• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.28-28
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• 2009

Fabrications of antireflection structures on solar cell were investigated to trap the light and to improve quantum efficiency. Introductions of patterned substrate or textured layer for Si solar cell were performed to prevent reflectance and to increase the path length of incoming light. However, it is difficult to deposit conformally flat electrode on perpendicular plane. ZnO is II-VI compound semiconductor and well-known wide band-gap material. It has similar electrical and optical properties as ITO, but it is nontoxic and stable. In this study, Al-doped ZnO thin films are deposited as transparent electrode by atomic layer deposition method to coat on Si substrate with micro-scale structures. The deposited AZO layer is flatted on horizontal plane as well as perpendicular one with conformal 200 nm thickness. The carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity of deposited AZO thin film on glass substrate were measured $1.4\times10^{20}cm^{-3}$, $93.3cm^2/Vs$, $4.732\times10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ with high transmittance over 80%. The AZO films were coated with polyimide and performed selective polyimide stripping on head of column by reactive ion etching to measure resistance along columns surface. Current between the micro-columns flows onto the perpendicular plane of deposited AZO film with low resistance.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 2009

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) play an important role in thin-film solar cells in terms of low cost and performance improvement. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) is a very promising material for thin-film solar cellfabrication because of the wide availability of its constituent raw materials and its low cost. In this study, AZO films were prepared by low pressurechemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) using trimethylaluminum (TMA), diethylzinc(DEZ), and water vapor. In order to improve the absorbance of light, atypical surface texturing method is wet etching of front electrode using chemical solution. Alternatively, LPCVD can create a rough surface during deposition. This "self-texturing" is a very useful technique, which can eliminate additional chemical texturing process. The introduction of a TMA doping source has a strong influence on resistivity and the diffusion of light in a wide wavelength range.The haze factor of AZO up to a value of 43 % at 600 nm was achieved without an additional surface texturing process by simple TMA doping. The use of AZO TCO resulted in energy conversion efficiencies of 7.7 % when it was applied to thep-i-n a-Si:H thin film solar cell, which was comparable to commercially available fluorine doped tin oxide ($SnO_2$:F).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.101-101
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• 2011

투명전도성산화물(transparent conducting oxides, TCOs) 박막으로써 널리 쓰이는 산화인듐주석(indium tin oxide, ITO)은 전기 전도성과 광 투과성이 우수하여 주로 유기발광다이오드(organic light-emitting diode, OLED)의 전극, 발광다이오드(light-emitting diode, LED)의 current spreading 층 및 태양전지(solar cell)의 윈도우층(window layer) 등의 광전자 소자로 응용되고 있으나, 고가의 indium 가격과 인체에 유해한 독성 등이 문제점으로 지적되고 있다. 따라서 indium의 함량을 저감한 새로운 조성의 TCO 또는 indium을 함유하지 않은 친환경적인 TCO 대체 재료 개발의 필요성이 증대되고 있다. 이러한 재료 중 하나인 AZO (Al-doped zinc oxide, $Al_2O_3$: 2 wt.%)는 3.82eV의 넓은 에너지 밴드갭을 가지며, 가시광선 및 근 적외선 파장 영역에 대하여 90% 이상의 높은 투과율을 나타낸다. 또한, 습식식각이 가능하며, 매우 풍부하여 원가가 매우 저렴하고, 독성이 없다. 본 연구에서는 박막 증착율이 높고, 제작과정의 조정이 용이한 RF magnetron 스퍼터를 이용하여 glass 기판 위에 AZO 박막을 성장하고, $N_2$ 분위기에서 다양한 온도 조건에서 열처리(rapid thermal annealing, RTA)하여 전기 및 광학적 특성에 대하여 비교 분석하였다. 또한, 이후에 기존의 성장방법과 달리 고가의 진공 장비를 사용하지 않고, 저온에서도 간단한 구조의 장비를 이용하여 균일한 나노구조를 성장시킬 수 있는 전기화학증착법(electrochemical deposition)으로 AZO 박막위에 ZnO 나노로드를 다양한 성장조건에 따라 성장시켜 광학적 특성을 비교 분석하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.587-591
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• 1998

AZO transparent conducting thin film were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering using the Zn: Al (2% aluminu contained ) alloy target with inducing microwave to the plasma, and the effect of microwave was studied. The optical transmittance, the resistivity and dynamic deposition rate at the applied voltage to target of 420 V was 50~70%, $ 5.5{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}$cm and 6,000 $\AA\textrm{mm}^2$/J, respectively. After annealing AZO coated glass at $400^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes, the light transmittance was increased to 80% and electrical conductivity was also increased two times, reached to resistivity of $2.0{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}$cm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.209-209
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• 2012

