• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.59 no.1
• /
• pp.127-129
• /
• 2010

We report the passivation characteristics of dodecanethiol (DDT) molecules on gold electrodes of field effect transistor bio-sensors. The leakage current between the electrolyte and the electrode can be as small as 3pA when 7 mM of DDT passivation is performed. The DDT layer is also shown to resist the attack of acid up to 120 mins.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.203-207
• /
• 2013

P-type Si wafers were dipped in HF solution. The minority carrier lifetime (lifetime) increased after HF treatment due to the hydrogen termination effect. To investigate the film passivation effect, PECVD was used to deposit $SiN_x$ on both HF-treated and untreated wafers. $SiN_x$ generally helped to improve the lifetime. A thermal process at $850^{\circ}C$ reduced the lifetime of all wafers because of the dehydrogenation at high temperature. However, the HF-treated wafers showed better lifetime than untreated wafers. PERCs both passivated and not passivated by HF treatment were fabricated on the rear side, and their characteristics were measured. The short-circuit current density and the open-circuit voltage were improved due to the effectively increased lifetime by HF treatment.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.1040-1043
• /
• 2009

a-IGZO is an attractive material to make an AMOLED device with uniform TFT properties for use in a large size display. However, this material shows TFT properties that are very sensitive to water or hydrogen. Therefore, it is essential to control these critical factors during fabrication of the backplane in order to improve the TFT performance. In this paper, we report the effect of passivation layer properties on the performance of the oxide TFTs.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.209-216
• /
• 2009

In this study the effect of different surface finishing techniques on the pitting corrosion behaviour of a commercial 304 stainless steel alloy was investigated. Surface finishing methods were divided into two categories, i.e. mechanical and chemical. Mechanical treatment methods include power tooling such as grinding, emery paper brushing, stainless steel wire brushing and stainless steel shot blasting. Chemical treatment methods include chemical passivation (phosphoric acid, citric acid, nitric acid) and electro-cleaning (phosphoric acid and citric acid). Potentiodynamic polarization experiments were carried out in 3.5 wt. % NaCl solution at room temp. (20 $^{\circ}C$). The results showed that chemical treatment methods improved the corrosion resistance of stainless steel 304, measured in terms of pitting potential ($E_{pit}$). Corrosion resistance of the specimens was increased in the order of; electro-cleaning > manual passivation > mechanical cleaning. Surface of electro-cleaned specimens was smoother than rest of the surface treatment methods. Chrome content in chemically treated specimens was higher than in mechanically treated specimens as shown by EDX analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.08a
• /
• pp.430-430
• /
• 2012

The surface recombination velocity of the silicon solar cell could be reduced by passivation with insulating layers such as $SiO_2$, SiNx, $Al_2O_3$, a-Si. Especially, the aluminium oxide has advantages over other materials at rear surface, because negative fixed charge via Al vacancy has an additional back surface field effect (BSF). It can increase the lifetime of the hole carrier in p-type silicon. The aluminium oxide thin film layer is usually deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique, which is expensive and has low deposition rate. In this study, ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique was adopted to overcome drawbacks of ALD technique. In addition, it has been known that by annealing aluminium oxide layer in nitrogen atmosphere, the negative fixed charge effect could be further improved. By using ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique, oxygen to nitrogen ratio could be precisely controlled. Fabricated aluminium oxy-nitride (AlON) layer on silicon wafers were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the atomic concentration ratio and chemical states. The electrical properties of Al/($Al_2O_3$ or $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$)/Si (MIS) devices were characterized by the C-V measurement technique using HP 4284A. The detailed characteristics of the AlON passivation layer will be shown and discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.237.1-237.1
• /
• 2016

Electrical properties of graphene-based field effect transistors (G-FETs) can be degraded in ambient conditions owing to physisorbed oxygen or water molecules on the graphene surface. Passivation technique is one of a fascinating strategy for fabrication of G-FETs, which allows to sustain electrical properties of graphene in the long term without disrupting its inherent properties: transparency, flexibility and thinness. Ironically, despite its importance in producing high performance graphene devices, this method has been much less studied compared to patterning or device fabrication processes. Here we report a novel surface passivation method by using atomically thin self-assembled alkane layers such as C18- NH2, C18-Br and C36 to prevent unintentional doping effects that can suppress the degradation of electrical properties. In each passivated device, we observe a shift in charge neutral point to near zero gate voltage and it maintains the device performance for 1 year. In addition, the fabricated PG-FETs on a plastic substrate with ion-gel gate dielectrics exhibit not only mechanical flexibility but also long-term stability in ambient conditions. Therefore, we believe that these highly transparent and ultra-thin passivation layers can become a promising candidate in a wide range of graphene based electronic applications.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.339-344
• /
• 2017

