• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.31-36
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• 2006

Superstrate pin amorphous silicon thin-film(a-Si:H) solar cells are prepared on $SnO_2:F$ and ZnO:Al transparent conducting oxides(TCO) in order to see the effect of TCO/p-layers on a-Si:H solar cell operation. The solar cells prepared on textured ZnO:Al have higher open circuit voltage VOC than cells prepared on $SnO_2:F$. Presence of thin microcrystalline p-type silicon layer(${\mu}c-Si:H$) between ZnO:Al and p a-SiC:H plays a major role by causing improvement in fill factor as well as $V_{OC}$ of a-Si:H solar cells prepared on ZnO:Al TCO. Without any treatment of pi interface, we could obtain high $V_{OC}$ of 994mV while keeping fill factor(72.7%) and short circuit current density $J_{SC}$ at the same level as for the cells on $SnO_2:F$ TCO. This high $V_{OC}$ value can be attributed to modification in the current transport in this region due to creation of a potential barrier.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.158-161
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• 2006

Superstrate pin amorphous silicon thin-film (a-Si:H) solar cells are prepared on $SnO_2:F$ and ZnO:Al transparent conducting oxides (TCO) In order to see the effect of TCO/P-layers on a-Si:H solar cell operation. The solar cells prepared on textured ZnO:Al have higher open circuit voltage $V_{oc}$ than cells prepared on $SnO_2:F$. Presence of thin microcrystalline p-type silicon layer $({\mu}c-Si:H)$ between ZnO:Al and p a-SiC:H plays a major role by causing improvement in fill factor as well as $V_{oc}$, of a-Si:H solar cells prepared on ZnO:Al TCO. Without any treatment of pi interface, we could obtain high $V_{oc}$, of 994mv while keeping fill factor (72.7%) and short circuit current density $J_{sc}$ at the same level as for the cells on $SnO_2:F$ TCO. This high $V_{oc}$ value can be attributed to modification in the current transport in this region due to creation of a potential barrier.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.115-118
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• 2017

Highly photosensitive and wide bandgap amorphous silicon oxide (a-$SiO_x$:H) films were developed at low temperature ranges ($100{\sim}150^{\circ}C$) with employing plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition by optimizing $H_2/SiH_4$ gas ratio and $CO_2$ flow. Photosensitivity more than $10^5$ and wide bandgap (1.81~1.85 eV) properties were used for making the a-$SiO_x$:H thin film solar cells, which exhibited a high open circuit voltage of 0.987 V at the substrate temperature of $100^{\circ}C$. In addition, a power conversion efficiency of 6.87% for the cell could be improved up to 7.77% by employing a new n-type nc-$SiO_x$:H/ZnO:Al/Ag triple back-reflector that offers better short circuit currents in the thin film photovoltaic devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2011

유리나 폴리머를 기판으로 하는 TFT(Thin film transistor), solar cell에서는 낮은 공정 온도에서($200{\sim}500^{\circ}C$) amorphous semiconductor thin film을 poly-crystal semiconductor thin film으로 결정화 시키는 기술이 매우 중요하게 대두 되고 있다. Ge은 Si에 비해 높은 carrier mobility와 낮은 녹는점을 가지므로, 비 저항이 낮을 뿐만 아니라 더 낮은 온도에서 결정화 할 수 있다. 하지만 일반적으로 쓰이는 Ge의 결정화 방법은 비교적 높은 열처리 온도를 필요로 하거나, 결정화된 원소에 남아있는 metal이 불순물 역할을 한다는 문제점, 그리고 불균일한 결정크기를 만든다는 단점이 있었다. 그 중에서도 현재 가장 많이 쓰이고 있는 MIC, MILC는 metal과 a-Ge이 접촉되는 interface나, grain boundary diffusion에 의해 핵 생성이 일어나고, 결정이 성장하는 메커니즘을 가지고 있으므로 단순 증착과 열처리 만으로는 앞서 말한 단점을 극복하는데 한계를 가지고 있다. 이에 PIII&D 장비를 이용하면, 이온 주입된 원소들이 모재와 반응 할 수 있는 표면적이 커짐으로 핵 생성을 조절 할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라, 이온 주입 시 발생하는 self annealing effect로 결정 크기까지도 조절할 수 있다. 또한 이러한 모든 process가 한 진공 장비 내에서 이루어지므로 장비의 단순화와, 공정간 단계별로 발생하는 불순물과 표면산화를 막을 수 있으므로 절연체 위에 저항이 낮고, hall mobility가 높은 poly-crystalline Ge thin film을 만들 수 있다. 본 연구에서는, 주로 핵 생성과정에서 seed를 만드는 이온주입 조건과, 결정 성장이 일어나는 증착 조건에 따라서 Ge의 결정방향과 크기가 많은 차이를 보이는데, 이는 HR-XRD(High resolution X-ray Diffractometer)와 Raman spectroscopy를 이용하여 측정 하였으며, SEM과 AFM으로 결정의 크기와 표면 거칠기를 측정하였다. 또한 Hall effect measurement를 통해 poly-crystalline thin film 의 저항과 hall mobility를 측정하였다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2014

