• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.318.2-318.2
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• 2014

The high contact resistance is still one of the major issues to be resolved in CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells. CdTe/Metal Schottky contact induced a high contact resistance in CdS/CdTe solar cells. It has been reported that the work function of CdTe thin film is more than 5.7 eV. There has not been a suitable back contact metal, because CdTe thin film has a high work function. In a few decades, some buffer layer was reported to improve a back contact problem. Buffer layers which are Te, $Sb_2Te_3$, $Cu_2Te$, ZnTe:Cu and so on was inserted between CdTe and metal electrode. A formed buffer layers made a tunnel junction. Hole carriers which was excited in CdTe film by light absorption was transported from CdTe to back metal electrode. In this report, we reported the variation of solar cell performance with different buffer layer at the back contact of CdTe thin film solar cell.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2008

In this paper, the dependence of MOSFET performance on the channel stress is characterized in depth. The tensile and compressive stresses are applied to CMOSFET using a nitride film which is used for the contact etch stop layer (CESL). Drain current of NMOS and PMOS is increased by inducing tensile and compressive stress, respectively, due to the increased mobility as well known. In case of NMOS with tensile stress, both decrease of the back scattering ratio ($\tau_{sat}$) and increase of the thermal injection velocity ($V_{inj}$) contribute the increase of mobility. It is also shown that the decrease of the $\tau_{sat}$ is due to the decrease of the mean free path ($\lambda_O$). On the other hand, the mobility improvement of PMOS with compressive stress is analyzed to be only due to the so increased $V_{inj}$ because the back scattering ratio is increased by the compressive stress. Therefore it was confirmed that the device performance has a strong dependency on the channel back scattering of the inversion layer and thermal injection velocity at the source side and NMOS and PMOS have different dependency on them.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.74-80
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• 2008

To improve the blue responses of screen-printed single crystalline silicon solar cells, we investigated an emitter etch-back technique to obtain high emitter sheet resistances, where the defective dead layer on the emitter surface was etched and became thinner as the etch-back time increased, resulting in the monotonous increase of short circuit current and open circuit voltage. We found that an optimal etch-back time should be determined to achieve the maximal performance enhancement because of fill factor decrease due to a series resistance increment mainly affected by contact and lateral resistance in this case. To elucidate the reason for the fill factor decrease, we studied the resistance analysis by potential mapping to determine the contact and the lateral series resistance. As a result, we found that the fill factor decrease was attributed to the relatively fast increase of contact resistance due to the dead layer thinning down with the lowest contact resistivity when the emitter was contacted with screen-printed silver electrode.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.390-393
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• 2008

To improve the blue responses of screen-printed single crystalline silicon solar cells, we investigated an emitter etch-back technique to obtain high emitter sheet resistances, where the defective dead layer on the emitter surface was etched and became thinner as the etch-back time increased, resulting in the monotonous increase of short circuit current and open circuit voltage. We found that an optimal etch-back time should be determined to achieve the maximal performance enhancement because of fill factor decrease due to a series resistance increment mainly affected by contact and lateral resistance in this case. To elucidate the reason for the fill factor decrease, we studied the resistance analysis by potential mapping to determine the contact and the lateral series resistance. As a result, we found that the fill factor decrease was attributed to the relatively fast increase of contact resistance due to the dead layer thinning down with the lowest contact resistivity when the emitter was contacted with screen-printed silver electrode.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2017

To improve the adhesion of Mo thin film as a back contact material, a DC magnetron sputtering system was used to deposit in the form of a bi-layer on soda-lime glass. Films with low resistivity and good adhesion were obtained from this deposition, even though the two qualities were found be hard to obtain at the same time. The best Mo bi-layer showed a resistivity of $8.13{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ at $500^{\circ}C$ and $3.0{\times}10^{-3}\;Torr$. The XRD measurements showed that the crystallites of the films were mainly oriented in the (110) direction, the FE-SEM images revealed that the resistivity of the Mo films decreased with increasing substrate temperature, which temperature reduction is accompanied by an increase of the grain size. These experimental results were analyzed using the Fuchs-Sondheimer theory. Our Mo bi-layer film with better crystallinity and lower resistivity can be suitably used as a back-contact layer for CIGS solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.426.2-426.2
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• 2016

Numerous of researches are being conducted to improve the efficiency of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ (CZTSe)-based photovoltaic devices, which is one of the most promising candidates for low cost and environment-friendly solar cells. In this work, we concentrate on the back contact of the devices. A proper thickness of $MoSe_2$ in back contact structure is believed to enhance adhesion and ohmic contact between Mo back contact and absorber layer. Nevertheless, too thick $MoSe_2$ layers that are grown during high-temperature selenization process can impede the current collection, thus resulting in low cell performance. By applying molybdenum nitride as a barrier in back contact structure, we were able to control the thickness of $MoSe_2$ layer, which resulted in lower series resistance and higher fill factor of CZTSe devices. The phase transformation of Mo-N binary system was systematically studied by changing $N_2$ concentration during the sputtering process. With a proper phase of Mo-N fabricated by using an adequate partial pressure of $N_2$, the efficiency of CZTSe solar cells as high as 8.31% was achieved while the average efficiency was improved by about 2% with respect to that of the referent cells where no barrier layer was employed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.394-394
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• 2011

