• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.299.2-299.2
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• 2013

We investigated the potassium remaining on a crystalline silicon solar cell after potassium hydroxide (KOH) etching and its effect on the lifetime of the solar cell. KOH etching is generally used to remove the saw damage caused by cutting a Si ingot; it can also be used to etch the rear side of a textured crystalline silicon solar cell before atomic layer-deposited Al2O3 growth. However, the potassium remaining after KOH etching is known to be detrimental to the efficiency of Si solar cells. In this study, we etched a crystalline silicon solar cell in three ways in order to determine the effect of the potassium remnant on the efficiency of Si solar cells. After KOH etching, KOH and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) were used to etch the rear side of a crystalline silicon solar cell. To passivate the rear side, an Al2O3 layer was deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). After ALD Al2O3 growth on the KOH-etched Si surface, we measured the lifetime of the solar cell by quasi steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC, Sinton WCT-120) to analyze how effectively the Al2O3 layer passivated the interface of the Al2O3 layer and the Si surface. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was also used to measure how much potassium remained on the surface of the Si wafer and at the interface of the Al2O3 layer and the Si surface after KOH etching and wet cleaning.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.29-33
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• 2003

Tri-crystalline silicon wafers have three different orientations and three-grain boundaries. In this paper, tri-crystalline silicon (tri-Si) wafers have been used for the fabrication of buried contact solar cells. The optical and micro-structural properties of these cells after texturing in KOH solution have been investigated and compared with those of cast mult- crystalline silicon (multi-Si) wafers. We employed a cost effective fabrication process and achieved buried contact solar cell (BCSC) energy conversion efficiencies up to $15\%$ whereas the cast multi-Si wafer has efficiency around $14\%$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.176-180
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• 2003

Tri-crystalline silicon (Tri-Si) wafers have three different orientations and three grain boundaries. In this paper, tri-Si wafers have been used for the fabrication of buried contact solar cells. The optical and micro-structural properties of these cells after texturing in KOH solution have been investigated and compared with those of cast multi-crystalline silicon (multi-Si) wafers. We employed a cost effective fabrication process and achieved buried contact solar cell (BCSC) energy conversion efficiencies up to 15% whereas the cast multi-Si wafer has efficiency around 14%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.72.2-72.2
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• 2010

Nowadays, the crystalline Si Solar cell are expected for economical renewable energy source. The cost of the crystalline Si solar cell are decreasing by improvement of its efficiency and decrease of the cost of the raw Si wafers for Solar cells. This Si wafer based crystalline Si solar cell is the verified technology from several decade of its history. Now, I will introduce one method that can be upgrade the efficiency by using simple and economical method. The name of this method is Rear Side Etching(RSE). The purpose of rear side etching is the elimination of n+ layer of rear side and increase of the flatness. The effects of rear side etching are the improvement of Voc and increase of efficiency by reducement series resistance and forming of uniform BSF. The experimental procedure for rear side etching is very simple. After anti-reflection coating on solar cell wafer, Solar cell wafer is etched by the etching chemical that react with only rear side not front side. This special chemical is no harmful to anti-reflection coating layer. It can only etched rear side of solar cell wafer. We can use etching image by optical microscope, minority carrier life time by WCT 120, SiNx thickness and refractive index by ellipsometer, cell efficiency for the RSE effect measurement. The key point of rear side etching is development of etching process condition that react with only rear side. If we can control this factor, we can achieve increase of solar cell efficiency very economically without new device.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.2060-2060
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• 2011

This paper was investigated the frequency property for optimal operating conditions of mono-crystalline Si solar cell. An internal impedance of mono-crystalline Si solar cell was influenced frequency. An optimal operating conditions of solar cell was under about 10[kHz].

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.30-35
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• 2013

In order to increase cell efficiency in crystalline silicon solar cell, reduction of light reflection is one of the essential problem. Until now silicon wafer was textured by wet etching process which has random patterns along crystal orientation. In this study, high aspect ratio patterns are manufactured by nano imprint process and reflectance could be minimized under 1%. After that, screen printed solar cell was fabricated on the textured wafer and I-V characteristics was measured by solar simulator. Consequently cell efficiency of solar cell fabricated using the wafer textured by nano imprint process increased 1.15% than reference solar cell textured by wet etching. Internal quantum efficiency was increased in the range of IR wave length but decreased in the UV wavelength. In spite of improved result, optimization between nano imprinted pattern and solar cell process should be followed.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.367-370
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• 2009

It is important to reduce a reflection of light as a solar cell is device that directly converts the energy of solar radiation to electrical energy in oder to improve efficiency of solar cells. The antireflection coating has proven effective in providing substantial increase in solar cell efficiency. This paper investigates the formation of thin film PSi(porous silicon) layer on the surface of crystalline silicon substrates without other ARC(antirefiection coating) layers. On the other hand the formation of $SO_{2}/SiN_x$ ARC layers on the surface of crystalline silicon substrates. After that, the structure of PSi and $SO_2/SiN_x$ ARC was investigated by SEM and reflectance. The formation of PSi layer and $SO_{2}/SiN_x$ ARC layers on the textured silicon wafer result about 5% in the wavelength region from 0.4 to $1.0{\mu}m$. It is achieved on the textured crystalline silicon solar cell that each efficiency is 14.43%, 16.01%.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.375-379
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• 2015

A proper estimate of solar cell efficiency is of great importance for the feasibility analysis of solar cell power plant development. Since solar cell efficiency depends on temperature, several methods have been introduced to measure it by operating temperature modulation. However, the methods either rely on the external environment or need expensive equipment. In this paper, a thermoelectric module was used to control the operating temperature of crystalline silicon solar cells effectively and precisely over a wide range. The output characteristics of crystalline silicon solar cells in response to operating temperatures from $-5^{\circ}C$ to $100^{\circ}C$ were investigated experimentally. Their efficiencies decreased as the temperature rose, since the decrease in the open circuit voltage and fill factor exceeded the increase in the short circuit current. The maximum power temperature coefficient of the single crystalline solar cell was more sensitive to temperature change than that of the polycrystalline solar cell.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.120-125
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• 2002

Si-wafers for solar cells were cast in a size of $50{\times}46{\times}0.5{\textrm}{mm}^3$ by vacuum casting method. The graphite mold coated by BN powder, which was to prevent the reaction of carbon with the molten silicon, was used. Without coating, the wetting and reaction of Si melt to graphite mold was very severe. In the case of BN coating, SiC was formed in the shape of tiny islands at the surface of Si wafer by the reaction between Si-melt and carbon of the graphite mold on the high temperature. The grain size was about 1 mm. The efficiency of Si solar cell was lower than that of Si solar cell fabricated on commercial single and poly crystalline Si wafer. The reason of low efficiency was discussed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2017

Today, photovoltaic power generation mostly uses Si crystalline solar cell modules. The most vulnerable part of the Si solar cell module is that the power generation decreases due to the temperature rise. But, it is widely used because of low installation cost. In the solar market, where Si crystalline solar cell modules are widely used. The CPV (Concentrated Photovoltaic) module appeared in the solar market. The CPV module reduces the manufacturing cost of the solar cell by using non-Si in the solar cell. Also, there is an advantage that a rise in temperature does not cause a drop in power generation. But this requires high technology to install and has a disadvantage that the initial installation cost is expensive compared to normal Si solar cell module. So that we built a testbed to see these characteristics. The testbed was used to measure the amount of power generation in a long-term outdoor environment and compared with the general Si solar cell module.