• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2012년도 제42회 동계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보디스플레이학회 2008년도 International Meeting on Information Display
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• pp.993-994
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• 2008

Electrochromic (EC) devices are capable of reversibly changing their optical properties upon charge injection and extraction induced by the external voltage. The characteristics of the EC device, such as low power consumption, high coloration efficiency, and memory effects under open circuit status, make them suitable for use in a variety of applications including smart windows and electronic papers. Coloration due to reduction or oxidation of redox chromophores can be used for EC devices (e-paper), but the switching time is slow (second level). Recently, with increasing demand for the low cost, lightweight flat panel display with paper-like readability (electronic paper), an EC display technology based on dye-modified $TiO_2$ nanoparticle electrode was developed. A well known organic dye molecule, viologen, was adsorbed on the surface of a mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle film to form the EC electrode. On the other hand, ZnO is a wide bandgap II-VI semiconductor which has been applied in many fields such as UV lasers, field effect transistors and transparent conductors. The bandgap of the bulk ZnO is about 3.37 eV, which is close to that of the $TiO_2$ (3.4 eV). As a traditional transparent conductor, ZnO has excellent electron transport properties, even in ZnO nanoparticle films. In the past few years, one-dimension (1D) nanostructures of ZnO have attracted extensive research interest. In particular, 1D ZnO nanowires renders much better electron transportation capability by providing a direct conduction path for electron transport and greatly reducing the number of grain boundaries. These unique advantages make ZnO nanowires a promising matrix electrode for EC dye molecule loading. ZnO nanowires grow vertically from the substrate and form a dense array (Fig. 1). The ZnO nanowires show regular hexagonal cross section and the average diameter of the ZnO nanowires is about 100 nm. The cross-section image of the ZnO nanowires array (Fig. 1) indicates that the length of the ZnO nanowires is about $6\;{\mu}m$. From one on/off cycle of the ZnO EC cell (Fig. 2). We can see that, the switching time of a ZnO nanowire electrode EC cell with an active area of $1\;{\times}\;1\;cm^2$ is 170 ms and 142 ms for coloration and bleaching, respectively. The coloration and bleaching time is faster compared to the $TiO_2$ mesoporous EC devices with both coloration and bleaching time of about 250 ms for a device with an active area of $2.5\;cm^2$. With further optimization, it is possible that the response time can reach ten(s) of millisecond, i.e. capable of displaying video. Fig. 3 shows a prototype with two different transmittance states. It can be seen that good contrast was obtained. The retention was at least a few hours for these prototypes. Being an oxide, ZnO is oxidation resistant, i.e. it is more durable for field emission cathode. ZnO nanotetropods were also applied to realize the first prototype triode field emission device, making use of scattered surface-conduction electrons for field emission (Fig. 4). The device has a high efficiency (field emitted electron to total electron ratio) of about 60%. With this high efficiency, we were able to fabricate some prototype displays (Fig. 5 showing some alphanumerical symbols). ZnO tetrapods have four legs, which guarantees that there is one leg always pointing upward, even using screen printing method to fabricate the cathode.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2013년도 제44회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.397-397
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• 2013

The electrical, electronic, optical properties and the local structure of Nickel Oxide (NiO) thin film have been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Reflection Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (REELS), UV-spectrometer,Hall Effect measurement and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The XPS results show that the Ni 2p spectra for all films consist of $Ni2p_{3/2}$ at around 854.5 eV which indicate the presence of Ni-O bond from NiO phase and for the annealed film at temperature above $200^{\circ}C$ shows the coexist Ni oxide and Ni metal phase. The REELS spectra showed that the band gaps of the NiO thin films were abruptly decreased with increasing temperature. The values of the band gaps are consistent with the optical band gaps estimated by UV-Spectrometer. The optical transmittance spectra shows that the transparency of NiO thin films in the visible light region was deteriorated with higher temperature due to existence of $Ni^0$. Hall Effect measurement suggest that the NiO thin films prepared at relatively low temperatures (RT and $100^{\circ}C$) are suitable for fabricating p-type semiconductor which showed that the best properties was achieved at $100^{\circ}C$, such as a low resistivity of $7.49{\Omega}.cm$. It can be concluded that the annealing process plays a crucial role in converting from p type to n type semiconductor which leads to reducing electrical resistivity of NiO thin films. Furthermore, the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectrum at the Ni K-edge was used to address the local structure of NiO thin films. It was found that the thermal treatments increase the order in the vicinity of Ni atom and lead the NiO thin films to bunsenite crystal structure. Moreover, EXAFS spectra show in increasing of coordination number for the first Ni-O shell and the bond distance of Ni-O with the increase of substrate temperature.

