Aluminum nitride having a dense hexagonal structure is used as a high-temperature material because of its excellent heat resistance and high mechanical strength; its excellent piezoelectric properties are also attracting attention. The structure and residual stress of AlN thin films formed on glass substrate using TFT sputtering system are examined by XRD. The deposition conditions are nitrogen gas pressures of 1 × 102, 6 × 103, and 3 × 103, substrate temperature of 523 K, and sputtering time of 120 min. The structure of the AlN thin film is columnar, having a c-axis, i.e., a <00·1> orientation, which is the normal direction of the glass substrate. An X-ray stress measurement method for crystalline thin films with orientation properties such as columnar structure is proposed and applied to the residual stress measurement of AlN thin films with orientation <00·1>. Strength of diffraction lines other than 00·2 diffraction is very weak. As a result of stress measurement using AlN powder sample as a comparative standard sample, tensile residual stress is obtained when the nitrogen gas pressure is low, but the gas pressure increases as the residual stress is shifts toward compression. At low gas pressure, the unit cell expands due to the incorporation of excess nitrogen atoms.

An effective cleaning method for Ni removal in Ni-induced lateral crystallization(Ni-MILC) poly-Si TFTs and their electrical properties are investigated. The HCN cleaning method is effective for removal of Ni on the crystallized Si surface, while the nitric acid treatment results decrease by almost two orders of magnitude in the Ni concentration due to effective removal of diffused Ni mainly in the poly-Si grain boundary regions. Using the HCN cleaning method after the nitric acid treatment, re-adsorbed Ni on the Si surfaces is effectively removed by the formation of Ni-cyanide complexions. After the cleaning process, important electrical properties are improved, e.g., the leakage current density from 9.43 × 10−12 to 3.43 × 10−12 A and the subthreshold swing values from 1.37 to 0.67 mV/dec.

Ti films were deposited on glass substrates under various preparation conditions in a chamber of two-facing-target type dc sputtering; after deposition, the electric resistivity values were measured using a conventional four-probe method. Crystallographic orientations and microstructures, including the texture and columnar structure, were also investigated for the Ti films. The morphological features, including the columnar structures and surface roughness, are well explained on the basis of Thornton’s zone model. The electric resistivity and the thermal coefficient of the resistivity vary with the sputtering gas pressure. The minimum value of resistivity was around 0.4 Pa for both the 0.5 μm and 3.0 μm thick films; the apparent tendencies are almost the same for the two films, with a small difference in resistivity because of the different film thicknesses. The films deposited at high gas pressures show higher resistivities. The maximum of TCR is also around 0.4 Pa, which is the same as that obtained from the relationship between the resistivity and the gas pressure. The lattice spacing also decreases with increasing sputtering gas pressure for both the 0.5 μm and 3.0 μm thick films. Because they are strongly related to the sputtering gas pressures for Ti films that have a crystallographic anisotropy that is different from cubic symmetry, these changes are well explained on the basis of the film microstructures. It is shown that resistivity measurement can serve as a promising monitor for microstructures in sputtered Ti films.

Odorous pollutants emitted from the manufacturing process of TFT-LCD were investigated to prepare the odor control plan. Odor measurements in the workplace of clean room were also carried out. The odorous pollutants detected in the organic and acid gas emission duct were acetone, acetic acid, IPA, nbutylacetate, PGMEA, cyclohexane, which were chemicals used for LCD manufacturing. Especially, acetic acid was turned out to one of the major odor substances in the acid gas emission duct because of its low odor threshold value. No odorous pollutants were detected in the toxic gas emission duct. Some organic gases detected in the clean room were due to the leakage from chemical containers or LCD devices.

