• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.238-242
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• 2005

The Pt counter electrode of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) plays a role in helping redox reaction of iodine ions in electrolyte, also, transferring electrons into electrolyte. In this case, it is expected that characteristics of Pt electrodes strongly depend on fabrication process and its surface condition. In this study, Pt electrodes were prepared by a electro-deposition and a RF magnetron sputtering. Electrochemical behavior of Pt electrodes was compared using cyclic-voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy. Surface morphology of Pt electrodes was investigated by FE-SEM and AFM. I-V characteristics of DSSC were measured and discussed in association with the surface properties of counter electrode. As a result, electrochemical properties of electro-deposited Pt electrode were superior to that of sputtered Pt electrode. This is likely that enlarged area of surface in electro-deposited Pt electrode in comparison with the case of sputtered Pt electrode playa role in enhancing such electrochemical properties.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-55
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• 2011

The surface passivation is one of the important methods that can improve the efficiency of solar cells and can be classified into two methods: wet-chemical passivation and film passivation. In this paper, chemical HF treatment were employed for the passivation of n-type silicon wafers and their effects were studied. To investigate film passivation effects, the silicon nitride films were also deposited by PECVD (plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition) on n-type silicon wafers treated with chemical HF. The minority carrier lifetime measurements were used for evaluation of the passivation characteristics in the all experiments steps. We confirmed that the minority carrier lifetime was improved with chemical HF treatment due to passivation effects by H-termination.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.315-321
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• 2017

Antireflective pyramid arrays can be readily obtained via anisotropic etching in alkaline solution (KOH, NaOH), which is widely used in crystalline-Si (c-Si) solar cells. The periodic inverted pyramid arrays show even lower light reflectivity because of their superior light-trapping characteristics. Since this inverted pyramidal structures are mostly achieved using very complex techniques such as photolithograpy and laser processes requiring extra costs, here, we demonstrate the Cu-nanoparticle assisted chemical etching processes to make the inverted pyramidal arrays without the need of photolithography. We have mainly controlled the concentration of $Cu(NO_3)_2$, HF, $H_2O_2$ and temperature as well as time factors that affecting the reaction. Optimal inverted pyramid structure was obtained through reaction parameters control. The reflectance of inverted pyramid arrays showed < 10% over 400 to 1100 nm wavelength range while showing 15~20% in random pyramid arrays.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.472.2-472.2
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• 2014

현재 결정질 실리콘 태양전지의 전 후면 전극의 형성은 스크린 프린팅 방법이 주를 이루고 있다. 스크린 프린팅 방법은 쉽고 빠르게 인쇄가 가능한 반면 단가가 높고 금속 페이스트에 첨가된 여러 혼합물에 의해서 전극과 기판 사이의 저항이 크다는 단점이 있다. 본 논문에서는 도금을 이용하여 태양전지의 전극을 형성한 후 태양전지의 전기적 특성을 비교하였다. 또한 단일반사방지막($SiN_x$) 증착 후 도금을 이용한 전극 형성 시 반사방지막의 pin-hole에 의해 전극 이외의 표면에 도금이 되는 ghost plating 현상이 발생하게 되는데, 이를 방지하기 위해 thermal oxidation을 이용하여 SiO2/SiNx 이중반사 방지막을 증착함으로써 ghost plating을 최소화 시켰다. Ni을 이용하여 전극과 기판 사이의 저항을 낮추었으며, 주요 전극은 Cu 도금을 사용함으로써 단가를 낮추었으며 마지막으로 Cu전극의 산화를 방지하기 위해 Ag을 이용하여 얇게 도금하였다. 실험에 사용된 Si 웨이퍼 특성은 p-형, $156{\times}156mm2$, $200{\mu}m$, $0.5{\sim}3.0{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ 이다. 웨이퍼는 표면조직화, p-n접합 형성, 반사방지막 코팅을 하였으며 스크린 프린팅 방법을 이용해 후면 전극을 인쇄하고 열처리 과정을 통해 전극을 형성하였다. 이 후 전면에 레이저를 이용해 전극 패턴을 형성한 후 도금을 실행하여 태양전지를 완성하였다. 완성된 태양전지는 솔라 시뮬레이터, QE 및 TLM패턴을 이용하여 전기적 특성을 분석하였으며, SEM과 linescan, 광학현미경 등을 이용하여 전극을 분석하였다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.111-117
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• 2019

