Tae Geun Kim

Study of Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Biophysical Kinetics with a Microslit-Embedded Cantilever Sensor in a Liquid Environment

A microsized slit-embedded cantilever sensor (slit cantilever) was fabricated and evaluated as a biosensing platform in a liquid environment. In order to minimize the degradation caused by viscous damping, a 300 × 100 µm2 (length × width) sized cantilever was released by a 5 µm gap-surrounding and vibrated by an internal piezoelectric-driven self-actuator. Owing to the structure, when the single side of the slit cantilever was exposed to liquid a significant quality factor (Q = 35) could be achieved. To assess the sensing performance, the slit cantilever was exploited to study the biophysical kinetics related to Aβ peptide. First, the quantification of Aβ peptide with a concentration of 10 pg/mL to 1 μg/mL was performed. The resonant responses exhibited a dynamic range from 100 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL (−56.5 to −774 ΔHz) and a dissociation constant (KD) of binding affinity was calculated as 1.75 nM. Finally, the Aβ self-aggregation associated with AD pathogenesis was monitored by adding monomeric Aβ peptides. As the concentration of added analyte increased from 100 ng/mL to 10 µg/mL, both the frequency shift values (−813 to −1804 ΔHz) and associate time constant increased. These results showed the excellent sensing performance of the slit cantilever overcoming a major drawback in liquid environments to become a promising diagnostic tool candidate.

Highly Efficient Deep-UV Light-Emitting Diodes Using AlN-Based Deep-UV-Transparent Glass Electrodes

Many studies have set out to develop electrodes that are both highly conductive and transparent across a wide spectral region, from visible to deep UV (DUV). However, few solutions have been proposed because these two properties are mutually exclusive. In this paper, an AlN-based glass electrode film with a conducting filament formed by the application of an ac pulse is proposed as a solution, which exhibits a high transmittance in the DUV region (over 95.6% at 280 nm) and a low contact resistance with a p-Al0.4Ga0.6N layer (ρc = 3.2 × 10-2 Ω·cm2). The Ohmic conduction mechanism at the interface between the AlN film and the p-Al0.4Ga0.6N layers is fully examined using various analytical tools. This AlN film is finally applied to a 280 nm top-emitting light-emitting diode, to verify the validity of the method, which exhibits very stable operations with a forward voltage of 7.7 V at 20 mA, a light output power of 7.49 mW at 100 mA, and, most importantly, a record high external quantum efficiency of 2.8% after packaging.

Ti-Doped GaOx Resistive Switching Memory with Self-Rectifying Behavior by Using NbOx/Pt Bilayers

Crossbar arrays (CBAs) with resistive random access memory (ReRAM) constitute an established architecture for high-density memory. However, sneak paths via unselected cells increase the total power consumption of these devices and limit the array size. To eliminate such sneak-path problems, we propose a Ti/GaOx/NbOx/Pt structure with a self-rectifying resistive-switching (RS) behavior. In this structure, to reduce the operating voltage, we used a Ti/GaOx stack to increase the number of trap sites in the RS GaOx layer through interfacial reactions between the Ti and GaOx layers. This increase enables easier carrier transport with reduced electric fields. We then adopted a NbOx/Pt stack to add rectifying behavior to the RS GaOx layer. This behavior is a result of the large Schottky barrier height between the NbOx and Pt layers. Finally, both the Ti/GaOx and NbOx/Pt stacks were combined to realize a self-rectifying ReRAM device, which exhibited excellent performance. Characteristics of the device include a low operating voltage range (-2.8 to 2.5 V), high on/off ratios (∼20), high selectivity (∼104), high operating speeds (200-500 ns), a very low forming voltage (∼3 V), stable operation, and excellent uniformity for high-density CBA-based ReRAM applications.