• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.2037-2042
• /
• 2013

A TCO-less palladium (Pd) catalytic layer on the glass substrate was assessed as the counter electrode (CE) in a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to confirm the stability of Pd with the $I^-/I_3{^-}$electrolyte on the DSSC performance. A 90nm-thick Pd film was deposited by a thermal evaporator. Finally, DSSC devices of $0.45cm^2$ with glass/FTO/blocking layer/$TiO_2$/dye/electrolyte(10 mM LiI + 1 mM $I_2$ + 0.1 M $LiClO_4$ in acetonitrile solution)/Pd/glass structure was prepared. We investigated the microstructure and photovoltaic property at 1 and 12 hours after the sample preparation. The optical microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), cyclic voltammetry measurement (C-V), and current voltage (I-V) were employed to measure the microstructure and photovoltaic property evolution. Microstructure analysis showed that the corrosion by reaction between the Pd layer and the electrolyte occurred as time went by, which led the decrease of the catalytic activity and the efficiency. I-V result revealed that the energy conversion efficiency after 1 and 12 hours was 0.34% and 0.15%, respectively. Our results implied that we might employ the other non-$I^-/I_3{^-}$electrolyte or the other catalytic metal layers to guarantee the long term stability of the DSSC devices.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.42-46
• /
• 2008

Even though fuel cell have high efficiency when pure hydrogen from gas tank is used as a fuel source, it is more beneficial to generate hydrogen from city gas (mainly methane) in residential application such as domestic or office environments. Thus hydrogen is generated by reforming process using hydrocarbon. Unfortunately, the reforming process for hydrogen production is accompanied with unavoidable impurities. Impurities such as CO, $CO_2$, $H_2S$, $NH_3$, $CH_4$, and $CH_4$ in hydrogen could cause negative effects on fuel cell performance. Those effects are kinetic losses due to poisoning of the electrode catalysts, ohmic losses due to proton conductivity reduction including membrane and catalyst ionomer layers, and mass transport losses due to degrading catalyst layer structure and hydrophobic property. Hydrogen produced from reformer eventually contains around 73% of $H_2$, 20% or less of $CO_2$, 5.8% of less of $N_2$, or 2% less of $CH_4$, and 10ppm or less of CO. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of carbon dioxide on fuel cell performance. The performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated using current vs. potential experiment, long run(10 hr) test, and electrochemical impedance measurement when the concentrations of carbon dioxide were 10%, 20% and 30%. Also, the concentration of impurity supplied to the fuel cell was verified by gas chromatography(GC).

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.328-332
• /
• 2012

The work function of Ag (silver) is too low (~4.3 eV) to be used as an electrode of T-OLED (Top Emission Organic Light Emitting Diode). To solve this weakness, researches used plasma-, UV-, or thermal treatment on Ag films in order to increase the work function (~5.0 eV). So, most of studies have focused only on the work function of various treated Ag films, but studies focusing on nanomechanical properties were very important to investigate the efficiency and life time of T-OLED etc. In this paper, we focused on the mechanical properties of the Ag and $AgO_x$ film. The Ag was deposited on a glass substrate with the thickness of 150 nm by using rf-magnetron sputter with the power was fixed at 100 W and working pressure was 3 mTorr. The deposited Ag film was UV treated by UV lamp for several minutes (0~9 min). We measured the sheet resistance and mechanical property of the deposited film. From the experimental result, there were some differences of the sheet resistance and surface hardness of Ag thin film between short time (0~3 min) and long time UV treatment. These result presumed that the induced stress was taken place by the surface oxidation after UV treatment.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.644-647
• /
• 2006

The indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin films were deposited using a radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering method. Among the various processing variables, $O_{2}$ concentration and annealing temperature after deposition were selected and the optical, electrical, and structural properties of IZO thin films were investigated. As the $O_{2}$ concentration increased, the deposition rate of IZO thin films decreased, the resistivity increased and the transmittance slightly increased. According to atomic force microscopy analysis, the IZO films deposited at pure Ar showed rough surface and those deposited with $O_{2}$ addition exhibited relatively smooth surface. The IZO thin films deposited at pure Ar were annealed at 250, 350, and $450^{\circ}C$, respectively. The IZO thin film deposited at pure Ar showed the lowest transmittance and resistivity and resistivity greatly increased at the annealing temperature exceeding $250^{\circ}C$. The higher annealing temperature IZO films were annealed at, the smoother surface the films showed. The x-ray diffraction revealed that IZO films annealed at higher temperature had better crystalline structures.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.183-190
• /
• 1999

