An 80 nm thick zinc aluminate thin film was deposited on a glass substrate via radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering and heat treated to analyze changes in the wetting angles due to a surface modification. The thin films were modified from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by a simple thermal treatment. The surface modification from a heat treatment increased the wetting angles up to 111°, which was explained by the relationship with the excess surface area. The wetting angles of the annealed thin films decreased with increasing exposure time under ambient conditions, which was attributed to the oxygen vacancies in the films that were introduced during deposition. The annealed thin films were treated by ionized oxygen via oxygen plasma. After the oxygen plasma treatment, the decreased wetting angles were maintained at ~95° for 11 days.

Grain boundaries play a major role in determining device performance, particularly of polysilicon-based photodetectors. Through the post-annealing of as-deposited polysilicon and then, the analysis of electric behavior for a metal-polysilicon-metal (MSM) photodetector, we were able to identify the influence of grain boundaries. A modified model of polysilicon grain boundaries in the MSM structure is presented, which uses a crystalline-interfacial layer-SiO_x layer- interfacial layer-crystalline system that is similar to the Si-SiO₂ system in MOS device. Hydrogen passivation was achieved through a hydrogen ion implantation process and was used to passivate the defects at both interfacial layers. The thin SiO_x layer at the grain boundary can enhance the photosensitivity of an MSM photodetector by decreasing the dark current and increasing the light absorption.

In this study, the physical mechanism and diffusion effects in aluminium implanted silicon was investigated. For fabricating power semiconductor devices, an aluminum implantation can be used as an emitter and a long drift region in a power diode, transistor, and thyristor. Thermal treatment with O₂ gas exhibited to a remarkably deeper profile than inert gas with N₂ in the depth of junction structure. The redistribution of aluminum implanted through via thermal annealing exhibited oxidation-enhanced diffusion in comparison with inert gas atmosphere. To investigate doping distribution for implantation and diffusion experiments, spreading resistance and secondary ion mass spectrometer tools were used for the measurements. For the deep-junction structure of these experiments, aluminum implantation and diffusion exhibited a junction depth around 20 μm for the fabrication of power silicon devices.

Smart windows are used as windows and doors to determine the cooling and heating efficiency of a building. They have characteristics that can increase the energy efficiency of a building, which leads to energy savings. In addition, smart windows can control the amount of light transmitted from the external environment of a building to the interior of a building according to the needs of the user. In this study, a 297×210 mm² liquid crystal cell capable of controlling light transmittance was fabricated using a liquid crystal device as an optical shutter. The effect of driving voltage on the transmittance and the effect of the thermal environment on the driving stability were analyzed. We confirmed the applicability of using smart windows as exterior building materials.

A linear piezoelectric actuator that utilizes the elliptical motion of the two tips of the actuator is proposed. This device is easy to fabricate owing to its simple structure, consisting of three piezo ceramic benders and is suitable for use in micro robotic applications. A π-shaped structure, which was composed of four piezo ceramic benders, was constructed. Two of the benders were positioned on the center of the actuator, and the joints were attached at the ends of the cantilever. The other two benders were positioned on the side of the actuator and were attached between the joint and the tips. The actuator structure was designed to obtain the first bending mode of the horizontal vibration and the vertical vibration at the same frequency, resulting in elliptical motions at the tips. When two sinusoidal wave voltages with a 90-degree phase difference were applied to the two pairs of the actuator benders, elliptical motions were obtained at the tips. The driving characteristics of the prototype actuator were then measured using a laser doppler vibrometer.

Oxide semiconductor devices have become increasingly important because of their high mobility and good uniformity. The channel length of oxide semiconductor thin film transistors (TFTs) also shrinks as the display resolution increases. It is well known that reducing the channel length of a TFT is detrimental to the current saturation because of drain-induced barrier lowering, as well as the movement of the pinch-off point. In an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), the lack of current saturation in the driving TFT creates a major problem in the control of OLED current. To obtain improved current saturation in short channels, we fabricated indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) TFTs with single gate and double gate structures, and evaluated the electrical characteristics of both devices. For the double gate structure, we connected the bottom gate electrode to the source electrode, so that the electric potential of the bottom gate was fixed to that of the source. We denote the double gate structure with the bottom gate fixed at the source potential as the BGFP (bottom gate with fixed potential) structure. For the BGFP TFT, the current saturation, as determined by the output characteristics, is better than that of the conventional single gate TFT. This is because the change in the source side potential barrier by the drain field has been suppressed.

The formation of inorganic thin films in low-temperature solution processes is necessary for a wide range of commercial applications of organic electronic devices. Aluminum oxide thin films can be utilized as barrier films that prevent the deterioration of an electronic device due to moisture and oxygen in the air. In addition, they can be used as the gate insulating layers of a thin film transistor. In this study, aluminum oxide thin film were formed using two methods simultaneously, a thermal process and the DUV process, and the properties of the thin films were compared. The result of converting aluminum nitrate hydrate to aluminum oxide through a hybrid process using a thermal treatment and DUV was confirmed by XPS measurements. A film-based a-IGZO TFT was fabricated using the formed inorganic thin film as a gate insulating film to confirm its properties.

The high power of a shingled photovoltaic module can be attributed to its low cell-to-module loss. The production of high power modules in limited area requires high efficiency solar cells. Shingled photovoltaic modules can be made by divided solar cells, which can be produced by the laser scribing process. After dividing the 21% PERC cell using laser scribing, the efficiency decreased by approximately 0.35%. However, there was no change in the efficiency of the solar cell having relatively lower efficiency, because the laser scribing process induce higher heat damages in solar cells with high efficiency. To prove this phenomena, the J₀ (leakage current density) of each cell was analyzed. It was found that the J₀ of 21% PERC increased about 17 times between full and divided solar cell. However, the J₀ of 20.2% PERC increased only about 2.5 times between full and divided solar cell.

