• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.312-312
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• 2011

In SiH4/H2 discharge for growth process of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), silane polymers, produced by SiH2 + Sin-1H2n ${\rightarrow}$ SinH2n+2, have no reactivity on the film-growing surface. However, under the SiH2 rich condition, high silane reactive species (HSRS) can be produced by electron collision to silane polymers. HSRS, having relatively strong reactivity on the surface, can react with dangling bond and form Si-H2 networks which have a close correlation with photo-induced degradation of a-Si:H thin film solar cell [1]. To find contributions of suggested several external plasma conditions (pressure, frequency and ratio of mixture gas) [2,3] to suppressing productions of HSRS, some plasma characteristics are studied by numerical methods. For this study, a zero-dimensional global model for SiH4/H2 discharge and a one-dimensional particle-in-cell Monte-Carlo-collision model (PIC-MCC) for pure SiH4 discharge have been developed. Densities of important reactive species of SiH4/H2 discharge are observed by means of the global model, dealing 30 species and 136 reactions, and electron energy probability functions (EEPFs) of pure SiH4 discharge are obtained from the PIC-MCC model, containing 5 charged species and 15 reactions. Using global model, SiH2/SiH3 values were calculated when pressure and driving frequency vary from 0.1 Torr to 10 Torr, from 13.56 MHz to 60 MHz respectively and when the portion of hydrogen changes. Due to the limitation of global model, frequency effects can be explained by PIC-MCC model. Through PIC-MCC model for pure SiH4, EEPFs are obtained in the specific range responsible for forming SiH2 and SiH3: from 8.75 eV to 9.47 eV [4]. Through densities of reactive species and EEPFs, polymerization reactions and production of HSRS are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.434-438
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• 2010

The selenization process has been a promising method for low-cost and large-scale production of high quality CIGS film. However, there is the problem that most Ga in the CIGS film segregates near the Mo back contact. So the solar cell behaves like a $CuInSe_2$ and lacks the increased open-circuit voltage. In this study we investigated the Ga distribution in CIGS films by using the $Ga_2Se_3$ layer. The $Ga_2Se_3$ layer was applied on the Cu-In-Ga metal layer to increase Ga content at the surface of CIGS films and to restrict Ga diffusion to the CIGS/Mo interface with Ga and Se bonding. The layer made by thermal evaporation was showed to an amorphous $Ga_2Se_3$ layer in the result of AES depth profile, XPS and XRD measurement. As the thickness of $Ga_2Se_3$ layer increased, a small-grained CIGS film was developed and phase seperation was showed using SEM and XRD respectively. Ga distributions in CIGS films were investigated by means of AES depth profile. As a result, the [Ga]/[In+Ga] ratio was 0.2 at the surface and 0.5 near the CIGS/Mo interface when the $Ga_2Se_3$ thickness was 220 nm, suggesting that the $Ga_2Se_3$ layer on the top of metal layer is one of the possible methods for Ga redistribution and open circuit voltage increase.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.54-60
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• 2015

ZnSnO thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) process using diethyl zinc ($Zn(C_2H_5)_2$) and tetrakis (dimethylamino) tin ($Sn(C_2H_6N)_4$) as metal precursors and water vapor as a reactant. ALD process has several advantages over other deposition methods such as precise thickness control, good conformality, and good uniformity for large area. The composition of ZnSnO thin films was controlled by varying the ratio of ZnO and $SnO_2$ ALD cycles. The ALD ZnSnO film was an amorphous state. The band gap of ZnSnO thin films increased as the Sn content increased. The CIGS solar cell using ZnSnO buffer layer showed about 18% energy conversion efficiency. With such a high efficiency with the ALD ZnSnO buffer and no light soaking effect, AlD ZnSnO buffer mighty be a good candidate to replace Zn(S,O) buffer in CIGSsolar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.75.2-75.2
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• 2010

We studied the fabrication of polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) films as seed layers for application of pc-Si thin film solar cells, in which amorphous silicon (a-Si) films in a structure of glass/Al/$Al_2O_3$/a-Si are crystallized by the aluminum-induced layer exchange (ALILE) process. The properties of pc-Si films formed by the ALILE process are strongly determined by the oxide layer as well as the various process parameters like annealing temperature, time, etc. In this study, the effects of the oxide film thickness on the crystallization of a-Si in the ALILE process, where the thickness of $Al_2O_3$ layer was varied from 4 to 50 nm. For preparation of the experimental film structure, aluminum (~300 nm thickness) and a-Si (~300 nm thickness) layers were deposited using DC sputtering and PECVD method, respectively, and $Al_2O_3$ layer with the various thicknesses by RF sputtering. The crystallization of a-Si was then carried out by the thermal annealing process using a furnace with the in-situ microscope. The characteristics of the produced pc-Si films were analyzed by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman spectrometer, and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). As results, the crystallinity was exponentially decayed with the increase of $Al_2O_3$ thickness and the grain size showed the similar tendency. The maximum pc-Si grain size fabricated by ALILE process was about $45{\mu}m$ at the $Al_2O_3$ layer thickness of 4 nm. The preferential crystal orientation was <111> and more dominant with the thinner $Al_2O_3$ layer. In summary, we obtained a pc-Si film not only with ${\sim}45{\mu}m$ grain size but also with the crystallinity of about 75% at 4 nm $Al_2O_3$ layer thickness by ALILE process with the structure of a glass/Al/$Al_2O_3$/a-Si.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.63-68
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• 2007