Extensive investigation on silicon based thin film reveals a wide range of film characteristics, from low optical gap to high optical gap, from amorphous to micro-crystalline silicon etc. Fabrication of single junction, tandem and triple junction solar cell with suitable materials, indicate that fabrication of solar cell of a relatively moderate efficiency is possible with a better light induced stability. Due to these investigations, various competing materials like wide band gap silicon carbide and silicon oxide, low band gap micro-crystalline silicon and silicon germanium etc were also prepared and applied to the solar cells. Such a multi-junction solar cell can be a technologically promising photo-voltaic device, as the external quantum efficiency of such a cell covers a wider spectral range.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.10
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• pp.1694-1696
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• 2016

Present thin film solar cells with hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiO:H) as an absorber suffer from low fill factor(FF) of 61~64 [%] in spite of its benefits related to high open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$). Since degraded quality of a-SiO:H absorber by alloying with oxygen can affect the FF, we aimed to achieve high photosensitivity by minimizing $CO_2$ gas addition. Improving optical gap($E_{opt}$) has been attained by strong hydrogen dilution combined with lowering substrate temperature down to 100 [$^{\circ}C$]. Small amount of the $CO_2$ was added in order to disturb microcrystalline formation by high hydrogen dilution. The developed a-SiO:H has high photosensitivity (${\sim}2{\times}10^5$) and high $E_{opt}$ of 1.85 [eV], which contributed to attain remarkable FF of 74 [%] and high $V_{oc}$ (>1 [V]). As a result, high power conversion efficiency of 7.18 [%] was demonstrated by using very thin absorber layer of only 100 [nm], even though we processed all experiment at extremely low temperature of 100 [$^{\circ}C$].

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.275-279
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• 2016

This is a brief review on light trapping in Si based thin film solar cells with textured surfaces and transparent conducting oxide front electrodes. The light trapping scheme appears to be essential in improving device efficiency over 10%. As light absorption in a thin film solar cells is not sufficient, light trapping becomes necessary to be effectively implemented with a textured surface. Surface texturing helps in the light trapping, and thereby raises short circuit current density and its efficiency. Such a scheme can be adapted to single junction as well as tandem solar cell, amorphous or micro-crystalline devices. A tandem cell is expected to have superior performance in comparison to a single junction cell and random surface textures appears to be preferable to a periodic structures.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.75-79
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• 2009

An intrinsic silicon thin film passivation layer is deposited by the microwave remote-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at temperature of $175^{\circ}C$ and various gas ratios for solar cell applications. The good quality amorphous silicon films were formed at silane $(SiH_4)$ gas flow rates above 15 seem. The highest effective carrier lifetime was obtained at the $SiH_4$, flow rate of 20 seem and the value was about 3 times higher compared with the bulk lifetime of 5.6 ${\mu}s$ at a fixed injection level of ${\Delta}n\;=\;5{\times}10^{14}\;cm^{-3}$. An annealing treatment was performed and the carrier life times were increased approximately 5 times compared with the bulk lifetime. The optimal annealing temperature and time were obtained at 250 $^{\circ}C$ and 60 sec respectively. This indicates that the combination of the deposition of an amorphous thin film at a low temperature and the annealing treatment contributes to the excellent surface and bulk passivation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.228-231
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• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.192-195
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• 2012

We reported diborane ($B_2H_6$) doped wide bandgap hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (p-type a-SiOx:H) films prepared by using silane ($SiH_4$) hydrogen ($H_2$) and nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) in a radio frequency (RF) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. We improved the $E_{opt}$ and conductivity of p-type a-SiOx:H films with various $N_2O$ and $B_2H_6$ ratios and applied those films in regards to the a-Si thin film solar cells. For the single layer p-type a-SiOx:H films, we achieved an optical band gap energy ($E_{opt}$) of 1.91 and 1.99 eV, electrical conductivity of approximately $10^{-7}$ S/cm and activation energy ($E_a$) of 0.57 to 0.52 eV with various $N_2O$ and $B_2H_6$ ratios. We applied those films for the a-Si thin film solar cell and the current-voltage characteristics are as given as: $V_{oc}$ = 853 and 842 mV, $J_{sc}$ = 13.87 and 15.13 $mA/cm^2$. FF = 0.645 and 0.656 and ${\eta}$ = 7.54 and 8.36% with $B_2H_6$ ratios of 0.5 and 1% respectively.