High-efficient transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film-embedding Si heterojunction solar cells were fabricated. An additional doping was not applied for heterojunction solar cells due to the spontaneous junction formation between TCO films and an n-type Si substrate. Three different TCO coatings were formed by sputtering method for an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film, an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film and double stacks of ITO/AZO films. An improved crystalline ITO film was grown on an AZO template upon hetero-epitaxial growth. This double TCO films-embedding Si heterojunction solar cell provided significantly enhanced efficiency of 9.23% as compared to the single TCO/Si devices. The effective arrangement of TCO films (ITO/AZO) provides benefits of a lower front contact resistance and a smaller band offset to Si leading enhanced photovoltaic performances. This demonstrates a potential scheme of the effective TCO film-embedding heterojunction Si solar cells.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.283-286
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• 1999

Transparent conductive aluminum-doped ZnO(AZO) films Were prepared by a ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method at the substrate temperature below 23$0^{\circ}C$. A vertical type hot wall furnace was used as a reactor in the deposition system. Zinc acetate dissolved in methanol was selected as a precursor. The substrate temperature was varied from 18$0^{\circ}C$to 24$0^{\circ}C$. Aluminum (Al) was doped into ZnO films by incorporating anhydrous aluminum chloride (AlCl$_3$) in the zinc acetate solution. The proportion of the Al in the starting solution was varied from 0 wt % to 3.0 wt %. The crystallographic properties and surface morphologies of the films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The resistivity of the films was measured by the Van der Pauw method, and the mobility and carrier concentration were obtained through the Hall effect measurements Transmittance was measured in the visible region. The effects of substrate temperature and aluminum content in the starling solution on the structural and electrical properties of the AZO films are discussed

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.101-105
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• 2015

ZnO is gathering great interest for large square optoelectrical devices of flat panel display (FHD) and solar cell as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). Herewith, Mg and IIIA (Al, In) co-doped ZnO films were prepared on SLG substrate using RF magnetron sputtering system. The effect of variation of atomic weight % of Mg and ZnO have been investigated. The atomic weight % Al and In are of 3% and kept constant throughout. The numbers of samples were prepared according to their different contents, which are $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$, $M_{4%}AZO_{93%}-(MAZO)$ and $M_{3%}IZO_{94%}$, $M_{4%}IZO_{93%}-(MIZO)$ respectively. A RF power of 225 W and working pressure of 6 m Torr was used for the deposition at $300^{\circ}C$. All of the two thin film show good uniformity in field emission scanning electron microscopy image. $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$ thin film shows overall better performance among the all. The film shows the best lowest resistivity, carrier concentration, mobility and Sheet resistance and is found to be are of $8.16{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, $4.372{\times}10^{20}/cm^3$, $17.5cm^2/vs$ and $8.9{\Omega}/sq$ respectively. Also $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$ thin film shows the relatively high optical band gap energy of 3.7 eV with high transmittance more than 80% in visible region required for the better solar cell performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.290-291
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• 2006

We prepared the multilayer with Al doped ZnO (AZO)/Ag/AZO structure. The multilayer were deposited with various thickness of Ag layer on glass substrates at room temperature by using facing targets sputtering (FTS) method. To investigate the electrical, optical and structural properties, we used Hall Effect measurement system, four-point probes. UV-VIS spectrometer with a wavelength of 300 - 100nm, X-ray Diffractometer(XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We obtained multilayer thin film with the low resistivity $5,9{\times}10^{-5}{\Omega}cm$ and the average transmittance of 86% m the visible range (400 - 800nm).

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 2008

0.5 wt% Al doped ZnO thin films (AZO) were prepared on glass substrates using RF magnetron sputtering method. Thin films were grown at substrate temperature of $250^{\circ}C$, RF power of 75W, working pressure of 10 mTorr, by changing the $O_2/Ar$ pressure ratio from 0% to 16.7%. The effects of oxygen partial pressure during the deposition process on structural and optical properties of the films were investigated using XRD, SEM, AFM, EPMA and UV-visible spectroscopy. All the AZO thin films were grown as hexagonal wurtzite phase with the c-axis preferred out-of-plane orientation. The surface roughness and grain size of AZO films decreased with increasing oxygen ratio from 10.6 nm to 3.2 nm and 94.9 nm to 30.9 nm, respectively. On the other hand, the transmittance and band gap energy of the AZO films increased from 84.7% to 92.6% and 3.24 eV to 3.28 eV, respectively with increasing the $O_2/Ar$ pressure ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.147-150
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• 2019

There is a need for the development of transparent conductive materials that are economical and environmentally friendly with exhibit low resistivity and high transmittance in the visible spectrum. In this study, the deposition rate and uniformity of Al-doped ZnO-thin films were improved by changing the Z-motion of the sputtering system. The deposition rate and the uniformity were determined to be 3.44 nm/min and 1.23%, respectively, under the 10 mm Z-motion condition. During $O_2$ plasma treatment, the intrusion-type metal elements in the thin film were reduced, which contributed to an oxygen vacancy reduction in addition to structural stabilization. Moreover, the sheet resistance was more easily saturated.