최근 태양전지의 후면에서 통상적으로 사용되는 Al을 이용한 후면의 BSF형성과 그에 관한 연구보다 계면의 recombination을 줄이기 위하여 passivation 특성이 좋은 층을 후면에 형성하고 국부적으로 BSF를 형성하는 back contact을 형성하여 특성을 향상시키는 연구가 많이 이루어지고 있다. 본 연구는 이러한 local back contact을 boron-BSF를 이용하여 형성하고 passivation layer는 oxide를 이용한 구조를 SILVACO 2-dimension simulation을 이용하여 그 특성을 분석하였다. Boron-local back contact 구조에서 boron-BSF의 doping concentration, depth, lateral width, boron-BSF spacing 가변을 통해 태양전지의 특성변화에 대해서 spectrum response를 통한 QE 분석 및 I-V를 분석하여 최적화하였다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2015

Cu doping by copper or $Cu_2Te$ materials enhances p+ formation in CdTe near the back contact interface, allowing better formation of ohmic contact. However, the Cu in CdTe junction is also considered as a principal component of CdTe cell degradation. In this paper, Na-doped ZnTe layer was employed as a back contact material to improve the stability of CdTe solar cells. As a process variable, post $CdCl_2$ treatment of CdS/CdTe film was conducted before or after depositing ZnTe:Na on CdTe. The change of the photovoltaic properties of CdTe cells were investigated with aging time. Low-temperature photoluminescence analysis was conducted to describe the degradation mechanism. The result showed that the CdTe solar cells with better stability compare to Cu contact were achieved using an optimized ZnTe:Na back contact.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.571-574
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• 2010

Surface recombination loss should be reduced for high efficiency of solar cells. To reduce this loss, the BSF (back surface field) is used. The BSF on the back of the p-type wafer forms a p+layer, which prevents the activity of electrons of the p-area for the rear recombination. As a result, the leakage current is reduced and the rear-contact has a good Ohmic contact. Therefore, the open-circuit-voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) of solar cells are increased. This paper investigates the formation of the rear contact process by comparing aluminum-paste (Al-paste) with pure aluminum-metal(99.9%). Under the vacuum evaporation process, pure aluminum-metal(99.9%) provides high conductivity and low contact resistance of $4.2\;m{\Omega}cm$, but It is difficult to apply the standard industrial process to it because high vacuum is needed, and it's more expensive than the commercial equipment. On the other hand, using the Al-paste process by screen printing is simple for the formation of metal contact, and it is possible to produce the standard industrial process. However, Al-paste used in screen printing is lower than the conductivity of pure aluminum-metal(99.9) because of its mass glass frit. In this study, contact resistances were measured by a 4-point probe. The contact resistance of pure aluminum-metal was $4.2\;m{\Omega}cm$ and that of Al-paste was $35.69\;m{\Omega}cm$. Then the rear contact was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.420-420
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• 2011

결정질 태양전지에서 고효율 달성을 위한 LBC(Local Back Contact) 구조의 중요성이 강조되고 있다. LBC 구조에서 후면 passivation 형성을 위한 SiNX layer를 PECVD로 형성 시, 실리콘 bulk 내로 H+ 원자가 침투하여 Boron과 결합하게 되면 Boron이 bulk 내에서 dopant로 작용을 하지 못하게 되어, 후면에서 p-층을 형성하고, 이는 VOC의 저하를 야기 시킨다. 본 연구에서는 LBC 구조에서 후면 passivation 시 bluk 내 B-H결합으로 인한 태양전지 특성 저하 문제를 해결하기 위해, SiNX를 증착하기 전에 얇은 산화막 barrier를 성장시켜 Bulk 내에 H+ 침투를 최소화 하였다. PECVD를 이용한 N2O 플라즈마 처리, HNO3 Wet Chemical Oxidation의 방법을 통해 substrate와 SiNX 사이에 얇은 oxide 층을 형성하였으며, 각각의 조건에 대해 lifetime 측정을 실시하였다. 그 결과 SiON/SiNx를 이용한 막의 lifetime이 $94.5{\mu}s$로 가장 우수하였고, Reference에 비해 25.4% 증가함을 확인할 수 있었다. 그러나 HNO3/SiNx에서는 30.6%, SiON에서는 84.3% 감소함을 확인하였다. Voc 측정 결과 또한 SiON/SiNx를 이용한 막이 670mV로 가장 우수함을 확인할 수 있었다. 본 연구를 통해 LBC구조에서 후면에 얇게 SiON/SiNx막을 형성함으로서 H+이온의 침투를 저지하여 후면 B-H결합을 막아 태양전지 특성 저하를 감소시키는 것을 확인할 수 있었다.