유리를 기판으로 하는 superstrate pin 비정질 실리콘 태양전진에서 전면 투명전도막(TCO)과 p-층의 계면은 태양전지 변환효율에 큰 영향을 미친다. 면투명전도막(TCO)으로 현재 일반적으로 사용되는 ZnO:Al는 $SnO_2:F$보다 전기, 광학적으로 우수하고, 안개율 (Haze)높으며, 수소 플라즈마에서 안정성이 높은 특징을 갖고 있다. 그래서 박막 태양전지의 특성향상에 매우 유리하나, 태양전지로 제조했을 때, $SnO_2$보다 충진율(Fill Factor:F.F)과 $V_{oc}$가 감소한다는 단점을 가지고 있다. 본 실험실에서는 $SnO_2:F$dml F.F.가 72%이 나온 반면 ZnO:Al의 F.F은 68%에 그쳤다. 이들 원인을 분석하기 위해 TCO/p-layer의 전기적 특성을 알아 본 결과, $SnO_2:F$보다 ZnO:Al의 직렬저항이 높게 측정되었다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 p-layer에 $R=(H_2/SiH_4)=25$로 변화, p ${\mu}c$-Si:H/p a-SiC:H로 p-layer 이중 증착, p-layer의 boron doping 농도를 증가시키는 실험을 하였다. 직렬저항이 가장 낮았던 p ${\mu}c$-Si:H/p a-SiC:H 인 p-layer 이중 증착에서 $V_{oc}$는 0.95V F.F는 70%이상이 나왔다. 이들 각 p층의 $E_a$(Activiation Energy)를 구해본 결과, ${\mu}c$-Si:H의 Ea 가 가장 낮은 것을 관찰 할 수 있었다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.275-277
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• 2007

유리를 기판으로 하는 superstrate pin 비정질 태양전지에서 전면투명전도막(TCO)과 p-layer의 계면이 태양전지의 효율을 내는데 가장 큰 기여를 한다. 전면투명전도막(TCO)으로 현재 일반적으로 사용되는 ZnO:Al는 $SnO_2:F$ 보다 전기,광학적으로 우수하고, 안개율(Haze)높으며, 수소 플라즈마에서의 안정성이 높은 특정을 갖고 있다. 그래서 박막 태양전지 특성향상에 매우 유리하나, 태양전지로 제조했을 때, $SnO_2:F$보다 충진율(Fill factor:F.F)과 V_{\infty}$ 가 감소한다는 단점을 가지고 있다. 본 실험실에서는 $SnO_2:F$의 F.F가 72%이 나온 반면 ZnO:Al의 F.F은 68%에 그쳤다. 이들 원인을 분석하기 위해 TCO/p-layer의 전기적 특성을 알아 본 결과, $SnO_2:F$보다 ZnO:Al의 직렬저항이 높게 측정되었다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 p-layer 에 R={$H_2/SiH_4$}=25로 변화, p ${\mu$}c$-Si:H/p a-SiC:H 로 p-layer 이중 증착, p-layer의 boron doping 농도를 증가시키는 실험을 하였다. 직렬저항이 가장 낮았던 p ${\mu$}c$-Si:H/p a-SiC:H 로 p-layer 이중 증착에서 Voc는 0.95V F.F는 70% 이상이 나왔다. 이들 각 p층의 $E_a$(Activation Energy)를 구해본 결과, ${\mu$}c$-Si:H의 Ea 가 가장 낮은 것을 관찰 할 수 있었다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.251-255
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• 2021

a-Si is commonly considered as a primary candidate for the formation of passivation layer in heterojunction (HIT) solar cells. However, there are some problems when using this material such as significant losses due to recombination and parasitic absorption. To reduce these problems, a wide bandgap material is needed. A wide bandgap has a positive influence on effective transmittance, reduction of the parasitic absorption, and prevention of unnecessary epitaxial growth. In this paper, the adoption of a-SiO_x:H as the intrinsic layer was discussed. To increase lifetime and conductivity, oxygen concentration control is crucial because it is correlated with the thickness, bonding defect, interface density (D_it), and band offset. A thick oxygen-rich layer causes the lifetime and the implied open-circuit voltage to drop. Furthermore the thicker the layer gets, the more free hydrogen atoms are etched in thin films, which worsens the passivation quality and the efficiency of solar cells. Previous studies revealed that the lifetime and the implied voltage decreased when the a-SiOx thickness went beyond around 9 nm. In addition to this, oxygen acted as a defect in the intrinsic layer. The D_it increased up to an oxygen rate on the order of 8%. Beyond 8%, the D_it was constant. By controlling the oxygen concentration properly and achieving a thin layer, high-efficiency HIT solar cells can be fabricated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.11-11
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• 2010

