• Journal of Information Display
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.117-120
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• 2009

A new crystallization method for amorphous silicon, called selective area heating (SAH), was proposed. The purpose of SAH is to improve the reliability of amorphous silicon films with extremely low thermal budgets to the glass substrate. The crystallization time shortened from that of the conventional solid-phase crystallization method. An isolated thin heater for SAH was fabricated on a quartz substrate with a Pt layer. To investigate the crystalline properties, Raman scattering spectra were used. The crystalline transverse optic phonon peak was at about 519 $cm^{-1}$, which shows that the films were crystallized. The effect of the crystallization time on the varying thickness of the $SiO_2$ films was investigated. The crystallization area in the 400nm-thick $SiO_2$ film was larger than those of the $SiO_2$ films with other thicknesses after SAH at 16 W for 2 min. The results show that a $SiO_2$ capping layer acts as storage layer for thermal energy. SAH is thus suggested as a new crystallization method for large-area electronic device applications.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제14권7호
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• pp.516-521
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• 2004

We applied a deuterium plasma treatment to the surface of polycrystalline silicon films using PECVD and observed the change with AFM, XRD, ET-IR, and SIMS measurement. A bias temperature stressing (BTS) test was carried out to evaluate the reliability of the thin-film transistors (TFT). TFTs with channel lengths as small as 2 ${\mu}m$ were electrically stressed fer up to 1000 sec at room temperature. From the parameter variation such as s-factor, leakage current and on/off ratio, we suggest that the deuterium plasma treatment suppress the hot carrier effect and improve the stability of TFTs.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2003년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.1407-1411
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• 2003

Due to the heat confinement in the shallow region of the target for a short time scale, pulsed laser annealing has received increasing interest for the fabrication of poly-Si thin film transistors(TFTs) on glass as a low cost substrate in the flat panel displays. The formation and growth mechanisms of poly silicon(poly-Si) grains in thin films are investigated using an excimer laser crystallization system. To understand the crystallization mechanism, the grain formations are observed by FESEM analysis. The optical reflectance and transmittance during the crystallization process are measured using HeNe laser optics. A two-step ELC(Excimer Laser Crystallization) process is applied to enhance the grain formation uniformity.

• 한국레이저가공학회지
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.9-17
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• 2003

Due to the heat confinement in the shallow region of the target for a short time scale, pulsed laser annealing has received an increasing interest for the fabrication of poly-Si thin film transistors(TFTs) on glass as a low cost substrate in the flat panel displays. The formation and growth mechanisms of poly silicon(poly-Si) grains in thin films are investigated using an excimer laser crystallization system. To understand the crystallization mechanism, the grain formations are observed by FESEM photography. The optical reflectance and transmittance during the crystallization process are measured using HeNe laser optics. A two-step ELC(Excimer Laser Crystallization) process is applied to enhance the grain formation uniformity.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보디스플레이학회 2003년도 International Meeting on Information Display
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• pp.50-55
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• 2003

In this paper, we describe and review the main techniques which are currently being used or studied, in order to synthesise thin films of device-worthy polycrystalline silicon material (poly-Si) on glass or other non-refractory large area substrates. The problems and limitations of the excimer laser processing are first emphasised and some novel or revisited crystallisation processes with good potential for industrialisation are subsequently presented and discussed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2010년도 춘계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2010

Aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) is studied with the structure of a glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si, in which the $SiO_2$ layer has micron-sized laser holes in the stack. An oxide layer between aluminum and a-Si thin films plays a significant role in the metal-induced crystallization (MIC) process determining the properties such as grain size and preferential orientation. In our case, the crystallization of a-Si is carried out only through the key hole because the $SiO_2$ layer is substantially thick enough to prevent a-Si from contacting aluminum. The crystal growth is successfully realized toward the only vertical direction, resulting a crystalline silicon grain with a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ under the hole. Lateral growth seems to be not occurred. For the AIC experiment, the glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si stacks were prepared where an Al layer was deposited on glass substrate by DC sputter, $SiO_2$ and a-Si films by PECVD method, respectively. Prior to the a-Si deposition, a $30{\times}30$ micron-sized hole array with a diameter of $1{\sim}2{\mu}m$ was fabricated utilizing the femtosecond laser pulses to induce the AIC process through the key holes and the prepared workpieces were annealed in a thermal chamber for 2 hours. After heat treatment, the surface morphology, grain size, and crystal orientation of the polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) film were evaluated by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and energy dispersive spectrometer. In conclusion, we observed that the vertical crystal growth was occurred in the case of the crystallization of a-Si with aluminum by the MIC process in a small area. The pc-Si grain grew under the key hole up to a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ with the workpiece.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보디스플레이학회 2004년도 Asia Display / IMID 04
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• pp.962-965
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• 2004

In this work, thin films of amorphous silicon (a-Si) were formed on plastic substrates by sputtering deposition and crystallized using excimer laser irradiation. As the entire process is conducted at room temperature, and the laser irradiation-induced heating is confined to the thin film, the plastic substrate is not subjected to thermal stresses. The microstructure resulting from the laser irradiation was dependent on the laser irradiation energy density and the composition of the underlying buffer layers. It was found that a layer of AlN deposited as a buffer between the plastic and the a-Si film increased the endurance of the a-Si film under laser irradiation, and resulted in polycrystalline Si grains up to 100nm in diameter.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2002년도 하계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.36-39
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• 2002

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) technology is emerging as a key technology for active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD), allowing the integration of both active matrix and driving circuit on the same substrate (normally glass). As high temperature process is not used for glass substrate because of the low softening points below 450$^{\circ}C$. However, high temperature process is required for getting high crystallization volume fraction (i.e. crystallinity). A poly-Si thin film transistor has been fabricated to investigate the effect of high temperature process on the molybdenum (Mo) substrate. Improve of the crystallinity over 75% has been noticed. The properties of structural and electrical at high temperature poly-Si thin film transistor on Mo substrate have been also analyzed using a sputtering method

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.644-650
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• 2007

Mechanical property evaluation of micrometer-sized structures is necessary to help design reliable microelectromechanical systems(MEMS) devices. Most material properties are known to exhibit dependence on specimen size and such properties of microscale structures are not well characterized. This paper describes techniques developed for tensile testing of thin film used in MEMS. Epi-polycrystalline silicon is currently the most widely used material, and its tensile strength has been measured as 1.52GPa. We have developed a tensile testing machine for testing microscale specimen using electro-magnetic actuator. The field magnet and the moving coil taken from an audio-speaker were utilized as the components of the actuator. Structure of specimen was designed and manufactured for easy handling and alignment. In addition to the static tensile tests, it is described that new techniques and procedures can be adopted for high cycle fatigue test of a thin film.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.163-170
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• 2006

Thin films play an important role in many technological applications including microelectronic devices, magnetic storage media, MEMS and surface coatings. It is well known that a thin film's material properties can be very different front the corresponding bulk properties and thus there has been a strong need for the development of a miniature tester to measure the mechanical properties of a thin film. Two testers are designed and set up in small size of 62 mm width, 20 mm depth and 90-120 mm height to fit in a chamber of scanning electron microscope (SEM). One tester has a homemade 0.2 N load cell and a low-priced electromagnetic actuator. The other has a commercial 5 N load cell, a $52{\mu}m$ piezoelectric actuator and some novel grips. Two types of 3.5 microns thick polysilicon specimen are tested to prove the testers' applicability. The strain is measured by the two ways. Firstly, it is measured by an ISDG system in the atmosphere far the reference. Secondly, the same test is repeated in a SEM chamber to monitor the strain as an in-situ experiment. The strain is evaluated by observing the gap change between two markers.