A coverglass pattern was designed to improve the annual electrical energy production of a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) module installed in the exterior walls of buildings. The transmittance pattern was calculated using ray tracing, and the results were derived by optimizing the simulation using Taguchi’s method. We obtained the optimal pattern by analyzing the conventional patterns for improving the transmittance and derived design factors by quantifying the pattern. By calculating the influence of electrical energy on each design factor, we obtained the optimal coverglass pattern that produced the maximum annual electrical energy. The annual electrical energy production improved by approximately 11.79% compared to the non-patterned coverglass.

This study proposes a crack identification algorithm to analyze the surface condition of porcelain insulators and to efficiently visualize cracks. The proposed image processing algorithm for crack identification consists of two primary steps. In the first step, the brightness is eliminated by converting the image to the lab color space. Then, the background is removed by the K-means clustering method. After that, the optimum image treatment is applied using morphological image processing and median filtering to remove unnecessary noise, such as blobs. In the second step, the preprocessed image is converted to grayscale, and any cracks present in the image are identified. Next, the region properties, such as the number of pixels and the ratio of the major to the minor axis, are used to separate the cracks from the noise. Using this image processing algorithm, the precision of crack identification for all the sample images was approximately 80%, and the F1 score was approximately 70. Thus, this method can be helpful for efficient crack monitoring.

Although waste oil derived fuel (WDF) production technology was developed under a government initiative ~10 years ago, it became stagnant owing to the small size of participating companies, residents’ rejection of foul odor, and the nature of the technology for recycling waste that was avoided. However, this subject is under the spotlight again because of recent developments, such as garbage crisis. In particular, plastic is the most difficult waste to dispose of, with more than 4 million tons of plastic waste produced every year according to statistics from the Ministry of Environment. The most effective method for treating plastic waste is to produce WDF through low temperature thermal decomposition. The WDF includes several volatile ingredients that mostly limit the use of fuel for boilers, owing to safety concerns. In particular, flash point is legally stipulated because of secondary contamination in the distribution process and the risk of fire and explosion. It is required that external shipments (distribution) should be maintained in the range of at least 30~60℃ (excluding explosion prevention facilities) for diesel power generation. Therefore, this study seeks to find the flash point that is best suited to WDFs produced from plastic waste.

Methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃) thin films were grown at low temperatures on glass substrates via 3-zone chemical vapor deposition. Lead iodide (PbI₂) and lead bis (dipivaloylmethanate) [Pb(dpm)₂] precursors were used as lead sources. Due to the high sublimation temperature (~400℃) of the PbI₂ precursor, a low substrate temperature could not be constantly maintained. Therefore, MAPbI₃ thin films degraded into the PbI₂ phase. In contrast, for the Pb(dpm)₂ precursor, a substrate temperature of ~120℃ was maintained because the sublimation temperature of Pb(dpm)₂ is as low as 130℃ at a high vapor pressure. As a result, high-quality MAPbI3 thin films were successfully grown on glass substrates using Pb(dpm)₂. The rms (root-mean-square) roughness of MAPbI3 thin films formed from Pb(dpm)₂ was as low as ~19.2 nm, while it was ~22.7 nm for those formed using PbI₂. The grain size of the films formed from Pb(dpm)₂ was as large as approximately 350 nm.

Atmospheric environmental problems have a major impact on human health and lifestyle. In humans, inhalation of nitrogen oxides causes respiratory diseases, such as bronchitis. In this paper, thermal analysis of a gas sensor was carried out to design and fabricate a wearable nylon-yarn gas sensor for the detection of NO_x gas. In the thermal analysis method, the thermal diffusion process was analyzed while operating the sensors at 40 and 60℃ to secure a temperature range that does not cause thermal runaway due to temperature in the operating environment. Thermal diffusion analysis was performed using the COMSOL software. The thermal analysis results could be useful for analyzing gas adsorption and desorption, as well as the design of gas sensors. The thermal energy diffusion rate increased slightly from 10.05 to 10.1 K/mm as the sensor temperature increased from 40 to 60℃. It was concluded that the sensor could be operated in this temperature range without thermal breakdown.

Small-scale production control systems for smart manufacturing are becoming increasingly necessary as the manufacturing industry seeks to maximize manufacturing efficiency as the demand for customized product production increases. Correspondingly, the development of an embedded system to realize this capability is becoming important. In this study, we developed an embedded system based on an open source system that is cheaper than a widely applied programmable logic controller (PLC)-based production control system that is easier to install, configure, and process than a conventional relay control panel. This embedded system is system is based on a low-power, high-performance Cortex M4 processor and can be applied to smart manufacturing. It is designed to improve the development environment and compatibility of existing PLCs, control small-scale production systems, and enable data collection through heterogeneous communication. The real-time response characteristics were confirmed through an operation test for input/output control and data collection, and it was confirmed that they can be used in industrial sites.

In this study, through the accumulated technologies such as real-time monitoring of power consumption using power line communication (PLC) method, power control, and automatic blocking of standby power, to commercialize them, we developed the hardware design, algorithm, protocol and module along with data transmission using PLC. We conducted the study to develop advanced products.We also proposed cloud-based smart outlet products with a novel type of outlet. These products can measure the internal power consumption through the H/W modules and the modules that control the power of household appliances connected to the smart outlets and smart plugs. Subsequently, they transmit the measurements to the energy saving system server via a communication module. This system can control the terminal device connected to the Gateway (G/W) server through a mobile phone. This will allow the customer to check the power consumption of the building at any given time, to turn the terminal on/off, and to maximize the energy efficiency during the construction of new apartments or multi-family housing in an area.