• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.173-178
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• 2004

Silicon thin film were synthesized from silane and argon gas mixture directly on copper foil by rf PECVD and then lithium ion batteries were prepared from them employed as the negative electrodes without any further treatment. In the present study, two different kinds of silicon thin films, amorphous silicon and copper silicide were prepared by changing deposition temperature. Amorphous silicon film was prepared below $200^{\circ}C$, but copper silicide film with granular shape was formed by the reaction between silicon radical and diffused copper ions under elevating temperature above $400^{\circ}C$. The amorphous silicon film gives higher capacity than copper silicide, but the capacity decreases sharply with charge-discharge cycling. This is possibly due to severe volume changes. The cyclability is improved, however, by employing the copper silicide as a negative electrode. The copper silicide plays an important role as an active material of the electrode, which mitigates volume change cause by the existence of silicon and copper chemical bonding and provides low electrical resistance as well.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.260-260
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• 2009

In high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cell, If high-efficiency solar cells are to be commercialized, It is need to develop superior contact formation method and material that can be inexpensive and simple without degradation of the solar cells ability. For reason of plated metallic contact is not only high metallic purity but also inexpensive manufacture. It is available to apply mass production. Especially, Nickel, Copper are applied widely in various electronic manufactures as easily formation is available by plating. Ni is shown to be a suitable barrier to Cu diffusin as well as desirable contact metal to silicon. Nickel monosilicide has been suggested as a suitable silicide due to its lower resistivitym lower sintering temperature and lower layer stress than $TiSi_2$. In this paper, Nickel as a seed layer and diffusion barrier is plated by electroless plating to make nickel monosilicide.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.626-631
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• 1996

Reactive dc magnetron sputtering 법을 이용하여 증착한 molybdenum mitride 박막의 Cu 확산 방지막 특성을 조사하였다. Cu 확산 방지막으로서 molybdenum nitride 박막의 열적안정성을 관찰하기 위하여 molybdenum nitride 박막 위에 Cu를 evaporation 법으로 증착하고 진공 열처리하였다. Cu/r-Mo2N/si 구조는 $600^{\circ}C$, 30분간 열처리 시까지 안정하였다. 확산 방지막의 파괴는 $650^{\circ}C$, 30분간 열처리 시부터 격자 확산(lattice diffusion)이나 입계(grain boundary)과 결함(defect)을 통한 확산에 의해 나타나기 시작하였고, 이 때 molybdenum silicide과 copper silicide의 형성에 기인된 것으로 생각되었다. 열처리 이후 Cu/r-Mo2N/Si 사이의 상호반응이 증가하였다. 이는 Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Auger electron spectroscopy 그리고 Nomarski microscopy 등의 분석을 통해 조사되었다.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.29-33
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• 2003

Material and electrical properties of copper-based ohmic contacts on n-type 4H-SiC were investigated for the effects of the post-annealing and the metal covering conditions. The ohmic contacts were prepared by sequential sputtering of Cu and Si layers on SiC substrate. The post-annealing treatment was performed using RTP (rapid thermal process) in vacuum and reduction ambient. The specific contact resistivity ($p_{c}$), sheet resistance ($R_{s}$), contact resistance ($R_{c}$), transfer length ($L_{T}$), were calculated from resistance (RT) versus contact spacing (d) measurements obtained from TLM (transmission line method) structure. The best result of the specific contact resistivity was obtained for the sample annealed in the reduction ambient as $p_{c}= 1.0 \times 10^{-6}\Omega \textrm{cm}^2$. The material properties of the copper contacts were also examined by using XRD. The results showed that copper silicide was formed on SiC as a result of intermixing Cu and Si layer.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.267-272
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• 2000

