• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.12-17
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• 2019

In this study, the Ag nano-dots structure and silicon nitride film were applied to the textured wafer surface to improve the light trapping effect of mono-crystalline silicon solar cell. Ag nano-dots structure was formed by performing a heat treatment for 30 minutes at 650℃ after the deposition of 10nm Ag thin film. Ag thin film deposition was performed using a thermal evaporator. The silicon nitride film was deposited by a Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition. The effect of light trapping was compared and analyzed through light reflectance measurements. Experimental results showed that the reflectivity increased by 0.5 ~ 1% under all nitride thickness conditions when Ag nano-dots structure was formed before nitride film deposition. In addition, when the Ag nano-dots structure is formed after deposition of the silicon nitride film, the reflectance is increased in the nitride film condition of 70 nm or more. When the HF treatment was performed for 60 seconds to improve the Ag nano-dot structure, the overall reflectance was improved, and the reflectance was 0.15% lower than that of the silicon nitride film-only sample at 90 nm silicon nitride film condition.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.102-108
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• 2018

A glass-texturing technique was developed for photovoltaic (PV) module cover glass; periodic honeycomb textures were formed by using a conventional lithography technique and diluted hydrogen fluoride etching solutions. The etching conditions were optimized for three different types of textured structures. In contrast to a flat glass substrate, the textured glasses were structured with etched average surface angles of $31-57^{\circ}$, and large aspect ratios of 0.17-0.47; by using a finite difference time-domain simulation, we show that these textured surfaces increase the amount of scattered light and reduce reflectance on the glass surface. In addition, the optical transmittance of the textured glass was markedly improved by up to 95% for wavelengths ranging from 400 to 1100 nm. Furthermore, applying the textured structures to the cover glass of the PV module with heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer crystalline silicon solar cells resulted in improvements in the short-circuit current density and module efficiency from 39 to $40.2mA/cm^2$ and from 21.65% to 22.41%, respectively. Considering these results, the proposed method has the potential to further strengthen the industrial and technical competitiveness of crystalline silicon solar cells.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.454-455
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• 2009

Selective emitter structure have an important research subject for crystalline silicon solar cells because it is used in production for high efficiency solar cells. A selective emitter structure with highly doped regions underneath the metal contacts is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing. Since most of the selective emitter processes require expensive extra masking and double steps process. Formation of selective emitters is not cost effective. One method that satisfies these requirements is the method of screen-printing with a phosphorus doping paste. In this paper we researched two groups of selective emitter structure process. One was using dopant paste, and the other was using solid source, in order to compare their uniformity, sheet resistance and performance condition time.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.407-412
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• 2012

This study investigated the process of thermal-induced growth of micro-crack developed at the crystalline solar cell using EL image, determined the output characteristic according to the pattern of micro-crack, analyzed the I-V characteristic according to the pattern of crack growth, and predicted the output value using simulation. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate the process of thermal-induced growth of micro-crack developed at the early stage of PV module completion using EL image, to analyze the resulting decrement of output and predict the output value using simulation. It was observed that the crack grew increasingly by the thermal condition, and accordingly the lowering of output was accelerated. The output values of crack patterns with various direction were predicted using simulation, resulting in close I-V curve with only around 4% of error rate. It is considered that it is possible to predict the electric characteristic of solar cell module using only pattern of micro-crack occurred at solar cell based on our results.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1009-1014
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• 2012

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (${\alpha}$-Si:H) layers deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are investigated for use in silicon hetero-junction solar cells employing n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates. The optical and structural properties of silicon hetero-junction devices have been characterized using spectroscopy ellipsometry and high resolution cross-sectional transmission electron micrograph (HRTEM). In addition, the effective carrier lifetime is measured by the quasi-steady-state photocoductance (QSSPC) method. We have studied on the correlation between the order of ${\alpha}$-Si:H and the passivation quality at the interface of ${\alpha}$-Si:H/c-Si. Base on the result, we have fabricated a silicon hetero-junction solar cell incorporating the ${\alpha}$-Si:H passivation layer with on open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of 637 mV.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.391-391
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• 2011

Crystalline silicon solar cell을 양산에 적용하기 위해 전면 전극의 패턴을 형성하는 방법으로 Ag paste를 이용한 screen printing이 가장 일반적으로 사용된다. 전면 전극의 패턴 형성 시, Finger의 width와 spacing은 Fill factor, JSC, VOC 등 태양전지의 중요 parameter들과 관련되어, 효율에 영향을 미치기 때문에, printing 시 Finger width와 spacing을 최적화하여 최대한의 효율을 내는 조건을 찾는 것이 바람직하다. 본 연구에서는 Finger width를 $30{\mu}m{\sim}100{\mu}m$, spacing을 $1.8{\mu}m{\sim}2.8{\mu}m$ 까지 가변하여 c-Si solar cell을 제작하였으며, 제작된 cell의 LIV를 측정을 통하여, 최적의 효율을 내는 조건을 찾고자 하였다. 그 결과 Finger width $30{\mu}m$, Finger spacing $1.8{\mu}m$의 조건에서 17.12%로 최고의 효율을 나타내었다.

• Composites Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.56-63
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• 2011

The objective of this study is to investigate appropriate bonding methods of solar cells in order to apply solar cells, which have been receiving particular attention as a renewable energy due to fossil energy depletion and environment issues, to composite structures. Back-contact solar cells with approximately 24.2% energy conversion efficiency were used in this study. Since silicon-based solar cells are mechanically fragile, the secondary-bonding methods using adhesive were examined in this study. The experiment was conducted with three kinds of bonding materials such as EVA film, Resin film and elastic adhesive. The performance of solar cells for three types of adhesives under mechanical loading on test specimens is conducted. In addition, the measuring equipment was designed to evaluate the performance of the solar cells under mechanical loading in real time and the fracture characteristics depending on bonding materials were evaluated. The reason decreasing solar cells efficiency were analyzed and considered by Fractography. The results show that the solar cell performance is largely affected by bonding techniques. Moreover, the bonding method using elastic adhesive shows best solar cell efficiency.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.91.1-91.1
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• 2010

There are some methods for increasing efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. Among them, It is important to reduce the recombination loss of surface for high efficiency. In order to reduce recombination loss is a way to use the BSF(Back Surface Field). The BSF on the back of the p-type wafer forms a p+layer. so, it is prevented to act 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, open-circuit-voltage and Fill factor(FF) of solar cells are increased. This paper investigates the formation of rear contact process comparing Aluminum-paste(Al-paste) with Aluminum-Metal(99.9%). It is shown that the Aluminum-Metal provides high conductivity and low contact resistance of $21.35m{\Omega}cm$ using the Vacuum evaporation process but, it is difficult to apply the standard industrial process because high Vacuum is needed and it costs a tremendous amount more than Al-paste. On the other hand, using the Al-paste process by screen printing is simple for formation of metal contact and it is possible to produce the standard industrial process. however, it is lower than Aluminum-Metal(99.9) of conductivity because of including mass glass frit. In this study, contact resistances were measured by 4-point prove. each of contact resistances is $21.35m{\Omega}cm$ of Aluminum-Metal and $0.69m{\Omega}cm$ of Al-paste. and then rear contact have been analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM).