• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.538-543
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• 2020

Boric acid is used as a coolant for pressurized-water reactors, and the degree of burnup is controlled by the concentration of boric acid. Therefore, accurate measurement of the concentration of boric acid is an important factor in reactor safety. An improved system was proposed for the accurate determination of boron concentration. A new boron-concentration measurement technique, called multisensitive detection, was developed to improve the measurement accuracy of boron meters. In previous studies, laboratory-scale experiments were performed based on different sensitivity detectors, confirming a 65% better accuracy than conventional single-detector boron meters. Based on these experimental results, an experimental system simulating the coolant-circulation environment in the reactor was constructed; accuracy analysis of the boron meter with a multisensitivity detector was performed at the actual coolant pressure and temperature. In this study, the boron concentration conversion equation was derived from the calibration test, and the accuracy of the boron concentration conversion equation was examined through a repeatability test. Through the experiment, it was confirmed that the accuracy was up to 87.5% higher than the conventional single-detector boron meter.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.26-30
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• 2021

The impurity concentration is a crucial parameter for semiconductor thin films. Evaluating the impurity distribution in silicon thin film is another challenge. In this study, we have investigated the doping concentration of boron in silicon thin film using time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry in dynamic mode of operation. Boron doped silicon film was grown on i) p-type silicon wafer and ii) borosilicate glass using hot wire chemical vapor deposition technique for possible applications in optoelectronic devices. Using well-tuned SIMS measurement recipe, we have detected the boron counts 101~104 along with the silicon matrix element. The secondary ion beam sputtering area, sputtering duration and mass analyser analysing duration were used as key variables for the tuning of the recipe. The quantitative analysis of counts to concentration conversion was done following standard relative sensitivity factor. The concentration of boron in silicon was determined 1017~1021 atoms/㎤. The technique will be useful for evaluating distributions of various dopants (arsenic, phosphorous, bismuth etc.) in silicon thin film efficiently.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.305-309
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• 2014

When sunlight irradiates a boron-doped p-type solar cell, the formation of BsO2i decreases the power-conversion efficiency in a phenomenon named light-induced degradation (LID). In this study, we used boron-doped p-type Cz-Si solar cells to monitor this degradation process in relation to irradiation wavelength, intensity and duration of the light source, and investigated the reliability of the LID effects, as well. When halogen light irradiated a substrate, the LID rate increased more rapidly than for irradiation with xenon light. For different intensities of halogen light (e.g., 1 SUN and 0.1 SUN), a lower-limit value of LID showed a similar trend in each case; however, the rate reached at the intensity of 0.1 SUN was three times slower than that at 1 SUN. Open-circuit voltage increased with increasing duration of irradiation because the defect-formation rate of LID was slow. Therefore, we suppose that sufficient time is needed to increase LID defects. After a recovery process to restore the initial value, the lower-limit open-circuit voltage exhibited during the re-degradation process showed a trend similar to that in the first degradation process. We suggest that the proportion of the LID in boron-doped p-type Cz-Si solar cells has high correlation with the normalized defect concentrations (NDC) of BsO2i. This can be calculated using the extracted minority-carrier diffusion-length with internal quantum efficiency (IQE) analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.42-51
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• 1981

Boron was predeposited into p (100) Si wafer at 94$0^{\circ}C$ for 60minutes to make the back surface field. High tempreature diffusion process at 1145$^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours was immediately followed without removing boron glass to obtain high surface concentration Back boron was annealed at 110$0^{\circ}C$ for 40minutes after boron glass was removed. N+ layer was formed by predepositing with POCI3 source at 90$0^{\circ}C$ for 7~15 minutes and annealed at 80$0^{\circ}C$ for 60min1es under dry Of ambient. The triple metal layers were made by evaporating Ti, Pd, Ag in that order onto front and back of diffused wafer to form the front grid and back electrode respectively. Silver was electroplated on front and back to increase the metal thickness form 1~2$\mu$m to 3~4$\mu$m and the metal electrodes are alloyed in N2 /H2 ambient at 55$0^{\circ}C$ and followed by silicon nitride antireflection film deposition process. Under artificial illumination of 100mW/$\textrm{cm}^2$ fabricated N+PP+ cells showed typically the open circuit voltage of 0.59V and short circuit current of 103 mA with fill factor of 0.80 from the whole cell area of 3.36$\textrm{cm}^2$. These numbers can be used to get the actual total area(active area) conversion efficiency of 14.4%(16.2%) which has been improved from the provious N+P cell with 11% total area efficiency by adding P+ back.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 1976

