The ferroelectricity in fluorite-structure oxides such as hafnia and zirconia has attracted increasing interest since 2011. They have various advantages such as Si-based complementary metal oxide semiconductor-compatibility, matured deposition techniques, a low dielectric constant and the resulting decreased depolarization field, and stronger resistance to hydrogen annealing. However, the wake-up effect, imprint, and insufficient endurance are remaining reliability issues. Therefore, this paper reviews two major aspects: the advantages of fluorite-structure ferroelectrics for memory applications are reviewed from a material's point of view, and the critical issues of wake-up effect and insufficient endurance are examined, and potential solutions are subsequently discussed.

The formation and morphological evolution of germanides formed in a ternary Ni/Ta-interlayer/Ge system were examined by ex situ and in situ annealing experiments. The Ni germanide film formed in the Ni/Ta-interlayer/Ge system maintained continuity up to 550°C, whereas agglomeration of the Ni germanide occurred in the Ni/Ge system without Ta-interlayer. Through microstructural and chemical analysis of the Ni/Ta-interlayer/Ge system during and after in situ annealing in a transmission electron microscope, it was confirmed that the Ta atoms remained uniformly on the top of the newly formed Ni germanide layer during the diffusion reaction. Consequently, the agglomeration of the Ni germanide film was retarded and the thermal stability was improved by the Ta incorporation.

Parkinson's disease (PD), one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, is characterised by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) to the striatum (ST), and involves oxidative stress. Mulberry fruit from Morus alba L. (Moraceae) is commonly eaten, and has long been used in traditional oriental medicine. It contains well-known antioxidant agents such as anthocyanins. The present study examined the protective effects of 70 % ethanol extract of mulberry fruit (ME) against neurotoxicity in in vitro and in vivo PD models. In SH-SY5Y cells stressed with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), ME significantly protected the cells from neurotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner. Other assays demonstrated that the protective effect of ME was mediated by its antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects, regulating reactive oxygen species and NO generation, Bcl-2 and Bax proteins, mitochondrial membrane depolarisation and caspase-3 activation. In mesencephalic primary cells stressed with 6-OHDA or 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+), pre-treatment with ME also protected dopamine neurons, showing a wide range of effective concentrations in MPP+-induced toxicity. In the sub-acute mouse PD model induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), ME showed a preventative effect against PD-like symptoms (bradykinesia) in the behavioural test and prevented MPTP-induced dopaminergic neuronal damage in an immunocytochemical analysis of the SNpc and ST. These results indicate that ME has neuroprotective effects in in vitro and in vivo PD models, and that it may be useful in preventing or treating PD.

We report the realization of the p-type conductivity and the enhancement of the photoluminescence (PL) intensity in undoped ZnO films treated with high-energy (1 MeV) electron-beam irradiation (HEEBI), suggesting that the HEEBI process is compatible with a low-temperature requirement for the fabrication of transparent thin film transistors with good efficiency on a plastic substrate. The p-type conductivity of the films was revealed by the Hall, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and PL measurements after being electron-irradiated in air at room temperature. The major acceptor-like defects were determined to be oxygen interstitial and zinc vacancy. A model was proposed in terms of O as well as Zn diffusion to explain the observed results. It was also observed that HEEBI treatment has little influence on the optical transmittance of ZnO films, whereas HEEBI treatment shifts the optical band gap toward the lower energy region from 3.29 to 3.28 eV.

Analytical electron microscopy (AEM) was used to examine the initial interfacial reaction layers between a eutectic Sn–3.5Ag solder and an electroless nickel-immersion gold-plated (ENIG) Cu substrate during reflow at 255 °C for 1 s. AEM confirmed that a thick upper (Au,Ni)Sn2 layer and a thin Ni3Sn4 layer had formed through the reaction between the solder and ENIG. The amorphous electroless Ni(P) plated layer transformed into two P-rich Ni layers. One is a crystallized P-rich Ni layer, and the other is an intermediate state P-rich Ni layer before the crystallization. The crystallized P-rich layer consisted of Ni2P and Ni12P5. A thin Ni2P layer had formed underneath the Ni3Sn4 layer and is believed to be a predecessor of the Ni2SnP ternary phase. A Ni12P5 phase was observed beneath the Ni2P thin layer. In addition, nanocrystalline Ni was found to coexist with the amorphous Ni(P) phase in the intermediate state P-rich Ni layer.

