• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.616-619
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• 2012

Oxides possess several interesting properties, such as ferroelectricity, magnetism, superconductivity, and multiferroic behavior, which can effectively be used oxide electronics based on epitaxially grown heterostructures. The microscopic properties of oxide interfaces may have a strong impact on the electrical transport properties of these heterostructures. It was recently demonstrated that high electrical conductivity and mobility can be achieved in the system of an ultrathin $LaAlO_3$ film deposited on a $TiO_2$-terminated $SrTiO_3$ substrate, which was a remarkable result because the conducting layer was at the interface between two insulators. In this study, we observe that the current-voltage characteristics exhibit $LaAlO_3$ thickness dependence of electrical conductivity in $TiO_2$-terminated $SrTiO_3$. We find that the $LaAlO_3$ layers with a thickness of up 3 unit cells, result in highly insulating interfaces, whereas those with thickness of 4 unit cells and above result in conducting interfaces.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2011

Fabrication of porous silicon(PS) double layer by electrochemical etching is the first step in process of ultrathin solar cell using PS layer transfer process. The porosity of the porous silicon layer can be controlled by regulating the formation parameters such as current density and HF concentration. PS layer is fabricated by electrochemical etching in a chemical mixture of HF and ethanol. For electrochemical etching, highly boron doped (100) oriented monocrystalline Si substrates was used. Ths resistivity of silicon is $0.01-0.02\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. The solution composition for electrochemical etching was HF (40%) : $C_2H_5OH$(99 %) : $H_2O$ = 1 : 1 : 2 (by volume). In order to fabricate porous silicon double layer, current density was switched. By switching current density from low to high level, a high-porosity layer was fabricated beneath a low-porosity layer. Etching time affects only the depth of porous silicon layer.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2014

To investigate the plating properties of a diethylene glycol-based Ag immersion plating solution containing citric acid, silver immersion plating was performed in a range from room temperature to $50^{\circ}C$ using sputtered Cu specimens. The used Cu specimens possessed surface structure with large numbers of pinholes which were created with over-acid etching. The Ag immersion plating performed at $40^{\circ}C$ exhibited that the pinholes and copper surface were completely filled with Ag just after 5 min mainly due to galvanic displacement reaction, indicating the best plating properties. Subsequently, the surface morphology of Ag-coated Cu became rougher as the plating time increased to 30 min because of the deposition of silver nanoparticles created by chemical reduction in the solution. The specimen that its overall surface was covered with silver indicated the start of oxidation at temperature higher than around $50^{\circ}C$ in air as compared with pure Cu, indicating enhanced anti-oxidation properties.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.128-135
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• 1995

Atomic force microscopy/friction force microscopy (AFM/FFM) techniques are increasingly used for tribological studies of engineering surfaces at scales, ranging from atomic and molecular to microscales. These techniques have been used to study surface roughness, adhesion, friction, scratching/wear, indentation, detection of material transfer, and boundary lubrication and for nanofabrication/nanomachining purposes. Micro/nanotribological studies of single-crystal silicon, natural diamond, magnetic media (magnetic tapes and disks) and magnetic heads have been conducted. Commonly measured roughness parameters are found to be scale dependent, requiring the need of scale-independent fractal parameters to characterize surface roughness. Measurements of atomic-scale friction of a freshly-cleaved highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite exhibited the same periodicity as that of corresponding topography. However, the peaks in friction and those in corresponding topography were displaced relative to each other. Variations in atomic-scale friction and the observed displacement has been explained by the variations in interatomic forces in the normal and lateral directions. Local variation in microscale friction is found to correspond to the local slope suggesting that a ratchet mechanism is responsible for this variation. Directionality in the friction is observed on both micro- and macro scales which results from the surface preparation and anisotropy in surface roughness. Microscale friction is generally found to be smaller than the macrofriction as there is less ploughing contribution in microscale measurements. Microscale friction is load dependent and friction values increase with an increase in the normal load approaching to the macrofriction at contact stresses higher than the hardness of the softer material. Wear rate for single-crystal silicon is approximately constant for various loads and test durations. However, for magnetic disks with a multilayered thin-film structure, the wear of the diamond like carbon overcoat is catastrophic. Breakdown of thin films can be detected with AFM. Evolution of the wear has also been studied using AFM. Wear is found to be initiated at nono scratches. AFM has been modified to obtain load-displacement curves and for nanoindentation hardness measurements with depth of indentation as low as 1 mm. Scratching and indentation on nanoscales are the powerful ways to screen for adhesion and resistance to deformation of ultrathin fdms. Detection of material transfer on a nanoscale is possible with AFM. Boundary lubrication studies and measurement of lubricant-film thichness with a lateral resolution on a nanoscale have been conducted using AFM. Self-assembled monolyers and chemically-bonded lubricant films with a mobile fraction are superior in wear resistance. Finally, AFM has also shown to be useful for nanofabrication/nanomachining. Friction and wear on micro-and nanoscales have been found to be generally smaller compared to that at macroscales. Therefore, micro/nanotribological studies may help def'me the regimes for ultra-low friction and near zero wear.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.134-134
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• 2011

