• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.33-37
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• 2014

We have developed a novel passivation process employing a sacrificial gallium oxide process in order to recover the surface damage in AlGaN/GaN HFETs. Even with a conventional prepassivation process, surface damage during high temperature ohmic annealing cannot be avoided completely. Therefore, it is necessary to recover the damaged surface to avoid the characteristic degradation. In this work, a sacrificial gallium oxide process has been proposed in which the damaged surface after ohmic annealing was oxidized by oxygen plasma treatment and thereafter etched back using HCl. As a result, the leakage current was dramatically reduced and thus the subthreshold slope was significantly improved. In addition, the maximum drain current level was increased from 594 to 634 mA/mm. To verify the effects, the surface conditions were carefully investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.467-475
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• 2004

ZnO epilayer were synthesized by the pulsed laser deposition(PLD) process on $Al_2$ $O_3$substrate after irradiating the surface of the ZnO sintered pellet by the ArF(193 nm) excimer laser. The epilayers of ZnO were achieved on sapphire(A $l_2$ $O_3$) substrate at a temperature of 400 $^{\circ}C$. The crystalline structure of epilayer was investigated by the photoluminescence and double crystal X-ray diffraction(DCXD). The carrier density and mobility of ZnO epilayer measured with Hall effect by van der Pauw method are 8.27${\times}$$10^{16}$$cm^{-3}$ and 299 $\textrm{cm}^2$/Vㆍs at 293 K, respectively. The temperature dependence of the energy band gap of the ZnO obtained from the absorption spectra was well described by the Varshni's relation, $E_{g}$(T)= 3.3973 eV - (2.69 ${\times}$ 10$_{-4}$ eV/K) $T^2$(T＋463k). After the as-grown ZnO epilayer was annealed in Zn atmospheres, oxygen and vaccum the origin of point defects of ZnO atmospheres has been investigated by the photoluminescence(PL) at 10 K. The native defects of $V_{Zn}$ , $V_{o}$ , Z $n_{int}$, and $O_{int}$ obtained by PL measurements were classified as a donors or accepters type. In addition, we concluded that the heat-treatment in the oxygen atmosphere converted ZnO thin films to an optical p-type. Also, we confirmed that vacuum in ZnO/A $l_2$ $O_3$did not form the native defects because vacuum in ZnO thin films existed in the form of stable bonds.s.s.s.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.157-157
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• 2010

Vertical-structure light-emitting diodes (V-LEDs) by laser lift-off (LLO) have been exploited for high-efficiency GaN-based LEDs of solid-state lightings. In V-LEDs, emitted light from active regions is reflected-up from reflective ohmic contacts on p-GaN. Therefore, silver (Ag) is very suitable for reflective contacts due to its high reflectance (>95%) and surface plasmon coupling to visible light emissions. In addition, low contact resistivity has been obtained from Ag-based ohmic contacts annealed in oxygen ambient. However, annealing in oxygen ambient causes Ag to be oxidized and/or agglomerated, leading to degradation in both electrical and optical properties. Therefore, preventing Ag from oxidation and/or agglomeration is a key aspect for high-performance V-LEDs. In this work, we demonstrate the enhanced thermal stability of Ag-based Ohmic contact to p-GaN by reducing the thermal compressive stress. The thermal compressive stress due to the large difference in CTE between GaN ($5.6{\times}10^{-6}/^{\circ}C$) and Ag ($18.9{\times}10^{-6}/^{\circ}C$) accelerate the diffusion of Ag atoms, leading to Ag agglomeration. Therefore, by increasing the additional residual tensile stress in Ag film, the thermal compressive stress could be reduced, resulting in the enhancement of Ag agglomeration resistance. We employ the thin Ni layer in Ag film to form Ni/Ag mutli-layer structure, because the lattice constant of NiO ($4.176\;{\AA}$ is larger than that of Ag ($4.086\;{\AA}$). High-resolution symmetric and asymmetric X-ray diffraction was used to measure the in-plane strain of Ag films. Due to the expansion of lattice constant by oxidation of Ni into NiO layer, Ag layer in Ni/Ag multi-layer structure was tensilely strained after annealing. Based on experimental results, it could be concluded that the reduction of thermal compressive stress by additional tensile stress in Ag film plays a critical role to enhance the thermal stability of Ag-based Ohmic contact to p-GaN.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 1999

