β-Ga2O3 is an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor promising for high-power electronic applications; however, heteroepitaxial growth on sapphire is challenging lattice and symmetry mismatch. In this study, β-Ga2O3 thin films were grown on C-plane sapphire substrates with various off-axis angles (0–12°) using mist-CVD, and the influence of substrate miscut on structural and optical properties was investigated. All films grown at 900°C exhibited (-201) oriented β phase. The crystal quality was strongly dependent on the off-axis angle, with intermediate off-axis angles (Δa = 6–8°) showing the narrowest rocking curve width. Off-axis substrates promoted step-aligned growth behavior compared to on-axis growth. Optical measurements revealed enhanced transmittance and wider bandgap values (4.92–4.95 eV) for off-axis samples compared to the on-axis film (4.69 eV). The findings provide practical guidelines for optimizing heteroepitaxial β-Ga2O3 growth on low-cost sapphire substrates for high-performance device applications.
κ-phase Ga₂O₃ is a wide-bandgap semiconductor that has attracted attention for power and optoelectronic device applications. However, its crystal quality and optical properties are highly dependent on the growth temperature, which motivates the need for a systematic study. In this work, κ-Ga₂O₃ thin films were grown on AlN/sapphire templates using mist-CVD at different temperatures. At lower temperatures (400℃), films exhibited incomplete crystallization and partial opacity, whereas higher growth temperatures (500-700℃) produced transparent films with improved properties. The bandgap was found to increase with temperature, consistent with reported values for 600-700℃, and XRD/XRC analysis confirmed that crystal quality improved with higher growth temperature. AFM analysis further revealed reductions in surface roughness and grain size variation at elevated temperatures. These findings indicate that an optimal growth window of 600-700℃ enables high-quality κ-Ga₂O₃ films, with potential implications for integrating this material on other hexagonal substrates such as SiC and GaN.
Aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) as a route to reduce the fabrication cost and to obtain polycrystalline Si (p- Si) thin-film of large grain size is a promising alternative of single-crystalline (s-Si) substrate or p-Si thin-film obtained by conventional methods such as solid phase crystallization (SPC) and laser-induced crystallization (LIC). As the AIC process occurs at the interface between a-Si and Al thin-films, there are various process and interface parameters. Also, it directly means that there is a certain parametric window to obtain p-Si of large grain size having uniform crystal orientation. In this article, we investigate the effect of the various process and interface parameters to obtain p-Si of large grain size and uniform crystal orientation from the literature review. We also suggest the potential use of the p-Si as a virtual substrate for the growth of various compound semiconductors in a form of low-dimension as well as thin-film as a way for their monolithic integration on Si.
Tandem or multijunction solar cells (MJSCs) can convert sunlight into electricity with higher efficiency (η) than single junction solar cells (SJSCs) by dividing the solar irradiance over sub-cells having distinct bandgaps. The efficiencies of various common SJSC materials are close to the edge of their theoretical efficiency and hence there is a tremendous growing interest in utilizing the tandem/multijunction technique. Recently, III-V materials integration on a silicon substrate has been broadly investigated in the development of III-V on Si tandem solar cells. Numerous growth techniques such as heteroepitaxial growth, wafer bonding, and mechanical stacking are crucial for better understanding of high-quality III-V epitaxial layers on Si. As the choice of growth method and substrate selection can significantly impact the quality and performance of the resulting tandem cell and the terminal configuration exhibit a vital role in the overall proficiency. Parallel and Series-connected configurations have been studied, each with its advantage and disadvantages depending on the application and cell configuration. The optimization of both growth mechanisms and terminal configurations is necessary to further improve efficiency and lessen the cost of III-V on Si tandem solar cells. In this review article, we present an overview of the growth mechanisms and terminal configurations with the areas of research that are crucial for the commercialization of III-V on Si tandem solar cells.
Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) thin films were grown on c-, a-, m-, r-plane sapphire substrates using a mist chemical vapor deposition system. Various growth temperature range of 400~600℃ was applied for Ga2O3 thin film deposition. Then, several structural properties were characterized such as film thickness, crystal phase, lattice orientation, surface roughness, and optical bandgap. Under the certain growth temperature of 500℃, all grown Ga2O3 featured rhombohedral crystal structures and well-aligned preferred orientation to sapphire substrate. The films grown on c-and r-plane sapphire substrates, showed low surface roughness and large optical bandgap compared to those on a-and m-plane substrates. Therefore, various sapphire orientation can be potentially applicable for future Ga2O3-based electronics applications.
ZnO-based transparent conductive films have been widely studied to achieve high performance optoelectronic devices such as next generation flexible and transparent display systems. In order to achieve a transparent flexible ZnO-based device, a low temperature growth technique using a flexible polymer substrate is required. In this work, high quality flexible ZnO films were grown on colorless polyimide substrate using atomic layer deposition (ALD). Transparent ZnO films grown from 80 to 200℃ were fabricated with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure photodetectors (PDs). As the growth temperature of ZnO film increases, the photocurrent of UV PDs increases, while the sensitivity of that decreases. In addition, it is found that the response times of the PDs become shorter as the growth temperature increases. Based on these results, we suggest that high-quality ZnO film can be grown below 200℃ in an atomic layer deposition system, and can be applied to transparent and flexible UV PDs with very fast response time and high photocurrent.
Micro-LEDs can be applied to various parts of a product. However, it has disadvantages compared to general LEDs in large displays such as low efficiency, intensity, and contrast ratio, among others, owing to their short history of study. The simulations were carried out using ray-tracing software to investigate the change in light intensity and light distribution according to pattern shapes on the sapphire substrate of the flip-chip micro-LED (FC μ-LED) array. Three patterns-concave square patterns, convex square patterns, and Ag coated convex patterns-which existed on the opposite side of FC μ-LEDs (115 ㎛ × 115 ㎛) array, were applied. The intensity of FC μ-LEDs on the center of the receivers depends on the pattern depth with shape. The concave square patterns having FC μ-LEDs arrays show that decreasing intensity as the patterns depth. On the contrary, the convex square patterns having FC μ-LEDs arrays shows that increasing intensity as the patterns depth. In addition, the highest intensity shows that FC μ-LEDs having Ag-coated convex patterns on the opposite side of sapphire lead to a reduction in light crosstalk owing to the Ag film.
In this study, photoluminescence (PL) analysis was performed to evaluate the optical properties of commercial ZnO substrates. Particular attention was paid to the bound exciton (BX) luminescence, which is usually the strongest emission intensity of commercial substrates. At 15 K, PL analysis revealed that the BX peak due to donor-type impurities (donor-bound-exciton; DX) dominated, while two-electron satellite (TES) emission, donor-accepter pair (DAP) emission, and LO-phonon replica emission were also observed. The impurity concentration of the ZnO substrate was determined to be 1015 to 1016/cm3 by examination of the temperature variation of DAP, while the half width and intensity change of the luminescence revealed that the temperature change of BX can be interpreted almost the same as the analysis of free-exciton emission.
An epitaxial GaN layer was grown on a cone-shape-patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) (Sample A) and an AlN-buffered PSS (Sample B) with two growth steps under the same process conditions by employing the hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) method. We have investigated the characteristics of the GaN layer grown on two kinds of substrates at each growth step. The cross-sectional SEM image of the GaN layer grown on the two types of substrates showed growth states of GaN layers formed during the 1st and 2nd growth steps with different growth durations. Dislocation density was obtained by calculation using the FWHM value of the rocking curve for (002) and (102). Sample A showed 2.62+08E and 6.66+08E and sample B exhibited 5.74+07E and 1.65+08E for two different planes. The red shift was observed is photoluminescence (PL) analysis and Raman spectroscopy results. GaN layers grown on AlN-buffered PSS exhibited better optical and crystallographic properties than GaN layers grown on PSS.
