This paper introduces an optimized oxygen (O₂) plasma surface treatment technique to enhance sphere lithography on hydrophobic photoresist surfaces. The focus is on semiconductor manufacturing, particularly the creation of finer structures beyond the capabilities of traditional photolithography. The key breakthrough is a method that makes substrate surfaces hydrophilic without altering photoresist patterns. This is achieved by meticulously controlling the O₂ plasma treatment duration. The result is the consistent formation of nano and microscale patterns across large areas. From an academic perspective, the study deepens our understanding of surface treatments in pattern formation. Industrially, it heralds significant progress in semiconductor and precision manufacturing sectors, promising enhanced capabilities and efficiency.

For the past several decades, various next-generation patterning methods have been developed to obtain well-designed nano-to-micro structures, such as imprint lithography, nanotransfer printing (nTP), directed self-assembly (DSA), E-beam lithography, and so on. Especially, nTP process has much attention due to its low processing cost, short processing time, and good compatibility with other patterning techniques in achieving the formation of high-resolution functional patterns. To transfer functional patterns onto desirable substrates, the use of soft materials is required for precise replication of master mold. Here, we introduce a simple and practical nTP method to create highly ordered structures using various polymeric replica materials. We found that polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinylpyridine (PVP) are possible candidates for replica materials for reliable duplication of Si master mold based on systematic analysis of pattern visualization. Furthermore, we successfully obtained well-defined metal and oxide nanostructures with functionality on target substrates by using replica patterns, through deposition and transfer process. We expect that the several candidates of replica materials can be exploited for effective nanofabrication of complex electronic devices.

Single-layer graphene is grown directly on Ti-buffered SiO₂ at 100℃. As a result of the AFM measurement of the Ti buffer layer, the roughness of approximately 0.2 nm has been improved. Moreover, the Raman measurement of graphene grown on it shows that the D/G intensity ratio is extremely small, approximately 0.01, and there are no defects. In addition, the 2D/G intensity ratio had a value of approximately 2.1 for single-layer graphene. The sheet resistance is also 89 Ω/□, demonstrating excellent characteristics. The problem was solved by using graphene and a lift-off patterning method. Low-temperature direct-grown graphene does not deteriorate after the patterning process and can be used for device and micro-patterning research.

In this study, two important requirements for the home production of a robot to detect and remove improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are presented in terms of the total cost for robot system development and the performance improvement of the mine detection technology. Firstly, cost analyses were performed in order to provide a reasonable solution following an engineering estimate method. As a result, the total cost for a mass production system without the mine detection system was estimated to be approximately 396 million won. For the case including the mine detection system, the total cost was estimated to be approximately 411 million won, in which labor costs and overhead charges were slightly increased and the material costs for the mine detection system were negligible. Secondly, a method for fabricating the carbon nanotube (CNT) based gas detection sensor was studied. The detection electrodes were formed by a photolithography process using a photosensitive CNT paste. As a result, this method was shown to be a scalable and expandable technology for producing excellent mine detection sensors. In particular, it was found that surface treatments by using adhesive taping or ion beam bombardment methods are effective for exposing the CNTs to the ambient air environment. Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plots were obtained from the electron-emission characteristics of the surface treated CNT paste. The F-N plot suggests that sufficient electrons are available for transport between CNT surfaces and chemical molecules, which will make an effective chemiresistive sensor for the advanced IED detection system.

Recently, there has been much focus on the controlled alignment and patterning process of nanowires for nanoelectronic devices. A simple and effective method for patterning of highly aligned nanowires using a microcontact printing technique is demonstrated. In this method, nanowires are first directionally aligned by contact printing, following which line and space micropatterns of nanowire arrays are accomplished by microcontact printing with a micro patterned NOA mold.

In this study, the change of optical characteristics was studied according to the micro optical pattern provided by photo lithography followed by thermal reflow process. The shape and luminance variation with micro pattern was evaluated by SEM and spectrometers. Also, we analyzed the luminance characteristics using the 3D-optical simulation (Optis works) program. As a result, we found that the radius of curvature(R) in micro pattern is decreased up to 77%(150℃) compared to the radius of curvature at the condition 100℃, which is caused by efficient reflow of organic material without chemical changes. The highest enhancement of brightness with optimum micro pattern was obtained at the condition of 120℃ reflow process. The brightness gain with optical micro patterns is more than 15% at the condition of R=16.95 um, θ =77.14° compared to original optical source. The results of light simulation with various radius of curvature and side angle of pattern shows the similar result of experiment evaluation of light behavior on optical micro patterns. It is regarded that the more effect on light enhancement was contributed by side angle which is effective factor on light reflection, rather than the curvature of micro-patterns.

Efficiency of crystalline Si solar cell can be maximized as minimizing optical loss through antireflection texturing with inverted pyramids. Even if cost-competitive, soft lithography can be employed instead of photolithography for the purpose, some limitations still remain to apply the soft lithography directly to as-received solar grade wafer with a bunch of micro trenches on surface. Therefore, it is needed to develop a low-cost, effective planarization process and evaluate its output to be applicable to patterning process with PDMS stamp. In this study new surface planarization process is proposed and the change of micro scale trenches on the surface as a function of etching time is observed. Also, the effect of trenches on pattern quality by soft lithography is investigated using FEM structural analysis. In conclusion it is clear that the geometry and shape of trenches would be basic considerations for soft lithography application to low quality wafer.

We design, develope and test a parallel active polymer pen lithography (PPL) device, which consists of individually addressable elastomeric probe tips. The PPL array chip is fabricated using soft lithography method with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material. Individual probe can be pneumatically actuated via a computer controlled interface. We demonstrate parallel writing with 16 individually addressed pens, with each pen producing a different pattern in the same run. The largest proof-of-concept array fabricated is 4×4 with a spacing of 250 μm in both x and y axes.

Electrodeionization is a hybrid separation process of electrodialysis and ion exchange to produce high purity water under electric field. This article provides a fabrication result of hole patterned metal electrode for elecrodeionization system. The hole patterns have been fabricated by nanosphere lithography (NSL). The technique utilizes the self-assembled nanospheres as lens-mask patterns and collimated laser beam source. The hole patterns have a periodic array structure. The images of hole pattern on metal electrode prepared were observed by SEM. We believe that the periodic hole patterned metal electrode structure is a useful device applicable for metal mat electrode in electrodeionization system.

The light extraction efficiency of top-emitting organic light-emitting diode (OLED) was improved by insertion of corrugation patterns between indium tin oxide and organic layers. The corrugation patterns was fabricated by nanosphere lithography, which could form a self-assembled particle monolayer over a large area. The electrical and optical properties for the OLED devices fabricated by vacuum evaporation, were investigated. We have demonstrated the enhancement of the power efficiency of corrugated OLED. As a result, the power efficiency of the corrugated OLED was found to be more than 42%.

In this study, the surface modification for a silicon(Si) mold using CHF3 inductively coupled plasma(ICP). The conditions under that plasma was treated a input ICP power 600 W, an operating gas pressure of 10 mTorr and plasma exposure time of 30 sec. The Si mold surface became hydrophobic after plasma treatment in order to CF(x)(X= 1,2,3) polymer. However, as the de-molding process repeated, it was investigated that the contact angle of Si surface was decreased. So, we attempted to investigate the degradation mechanism of the accurate pattern transfer with increasing the count of the de-molding process using scanning electron microscope (SEM), contact angle, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of Si mold surface.