High-k dielectric materials such as $HfO_2$, $ZrO_2$ and $Al_2O_3$ increase gate capacitance and reduce gate leakage current in MOSFET structures. This behavior suggests that high-k materials will be promise candidates to substitute as a tunnel barrier. Furthermore, stack structure of low-k and high-k tunnel barrier named variable oxide thickness (VARIOT) is more efficient.[1] In this study, we fabricated the $WSi_2$ nanocrystals nonvolatile memory device with $SiO_2/HfO_2/Al_2O_3$ tunnel layer. The $WSi_2$ nano-floating gate capacitors were fabricated on p-type Si (100) wafers. After wafer cleaning, the phosphorus in-situ doped poly-Si layer with a thickness of 100 nm was deposited on isolated active region to confine source and drain. Then, on the gate region defined by using reactive ion etching, the barrier engineered multi-stack tunnel layers of $SiO_2/HfO_2/Al_2O_3$ (2 nm/1 nm/3 nm) were deposited the gate region on Si substrate by using atomic layer deposition. To fabricate $WSi_2$ nanocrystals, the ultrathin $WSi_2$ film with a thickness of 3-4 nm was deposited on the multi-stack tunnel layer by using direct current magnetron sputtering system [2]. Subsequently, the first post annealing process was carried out at $900^{\circ}C$ for 1 min by using rapid thermal annealing system in nitrogen gas ambient. The 15-nm-thick $SiO_2$ control layer was deposited by using ultra-high vacuum magnetron sputtering. For $SiO_2$ layer density, the second post annealing process was carried out at $900^{\circ}C$ for 30 seconds by using rapid thermal annealing system in nitrogen gas ambient. The aluminum gate electrodes of 200-nm thickness were formed by thermal evaporation. The electrical properties of devices were measured by using a HP 4156A precision semiconductor parameter analyzer with HP 41501A pulse generator, an Agillent 81104A 80MHz pulse/pattern generator and an Agillent E5250A low leakage switch mainframe. We will discuss the electrical properties for application next generation non-volatile memory device.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.173-181
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• 1996

Common volatile organic compounds(VOCs) such as toluene and methanol were removed successfully from N$_{2}$ using a novel silicone-coated hollow fiber membrane module. This novel membrane is a thin film composite(TFC) and was highly efficient in removing VOCs selectively from a N$_{2}$ stream. This membrane had some innate advantages over other silicone-based membrane in that the selective barrier was ultrathin(~1 $\mu$m) and the porosity of the polypropylene substrate was high which leads to a low permeation resistance. The substram was very strongly bonded to the coating layer by plasma polymerization and can withstand a very high pressure. A small hollow fiber module having a length of 25cm and 50 fibers could remove 96~99% of toluene as well as methanol vapors when the feed flow rate was up to 60cc/min. The percent removal of VOCs were even higher when the feed inlet concentration was higher. This process is especially suitable for treating streams having a low flow rate and high VOCs concentration. The permeances of VOCs through this membrane was in the range of $4~30 \times 10^{-9}gmol/sec \cdot cm^{2}\cdot cmHg$ for both toluene and methanol, and nitrogen permeance was between $3~9 \times 10^{-10}gmol/sec \cdot cm^{2} \cdot cmHg$. High separation factor between 10~55 for toluene/N$_{2}$ and 15~125 for methanol/N$_{2}$ were obtained depending on the feed flow rate ranges and feed VOCs concentration levels.