In this work, we investigate the effects of lithium doping on the electric performance of solution-processed n-type zinc tin oxide (ZTO)/p-type silicon carbide (SiC) heterojunction diode structures. The proper amount of lithium doping not only affects the carrier concentration and interface quality but also influences the temperature sensitivity of the series resistance and activation energy. We confirmed that the device characteristics vary with lithium doping at concentrations of 0, 10, and 20 wt%. In particular, the highest rectification ratio of 1.89×107 and the lowest trap density of 4.829×1,022 cm-2 were observed at 20 wt% of lithium doping. Devices at this doping level showed the best characteristics. As the temperature was increased, the series resistance value decreased. Additionally, the activation energy was observed to change with respect to the component acting on the trap. We have demonstrated that lithium doping is an effective way to obtain a higher performance ZTO-based diode.
Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films were deposited by an RF magnetron sputtering method on glass substrates using ZnO as a target containing 5 wt% Ga2O3 powder (for Ga doping). The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the GZO thin films were investigated as a function of the substrate temperatures. The deposition rate decreased with increasing substrate temperatures from room temperature to 350℃. The films showed typical orientation with the c-axis vertical to the glass substrates and the grain size increased up to a substrate temperature of 300℃ but decreased beyond 350℃. The resistivity of GZO thin films deposited at the substrate temperature of 300℃ was 7×10-4 Ωcm, and it showed a dependence on the carrier concentration and mobility. The optical transmittances of the films with thickness of 3,000 Å were above 80% in the visible region, regardless of the substrate temperatures.
We investigated the structure of an ultra-thin insulating board with low thermal conductivity along z-axis, which was based on the idea of void layers created during the glass infiltration process for the zero-shrinkage low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. An alumina and four glass powders were chosen and prepared as green sheets by the tape casting method. After comparison of the four glass powders, bismuth glass was selected for the experiment. Since there is no notable reactivity between alumina and bismuth glass, alumina was selected as the supporting additive in glass layers. With 2.5 vol% of alumina powder, glass green sheets were prepared and stacked alternately with alumina green sheet to form the ‘alumina/glass (including alumina additive)/alumina’ structure. The stacked green sheets were sintered into an insulating substrate. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the additive alumina formed supporting bridges in void layers. The depth and number of the stacking layers were varied to examine the insulating property. The lowest thermal conductivity obtained was 0.23 W/mK with a 500-㎛-thick substrate.
We have investigated the characteristics of amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film solar cell by inserting barrier layer. The conversion efficiency of a-Si thin-film solar cells on graphite substrate shows nearly zero because of the surface roughness of the graphite substrate. To enhance the performance of solar cells, the surface morphology of the back side were modified by changing the barrier layer on graphite. The surface roughness of graphite substrate with the barrier layer grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reduced from ~2 um to ~75 nm. In this study, the combination of the barrier layer on graphite substrate is important to increase solar cell efficiency. We achieved ~ 7.8% cell efficiency for an a-Si thin-film solar cell on graphite substrate with SiNx/SiOx stack barrier layer.
Recently many studies being carried out to increase the light efficiency of LED. The external quantum efficiency of LED, generally the light efficiency, is determined by the internal quantum efficiency and the light extraction efficiency. The internal quantum efficiency of LED was already reached to more than 90%, but the light extraction efficiency is still insufficient compared with the internal quantum efficiency because the total internal reflection is generated in the interface between the LED chip and air. Thus, we studied about flip chip LED with PSS and performed the optical simulation which find more optimized PSS for flip chip LED to increase the light extraction efficiency. Decreasing of the total internal reflection and effect of diffused reflection according to PSS improved the light extraction efficiency. To get more higher the efficiency, we simulated flip chip with PSS that the parameters are arrangement, edge spacing, radius, height and shape of PSS.
We have fabricated blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) on a plastic substrate. The solution coated poly (9-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) host doped with Bis (3,5-difluoro-2-(2-pyridyl)phenyl_(2-carboxypyridyl)irdium(III) (FIrPic) guest molecules was used as an hole transporting emission layer. The device structure was ITO/PVK:FIrpic (50 nm, xwt%)/TAZ 50nm)/LiF (0.5 nm)/Al (100 nm). The concentration of FIrpic molecule was varied from 1 wt% to 10 wt%. The OLED on plastic substrate exhibited maximum current efficiency of 18 cd/A with 5 wt% FIrpic molecules were doped into the PVK layer.