Since 2005, we have been carrying out a precise radial velocity survey of about 190 intermediate-mass (1.5-5 M⊙) G and K giants at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO) in Korea and Okayama Astrophysical Observatory (OAO) in Japan, which aims to reveal statistical properties of planetary systems around intermediate-mass stars. We have finished the first screening of 120 stars so far and have identified 5 candidates with large periodic radial velocity variations. One of the candidates turned out to be orbited by a brown dwarf mass companion with minimum mass of 37.6 MJup and semimajor axis of 1.71 AU. The primary star has a mass of 3.9 M⊙, which ranks among the most massive stars with substellar companions. Our discovery may support the current view obtained from results of planet searches around intermediate-mass stars that massive substellar companions tend to form around massive stars.

We have proposed nitrous oxide (N2O) plasma pre-treatment in order to reduce the oxide charge densities as well as to increase the breakdown field of silicon dioxide film for flexible display. Our experimental results show that the proposed treatment improved both the flat-band voltage from –3V to –1.8V and the breakdown voltage of gate oxide from 7MV/cm to 9.5MV/cm, respectively. The proposed treatment also improved poly-Si TFT characteristics such as low sub-threshold swing of 0.43V/dec.

(001) oriented (Ba, Sr)TiO3 (BST) thin films were deposited on MgO (001) single crystal substrates by the pulsed laser deposition method. Structural properties of BST films were investigated using X-ray diffractometer. Coplanar waveguide (CPW) device based on BST/MgO layer structure was fabricated by dc sputtering deposition, photolithography and etching process. To study the geometrical factor dependent microwave performance of the CPW phase shifter based on (001) oriented BST film, the CPW devices having various gap and width were fabricated. The microwave dielectric properties of BST CPW phase shifter devices were examined by calculating the scattering parameter obtained using a HP 8510C vector network analyzer with the frequency range 0.5 ∼ 20 GHz at room temperature under the dc bias field of 0 ∼ 40V. The measured return loss and insertion loss at 10 GHz with no dc bias were about -12 ∼ -4 dB and -14 ∼ -3 dB, respectively, which mainly depended on the impedances of the CPW transmission lines. The measured differential phase shift values were about 20 ° ∼ 140 ° at 10 GHz with 40 V dc bias variations, which depended on the gap size.

Microwave properties of coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines fabricated on high dielectric materials, such as ferroelectric Ba1−xSrxTiO3 films, are highly sensitive on the dimension and shape of electrodes. A small change in device dimension affects the total electrical length of the CPW, which may mislead the effective dielectric constant of the dielectric layer. Furthermore, extracting dielectric constant of high-k thin films from the measured microwave properties, such as S-parameters, is very difficult. The well known a modified conformal mapping method frequently exhibits an inconsistent dielectric constant for CPW on high-k materials. CPW transmission lines were fabricated on high-k thin films, ferroelectric Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3, which were deposited by the pulsed laser deposition with partial oxygen backgrounds. A large phase shift angle of 100° at 10 GHz was observed from the CPW (gap = 4 μm, length = 3 mm) with a 40 V of dc bias, which supports that the idea of the tunable microwave device application using ferroelectrics films. The dielectric constant of the thin ferroelectric film was extracted from the dimension of the CPW (gap, width, length) and the measured S-parameters by a modified conformal mapping. However, the dielectric constant of the ferroelectric thin film calculated by a modified conformal mapping exhibits a gap dependency; dielectric constant (990 ∼ 830) decreases with increasing gap size (4 ∼ 19 μm, respectively). For comparison, dielectric properties have been extracted by extensive EM-simulation using a HFSS™ (Ansoft) with observed dimensions of CPW devices. Total phase, which is closely related with the dielectric constant of the film, is strongly affected by gap size, film thickness, and slanted angle of CPW.

An ultra-low temperature (< 200°C) polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) film is fabricated for the plastic substrate application using inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) and excimer laser annealing. The precursor active layer is deposited using the SiH4/He mixture at 150°C (substrate). The deposited silicon film consists of crystalline component as well as hydrogenated amorphous component. The hydrogen content in the precursor layer is less than 5 at%. The grain size of the precursor active silicon film is about 200nm and it is increased up to 500nm after excimer laser irradiation.

