• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.235.2-235.2
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• 2015

The front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films must exhibit good transparency, low resistivity and excellent light scattering properties for high efficiency amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film solar cells. The light trapping phenomenon is limited due to non-uniform and low aspect ratio of the textured glass [1]. We present the low cost electrochemically deposited uniform zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods with various aspect ratios for a-Si thin film solar cells. Since the major drawback of the electrochemically deposited ZnO nanorods was the high sheet resistance and low transmittance that was overcome by depositing the RF magnetron sputtered AZO films as a seed layer with various thicknesses [2]. The length and diameters of the ZnO nanorods was controlled by varying the deposition conditions. The length of ZnO nanorods were varied from 400 nm to $2{\mu}m$ while diameter was kept higher than 200 nm to obtain different aspect ratios. The uniform ZnO nanorods showed higher haze ratio as compared to the commercially available FTO films. We also observed that the scattering in the longer wavelength region was favored for the high aspect ratio of ZnO nanorods and much higher aspect ratios degraded the light scattering phenomenon. Therefore, we proposed our low cost and uniform ZnO nanorods for the high efficiency of thin film solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.236.1-236.1
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• 2015

The surface morphology of front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films is very important to achieve high current density in amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film solar cells since it can scatter the light in a better way. In this study, we present the low cost hydrothermal deposited uniform zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-flower structure with various aspect ratios for a-Si thin film solar cells. The ZnO nano-flower structures with various aspect ratios were grown on the RF magnetron sputtered AZO films. The diameters and length of the ZnO nano-flowers was controlled by varying the annealing time. The length of ZnO nano-flowers were varied from 400 nm to $2{\mu}m$ while diameter was kept higher than 200 nm to obtain different aspect ratios. The ZnO nano-flowers with higher surface area as compared to conventional ZnO nano structure are preferred for the better light scattering. The conductivity and crystallinity of ZnO nano-flowers can be enhanced by annealing in hydrogen atmosphere at 350 oC. The vertical aligned ZnO nano-flowers showed higher haze ratio as compared to the commercially available FTO films. We also observed that the scattering in the longer wavelength region was favored for the high aspect ratio of ZnO nano-flowers. Therefore, we proposed low cost and vertically aligned ZnO nano-flowers for the high performance of thin film solar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.97-102
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• 2019

Bifacial and semitransparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cells in p-i-n configuration were prepared with front and rear transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and tin-doped indium oxide films were used as front and rear TCO contacts, respectively. Film thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers were controlled from 150 nm to 450 nm by changing deposition time. The dependence of performance characteristics of solar cells on the front and rear illumination direction were investigated. For front illumination, gradual increase in the short-circuit current density (J_SC) from 10.59 mA/㎠ to 14.19 mA/㎠ was obtained, whereas slight decreases from 0.83 V to 0.81 V for the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and from 68.43% to 65.75% for fill factor (FF) were observed. The average optical transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 ~ 780 nm of the solar cells decreased gradually from 22.76% to 15.67% as the absorber thickness was changed from 150 nm to 450 nm. In case of the solar cells under rear illumination condition, the J_SC increased from 10.81 to 12.64 mA/㎠ and the FF deceased from 66.63% to 61.85%, while the V_OC values were maintained at 0.80 V with increasing the absorber thickness from 150 nm to 450 nm. By optimizing the deposition parameters, a high-quality bifacial and semitransparent a-Si:H solar cell with 350 nm-thick i-a-Si:H absorber layer exhibited the conversion efficiencies of 7.69% for front illumination and 6.40% for rear illumination, and average visible optical transmittance of 17.20%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.315-315
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• 2016

The hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells using n/Al or n/Ag/Al back reflector have low short circuit current (Jsc) due to high absorption coefficients of Al or work function difference between n-layer and the metal. In this article, we utilized aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) to raise the internal reflectance for the improvement of short current density (Jsc) in a-Si:H thin film solar cells. It was found that there was a slight increase in the reflectance in the long wavelength range at the process temperature of 125oC due to improved crystalline quality of the AZO back reflector. The optical band gap (Eg) and work function were affected by the temperature and so did the internal reflectance. The increased internal reflectance within the solar cell resulted in Jsc of 14.94 mA/cm2 and the efficiency of 8.84%. Jsc for the cell without back reflector was 12.29 mA/cm2.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.161-166
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• 1996