The carbon nanowall (CNW) is a carbon-based nanomaterials and it was constructed with vertical structure graphenes and it has the highest surface density among carbon-based nanostructures. In this study, we have checked the growth properties of CNW according to the substrate angle. Microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system was used to grow CNW on Si substrate with methane (CH4) and hydrogen (H2) gases. And, we have changed the substrate angle from 0° to 90°in steps of 30°. The planar and vertical conditions of the grown CNWs according to the substrate angle were characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). In case of the growth angle increases, our experimental results showed that the length of the CNW was shortened and the content of carbon component was decreased.
PTFE composites for use of microwave substrate were fabricated by impregnation and heat treatment fabrication with glass fabric. This study shows dielectric properties such as dielectric constant and loss can be controlled by thickness of PTFE composite with of pressure condition in heating press process. The dielectric constant of the PTFE composites has decreasing tendency as given higher pressure condition. The dielectric loss has similar result too. Especially, the case of the dielectric loss was affected by the condition of pressure at heating press and had the best performance under 3 MPa. In order to see the reason why thickness conditions make different, their microstructures were also observed.
ZnO nanowires on the a-, c- and m-plane oriented 4H-SiC substrates were grown by using a high temperature tube furnace, Ti/Au electrodes were deposited on ZnO nanowires and a-, c- and m-plane 4H-SiC substrates, respectively. The shape and density of the ZnO nanowires were inestigated by field emission scanning electron microscope. It was found that the growth direction of nanowires depends strongly on growth parameters such as growth temperature and pressure. In this work, The sensitivity of nanowires formed a-, c- and m-plane oriented 4H-SiC gas sensor was measured at 300℃ with CO gas concentration of 80%. The nanowires grown on a-plane oriented 4H-SiC show improved performance than those on c- and m-plane oriented 4H-SiC due to the increased density of nanowire on a plane 4H-SiC.
(Ga203)x(ZnO)100-x, (GZO) films were prepared at room temperature by using a facing target sputtering (FTS) system and their electrical resistivites was investigated as a function of the Ga203 content. The GZO film with an atomic ratio of Ga203 of x 7 wt. %, shows the lowest resistivity of 7.5 X 10-4 cm. The GZO films were also prepared at various substrate temperatures from room temperature to 300t, and their electrical resistivity was found to be improved as the substrate temperature was increased, A very low resistivity of 2.8x 10u1 n that is almost comparable with that of ITO film was obtained in the GZO films prepared at the substrate temperature of 300t by using the FTS.
This study is explore the photoelectric conversion change of dye-sensitized solar cells with surface treatment of the conductive substrate. gases of FTO surface treatment were N2, and O2. Treatment conditions of surface were gas flux from 25 sccm to 50 sccm and RF power were from 25 W to 50 W. Treatment time and pressure were fixed 5 min and 100 mtoor. The best sheet resistance and surface roughness were obtained by O2 50 sccm and 50 W and that result were 7.643 Ω/㎠ and 17.113 nm, respectively. The best efficiency result was obtained by O2 50 sccm and 50 W and that result of Voc, Jsc, FF and efficiency were 7.03 V, 14.88 mA/㎠, 63.75% and 6.67%, respectively.
Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were prepared using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. magnets were equipped near the target in the sputter to bring the plasma near the target. The effect of magnetic field that brings the plasma near the substrate was compared with that of substrate heating. The effect of substrate heating on the grain size of the ITO thin film was larger than that of the magnetic field. However, the grain size of the ITO thin film was larger when the magnetic field was applied near the substrate during the sputtering process than when the substrate was not heated and the magnetic field was not applied. If stronger magnetic field is applied near the substrate during sputtering, it can be expected that the ITO thin film with good electrical conductivity and high transparency is obtained at low substrate temperature. When magnetic field of 90 Gauss was applied near the substrate during sputtering, the mobility of the ITO thin film increased from 15.2 ㎠/V.s to 23.3 ㎠/V.s, whereas the sheet resistivity decreased from 7.68 Ω·㎝ to 5.11 Ω·㎝.