Ferroelectric $Sr_{0.7}/B_{2.3}(Ta_{1-x}Nb_x)_2O_9$(x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) thin films were deposited on $Pt/SiO_2/Si$ substrate by MOD(Metalorganic Decomposition) process. Metal carboxylate and metal alkoxide were used as precursors, and 2-methoxyethanol, xylene as solvents. After spin coating, thin films were pre-annealed at $400^{\circ}C$, followed by RTA(Rapid Thermal Annealing) and final annealing at $800^{\circ}C$ in oxygen atmosphere. These procedures were repeated three times to obtain thin films with the thickness of $2000{\AA}$. To enhance the nucleation and growth of layered-perovskite phase, thin films were rapid-thermally annealed above $720^{\circ}C$ in oxygen atmosphere. As RTA temperature increased, fluorite phase was transformed to layered-perovskite phase. And the change of Nb contents affected dielectric / electrical properties and microstructure. The ferroelectric characteristics of $Sr_{0.7}/B_{2.3}(Ta_{1-x}Nb_x)_2O_9$ thin film were Pr=8.67 $\mu{C}/cm^2$, Ec=62.4kV/cm and $I_{L}=1.4\times10^{-7}A/cm^2$ at the applied voltage of 5V, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.231-236
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• 2018

We report p-type electrical characteristics of the amorphous $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ thin films which were sputtered on the glass substrates using an RF sputtering system. As-deposited thin films at room temperature and $300^{\circ}C$ were amorphous in nature. Post-annealing of the thin film samples over $400^{\circ}C$ resulted in the nano-crystallization of the $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$. The electrical properties of the films were much dependent on the oxygen partial pressure, temperature of the post-annealing and sputtering ambient. The as-deposited samples at room temperature show a hole concentration of $7.82{\times}10^{13}cm^{-3}$, and it could be increased as high as $3.51{\times}10^{22}cm^{-3}$ when the films were post-annealed in an oxygen atmosphere at $500^{\circ}C$. Such p-type conductivity behavior of the $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ films suggests that the amorphous and nano-crystallized $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ films have potential for the application as p-type semiconductive or conductive materials at low temperatures where material diffusion is limited.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.288-289
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• 2011

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is a typical highly Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) currently used as a transparent electrode material. Most widely used deposition method is the sputtering process for ITO film deposition because it has a high deposition rate, allows accurate control of the film thickness and easy deposition process and high electrical/optical properties. However, to apply high quality ITO thin film in a flexible microelectronic device using a plastic substrate, conventional DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) processed ITO thin film is not suitable because it needs a high temperature thermal annealing process to obtain high optical transmittance and low resistivity, while the generally plastic substrates has low glass transition temperatures. In the room temperature sputtering process, the electrical property degradation of ITO thin film is caused by negative oxygen ions effect. This high energy negative oxygen ions(about over 100eV) can be critical physical bombardment damages against the formation of the ITO thin film, and this damage does not recover in the room temperature process that does not offer thermal annealing. Hence new ITO deposition process that can provide the high electrical/optical properties of the ITO film at room temperature is needed. To solve these limitations we develop the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) system. The MFSS is based on DMS and it has the plasma limiter, which compose the permanent magnet array (Fig.1). During the ITO thin film deposition in the MFSS process, the electrons in the plasma are trapped by the magnetic field at the plasma limiters. The plasma limiter, which has a negative potential in the MFSS process, prevents to the damage by negative oxygen ions bombardment, and increases the heat(-) up effect by the Ar ions in the bulk plasma. Fig. 2. shows the electrical properties of the MFSS ITO thin film and DMS ITO thin film at room temperature. With the increase of the sputtering pressure, the resistivity of DMS ITO increases. On the other hand, the resistivity of the MFSS ITO slightly increases and becomes lower than that of the DMS ITO at all sputtering pressures. The lowest resistivity of the DMS ITO is $1.0{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and that of the MFSS ITO is $4.5{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. This resistivity difference is caused by the carrier mobility. The carrier mobility of the MFSS ITO is 40 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, which is significantly higher than that of the DMS ITO (10 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$). The low resistivity and high carrier mobility of the MFSS ITO are due to the magnetic field shielded effect. In addition, although not shown in this paper, the roughness of the MFSS ITO thin film is lower than that of the DMS ITO thin film, and TEM, XRD and XPS analysis of the MFSS ITO show the nano-crystalline structure. As a result, the MFSS process can effectively prevent to the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment and supply activation energies by accelerating Ar ions in the plasma; therefore, high quality ITO can be deposited at room temperature.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.471-478
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• 2013

