• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.10
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• pp.1702-1705
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• 2016

We propose a novel hydrogen-reduced p-type amorphous silicon oxide buffer layer between $TiO_2$ antireflection layer and p-type silicon window layer of silicon thin film solar cells. This new buffer layer can protect underlying the $TiO_2$ by suppressing hydrogen plasma, which could be made by excluding $H_2$ gas introduction during plasma deposition. Amorphous silicon oxide thin film solar cells with employing the new buffer layer exhibited better conversion efficiency (8.10 %) compared with the standard cell (7.88 %) without the buffer layer. This new buffer layer can be processed in the same p-chamber with in-situ mode before depositing main p-type amorphous silicon oxide window layer. Comparing with state-of-the-art buffer layer of AZO/p-nc-SiOx:H, our new buffer layer can be processed with cost-effective, much simple process based on similar device performances.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.13 no.spc2
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• pp.336-340
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• 2012

Wide band gap p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiO:H) buffer layer has been used at the interface of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-type layer of a p-i-n type a-Si:H solar cell. Introduction of 5 nm thick buffer layer improves in blue response of the cell along with 0.5% enhancement of photovoltaic conversion efficiency (η). The cells with buffer layer show higher open circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF), short circuit current density (Jsc) and improved blue response with respect to the cell without buffer layer.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.79-83
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• 2009

In this study, the characteristics of amorphous silicon etching for the formation of gate electrodes have been evaluated at the variation of several process parameters. When total flow rates composed of $Cl_2/HBr/O_2$ gas mixtures increased, the etch rate of amorphous silicon layer increased, but critical dimension (CD) bias was not notably changed regardless of total flow rate. As the amount of HBr in the mixture gas became larger, amorphous silicon etch rate was reduced by the low reactivity of Br species. In the case of increasing oxygen flow rate, etch selectivity was increased due to the reduction of oxide etch rate, enhancing the stability of silicon gate etching process. However, gate electrodes became more sloped according to the increase of oxygen flow rate. Higher source power induced the increase of amorphous silicon etch rate and CD bias, and higher bias power had a tendency to increase the etch rate of amorphous silicon and oxide.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 1994

The electrical characteristics of the capacitor dielectric films of amorphous silicon-nit-ride-oxide(ANO) structures are compared with the capacitor dielectric films of oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) structrues The electrical characteristics of ONO and ANO films were evaluated by high frequency(1 MHz) C-V high frequency C-V after constant voltage stree I-V TDDB and refresh time measurements. ANO films shows good electrical characteristics such as higher total charge to breakdown storage capacitance and longer refresh time than ONO films. Also it makes little difference that leakage current and flat band voltage shyift(ΔVfb)of ANO ana ONO films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.406-406
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• 2016

To get high efficiency n-type crystalline silicon solar cells, passivation is one of the key factor. Tunnel oxide (SiO2) reduce surface recombination as a passivation layer and it does not constrict the majority carrier flow. In this work, the passivation quality enhanced by different chemical solution such as HNO3, H2SO4:H2O2 and DI-water to make thin tunnel oxide layer on n-type crystalline silicon wafer and changes of characteristics by subsequent annealing process and firing process after phosphorus doped amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) deposition. The tunneling of carrier through oxide layer is checked through I-V measurement when the voltage is from -1 V to 1 V and interface state density also be calculated about $1{\times}1012cm-2eV-1$ using MIS (Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor) structure . Tunnel oxide produced by 68 wt% HNO3 for 5 min on $100^{\circ}C$, H2SO4:H2O2 for 5 min on $100^{\circ}C$ and DI-water for 60 min on $95^{\circ}C$. The oxide layer is measured thickness about 1.4~2.2 nm by spectral ellipsometry (SE) and properties as passivation layer by QSSPC (Quasi-Steady-state Photo Conductance). Tunnel oxide layer is capped with phosphorus doped amorphous silicon on both sides and additional annealing process improve lifetime from $3.25{\mu}s$ to $397{\mu}s$ and implied Voc from 544 mV to 690 mV after P-doped a-Si deposition, respectively. It will be expected that amorphous silicon is changed to poly silicon phase. Furthermore, lifetime and implied Voc were recovered by forming gas annealing (FGA) after firing process from $192{\mu}s$ to $786{\mu}s$. It is shown that the tunnel oxide layer is thermally stable.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2014

