This study examined the effectiveness of an Ar neutral beam as a surface treatment for improving the field emission properties of screen-printed carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A short period of the neutral beam treatment on tape-activated CNTs enhanced the emission properties of the CNTs, showing a decrease in the turn-on field and an increase in the number of emission sites. The neutral beam treatment appeared to render the CNT surfaces more actively by exposing more CNTs from the CNT paste without cutting or kinking the already exposed long CNT emitters. The treated CNTs emitted more electrons than the CNTs treated using other methods. When the field emission properties were measured after the neutral beam treatment, the turn-on field decreased from 1.65to0.60V∕μm and the emission field at 1mA∕cm2 decreased from 3.10to2.41V∕μm. After the neutral beam treatment for 10s, there was an improvement in the stability of the emission current at a constant electric field. It is expected that the neutral beam treatment introduced in this study will provide an easy way of improving the emission intensity and stability of screen-printed CNT emitters.
It would be beneficial if the substrate surface were treated to have hydrophobic properties, in order to keep the line pattern fine during the inkjet processing, while at the same time having improved adhesion properties on the substrate. In this study, a polyimide surface was textured using atmospheric pressure plasma treatment for fine line metal inkjet printing by micromasking the surface followed by etching the polyimide surface selectively. The water contact angle on the textured polyimide film was measured to be over 100 degrees, showing that the surface was hydrophobic. When the textured polyimide surface was printed on using an electro-hydro-dynamic inkjet for Ag line printing, not only fine line Ag printing, but also improved adhesion of Ag to the polyimide surface could be obtained while maintaining excellent resistivity. The improved adhesion properties in addition to the fine line patterning afforded by texturing the polyimide surface were caused by the increased surface contact area between the metal ink and the polyimide surface during the annealing of the Ag line.
An internal-type linear inductive antenna, which is referred to as ''double comb-type antenna'', was used as a large-area inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source with a substrate area of 2,300 mm 9 2,000 mm. The characteristics of the ICP source were investigated for potential applications to flat panel display (FPD) processing. The source showed higher power transfer efficiency at higher RF power and higher operating pressures. The power transfer efficiency was approximately 88.1% at 9 kW of RF power and a pressure of 20 mTorr Ar. This source showed increasing plasma density and improved plasma uniformity with increasing RF power at a given operating pressure. A plasma density [1.5 9 10 11 /cm 3 and a plasma uniformity of approximately 11% was obtained at 9 kW of RF power and 15 mTor Ar using this internal ICP source, which is applicable to FPD processing.
Atmospheric pressure plasma etching of SiO2 was examined using a modified remote-type dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), called “pin-to-plate DBD.” The effect of adding four gases CF4, C4F8, O2, and Ar to the base gas mixture containing N2 (60 slm) (slm denotes standard liters per minute)/NF3 (600 SCCM) (SCCM denotes cubic centimeter per minute at STP) on the SiO2 etch characteristics was investigated. The results showed that the SiO2 etch rate decreased continuously with increasing C4F8 (200–800 SCCM) addition, whereas the SiO2 etch rate increased with increasing CF4 (1–10 slm) addition up to 7 slm CF4. This increase in the SiO2 etch rate up to 7 slm CF4 was attributed to the effective removal of Si in SiO2 by F atoms through the removal of oxygen in SiO2 by carbon in the CFX in the plasma. However, the decrease in SiO2 etch rate with further increases in CF4 flow rate above 7 slm was attributed to the formation of a thick C–F polymer layer on the SiO2 surface. A SiO2 etch rate of approximately 243 nm/min was obtained with a gas mixture of N2 (60 slm)/NF3 (600 SCCM)/CF4 (7 slm), and an input voltage and operating frequency to the source of 10 kV and 30 kHz, respectively. The addition of 200 SCCM Ar to the above gas mixture increased the SiO2 etch rate to approximately 263 nm/min. This is possibly due to the increased ionization and dissociation of reactive species through penning ionization of Ar.
The effect of the additional ac-bias voltage applied to the substrate on the characteristics of the SiO X deposited using modified remote-type atmospheric pressure plasma at room temperature was investigated for the gas mixture of hexamethyldisilazane/O 2 /He/Ar. The addition and increase of ac-bias voltage not only increased the deposition rate but also improved the characteristics of the deposited SiO X . With the increase of ac-bias voltage to the substrate, the oxygen percentage in the film increased while the carbon percentage is decreased by increasing Si-O-Si bonding and by decreasing the impurity such as -͑CH 3 ͒ X in the deposited film. In addition, the hardness and the surface smoothness of the deposited film were also increased with the increase of the ac biasing. The improvement of the film properties was related to the ion bombardment effect in addition to the increased gas dissociation by the additional power absorption, which was caused by the ac biasing of the substrate.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.