This study proposed the fabrication and deposition of high purity crystalline $core-TiO_2/shell-Al_2O_3$ nanoparticles. Morphological properties of $core-TiO_2$ and coated $shell-Al_2O_3$ were confirmed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and transmission electron microscope - energy dispersive spectroscopy (TEM-EDS). The electrical properties of the prepared $core-TiO_2/shell-Al_2O_3$ nanoparticles were evaluated by applying them to a working electrode of a Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). The particle size, growth rate and the main crystal structure of $core-TiO_2$ were analyzed through dynamic light scattering system (DLS), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The $core-TiO_2$, which has a particle size of 17.1 nm, a thin film thickness of $20.1{\mu}m$ and a main crystal structure of anatase, shows higher electrical efficiency than the conventional paste-based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In addition, the energy conversion efficiency (6.28%) of the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) using the $core-TiO_2/shell-Al_2O_3$ nanoparticles selectively controlled to the working electrode is 26.1% higher than the energy conversion efficiency (4.99%) of the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) using the conventional paste method.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07c
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• pp.1598-1600
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• 2003

Microcrystalline silicon(c-Si:H) thin-film solar cells are prepared with intrinsic Si-layer by hot wire CVD. The operating parameters of solar cells are strongly affected by the filament temperature ($T_f$) during intrinsic layer. Jsc and efficiency abruptly decreases with elevated $T_f$ to $1400^{\circ}C$. This deterioration of solar cell parameters are resulted from increase of crystalline volume fraction and corresponding defect density at high $T_f$ The heater temperature ($T_h$) are also critical parameter that controls device operations. Solar cells prepared at low $T_h$ (<$200^{\circ}C$) shows a similar operating properties with devices prepared at high $T_f$, i.e. low Jsc, Voc and efficiency. The origins for this result, however, are different with that of inferior device performances at high $T_f$. In addition the phase transition of the silicon films occurs at different silane concentration (SC) by varying filament temperature, by which highest efficiency with SC vanes with $T_f$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.254-255
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• 2012

Interest in nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films has been growing because of their favorable processing conditions for certain electronic devices. In particular, there has been an increase in the use of nc-Si thin films in photovoltaics for large solar cell panels and in thin film transistors for large flat panel displays. One of the most important material properties for these device applications is the macroscopic charge-carrier mobility. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or nc-Si is a basic material in thin film transistors (TFTs). However, a-Si:H based devices have low carrier mobility and bias instability due to their metastable properties. The large number of trap sites and incomplete hydrogen passivation of a-Si:H film produce limited carrier transport. The basic electrical properties, including the carrier mobility and stability, of nc-Si TFTs might be superior to those of a-Si:H thin film. However, typical nc-Si thin films tend to have mobilities similar to a-Si films, although changes in the processing conditions can enhance the mobility. In polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films, the performance of the devices is strongly influenced by the boundaries between neighboring crystalline grains. These grain boundaries limit the conductance of macroscopic regions comprised of multiple grains. In much of the work on poly-Si thin films, it was shown that the performance of TFTs was largely determined by the number and location of the grain boundaries within the channel. Hence, efforts were made to reduce the total number of grain boundaries by increasing the average grain size. However, even a small number of grain boundaries can significantly reduce the macroscopic charge carrier mobility. The nano-crystalline or polymorphous-Si development for TFT and solar cells have been employed to compensate for disadvantage inherent to a-Si and micro-crystalline silicon (${\mu}$-Si). Recently, a novel process for deposition of nano-crystralline silicon (nc-Si) thin films at room temperature was developed using neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBaCVD) with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300 eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at room temperature. In previous our experiments, we verified favorable properties of nc-Si thin films for certain electronic devices. During the formation of the nc-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. The more resent work on nc-Si thin film transistors (TFT) was done. We identified the performance of nc-Si TFT active channeal layers. The dependence of the performance of nc-Si TFT on the primary process parameters is explored. Raman, FT-IR and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to study the microstructures and the crystalline volume fraction of nc-Si films. The electric properties were investigated on Cr/SiO2/nc-Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.103-103
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• 2008

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.20-20
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• 2010

Organic based photovoltaics (OPV) have been received a lot of attention because they are lightweight, inexpensive to fabricate and flexible compare to crystalline Si solar cells. In this seminar, several important progresses in the Polymer PV, such as, formation of bulk heterojunction, development of post annealing technique, tandem cell fabrication will be introduced. In addition that, some efforts to achieve the further improvement in the performance of the Polymer PV will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.320.1-320.1
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• 2013

We have investigated the effect of surface passivation for crystalline silicon solar cell using ozone-based atomic layer deposited (ALD) $Al_2O_3$. We examined passivation properties such as uniformity, carrier lifetime, thickness, negative fixed charge density at AlOx/Si interface, and reflectance. The influences of process temperature and heat treatment were investigated using microwave photoconductance decay (PCD). Ozone-based ALD $Al_2O_3$ film shows the best carrier lifetime at lower deposition temperature than $H_2O$-based ALD.