PURPOSE. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of annealing on the nanostructure and hardness of Co-Cr metal ceramic samples that were fabricated with a direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Five groups of Co-Cr dental alloy samples were manufactured in a rectangular form measuring $4{\times}2{\times}2$ mm. Samples fabricated by a conventional casting technique (Group I) and prefabricated milling blanks (Group II) were examined as conventional technique groups. The DMLS samples were randomly divided into three groups as not annealed (Group III), annealed in argon atmosphere (Group IV), or annealed in oxygen atmosphere (Group V). The nanostructure was examined with the small-angle X-ray scattering method. The Rockwell hardness test was used to measure the hardness changes in each group, and the means and standard deviations were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA for comparison of continuous variables and Tukey's HSD test was used for post hoc analysis. P values of <.05 were accepted as statistically significant. RESULTS. The general nanostructures of the samples were composed of small spherical entities stacked atop one another in dendritic form. All groups also displayed different hardness values depending on the manufacturing technique. The annealing procedure and environment directly affected both the nanostructure and hardness of the Co-Cr alloy. Group III exhibited a non-homogeneous structure and increased hardness ($48.16{\pm}3.02$ HRC) because the annealing process was incomplete and the inner stress was not relieved. Annealing in argon atmosphere of Group IV not only relieved the inner stresses but also decreased the hardness ($27.40{\pm}3.98$ HRC). The results of fitting function presented that Group IV was the most homogeneous product as the minimum bilayer thickness was measured (7.11 ${\AA}$). CONCLUSION. After the manufacturing with DMLS technique, annealing in argon atmosphere is an essential process for Co-Cr metal ceramic substructures. The dentists should be familiar with the materials that are used in clinic for prosthodontics treatments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.41-41
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• 2009

We utilized atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the growth of the ZnO channel layers in the oxide thin-film-transistors (TFTs) with a bottom-gate structure using a $SiO_2/p-Si$ substrate. For fundamental study, the effect of the channel thickness and thermal treatment on the TFT performance was investigated. The growth modes for the ALD grown ZnO layer changed from island growth to layer-by-layer growth at thicknesses of > 7.5 nm with highly resistive properties. A channel thickness of 17 nm resulted in the good TFT behavior with an onloff current ratio of > $10^6$ and a field effect mobility of 2.9 without the need for thermal annealing. However, further increases in the channel thickness resulted in a deterioration of the TFT performance or no saturation. The ALD grown ZnO layers showed reduced electrical resistivity and carrier density after thermal treatment in oxygen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.19-19
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• 2009

TiNxOy/TiNx multilayer thin films with a high resistance (~ k$Omega$) were deposited on SiO2/Si substrates at room temperature by sputtering. The TiNx thin films show island and smooth surface morphology in samples prepared by dc and rf magnetron sputtering, respectively. TiNxOy/TiNx multilayer has been developed to control temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) by the incorporation of TiNx layer (positive TCR) inserted into TiNxOy layers(negative TCR). Electrical and structural properties of sputtered TiNxOy/TiNx multilayer films were investigated as a function of annealing temperature. In order to achieve a stable high resistivity, multilayer films were annealed at various temperatures in oxygen ambient. Samples annealed at 700 oC for 1 min exhibit a good TCR value and a stable high resistivity.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.293-300
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• 2005

ZnO:Li epilayers were synthesized on sapphire substrates by the pulesd laser deposition (PLD) after the surface of the ZnO:Li sintered pellet was irradiated by the ArF (193 nm) excimer laser. The growth temperature was fixed at $400^{\circ}C$. The crystalline structure of epilayers was investigated by the photoluminescence (PL) and double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXD). The carrier density and mobility of epilayers measured by van der Pauw-Hall method are $2.69\times10cm^{-3}$ and $52.137cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ at 293 K, respectively. The temperature dependence of the energy band gap of epilayers obtained from the absorption spectra is well described by the Varshni's relation, $E_g(T)=3.5128eV{\cdot}(9.51\times10^{-4}eV/K)T^2/(T+280K)$. After the as-grown ZnO:Li epilayer was annealed in Zn atmospheres, oxygen and vaccum the origin of point defects of ZnO:Li has been investigated by PL at 10 K. The Peaks of native defects of $V_{zn},\;V_o,\;Zn_{int},\;and\;O_{int}$ showned on PL spectrum are classified as a donors or accepters type. We confirm that $ZnO:Li/Al_2O_3$ in vacuum do not form the native defects because ZnO:Li epilayers in vacuum existe in the form of stable bonds.