• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.461-465
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• 2011

An aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) film for front contacts of thin film solar cells, in this work, were deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering, and then etched in diluted hydrochloric acid solution for different times. Effects of surface texturing on the electro-optical properties of AZO films were investigated. Also, to clarify the light trapping of textured AZO film, amorphous silicon thin film solar cells were fabricated on the textured AZO/glass substrate and the performance of solar cells were studied. After texturing, the spectral haze at the visible range of 400 ~750 nm increased substantially with the etching time, without a change in the resistivity. The conversion efficiency of amorphous Si solar cells with textured AZO film as a front electrode was improved by the increase of short-circuit current density ($J_{sc}$), compared to cell with flat AZO films.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2013

The fabrication method of plasmonic nanodots on silicon substrate has been developed to improve the efficiency of thin film solar cells. Nanoscale metallic nanodots arrays are fabricated by anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template mask which can have different structural parameters by varying anodization conditions. In this paper, the structural parameters of gold nanodots, which can be controlled by the diverse structures of AAO template mask, are investigated to enhance the optical properties of a-Si thin film solar cells. It is found that optical properties of the thin film solar cells are improved by finding optimization values of the structural parameters of the gold nanodot array.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.286-290
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• 2020

The formation of inorganic thin films in low-temperature solution processes is necessary for a wide range of commercial applications of organic electronic devices. Aluminum oxide thin films can be utilized as barrier films that prevent the deterioration of an electronic device due to moisture and oxygen in the air. In addition, they can be used as the gate insulating layers of a thin film transistor. In this study, aluminum oxide thin film were formed using two methods simultaneously, a thermal process and the DUV process, and the properties of the thin films were compared. The result of converting aluminum nitrate hydrate to aluminum oxide through a hybrid process using a thermal treatment and DUV was confirmed by XPS measurements. A film-based a-IGZO TFT was fabricated using the formed inorganic thin film as a gate insulating film to confirm its properties.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.401-405
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• 2017

Because silicon thin film solar cells have a high absorption coefficient in visible light, they can absorb 90% of the solar spectrum in a $1-{\mu}m$-thick layer. Silicon thin film solar cells also have high transparency and are lightweight. Therefore, they can be used for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. However, the contact electrode needs to be replaced for fabricating silicon thin film solar cells in BIPV systems, because most of the silicon thin film solar cells use metal electrodes that have a high reflectivity and low transmittance. In this study, we replace the conventional aluminum top electrode with a transparent aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) electrode, the band level of which matches well with that of the intrinsic layer of the silicon thin film solar cell and has high transmittance. We show that the AZO effectively replaces the top metal electrode and the bottom fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate without a noticeable degradation of the photovoltaic characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.114-117
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• 2020

In this study, we performed the deposition of Al thin film using a DC magnetron sputtering method. To evaluate electrical and structural properties, the growth conditions were changed in terms of two functions, namely, sputtering power ranging from 41.6 to 216 W and film growth rate ranging from 5.35 to 26.39 nm/min. The growth rate and the microstructure were characterized by a scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The plane of crystalline growth showed that the preferential (111) direction and defects due to the grain boundary increased with DC power. The resistivity of the Al film over 50 nm showed a constant value by horizontal grain growth. Our results can be applicable for the preparation of nano-templates for anodic aluminum oxide.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.440-445
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• 2019

It has developed a method that can recover efficiently the reproducible resources from the vehicle waste lithium second battery module. Module cell consists of copper thin film, aluminum thin film and diaphragm made with polymer between these thin films. Cell was disassembled completely without any damage in glove box and through several steps. Preferentially, cathode active material was separated from aluminum thin film at heat treatment of 400 ℃. The retrieved cathode active material was then obtained as high purity after calcining at 800 ℃ to remove residual carbon. Based on this study, it was found that rare metals such as Co, Ni, Mn and Li made up of cathode active material could recover above 80% from aluminum thin film.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1019-1023
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• 2012