Joule heat is generated by applying an electric filed to a conductive layer located beneath or above the amorphous silicon film, and is used to raise the temperature of the silicon film to crystallization temperature. An electric field was applied to an indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive layer to induce Joule heating in order to carry out the crystallization of amorphous silicon. Polycrystalline silicon was produced within the range of a millisecond. To investigate the kinetics of Joule-heating induced crystallization (JIC) solid phase crystallization was conducted using amorphous silicon films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and using tube furnace in nitrogen ambient. Microscopic and macroscopic uniformity of crystallinity of JIC poly-Si was measured to have better uniformity compared to that of poly-Si produced by other methods such as metal induced crystallization and Excimer laser crystallization.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.125-129
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• 2019

Recently, carrier-selective contact solar cells have attracted much interests because of its high efficiency with low recombination current density. In this study, we investigated the effect of phosphorus doped amorphous silicon layer's characteristics on the passivation properties of tunnel oxide passivated carrier-selective contact solar cells. We fabricated symmetric structure sample with poly-Si/SiOx/c-Si by deposition of phosphorus doped amorphous silicon layer on the silicon oxide with subsequent annealing and hydrogenation process. We varied deposition temperature, deposition thickness, and annealing conditions, and blistering, lifetime and passivation quality was evaluated. The result showed that blistering can be controlled by deposition temperature, and passivation quality can be improved by controlling annealing conditions. Finally, we achieved blistering-free electron carrier-selective contact with 730mV of i-Voc, and cell-like structure consisted of front boron emitter and rear passivated contact showed 682mV i-Voc.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.379-384
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• 2015

An infrared image sensor is a core device in a thermal imaging system. The fabrication method of a focal plane array (FPA) is a key technology for a high resolution infrared image sensor. Each pixels in the FPA have $Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ membranes including legs to deposit bolometric materials and electrodes on Si readout circuits (ROIC). Instead of polyimide used to form a sacrificial layer, the feasibility of an amorphous silicon (${\alpha}-Si$) was verified experimentally in a $8{\times}8$ micro-bolometer array with a $50{\mu}m$ pitch. The elimination of the polyimide sacrificial layer hardened by a following plasma assisted deposition process is sometimes far from perfect, and thus requires longer plasma ashing times leading to the deformation of the membrane and leg. Since the amorphous Si could be removed in $XeF_2$ gas at room temperature, however, the fabricated micro-bolomertic structure was not damaged seriously. A radio frequency (RF) sputtered nickel oxide film was grown on a $Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ membrane fabricated using a low stress silicon nitride (LSSiN) technology with a LPCVD system. The deformation of the membrane was effectively reduced by a combining the ${\alpha}-Si$ and LSSiN process for a nickel oxide micro-bolometer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.10
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• pp.83-90
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• 1998

The effects of dopant activation anneal on GOI (Gate Oxide Integrity) of MOS capacitor with amorphous silicon gate electrode were investigated. It was found that the amorphous silicon gate electrode was crystallized and the dopant atoms were sufficiently activated by activation anneal. The mechanical stress of gate electrode that reveals large compressive stress in amorphous state, was released with increase of anneal temperature from $700^{\circ}C$ to 90$0^{\circ}C$. The resistivity of gate electrode polycrystalline silicon film is decreased by the increase of anneal temperature. The reliability of thin gate oxide and interface properties between oxide and silicon substrate greatly depends on the activation anneal temperature. The charge trapping characteristics as well as oxide reliability are improved by the anneal of 90$0^{\circ}C$ compare to that of $700^{\circ}C$ or 80$0^{\circ}C$. Especially, the lifetimes of the thin gate oxide estimated by TDDB method is 3$\times$10$^{10}$ for the case of $700^{\circ}C$ anneal, is significantly increased to 2$\times$10$^{12}$ for the case of 90$0^{\circ}C$ anneal. Finally, the interface trap density is reduced with relaxation of mechanical stress of gate electrode.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.123-128
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• 2017

Nanostructured materials have received attention due to their unique electronic, optical, optoelectrical, and magnetic properties as a results of their large surface-to-volume ratio and quantum confinement effects. Thermal chemical vapor deposition process has attracted much attention due to the synthesis capability of various structured nanomaterials during the growth of nanostructures. In this study, silicon oxide nanowires were grown on Si\$SiO_2$(300 nm)\Pt(5~40 nm) substrates by two-zone thermal chemical vapor deposition with the source material $TiO_2$ powder via vapor-liquid-solid process. The morphology and crystallographic properties of the grown silicon oxide nanowires were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. As results of analysis, the morphology, diameter and length, of the grown silicon oxide nanowires are depend on the thickness of the catalyst films. The grown silicon oxide nanowires exhibit amorphous phase.