Electroplating Cu was deposited on Si(100) wafer after seed Cu was deposited by sputtering first. TaN was deposited as a diffusion barrier before depositing the seed Cu. Electroplating Cu thin films show highly (111)-oriented microstructure for both before and after annealing at $450^{\circ}C$ for 30min and no copper silicide was detected in the same samples, which indicates that TaN barrier layer blocks well the Cu diffusion into silicon substrate. After annealing the electroplating Cu film up to $450^{\circ}C$, the Cu film became columnar from non-columnar, its grain size became larger about two times, and also defects density of stacking faults, twins and dislocations decreased greatly. Thus the heat treatment will improve significantly electromigration property caused by the grain boundary in the Cu thin films.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. The Ni contact was formed on the front grid pattern by electroless plating followed by anneal ing at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ for $15{\sim}30$ min at $N_{2}$ gas to allow formation of a nickel-silicide in a tube furnace or a rapid thermal processing(RTP) chamber because nickel is transformed to NiSi at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$. The Ni plating solution is composed of a mixture of $NiCl_{2}$ as a main nickel source. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. The Ni/Cu contact was found to be well suited for high-efficiency solar cells and was successfully formed by using electroless plating and electroplating, which are more cost effective than vacuum evaporation. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electroless and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.192-193
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• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electro less plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electro less and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.683-690
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• 1996

In this study, the diffusion barrier properties of $1000 \AA$ thick molybdenum compounds (Mo, Mo-N, $MoSi_2$, Mo-Si-N) were investigated using sheet resistance measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). Each barrier material was deposited by the dc magnetron sputtering, and annealed at 300-$800^{\circ}C$ for 30min in vacuum. Mo and $MoSi_2$ barrier were failed at low temperature due to Cu diffusion through grain bound-aries and defects of Mo thin film and the reaction of Cu with Si within $MoSi_2$ respectively. A failure temperature could be raised to $650^{\circ}C$-30min in the Mo barrier system and to $700^{\circ}C$-30min in the Mo-silicide system by replacing Mo and $MoSi_2$ with Mo-N and Mo-Si-N, respectively. The crystallization temperature in the Mo-silicide film was raised by the addition of $N_2$. It is considered that not only the N, stuffing effect but also the variation of crystallization temperature affects the reaction of Cu with Si within Mo-silicide. It was found that Mo-Si-N is more effective barrier than Mo, $MoSi_2$, or Mo-N to copper penetration preventing Cu reaction with the substrate for 30min at a temperature higher than $650^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.575-579
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• 2010

The technologies of Ni/Cu plating contact is attributed to the reduced series resistance caused by a better contact conductivity of Ni with Si and the subsequent electroplating of Cu on Ni. The ability to pattern narrower grid lines for reduced light shading was combined with the lower resistance of a metal silicide contact and an improved conductivity of the plated deposit. This improves the FF (fill factor) as the series resistance is reduced. This is very much requried in the case of low concentrator solar cells in which the series resistance is one of the important and dominant parameter that affect the cell performance. A Selective emitter structure with highly dopeds regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing In this paper the formation of a selective emitter, and the nickel silicide seed layer at the front side metallization of silicon cells is considered. After generating the nickel seed layer the contacts were thickened by Cu LIP (light induced plating) and by the formation of a plated Ni/Cu two step metallization on front contacts. In fabricating a Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a selective emitter structure it has been shown that the cell efficiency can be increased by at least 0.2%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.444-445
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• 2009

The metallic contact system of silicon solar cell must have several properties, such as low contact resistance, easy application and good adhesion. Ni is shown to be a suitable barrier to Cu diffusion as well as desirable contact metal to silicon. Nickel monosilicide(NiSi) has been suggested as a suitable silicide due to its lower resistivity, lower sintering temperature and lower layer stress than $TiSi_2$. Copper and Silver can be plated by electro & light-induced plating method. Light-induced plating makes use the photovoltaic effect of solar cell to deposit the metal on the front contact. The cell is immersed into the electrolytic plating bath and irradiated at the front side by light source, which leads to a current density in the front side grid. Electroless plated Ni/ Electro&light-induced plated Cu/ Light-induced plated Ag contact solar cells result in an energy conversion efficiency of 16.446 % on $0.2\sim0.6\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, $20\;\times\;20\;mm^2$, CZ(Czochralski) wafer.