition was at a forward pulse current density of 1000 mA/$dm^2$ for 5 s and a reverse pulse current density of 190 mA/$dm^2$ for 25 s. By using these parameters, sound Cu filling was obtained in the vias with a total plating time of 57.6 ks. Sn bumping was performed on the Cu plugs without lithography process. The bumps were produced on the Si die successfully by the simplified process without serious defect.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.12 no.4 s.37
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• pp.275-280
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• 2005

We propose a new approach to greatly simplify the fabrication of conventional nanoimprint lithography (NIL) by combined nanoimprint and photolithography (CNP). We introduce a hybrid mask mold (HMM) made from UV transparent material with a UV-blocking Cr metal layer placed on top of the mold protrusions. We used a negative tone photo resist (PR) with higher selectivity to substrate the CNP process instead of the UV curable monomer and thermal plastic polymer that has been commonly used in NIL. Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on HMM plays a reliable role for pattern transfer when the HMM is separated from the transfer layer. Hydrophilic $SiO_2$ thin film was deposited on all parts of the HMM, which improved the formation of SAM. This $SiO_2$ film made a sub-10nm formation without any pattern damage. In the CNP technique with HMM, the 'residual layer' of the PR was chemically removed by the conventional developing process. Thus, it was possible to simplify the process by eliminating the dry etching process, which was essential in the conventional NIL method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.348-348
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• 2011

Carbon nanotube (CNT) field effect transistors and sensors use CNT as a current channel, of which the resistance varies with the gate voltage or upon molecule adsorption. Since the performance of CNT devices depends very much on the CNT/metal contact resistance, the CNT/electrode contact must be stable and the contact resistance must be small. Depending on the geometry of CNT/electrode contact, it can be categorized into the end-contact, embedded-contact (top-contact), and side-contact (bottom-contact). Because of difficulties in the sample preparation, the end-contact CNT device is seldom practiced. The embedded-contact in which CNT is embedded inside the electrode is desirable due to its rigidness and the low contact resistance. Fabrication of this structure is complicated, however, because each CNT has to be located under a high-resolution microscope and then the electrode is patterned by electron beam lithography. The side-contact is done by depositing CNT electrophoretically or by precipitating on the patterned electrode. Although this contact is fragile and the contact resistance is relatively high, the side-contact by far has been widely practiced because of its simple fabrication process. Here we introduce a simple method to embed CNT inside the electrode while taking advantage of the bottom-contact process. The idea is to utilize a eutectic material as an electrode, which melts at low temperature so that CNT is not damaged while annealing to melt the electrode to embed CNT. The lowering of CNT/Au contact resistance upon annealing at mild temperature has been reported, but the electrode in these studies did not melt and CNT laid on the surface of electrode even after annealing. In our experiment, we used a eutectic Au/Al film that melts at 250$^{\circ}C$. After depositing CNT on the electrode made of an Au/Al thin film, we annealed the sample at 250$^{\circ}C$ in air to induce eutectic melting. As a result, Au-Al alloy grains formed, under which the CNT was embedded to produce a rigid and low resistance contact. The embedded CNT contact was as strong as to tolerate the ultrasonic agitation for 90 s and the current-voltage measurement indicated that the contact resistance was lowered by a factor of 4. By performing standard fabrication process on this CNT-deposited substrate to add another pair of electrodes bridged by CNT in perpendicular direction, we could fabricate a CNT cross junction. Finally, we could conclude that the eutectic alloy electrode is valid for CNT sensors by examine the detection of Au ion which is spontaneously reduced to CNT surface. The device sustatined strong washing process and maintained its detection ability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1210-1210
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• 2001

On farm analysis of protein, moisture and oil in cereals and oil seeds is quickly being adopted by Australian farmers. The benefits of being able to measure protein and oil in grains and oil seeds are several : $\square$ Optimize crop payments $\square$ Monitor effects of fertilization $\square$ Blend on farm to meet market requirements $\square$ Off farm marketing - sell crop with load by load analysis However farmers are not NIR spectroscopists and the process of calibrating instruments has to the duty of the supplier. With the potential number of On Farm analyser being in the thousands, then the task of calibrating each instrument would be impossible, let alone the problems encountered with updating calibrations from season to season. As such, NIR technology Australia has developed a mechanism for \ulcorner\ulcorner\ulcorner their range of Cropscan 2000G NIR analysers so that a single calibration can be transferred from the master instrument to every slave instrument. Whole grain analysis has been developed over the last 10 years using Near Infrared Transmission through a sample of grain with a pathlength varying from 5-30mm. A continuous spectrum from 800-1100nm is the optimal wavelength coverage fro these applications and a grating based spectrophotometer has proven to provide the best means of producing this spectrum. The most important aspect of standardizing NIB instruments is to duplicate the spectral information. The task is to align spectrum from the slave instruments to the master instrument in terms of wavelength positioning and then to adjust the spectral response at each wavelength in order that the slave instruments mimic the master instrument. The Cropscan 2000G and 2000B Whole Grain Analyser use flat field spectrographs to produce a spectrum from 720-1100nm and a silicon photodiode array detector to collect the spectrum at approximately 10nm intervals. The concave holographic gratings used in the flat field spectrographs are produced by a process of photo lithography. As such each grating is an exact replica of the original. To align wavelengths in these instruments, NIR wheat sample scanned on the master and the slave instruments provides three check points in the spectrum to make a more exact alignment. Once the wavelengths are matched then many samples of wheat, approximately 10, exhibiting absorbances from 2 to 4.5 Abu, are scanned on the master and then on each slave. Using a simple linear regression technique, a slope and bias adjustment is made for each pixel of the detector. This process corrects the spectral response at each wavelength so that the slave instruments produce the same spectra as the master instrument. It is important to use as broad a range of absorbances in the samples so that a good slope and bias estimate can be calculated. These Slope and Bias (S'||'&'||'B) factors are then downloaded into the slave instruments. Calibrations developed on the master instrument can then be downloaded onto the slave instruments and perform similarly to the master instrument. The data shown in this paper illustrates the process of calculating these S'||'&'||'B factors and the transfer of calibrations for wheat, barley and sorghum between several instruments.