An ultra-low temperature processed silicon dioxide film has been fabricated by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition at 150°C using He/N2O/SiH4 mixture. The deposited silicon dioxide film exhibits a high breakdown field larger than 6MV/cm in case of high ICP plasma condition while the flat band voltage of the oxide film significantly shifted in the negative direction with increasing ICP power. In order to obtain both high electrical breakdown filed and the low flat-band voltage, excimer laser irradiation with the energy density of 430mJ/cm2 is employed. The oxide film irradiated by excimer laser exhibited considerably shifted in the positive direction without scarifying the breakdown characteristics.

AlxGa1-xN sample with x=0.36 was epitaxially grown on sapphire by MOCVD. SAW velocity of 5420 m/s and TCF (temperature coefficient of frequency) of -51.20 ppm/°C were measured from the SAW devices fabricated on the AlxGa1-xN sample, when kh value was 0.078, at temperatures between –30 °C and 60 °C Electromechanical coupling coefficient was ranged from 1.26 % to 2.22 %. The fabricated SAW filter have shown a good device performance with insertion loss of -33.853 dB and side lobe attenuation of 20 dB.

We report a new poly-Si TFT, of which the troublesome implantation damage near the source/drain junction was eliminated, by performing source/drain ion implantation as well as excimer laser annealing (ELA) prior to the gate formation. The recrystallization of a-Si in the channel region and the dopant activation in the source/drain region were simultaneously accomplished by single ELA process step so that the implantation damage, which results in large leakage current of TFT, has been successfully eliminated. TEM image verifies that large poly-Si grains were successfully grown from the ion implanted source/drain region to the channel region. The proposed poly-Si TFT, of which mobility is 171 cm2/Vs, exhibits a large on/off current ratio exceeding 4.1 × 107 without LDD or offset structure while those of the conventional TFT, which has been fabricated simultaneously for the comparison purpose, are 86 cm2/Vs and 6.1 × 106.

A new self-aligned poly-Si TFT has been fabricated by employing a photoresist backside exposure technique. A pre-patterned aluminum (Al) layer on a-Si film not only induces the lateral grain growth (∼1.6 μm) in excimer laser crystallization but also implements the selfalignment of the gate region with the lateral grain region. Photoresist backside exposure through poly-Si film has been successfully performed because crystallized poly-Si has a fairly high UV transmittance. A self-aligned poly-Si TFT with a single grain boundary within the 2 μm channel was successfully fabricated and high on/off current ratio (∼107) was obtained.

The degradation behavior of integrated Pt/SrBi2Ta2O9/Pt capacitors caused by hydrogen impregnation during the spin-on glass (SOG)-based intermetal dielectric (IMD) process was investigated. SOG was tested as an IMD since it offers better planarity for multilevel metallization processes compared to other SiO2 deposition methods. It was found that the SOG itself does not degrade the ferroelectric performance. Deposition of an under-layer of SiOxNy by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using SiH4 + N2O + N2 source gases and a SiO2?x capping layer by another PECVD process using SiH4 + N2O source gases produced hydrogen as a reaction by-product. The hydrogen diffused into the SBT layer and degraded the ferroelectric performance during subsequent annealing cycles. A very thin (10 nm) Al2O3 layer grown by atomic layer deposition before the IMD process successfully blocked the impregnation of the hydrogen. Therefore, excellent ferroelectric performance of the SBT capacitors were maintained after the multilevel metallization process as well as passivation. The adoption of SOG in the IMD process greatly improved the surface flatness of the wafer resulting in a higher capacitor yield with very good uniformity in ferroelectric properties over the 8-in.-diameter wafer.

A new excimer laser recrystallization method of amorphous silicon is proposed to increase the grain size and control the grain boundary locations in polycrystalline silicon films. The proposed method is based on the lateral grain growth which occurs at the interface between molten and unmolten regions. To obtain selectively molten regions, the proposed method employs aluminum patterns on amorphous silicon. The aluminum patterns act as the beam shield during the laser irradiation as well as the lateral heat sink during the solidification period. The high reflectance of aluminum at the wavelength of XeCl excimer laser offers stable beam shielding property, and the high thermal conductivity enhances the lateral heat flow by the quick draining of laterally propagated heat. TEM observation has revealed that the well arranged large grains were successfully obtained.