Thin-film-transistors (TFTs) that can be deposited at low temperature have recently attracted lots of applications such as sensors, solar cell and displays, because of the great flexible electronics and transparent. Transparent and flexible transistors are being required that high mobility and large-area uniformity at low temperature [1]. But, unfortunately most of TFT structures are used to be $SiO_2$ as gate dielectric layer. The $SiO_2$ has disadvantaged that it is required to high driving voltage to achieve the same operating efficiency compared with other high-k materials and its thickness is thicker than high-k materials [2]. To solve this problem, we find lots of high-k materials as $HfO_2$, $ZrO_2$, $SiN_x$, $TiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$. Among the High-k materials, $Al_2O_3$ is one of the outstanding materials due to its properties are high dielectric constant ( ~9 ), relatively low leakage current, wide bandgap ( 8.7 eV ) and good device stability. For the realization of flexible displays, all processes should be performed at very low temperatures, but low temperature $Al_2O_3$ grown by sputtering showed deteriorated electrical performance. Further decrease in growth temperature induces a high density of charge traps in the gate oxide/channel. This study investigated the effect of growth temperatures of ALD grown $Al_2O_3$ layers on the TFT device performance. The ALD deposition showed high conformal and defect-free dielectric layers at low temperature compared with other deposition equipments [2]. After ITO was wet-chemically etched with HCl : $HNO_3$ = 3:1, $Al_2O_3$ layer was deposited by ALD at various growth temperatures or lift-off process. Amorphous InGaZnO channel layers were deposited by rf magnetron sputtering at a working pressure of 3 mTorr and $O_2$/Ar (1/29 sccm). The electrodes were formed with electron-beam evaporated Ti (30 nm) and Au (70 nm) bilayer. The TFT devices were heat-treated in a furnace at $300^{\circ}C$ and nitrogen atmosphere for 1 hour by rapid thermal treatment. The electrical properties of the oxide TFTs were measured using semiconductor parameter analyzer (4145B), and LCR meter.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.54-54
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• 2010

In this study, the correlation between temperature and the gel-content of the module were analyzed through experiments. Amorphous thin-film solar cell used in this experiment has a visible light transmission performance of 10%. In addition, ethylene vinyl acetate(EVA) film and the clear glass have been used for the modulation. The most important process is to laminate the module in the manufacturing process of BIPV(Building integrated photovoltaic) module. Setting parameters of laminator in the lamination process are temperature, pressure and time. Setting conditions significantly affect the durability, watertightness and airtightness of module. The most important factor in the setting parameters is temperature to satisfy the gel-contents. The bottom and top surface temperature of module are measured according to setting temperature of laminator. The results showed $145^{\circ}C$ of max temperature of the bottom surface and $128^{\circ}C$ of max temperature of top surface on the module at the temperature condition of $160^{\circ}C$. And at the another temperature condition of laminator with $150^{\circ}C$, the max temperature do bottom and top are $117^{\circ}C$ and $134^{\circ}C$ respectively. The temperature difference between bottom and top of the module occurred, that is because heat has been blocked by the clear glass and the bottom of the cells absorb the heat from the laminator. In this particular, the temperature difference between setting temperature of the laminator and the surface temperature of the module showed $15^{\circ}C$, because the heat of laminator plate is transferred to the surface of the module and heat is lost at this time. As a results, gel-content showed 94.8%, 88.7% and 81.7% respectively according to the setting temperature $155^{\circ}C$, $150^{\circ}C$ and $145^{\circ}C$ of the laminator. In conclusion, the surface temperature of module increases, the gel-contents is relatively increased. But if the laminator plate temperature is too high, the gel-content shows rather decline in performance. Furthermore, the temperature difference between setting temperature and the surface temperature of the module is affected by laminating machine itself and the temperature of module should be considered when setting the laminator.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2010

Aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) is studied with the structure of a glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si, in which the $SiO_2$ layer has micron-sized laser holes in the stack. An oxide layer between aluminum and a-Si thin films plays a significant role in the metal-induced crystallization (MIC) process determining the properties such as grain size and preferential orientation. In our case, the crystallization of a-Si is carried out only through the key hole because the $SiO_2$ layer is substantially thick enough to prevent a-Si from contacting aluminum. The crystal growth is successfully realized toward the only vertical direction, resulting a crystalline silicon grain with a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ under the hole. Lateral growth seems to be not occurred. For the AIC experiment, the glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si stacks were prepared where an Al layer was deposited on glass substrate by DC sputter, $SiO_2$ and a-Si films by PECVD method, respectively. Prior to the a-Si deposition, a $30{\times}30$ micron-sized hole array with a diameter of $1{\sim}2{\mu}m$ was fabricated utilizing the femtosecond laser pulses to induce the AIC process through the key holes and the prepared workpieces were annealed in a thermal chamber for 2 hours. After heat treatment, the surface morphology, grain size, and crystal orientation of the polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) film were evaluated by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and energy dispersive spectrometer. In conclusion, we observed that the vertical crystal growth was occurred in the case of the crystallization of a-Si with aluminum by the MIC process in a small area. The pc-Si grain grew under the key hole up to a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ with the workpiece.