In this research, a novel direct-aluminum-heating-induced crystallization method was developed for the purpose of application to solar cells. By applying a constant current of 3 A to an aluminum thin film, a 200-nm-thick amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film with a size of $1cm{\times}1cm$ can be crystallized into a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film within a few tens of seconds. The Raman spectrum analysis shows a peak of 520 $cm^{-1}$, which verifies the presence of poly-Si. After removing the aluminum layer, the poly-Si thin film was found to be porous. SIMS analysis showed that the porous poly-Si thin film was heavily p-doped with a doping concentration of $10^{21}cm^{-3}$. Thermal imaging shows that the crystallization from a-Si to poly-Si occurred at a temperature of around 820 K.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.743-750
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• 2023

Aluminum alloy is a material widely used in the aircraft industry. However, since it has relatively low hardness, strength and tribological properties, it is necessary to improve these properties. In this paper, a TiN thin film was coated on the surface of AL7075-T7351 using DC magnetron sputtering. The coating was performed by setting different deposition pressure, deposition time, and applied power. Then, the tribological properties of the thin film were investigated. As a result of the experiment, the hardness of the thin film was higher than that of the base material, and the specimen with the highest hardness had excellent friction coefficient, wear amount, and adhesive strength characteristics. Through this study, it was confirmed that the tribological characteristics of aluminum alloy can be improved by depositing thin films using DC magnetron sputtering.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.351-355
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• 2010

Transparent conducting aluminum-doped ZnO thin films were deposited using a sol-gel process. In this study, the important deposition parameters were investigated thoroughly to determine the appropriate procedures to grow large area thin films with low resistivity and high transparency at low cost for device applications. The doping concentration of aluminum was adjusted in a range from 1 to 4 mol% by controlling the precursor concentration. The annealing temperatures for the pre-heat treatment and post-heat treatment was $250^{\circ}C$ and 400-$600^{\circ}C$, respectively. The SEM images show that Al doped and undoped ZnO films were quite uniform and compact. The XRD pattern shows that the Al doped ZnO film has poorer crystallinity than the undoped films. The crystal quality of Al doped ZnO films was improved with an increase of the annealing temperature to $600^{\circ}C$. Although the structure of the aluminum doped ZnO films did not have a preferred orientation along the (002) plane, these films had high transmittance (> 87%) in the visible region. The absorption edge was observed at approximately 370 nm, and the absorption wavelength showed a blue-shift with increasing doping concentration. The ZnO films annealed at $500^{\circ}C$ showed the lowest resistivity at 1 mol% Al doping.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.179-183
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• 2005

A photodiode capable of obtaining a sufficient photo/ dark current ratio at both forward bias state and reverse bias state is proposed. The photodiode includes a glass substrate, an aluminum film formed as a lower electrode over the glass substrate, an alumina film formed as an insulator barrier over the aluminum film, a hydrogenated amorphous silicon film formed as a photo conduction layer over a portion of the alumina film, and a transparent conduction film formed as an upper electrode over the hydro-generated amorphous silicon film. A good quality alumina $(Al_2O_3)$ film is formed by oxidation of aluminum film using electrolyte solution of succinic acid. Alumina is used as a potential barrier between amorphous silicon and aluminum. It controls dark-current restriction. In case of photodiodes made by changing the formation condition of alumina, we can obtain a stable dark current $(\~10^{-12}A)$ in alumina thickness below $1000{\AA}$. At the reverse bias state of the negative voltage in ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), the photo current has substantially constant value of $5{\times}10^{-9}$ A at light scan of 100 1x. On the other hand, the photo/dark current ratios become higher at smaller thicknesses of the alumina film. Therefore, the alumina film is used as a thin insulator barrier, which is distinct from the conventional concept of forming the insulator barrier layer near the transparent conduction film. Also, the structure with the insulator thin barrier layer formed near the lower electrode, opposed to the ITO film, solves the interface problem of the ITO film because it provides an improved photo current/dark current ratio.