In this study, a substrate-bias assisted 2-step pulse programming method is proposed for realizing 4-bit/1-cell operation of the SONOS memory. The programming voltage and time are considerably reduced by this programming method than a gate-bias assisted 2-step pulse programming method and CHEI method. It is confirmed that the difference of 4-states in the threshold voltage is maintained to more than 0.5 V at least for 10-year for the multi-level characteristics.
ZnO thin films were deposited on a-, c- and m- plane oriented 4H-SiC substrates by pulsed laser deposition. ZnO nanowires were formed on substrates by tube furnace. Shape and density of the ZnO nanowires were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscope. Average surface roughness and root mean square surface roughness were measure by atomic force microscope. Optical properties were investigated by Photoluminescence measurement. Density of ZnO nanowires grown on a-, c- and m-plane oriented 4H-SiC substrates were 17.89 μm-2, 9.98 μm-2 and 2.61 μm-2, respectively.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have excellent electrical, chemical stability, mechanical and thermal properties. In this paper, networks of Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) materials were investigated as a resistive gas sensors for the H2 gas detection. Sensor films were fabricated by the air spray method using the multi-walled CNTs dispersion solution on the glass substrates cured with plasma and nitrocellulose. Sensors were characterized by the resistance measurements in the self-fabricated oven in order to find the optimum detection properties for the hydrogen gas molecular. The sensitivity and the linearity of the MWVNT sensors using the glass substrate cured with plasma for the H2 gas concentration of 0.06∼0.6 ppm are 0.013∼0.097%/sec and 0.131∼0.959%FS, respectively. The MWCNT film was excellent in the response for the hydrogen gas moleculars and its reaction speed was very fast, which could be using as hydrogen gas sensor. The resistance of the fabricated sensors decreases when the sensors are exposed to H2 gas.
Thermoelectric bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) films were deposited on 4° off oriented (001) GaAs substrates using a modified metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system. The effects of substrate temperature on surface morphologies, crystallinity, electrical properties and thermoelctric properties were investigated. Two dimensional growth mode (2D) was observed at substrate temperature lower than 400℃. However, three dimensional growth mode (3D) was observed at substrate temperature higher than 400℃. Change of growth mechanism from 2D to 3D was confirmed with environmental scanning electron microscope (E-SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis. Seebeck coefficients of all samples have negative values. This result indicates that Bi2Te3 films grown by modified MOCVD are n-type. The maximum value of Seebeck coefficient was -225 μV/K and the power factor was 1.86×10-3 W/mK2 at the substrate temperature of 400℃. Bi2Te3 films deposited using modified MOCVD can be used to fabricate high-performance thermoelectric devices.
In this paper, CuInSe2 thin film was prepared by use of the co-evaporation method with the variation of the substrate temperature in the range of 100℃ to 400℃. The film was annealed at 300℃ for an hour in a vacuum chamber at 3×10-4 Pa. After annealing, the thin film prepared at the substrate temperatures of 100℃ and 200℃ was observed. The XRD (x-ray diffraction) pattern of sample prepared at 100℃ showed the single phase formation of CuInSe2. However, at 200℃, there was no apparent difference in the XRD pattern except a variation in the intensity of the peak. As the annealing treatment of substrate improved the crystal structure of the film, it affected to the increase of an electron mobility, resulted in an increase in conductivity and a decrease in resistance. As a results, when the substrate temperature was at 200℃ and 300℃, the sheet resistance was 1.534 n/and 1.554 n/, respectively, and the resistivity was 1.76×10-6 n·㎝ and 1.7210-6 n·㎝, respectively. From the absorption spectrum measurements, there was no variation between the before and after annealing conductions. And it means that the annealing step does not affect the thickness of the thin film.
Sapphire substrate was patterned by a selective chemical wet etching technique, and GaN/InGaN structures were grown on this substrate by MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy). The surface of grown GaN on patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) has good morphology and uniformity. The patterned sapphire substrate LED showed better light output than conventional LED that improvement 50%. We think these results come from enhancement of internal quantum efficiency by decrease of threading dislocation and increase of light extraction efficiency. Also these LED showed more uniform emission distribution in angle than conventional LED.