The research results conducted by a research team led by Professor Lee Hanboram of Incheon National University's Materials Science and Engineering have been published in ACS Nano (citation index of 15.8), the world's top journal, drawing attention.

The research team led by Professor Lee Hanboram of Incheon National University has been conducting next-generation semiconductor process research for the past three years with funding from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Joint Investment Semiconductor R&D Program (K-CHIPS) supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The research team announced the results of its innovative research to deposit uniform thin films, which are essential for ferroelectric memory devices smaller than 4.5 nanometers.

In order to use electronic devices with better performance, the size of semiconductor devices is continuously decreasing, and various problems arise. One of the most difficult problems to solve among them is to make a uniform and performing thin film with a very thin thickness (less than 5 nanometers). Professor Lee Han-boram's research team calculated and understood the very small molecular level interaction in the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process through theoretical calculation to solve this problem, making the ferroelectric HfxZryOz thin film, known as an important material for future semiconductor devices, uniform at the atomic level.

Due to its compatibility with modern silicon device technology, HfO2-based thin films are attracting attention as a major research target for integrating high ferroelectricity into next-generation memory and logic chips. However, research on ultra-thin HfO2-based ferroelectric thin film manufacturing technology is insufficient. Therefore, the technology developed through this research is evaluated as an essential technology for future semiconductor technology, and it is evaluated as a technology that can contribute to the Korean semiconductor industry taking the global semiconductor technology level to the next level.

Professor Lee Hanboram of Incheon National University's research team is recognized as a global research group in the fields of atomic layer deposition (ALD), atomic layer control (ALM), and selective deposition technology, which are the core technologies of semiconductor manufacturing. The research team has been widely noted for their outstanding achievements, such as winning the Incheon Metropolitan City Science and Technology Awards in 2017 and Lee being appointed as an editor of the renowned journal Chemistry of Materials in 2018. Even before this innovative study, the research team had already established an academic and industrial foundation, and its expertise has been recognized internationally through cooperation with major domestic semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, as well as global semiconductor leaders such as Merck and Ram Research.