An investigation on the effect of electrostatic drift field which can bring an additional aid to the photogenerated carrier collection in one side of the silicon solar cell has been carried out. The drift field was produced by the gradient of boron concentration in the p-type side in virtue of the strain compensation due to the tin dopant. A new method of ion implantation which is based on the principle of chiefly radiation-enhanced diffusion is adopted for forming the p-n junction in the solar cell. The open circuit voltage and the conversion efficiency of the ion-implanted silicon solar cell sample can be figured out to be 0.44 V and 5%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.297-297
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• 2010

Precise control of the position and density of doping elements at the nanoscale is becoming a central issue for realizing state-of-the-art silicon-based optoelectronic devices. As dimensions are scaled down to take benefits from the quantum confinement effect, however, the presence of interfaces and the nature of materials adjacent to silicon turn out to be important and govern the physical properties. Utilization of visible light is a promising method to overcome the efficiency limit of the crystalline Si solar cells. Si quantum dots (QDs) have been proposed as an emission source of visible light, which is based on the quantum confinement effect. Light emission in the visible wavelength has been reported by controlling the size and density of Si QDs embedded within various types of insulating matrix. For the realization of all-Si QD solar cells with homojunctions, it is prerequisite not only to optimize the impurity doping for both p- and n-type Si QDs, but also to construct p-n homojunctions between them. In this study, XPS and SIMS were used for the development of p-type and n-type Si quantum dot solar cells. The stoichiometry of SiOx layers were controlled by in-situ XPS analysis and the concentration of B and P by SIMS for the activated doping in Si nano structures. Especially, it has been experimentally evidenced that boron atoms in silicon nanostructures confined in SiO2 matrix can segregate into the Si/$SiO_2$ interfaces and the Si bulk forming a distinct bimodal spatial distribution. By performing quantitative analysis and theoretical modelling, it has been found that boron incorporated into the four-fold Si crystal lattice can have electrical activity. Based on these findings, p-type Si quantum dot solar cell with the energy-conversion efficiency of 10.2% was realized from a [B-doped $SiO_{1.2}$(2 nm)/$SiO_2(2\;nm)]^{25}$ superlattice film with a B doping level of $4.0{\times}10^{20}\;atoms/cm^2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2012

Si quantum dot (QD) imbedded in a $SiO_2$ matrix is a promising material for the next generation optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells and light emission diodes (LEDs). However, low conductivity of the Si quantum dot layer is a great hindrance for the performance of the Si QD-based optoelectronic devices. The effective doping of the Si QDs by semiconducting elements is one of the most important factors for the improvement of conductivity. High dielectric constant of the matrix material $SiO_2$ is an additional source of the low conductivity. Active doping of B was observed in nanometer silicon layers confined in $SiO_2$ layers by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling analysis and confirmed by Hall effect measurements. The uniformly distributed boron atoms in the B-doped silicon layers of $[SiO_2(8nm)/B-doped\;Si(10nm)]_5$ films turned out to be segregated into the $Si/SiO_2$ interfaces and the Si bulk, forming a distinct bimodal distribution by annealing at high temperature. B atoms in the Si layers were found to preferentially substitute inactive three-fold Si atoms in the grain boundaries and then substitute the four-fold Si atoms to achieve electrically active doping. As a result, active doping of B is initiated at high doping concentrations above $1.1{\times}10^{20}atoms/cm^3$ and high active doping of $3{\times}10^{20}atoms/cm^3$ could be achieved. The active doping in ultra-thin Si layers were implemented to silicon quantum dots (QDs) to realize a Si QD solar cell. A high energy conversion efficiency of 13.4% was realized from a p-type Si QD solar cell with B concentration of $4{\times}1^{20}atoms/cm^3$. We will present the diffusion behaviors of the various dopants in silicon nanostructures and the performance of the Si quantum dot solar cell with the optimized structures.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 1999

The $n^+/p/p^+$ junction PERL solar cell of $0.1{\sim}2{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (100) p type silicon wafer was fabricated through the following steps; that is, wafer cutting, inverted pyramidally textured surfaces etching by KOH, phosphorus and boron diffusion, anti-reflection coating, grid formation and contact annealing. At this time, the optical characteristics of device surface and the efficiency of doping concentration for resistivity were investigated. And diffusion depth and doping concentration for n+ doping were simulated by silvaco program. Then their results were compared with measured results. Under the illumination of AM (air mass)1.5, $100\;mW/cm^2$ $I_{sc}$, $V_{oc}$, fill factor and the conversion efficiency were 43mA, 0.6 V, 0.62. and 16% respectively.