• 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).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.169-174
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• 2024

In this study, the structural, electrical, and optical properties of AZO films of various thicknesses are compared. The AZO films were deposited on a glass substrate by FTS (Facing-Target-Sputtering) This research was conducted to find the optimal thickness for Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO). AZO has suitable properties for TCO such as low resistivity, and high transmittance. Thin films of all thicknesses showed a transmittance of over 80% in the visible light region and electrical properties improved as thickness increased. It was confirmed that the film of 300 nm thick had the best performance due to its low resistivity, and uniform surface. This research is expected to help find optimal conditions in various fields where TCO is used, such as solar cells, displays, and sensors in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.328-333
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• 2011

The influence of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films degraded under high temperature and damp heat on the performance deterioration of Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ (CIGS) solar cells was investigated. CIGS solar cells with AZO/CdS/CIGS/Mo structure were prepared on glass substrate and exposed to high temperature ($85^{\circ}C$) and damp heat ($85^{\circ}C$/85% RH) for 1000 h. As-prepared CIGS solar cells had 64.91% in fill factor (FF) and 12.04% in conversion efficiency. After exposed to high temperature, CIGS solar cell had 59.14% in FF and 9.78% in efficiency, while after exposed to damp heat, it had 54.00% in FF and 8.78% in efficiency. AZO thin films in the deteriorated CIGS solar cells showed increases in resistivity up to 3.1 times and 4.4 times compared to their initial resistivity after 1000 h of high temperature and damp heat exposure, respectively. These results can be explained by the decreases in carrier concentration and mobility due to diffusion or adsorption of oxygen and moisture in AZO thin films. It can be inferred that decreases in FF and conversion efficiency were caused by an increase in series resistance, which resulted from an increase in resistivity of AZO thin films degraded under high temperature and damp heat.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.446-447
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• 2007

Aluminisum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films are attractive materials as transparent conductive electrode because they are inexpensive, nontoxic and abundant element compared with indium tin oxide (ITO). In our paper, AZO films have been deposited on glass (coming 1737) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. The AZO film was post-annealed at $600^{\circ}C$, $800^{\circ}C$ for 2 hr with $N_2$ atmosphere, respectively. We investigated that the electric properties and qualitative analysis of AZO films, which measured using the methods of Hall effect, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.440-448
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• 2004

In this paper, to make a solar cell of II-Ⅵ ZnTe compound semiconductor, we studied for the property of the transparent electrode(AZO) and Buffer layer(ZnO), and for reducing the energyband gap of optical absorber layer which are most effective on its efficiency. The ZnTe thin film was used the optical absorber layer of solar cell. Zn and Te were deposited using the co-sputtering method. The thin film was sputtered RF power of Zn/50W and Te/30W, respectively and a substrate temperature of foot under Ar atmosphere of 10mTorr. The energy band gap of the thin film was 1.73ev Then the thin film was annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ for 10sec under a vacuum atmosphere. The energy band gap of 1.67eV was achieved and the film composition ratio of Zn and Te was 32% and 68%. At the best condition, the Solar Cell was manufactured and the efficiency of 6.85% (Voc: 0.69V, Jsc: 21.408㎃/$cm^2$, Fill factor (FF): 0.46) was achieved.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.8-16
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• 2010

In this paper, we investigated the effects of $O_2$ fraction on the properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. Hall, photoluminescence (PL), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements revealed that the p-type conductivity was exhibited for AZO films with an $O_2$ fraction of 0.9 while the n-type conductivity was observed for films with $O_2$ fractions in range of 0 - 0.6. PL and XPS also showed that the acceptor-like defects, such as zinc vacancies and oxygen interstitials, increased in films prepared by an $O_2$ fraction of 0.9, resulting in the p-type conductivity in the films. Hall results indicated that AZO films prepared by $O_2$ fractions in range of 0 - 0.6 can be used for electrode layers in the applications of transparent thin film transistor. We concluded from the X-ray diffraction analysis that worse crystallinity with a smaller grain size as well as higher tensile stress was observed in the films prepared by a higher $O_2$ fraction, which is related to incorporation of more oxygen atoms into the films during deposition. The study of atomic force microscope suggested that the smoother surface morphology was observed in films prepared by using $O_2$ fraction, which causes the higher resistivity in those films, as evidenced by Hall measurements.

• 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.37 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2024

This work focuses on improving the light-harvesting efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells through innovative multi-architecture surface modifications. To create a regular optical structure, a lithographic process was performed to form it on a glass substrate through various etching processes, from Etch-1 to Etch-3. AZO was deposited on top of the structures and re-etched to create a multi-architectural surface. These surface-modified structures improved the light absorption and overall performance of the solar cell through changes in optical and physical properties, which we will analyze. In addition, we investigated the effect of post-cleaning on the etched glass structures through EDX analysis to understand the mechanism of the etching action. The results of this study are expected to provide important guidelines for the design and fabrication of solar cells and other photovoltaic devices.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.23-27
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• 2010

We prepared Al doped ZnO thin film as a top electrode on a glass substrate with a deposited $Alq_3$ for the top emission organic Light emitting device (TEOLED) with facing target sputtering (FTS) method and radio-frequency (RF) sputtering method, respectively. Before the deposition of AZO thin film, we evaporated the $Alq_3$ on glass substrate by thermal evaporation. And we evaluated the damage of organic layer. As a result, PL intensity of $Alq_3$ on grown by FTS method showed higher than that of grown by RF sputtering method, so we found that the FTS showed the lower damage sputtering than RF sputtering. Therefore, we can expect the FTS method is promising the low-damage sputtering system that can be used as a direct sputtering on the organic layer.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1343_1344
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• 2009

In this work, transparent conducting Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were prepared on Corning glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering using an Al-doped ZnO target (Al: 2 wt.%) at room temperature and all films were deposited with athickness of 150 nm. We investigated the effects of the post-annealing temperature and the annealing ambient on structural, electrical and optical properties of AZO films. The films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 300 to $500^{\circ}C$ in steps of $100^{\circ}C$ using rapid thermal annealing equipment in oxygen. The thickness of the film was observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and grain size was calculated from the XRD spectra using the Scherrer equation and their electrical properties were investigated using a hole measurement and the reflectance of AZO films was investigated by UV-VIS spectrometry.