The purpose of this study was to develop a portable and convenient closed-loop contrel type electrical stimulator for patients with foot drop. This system restores walking movement as well as prevents from atrophy or necrosis of lower limb muscles and increases blood circulation in hemiplegic patients caused by traffic accident, industrial disaster or stoke. This system detects the changes of the ankle joint angle during walking, and then controls the stimulus intensity automatically to maintain the programmed level of the ankle joint angle. Also, this automatic system controls the stimulus intensity which is affected by increased electrode impedance resulting from long time use. The system detects the joint angle by an optical sensor and includes modified PID control which adjusts the stimulus intensity if the joint angle deviates from the preset value. Stimulus parameters are 30~80 volt, 40 Hz, and 0.2 ms. The system was applied to five hemiplegic patients for 42 days. Duration of stimulation was 15 min/day for the first week and then the duration was gradually increased to 30, 60, 90 and 120 min/day. The muscle force was increased up to 29.7%, muscle fatigue was decreased compared with the level before stimulation and the pattern of locomotion was improved. These results suggest that the electrical stimulator with closed-loop control type is more convenient and effective in restoration of locomotion of patients with foot drop than open-loop system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2010.03a
• /
• pp.16-16
• /
• 2010

GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are attracting great interest as candidates for next-generation solid-state lighting, because of their long lifetime, small size, high efficacy, and low energy consumption. However, for general illumination applications, the external quantum efficiency of LEDs, determined by the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and the light extraction efficiency, must be further increased. The IQE is determined by crystal quality and epitaxial layer structure and high value of IQE more than 70% for blue LEDs have been already reported. However, there is much room for improvement of light extraction efficiency because most of the generated photons from active layer remain inside LEDs by total internal reflection at the interface of semiconductor with air due to the high refractive index difference between LEDs epilayer (for GaN, n=2.5) and air (n=1). The light confining in LEDs will be reabsorbed by the metal electrode or active layer, reducing the efficacy of LEDs. Here, we present the first demonstration of enhanced light extraction by forming a MgO nano-pyramids structure on the surface of vertical-LEDs. The MgO nano-pyramids structure was successfully fabricated at room temperature using conventional electron-beam evaporation without any additional process. The nano-sized pyramids of MgO are formed on the surface during growth due to anisotropic characteristics between (111) and (200) plane of MgO. The ZnO layer with quarter-wavelength in thickness is inserted between GaN and MgO layers to increase the critical angle for total internal reflection, because the refractive index of ZnO (n=1.94) could be matched between GaN (n=2.5) and MgO (n=1.73). The MgO nano-pyramids structure and ZnO refractive-index modulation layer enhanced the light extraction efficiency ofV-LEDs with by 49%, comparing with the V-LEDs with a flat n-GaN surface. The angular-dependent emission intensity shows the enhanced light extraction through the side walls of V-LEDs as well as through the top surface of the n-GaN, because of the increase in critical angle for total internal reflection as well as light scattering at the MgO nano-pyramids surface.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.48 no.12
• /
• pp.8-14
• /
• 2011

The optimal geometry of the gate field plate in AlGaN/GaN-on-Si HEMT has been proposed using two-dimensional device simulation to achieve a high breakdown voltage for a given gate-to-drain distance. It was found that the breakdown voltage was drastically enhanced due to the reduced electric field at the gate corner when a gate field plate was employed. The electric field distribution at the gate corner and the field plate edge was investigated as functions of field plate length and insulator thickness. According to the simulation results, the electric field at the gate corner can be successfully reduced even with the field plate length of 1 ${\mu}m$. On the other hand, when the field plate length is too long, the distance between field plate and drain electrode is reduced below a critical level, which eventually lowers the breakdown voltage. The highest breakdown voltage was achieved with the field plate length of 1 ${\mu}m$. According to the simulation results varying the $SiN_x$ film thickness for the fixed field plate length of 1 ${\mu}m$, the optimum thickness range of the $SiN_x$ film was 200 - 300 nm where the electric field strength at the field plate edge counterbalances that of the gate corner.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.21 no.7
• /
• pp.831-841
• /
• 2010