화학적 증착장치를 이용하여 크기 305mm$\times$915mm인 대면적 투명전도 유리기판 위에 비정질 실리콘 태양전지를 제작하였다. p층 제조 후 SiH4 세척과 수소 플라즈마 처리를 하여 I층에 도핑가스가 침투하는 것을 억제했으며 p-i 계면에 buffer층을 적용함으로써 소면적 단접합 태양전지에서 개발전압 0.825V, 충실도 0.73, 변환효율 9.5%인 셀을 제작하였다. 또한 a-Si/a-Si 이중접합 태양전지에서는 개방전압 1.50V, 충실도 0.77인 셀을 제작하였다.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.351-354
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• 2016

The mechanical properties of ITO films such as adhesion and internal stress are very important for the commercial application of solar cell devices. We report high quality pulsed DC magnetron sputtered ITO films deposited on silicon and glass substrates with low resistivity and high transmittance for various working pressures ranging from 0.96 to 3.0 mTorr. ITO films showed the lowest resistivity of $2.68{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, high hall mobility of $46.89cm^2/V.s$, and high transmittance (>85%) for the ITO films deposited at a low working pressure of 0.99 mTorr. The ITO films deposited at a low working (0.96 mTorr) pressure had both amorphous and polycrystalline structures and were found to have compressive stress while the ITO films deposited at higher temperature than 0.99 mTorr was mixture of amorphous and polycrystalline and was found to have tensile stress.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.450-451
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• 2008

Amorphous silicon Solar cell has n-i-p structure in general, and each layer's thickness and doping concentration are very important factors which are as influential on efficiency of salar cell. Using AFORS HET simulation to get the high efficiency, by adjusting n layer's thickness and doping concentration, p layer's doping concentration. The optimized values are a-Si:H(n)'s thickness of 1nm, a-Si:H(n)r's doping concentration of $2\times10^{20}cm^{-3}$, a-Si:H(p+)r's doping concentration of $1\times10^{19}cm^{-3}$. After optimization, the solar cell shows $V_{oc}$=679.5mV, $J_{sc}$=39.02mA/$cm^2$, FF=83.71%, and a high Efficiency=22.21%. Though this study, we can use this study for planning or manufacturing solar cell which has high efficiency.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.64.1-64.1
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• 2011

다중접합 태양전지는 흡수대역이 다른 juntion으로 구성되어, 각각의 태양전지 간의 전류정합(current matching)이 효율 향상에 중요하다. 본 실험에서는 Top cell에 i-a-Si:H(Thinckness:100nm), Middle cell에는 i-a-SiGe:H(Thickness:800nm)을 적용하였고, bottom cell에는 i-${\mu}c$-Si:H(Thickness:1800nm), 수광부의 p-layer에 에 SiOx을 이용하여 triple juntion amorphous silicon solar cell(삼중접합태양전지)을 구현하였다. 이를 최적화 시키기 위해 ASA simulation을 이용하여 각 Cell의 intrinsic layer의 밴드갭을 가변하였다. 가변 결과 i-a-Si:H : 1.85 eV, i-a-SiGe:H: 1.6 eV, i-${\mu}c$-Si:H: 1.4 eV에서 태양전지 효율 14.5 %을 기록 하였다. 본 연구를 통해 Triple juntion cell에서의 intrinsic layer의 밴드갭 최적화를 구현해 볼 수 있었다.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1995.07c
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• pp.1019-1021
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• 1995

Light induced degradation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) are related to the number of weak dangling bonds which are thought to be responsible for the Staebler-Wronski effects, and caused the many photoelectric problems in applications of thin film transistors and solar cell, etc. In this paper, we deposited fluorinated amorphous silicon films(a-Si:H;F) with $SiH_4$ and $SiF_4$ gas mixture and investigated the effects of fluorine atoms on the evoluations of the crystallinity and improvements of light instability. We have found that micro-crystallinity produced in a-SI:H;F films and marked maximum value of 22% at the flow rate of $SiH_4:SiF_4$=2:10 sccm by UV spectrophotometer measurement, while n-Si:H film deposited with only $SiH_4$ gas showed no crystallinity. Light-induced degradation property of a-Si:H;F films is also improved which is mainly due to the etching effects of fluorine atoms on the weak Si-Si bonds and unstable hydrogen bonds. It is considered that involving fluorine atoms in a-Si:H films may contribute to the suppression of light-induced degradation and evolution of micro-crystallinity.