• 대한전자공학회논문지SD
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• 제47권2호
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• pp.15-20
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• 2010

본 연구에서는 RF magnetron sputtering법으로 기판온도 $200^{\circ}C$에서 공정 압력 (5~20 mTorr)과 산소 가스비 (0~3%)를 변화시켜가며 PES 플라스틱 기판 위에 AZO (Al:3wt%) 박막을 제작하여 광학적 및 전기적 특성을 조사하였다. XRD 측정을 통해 공정 조건에 관계없이 모든 AZO박막이 c 축으로 우선 성장함을 확인할 수 있었다. 박막의 표면을 AFM 으로 조사한 결과, 표면 거칠기 값은 공정압력 5 mTorr, 산소 가스비 3%에서 제작한 박막에서 가장 낮은 값 (3.49 nm) 을 나타내었다. 모든 AZO 박막이 가시광 영역에서 80% 정도의 투과율을 보였으며, 공정 압력과 산소 가스비가 감소할수록 에너지 밴드갭이 증가하는 Burstein-Moss 효과를 관찰할 수 있었다. Hall 측정 결과, 공정 압력 5 mTorr와 산소 가스비 0%에서 제작한 AZO 박막에서 가장 높은 캐리어 농도 $2.63\;{\times}\;10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$ 값과 가장 낮은 비저항 $4.35\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;{\Omega}cm$ 값을 나타내었다.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2010년도 제39회 하계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.169-169
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• 2010

As display industry requires various applications for future display technology, which can guarantees high level of flexibility and transparency on display panel, oxide semiconductor materials are regarded as one of the best candidates. $InGaZnO_4$(IGZO) has gathered much attention as a post-transition metal oxide used in active layer in thin-film transistor. Due to its high mobility fabricated at low temperature fabrication process, which is proper for application to display backplanes and use in flexible and/or transparent electronics. Electrical performance of amorphous oxide semiconductors depends on the resistance of the interface between source/drain metal contact and active layer. It is also affected by sheet resistance on IGZO thin film. Controlling contact/sheet resistance has been a hot issue for improving electrical properties of AOS(Amorphous oxide semiconductor). To overcome this problem, post-annealing has been introduced. In other words, through post-annealing process, saturation mobility, on/off ratio, drain current of the device all increase. In this research, we studied on the relation between device's resistance and post-annealing temperature. So far as many post-annealing effects have been reported, this research especially analyzed the change of electrical properties by increasing post-annealing temperature. We fabricated 6 main samples. After a-IGZO deposition, Samples were post-annealed in 5 different temperatures; as-deposited, $100^{\circ}C$, $200^{\circ}C$, $300^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$ and $500^{\circ}C$. Metal deposition was done on these samples by using Mo through E-beam evaporation. For analysis, three analysis methods were used; IV-characteristics by probe station, surface roughness by AFM, metal oxidation by FE-SEM. Experimental results say that contact resistance increased because of the metal oxidation on metal contact and rough surface of a-IGZO layer. we can suggest some of the possible solutions to overcome resistance effect for the improvement of TFT electrical performances.

• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.456-461
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• 2010

We investigated the In-based ohmic contacts on Nitrogen-face (N-face) n-type GaN, as well as Ga-face n-type GaN, for InGaN-based vertical Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). For this purpose, we fabricated Circular Transfer Length Method (CTLM) patterns on the N-face n-GaN that were prepared by using a laser-lift off method, as well as on the Ga-face n-GaN that were prepared by using a dry etching method. Then, In/transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and In/TiW schemes were deposited on the CTLM in order for low resistance ohmic contacts to form. The In/TCO scheme on the Ga-face n-GaN showed high specific contact resistance, while the minimum specific contact resistance was only 3${\times}$10$^{-2}$ $\Omega$-cm$^{2}$ after annealing at 300${^{\circ}C}$, which can be attributed to the high sheet resistance of the TCO layer. In contrast, the In/TiW scheme on the Ga-face n-GaN produced low specific contact resistance of 2.1${\times}$10$^{5}$ $\Omega$-cm$^{2}$ after annealing at 500${^{\circ}C}$ for 1 min. In addition, the In/TiW scheme on the N-face n-GaN also resulted in a low specific contact resistance of 2.2${\times}$10$^{-4}$ $\Omega$-cm$^{2}$ after annealing at 300${^{\circ}C}$. These results suggest that both the Ga-face n-GaN and N-face n-GaN.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제26권12호
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• pp.909-914
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• 2013