Highly corrosion resistance performance of CrAlSiN coatings were obtained by applying ultrathin $Al_2O_3$ thin films using atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. CrAlSiN coatings were prepared on Cr adhesion layer/SUS304 substrates by a hybrid coating system of arc ion plating and high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) method. And, ultrathin $Al_2O_3$ passivation layer was deposited on the CrAlSiN/Cr adhesion layer/SUS304 sample to protect CrAlSiN coatings by encapsulating the whole surface defects of coating using ALD. Here, the high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) analysis revealed that the ALD $Al_2O_3$ thin films uniformly covered the inner and outer surface of CrAlSiN coatings. Also, the potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization test revealed that the corrosion protection properties of CrAlSiN coatings/Cr/SUS304 sample was greatly improved by ALD encapsulation with 50 nm-thick $Al_2O_3$ thin films, which implies that ALD-$Al_2O_3$ passivation layer can be used as an effect barrier layer of corrosion.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.51-57
• /
• 2019

To protect the Cu surface from oxidation in air, a two-step plasma process using Ar and $N_2$ gases was studied to form a copper nitride passivation as an anti-oxidant layer. The Ar plasma removes contaminants on the Cu surface and it activates the surface to facilitate the reaction of copper and nitrogen atoms in the next $N_2$ plasma process. This study investigated the effect of Ar plasma on the formation of copper nitride passivation on Cu surface during the two-step plasma process through the full factorial design of experiment (DOE) method. According to XPS analysis, when using low RF power and pressure in the Ar plasma process, the peak area of copper oxides decreased while the peak area of copper nitrides increased. The main effect of copper nitride formation in Ar plasma process was RF power, and there was little interaction between plasma process parameters.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.581-588
• /
• 2013

This paper presents a study of the process temperature dependence of $Al_2O_3$ film grown by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a passivation layer in the crystalline Si (c-Si) solar cells. The deposition rate of $Al_2O_3$ film maintained almost the same until $250^{\circ}C$, but decreased from $300^{\circ}C$. $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ was found to have the highest negative fixed oxide charge density ($Q_f$) due to its O-rich condition and low hydroxyl group (-OH) density. After post-metallization annealing (PMA), $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ had the lowest slow and fast interface trap density. Actually, $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ showed the best passivation effects, that is, the highest excess carrier lifetime (${\tau}_{PCD}$) and lowest surface recombination velocity ($S_{eff}$) than other conditions. Therefore, $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ exhibited excellent chemical and field-effect passivation properties for p-type c-Si solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.462-462
• /
• 2014

The effect of rear passivation for passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) using ozone and H2O oxidant of atomic layer deposited (ALD) Al2O3 was studied by post-annealing in N2 and forming gas ambients. Rear surface of PERC solar cell was passivated by Al2O3 grown by ALD with ozone and H2O oxidant. Al2O3 grown by ALD with ozone oxidant has been known to have many advantages, such as lower interface defects, low leakage current density. Its passivation quality is better than Al2O3 with H2O. Al2O3 layer with 10 nm and 20 nm thickness was grown at $150^{\circ}C$ with ozone oxidant and at $250^{\circ}C$ with H2O oxidant. And then each samples were post-annealled at $450^{\circ}C$ in N2 ambients and at $850^{\circ}C$ in forming gas ambients. The passivation quality was investigated by measuring the minority carrier lifetime respectively. We examined atomic layer deposited Al2O3 such as growth rate, film density, thickness, negative fixed charge density at AlOx/Si interface, and reflectance. The influences of process temperature and heat treatment were investigated using Sinton (WCT-120) by Quasi-Steady State Photoconductance (QSSPC) mode. Ozone-based ALD Al2O3 film shows the best carrier lifetime at lower deposition temperature than H2O-based ALD.