Inorganic-organic composite thin-film-transistors (TFTs) of ZnO nanowire/Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) were investigated by changing the nanowire densities inside the composites. Crystalline ZnO nanowireswere synthesized via an aqueous solution method at a low temperature, and the nanowire densities inside thecomposites were controlled by changing the ultrasonifiaction time. The channel layers were prepared withcomposites by spin-coating at 2000rpm, which was followed by annealing in a vacuum at 100oC for 10 hours.Au/inorganic-organic composite layer/SiO2 structures were fabricated and the mobility, Ion/Ioff ratio, andthreshold voltage were then measured to analyze the electrical characteristics of the channel layer. Comparedwith a P3HT TFT, the electrical properties of TFT were found to be improved after increasing the nanowiredensity inside the composites. The mobility of the P3HT TFT was approximately 10-4cm2/V·s. However, themobility of the ZnO nanowire/P3HT composite TFT was increased by two orders compared to that of theP3HT TFT. In terms of the Ion/Ioff ratio, the composite device showed a two-fold increase compared to thatof the P3HT TFT.

TFT-LCD is the most popular type of flat display panel in the information technology field. The back light unit is a main part of the structure of a TFT-LCD panel. Occasionally, studies have shown that failures of the CCFL of the BLU occur due to the poor weld characteristics of these materials. The aim of this study was to prepare some technical data and to characterize a microjoined electrode for the CCFL. Microstructure examinations, microhardness measurements, resistance measurements and microtensile tests of the microjoined electrode were carried out. The result indicates that a large amount of grain coarsening exists in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the weld between the cup and the pin. This grain coarsening of the HAZ between the cup and pin is caused by the welding cycle, which may have an influence on the lowest microhardness values. Fracturing of the microjoined electrode also occurred at the HAZ close to the cup between the weld holding the cup and the pin. Additionally, no specific changes of the electrical resistance among the cup, pin, and lead wire themselves or in the microjoined electrode were observed.

In this paper, we propose a systematic procedure to determine standard time and cycle time in a TFT-LCD factory. The proposed procedure mainly consists of data preprocessing, hypothesis testing and Group technology. Data preprocessing extracts relevant da

The number of pixel defects including bright and black dots on a panel is one of the critical factors determining the quality of TFT-LCD. Since pixel defects on the TFT-LCD panels are sometimes unavoidable, manufacturers have to inspect the panels so that any panel with an unacceptable number of defects will not be delivered to the buyers. However, the buyers demand for the manufacturers to meet different pixel defects tolerances (acceptable number of pixel defects on a TFT-LCD panel) around central(tight) and peripheral(loose) inspection zones. The disagreement in quality standard among different buyers also cause confusions in screening non-confirmative products and unstable yield of production. Few research has focused on the effects of defect locations on a TFT-LCD panel on their detection probabilities and the rational division of defect inspection zones. In this research, experiments were conducted to find the detection probabilities of black dot defects with respect to their varying locations on a TFT-LCD. It is proposed a rational division of inspection zone on a TFT-LCD panel on the basis of detection probabilities of the defects. With these division of inspection zones and the mean defect detection probability within each zone, it is expected to establish a more reasonable pixel defects tolerances.

A new process for polymeric gate insulator in field-effect transistors was proposed. Fourier transform infrared absorption spectra were measured in order to identify ODPA-ODA polyimide. Its breakdown field and electrical conductivity were measured. All-organic thin-film transistors with a stacked-inverted top-contact structure were fabricated to demonstrate that thermally evaporated polyimide films could be used as a gate insulator. As a result, the transistor performances with evaporated polyimide was similar with spin-coated polyimide. It seems that the mass-productive in-situ solution-free processes for all-organic thin-film transistors are possible by using the proposed method without vacuum breaking.

Organic semiconductors based on vacuum-deposited films of fused-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon have great potential to be utilized as an active layer for electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this study, pentacene thin films and electrode materials were deposited by Organic Molecular Beam Deposition (OMBD) and vacuum evaporation respectively. For the gate dielectric layer, photoacryl (OPTMER PC403 from JSR Co.) was spin-coated and cured at 220℃. Electrical characteristics of the device were investigated, where the channel length and width was 50 μm and 5 mm. It was found that field effect mobility was 0.039 cm2V-1s-1, threshold voltage was -8 V, and on/off current ratio was 106. Further details will be discussed.