CIGS is one of thin film solar cell and has been studied so much, because of the possibility of low price and high efficiency. Until now, co-evaporation and sputtering were typical method to prepare CIGS absorption layer, and a few company commercialized solar cell by these method. However, non-vacuum process which has been studied for long time has not been progressed, though the merit of low price. Especially, aerosol deposition method has not been reported, because it is difficult to prepare a large quantity of various CIGS powder. In this study, CIGS powder was synthesized by mechanochemical method and CIGS absorption layer was deposited by aerosol deposition method. The thickness of the CIGS layer was controlled by the number of deposition and the surface roughness of it was affected by the amount of flow gas. And, also, I-V curve of it appeared metallic property in the case of 'as deposition'. After heat treatment in Se-rich atmosphere, the electrical property of it changed to a semiconductor. CdS and transparent conduction layer were formed by a typical method on it for solar cell. The efficiency of cell was appeared 0.19%. Though the efficiency was low because of the disharmony in the after-process, it was conformed that CIGS solar cell could be prepared by aerosol deposition.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2016년도 제50회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.278-278
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• 2016

Solution-processed metal-oxide semiconductors have been considered as the next generation semiconducting materials for transparent and flexible electronics due to their high electrical performance. Moreover, since the oxide semiconductors show high sensitivity to light illumination and possess persistent photoconductivity (PPC), these properties can be utilized in realizing optical memory devices, which can transport information much faster than the electrons. In previous works, metal-oxide semiconductors are utilized as a memory device by using the light (i.e. illumination does the "writing", no-gate bias recovery the "reading" operations) [1]. The key issues for realizing the optical memory devices is to have high photoconductivity and a long life time of free electrons in the oxide semiconductors. However, mono-layered indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) and mono-layered indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) have limited photoconductivity and relaxation time of 570 nA, 122 sec, 190 nA and 53 sec, respectively. Here, we boosted up the photoconductivity and relaxation time using a double-layered IZO/IGZO active layer structure. Solution-processed IZO (top) and IGZO (bottom) layers are prepared on a Si/SiO2 wafer and we utilized the conventional thermal annealing method. To investigate the photoconductivity and relaxation time, we exposed 9 mW/cm2 intensity light for 30 sec and the decaying behaviors were evaluated. It was found that the double-layered IZO/IGZO showed high photoconductivity and relaxation time of 28 uA and 1048 sec.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.600-604
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• 2011

본 연구에서는 박막 트랜지스터(TFTs)에 사용 가능한 Indium Gallium 산화물(IGO) 박막을 스핀코팅을 이용한 화학적 용액공정을 사용하여 $SiO_2$/Si 기판 위에 증착시켰다. 또한 IGO 박막을 증착한 후에 이루어지는 열처리 온도가 박막의 결정화에 미치는 영향과 이들의 전기적 특성이 조사되었다. 스핀코팅법에 의한 IGO 박막을 증착하기 위해 사용된 In과 Ga의 비율은 2:1로 고정하였으며, 박막의 열처리 온도는 $300{\sim}600^{\circ}C$의 범위에서 변화시켰다. 공기 중에서 $300^{\circ}C$와 $600^{\circ}C$에서 1시간 동안 열처리한 IGO 박막을 사용하여 제조한 박막 트랜지스터의 전류 이동도(field effect mobility)는 각각 0.34와 3.83 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$로서 양호한 전자소자의 성능을 보였다. 또한 on/off 전류비(current ratio)는 $10^5$ 이상이었으며, IGO 박막의 평균 투과율은 98%이었다.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2009년도 하계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.28-28
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• 2009

Fabrications of antireflection structures on solar cell were investigated to trap the light and to improve quantum efficiency. Introductions of patterned substrate or textured layer for Si solar cell were performed to prevent reflectance and to increase the path length of incoming light. However, it is difficult to deposit conformally flat electrode on perpendicular plane. ZnO is II-VI compound semiconductor and well-known wide band-gap material. It has similar electrical and optical properties as ITO, but it is nontoxic and stable. In this study, Al-doped ZnO thin films are deposited as transparent electrode by atomic layer deposition method to coat on Si substrate with micro-scale structures. The deposited AZO layer is flatted on horizontal plane as well as perpendicular one with conformal 200 nm thickness. The carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity of deposited AZO thin film on glass substrate were measured $1.4\times10^{20}cm^{-3}$, $93.3cm^2/Vs$, $4.732\times10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ with high transmittance over 80%. The AZO films were coated with polyimide and performed selective polyimide stripping on head of column by reactive ion etching to measure resistance along columns surface. Current between the micro-columns flows onto the perpendicular plane of deposited AZO film with low resistance.