The conventional vertical probe has the thin and long signal path that makes transfer characteristic of probe worse because of the S-shaped structure. So we propose the new vertical probe structure that has branch springs in the S-shaped probe. It makes closed loop when the probe mechanically connects to the electrode on a wafer. We fabricated the proposed vertical probe and measured the transfer characteristic and mechanical properties. Compared to the conventional S-shaped vertical probe, the proposed probe has the overdrive that is 1.2 times larger and the contact force that is 2.5 times larger. And we got the improved transfer characteristic by 1.4 dB in $0{\sim}10$ GHz. Also we developed the simulation model of the probe card by using full-wave simulator and the simulation result is correlated with measurement one. As a result of this simulation model, the cantilever probe and PCB have the worst transfer characteristic in the probe card.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 2009

A polymer-based flexible neural probe was fabricated for monitoring of neural activities from a brain. To improve the insertion stiffness, a 5 ${\mu}m$ thick biocompatible Au layer was electroplated between the top and bottom polymer layers. The developed neural probe penetrated a gel whose elastic modulus is similar to that of a live brain tissue without any fracture, To minimize mechanical residual stress and bending from the probe, two new methods were employed: (1) use of a thermal annealing process after completing the device and (2) incorporation of multiple different layers to compensate the residual stress between top and bottom layers. Mechanical bending around the probe tip was clearly removed after employing the two processes. In electrical test, the developed probe showed a proper impedance value to record neural signals from a brain and the result remained the same for 72 hours. In simple in-vitro probe characterization, the probe showed a great removal of residual stress and an excellent recording performance. The in-vitro recording results did not change even after 1 week, suggesting that this electrode has the potential for great recording from neuron firing and long-term implant performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.78-78
• /
• 2013

Recently, many platinoid metals like platinum and ruthenium have been used as an electrode of microelectronic devices because of their low resistivity and high work-function. However the material cost of Ru is very expensive and it usually takes long initial nucleation time on SiO2 during chemical deposition. Therefore many researchers have focused on how to enhance the initial growth rate on SiO2 surface. There are two methods to deposit Ru film with atomic layer deposition (ALD); the one is thermal ALD using dilute oxygen gas as a reactant, and the other is plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) using NH3 plasma as a reactant. Generally, the film roughness of Ru film deposited by PEALD is smoother than that deposited by thermal ALD. However, the plasma is not favorable in the application of high aspect ratio structure. In this study, we used a bis(ethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium [Ru(EtCp)2] as a metal organic precursor for both thermal and plasma enhanced ALDs. In order to reduce initial nucleation time, we use several methods such as Ar plasma pre-treatment for PEALD and usage of sacrificial RuO2 under layer for thermal ALD. In case of PEALD, some of surface hydroxyls were removed from SiO2 substrate during the Ar plasma treatment. And relatively high surface nitrogen concentration after first NH3 plasma exposure step in ALD process was observed with in-situ Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). This means that surface amine filled the hydroxyl removed sites by the NH3 plasma. Surface amine played a role as a reduction site but not a nucleation site. Therefore, the precursor reduction was enhanced but the adhesion property was degraded. In case of thermal ALD, a Ru film was deposited from Ru precursors on the surface of RuO2 and the RuO2 film was reduced from RuO2/SiO2 interface to Ru during the deposition. The reduction process was controlled by oxygen partial pressure in ambient. Under high oxygen partial pressure, RuO2 was deposited on RuO2/SiO2, and under medium oxygen partial pressure, RuO2 was partially reduced and oxygen concentration in RuO2 film was decreased. Under low oxygen partial pressure, finally RuO2 was disappeared and about 3% of oxygen was remained. Usually rough surface was observed with longer initial nucleation time. However, the Ru deposited with reduction of RuO2 exhibits smooth surface and was deposited quickly because the sacrificial RuO2 has no initial nucleation time on SiO2 and played a role as a buffer layer between Ru and SiO2.