• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.72.1-72.1
• /
• 2010

Thin film a-Si solar cells deposited by PECVD have many advantages compared to the traditional crystalline Si solar cells. They do not require expensive Si wafer, the process temperature is relatively low, possibility of scaling up for mass production, etc. In order to produce thin film solar cells, understanding the relationship between the material characteristics and deposition conditions is important. It has been reported by many groups that the band gap of the a-Si material and the deposition rate has an linear relationship, when RF power is used to control both. However, when the process pressure is changed in order to control the deposition rate and the band gap, a diversion from the well known linear relationship occurs. Here, we explain this diversion by the deposition condition crossing different plasma regions in the Paschen curve with a simple model. This model will become a guide to which condition a-Si thin films must be fabricated in order to get a high quality film.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.88-93
• /
• 2009

This study was conducted to improve the power of PV module using a surface cooling system One of the unique characteristics of PV module is power drop as a module surface temperature increases due to the characteristics of crystalline silicon used in a solar cell. To overcome the output power reduction by temperature effect, module surface cooling using water circulation was performed. By cooling effect, module surface temperature drops maximally $20.3^{\circ}C$ predicting more than 10% power enhancement. Maximum deviation of voltage and current between a control and cooled module differed by 5.1 V and O.9A respectively. The maximum power enhancement by cooling system was 12.4% compared with a control module. In addition, cooling system can wash the module surface by water circulation so that extra power up of PV module can be achieved by removing particles on the surface which interfere solar radiation on the cells. Cooling system, besides, can reduce the maintenance cost and prevent accidents as a safety precaution while cleaning works. This system can be applied to the existing photovoltaic power generation facilities without any difficulties as well.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.187-191
• /
• 2019

Advances in laser technology have enabled ultra-high-speed ultra-precise processing, thus expanding potential applications to the semiconductor, medical, and photovoltaic industries. In particular, laser scribing technology has been applied to the production of shingled solar modules. In this work, we analyze the effect of laser scribing conditions, e.g., scribing depth, on the characteristics of the resulting divided solar cells. When the scribing depth was greater than $100{\mu}m$, the solar cells were well separated. In addition, the desired scribing depths were reached in fewer scans when the laser spot overlap was 100%. The efficiency of the divided cells decreased due to the high series resistance at scribing depths of less than $100{\mu}m$. However, at scribing depths of approximately $100{\mu}m$, the series resistance was low and efficiency reduction was minimized.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.617-622
• /
• 2010

We have studied methods to save Si source during the fabrication process of crystalline Si solar cells. One way is to use a thin silicon wafer substrate. As the thickness of the wafers is reduced, mechanical fractures of the substrate increase with the mechanical handling of the thin wafers. It is expected that the mechanical fractures lead to a dropping of yield in the solar cell process. In this study, the mechanical properties of 220-micrometer-solar grade Cz p-type monocrystalline Si wafers were investigated by varying saw-damage etching conditions in order to improve the flexural strength of ultra-thin monocrystalline Si solar cells. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution were used as etching solutions. Etching processes were operated with a varying of the ratio of KOH and TMAH solutions in different temperature conditions. After saw-damage etching, wafers were cleaned with a modified RCA cleaning method for ten minutes. Each sample was divided into 42 pieces using an automatic dicing saw machine. The surface morphologies were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and 3D optical microscopy. The thickness distribution was measured by micrometer. The strength distribution was measured with a 4-point-bending tester. As a result, TMAH solution at $90^{\circ}C$ showed the best performance for flexural strength.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.427-427
• /
• 2016

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite have attracted significant attention as a new revolutionary light absorber for photovoltaic device due to its remarkable characteristics such as long charge diffusion lengths (100-1000nm), low recombination rate, and high extinction coefficient. Recently, power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cell is above 20% that is approached to crystalline silicon solar cells. Planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells have simple device structure and can be fabricated low temperature process due to absence of mesoporous scaffold that should be annealed over 500 oC. However, in the planar structure, controlling perovskite film qualities such as crystallinity and coverage is important for high performances. Those controlling methods in one-step deposition have been reported such as adding additive, solvent-engineering, using anti-solvent, for pin-hole free perovskite layer to reduce shunting paths connecting between electron transport layer and hole transport layer. Here, we studied the effect of alkali metal halide to control the fabrication process of perovskite film. During the morphology determination step, alkali metal halides can affect film morphologies by intercalating with PbI2 layer and reducing $CH3NH3PbI3{\cdot}DMF$ intermediate phase resulting in needle shape morphology. As types of alkali metal ions, the diverse grain sizes of film were observed due to different crystallization rate depending on the size of alkali metal ions. The pin-hole free perovskite film was obtained with this method, and the resulting perovskite solar cells showed higher performance as > 10% of power conversion efficiency in large size perovskite solar cell as $5{\times}5cm$. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) are analyzed to prove the mechanism of perovskite film formation with alkali metal halides.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.8
• /
• pp.461-465
• /
• 2016

n-type silicon shows the better tolerance towards metal impurities with a higher minority carrier lifetime compared to p-type silicon substrate. Due to better lifetime stability as compared to p-type during illumination made the photovoltaic community to switch toward n-type wafers for high efficiency silicon solar cells. We fabricated the front electrode of the n-type solar cell with AgAl paste. The electrodes characteristics of the AgAl paste depend on the contact junction depth that is closely related to the firing temperature. Metal contact depth with p+ emitter, with optimized depth is important as it influence the resistance. In this study, we optimize the firing condition for the effective formation of the metal depth by varying the firing condition. The firing was carried out at temperatures below $670^{\circ}C$ with low contact depth and high contact resistance. It was noted that the contact resistance was reduced with the increase of firing temperature. The contact resistance of $5.99m{\Omega}cm^2$ was shown for the optimum firing temperature of $865^{\circ}C$. Over $900^{\circ}C$, contact junction is bonded to the Si through the emitter, resulting the contact resistance to shunt. we obtained photovoltaic parameter such as fill factor of 76.68%, short-circuit current of $40.2mA/cm^2$, open-circuit voltage of 620 mV and convert efficiency of 19.11%.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.10 no.11
• /
• pp.2075-2082
• /
• 2006

This paper presents modeling and optimization techniques for hish efficiency solar cell process on single-crystalline float zone (FZ) wafers. Among a sequence of multiple steps of fabrication, the followings are the most sensitive steps for the contact formation: 1) Emitter formation by diffusion; 2) Anti-reflection-coating (ARC) with silicon nitride using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD); 3) Screen-printing for front and back metalization; and 4) Contact formation by firing. In order to increase the performance of solar cells in terms of efficiency, the contact formation process is modeled and optimized using neural networks and genetic algorithms, respectively. This paper utilizes the design of experiments (DOE) in contact formation to reduce process time and fabrication costs. The experiments were designed by using central composite design which consists of 24 factorial design augmented by 8 axial points with three center points. After contact formation process, the efficiency of the fabricated solar cell is modeled using neural networks. Established efficiency model is then used for the analysis of the process characteristics and process optimization for more efficient solar cell fabrication.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.123.2-123.2
• /
• 2011

$ALU^+$ 태양전지는 PN접합을 후면에서 즉, Al을 소성하여 형성시키기 때문에 얼마나 균일하고 두껍게 형성하는 것이 가장 중요하다. 소성(Firing)은 태양전지 제조 과정에서 후면의 접촉을 위한 중요한 공정이다. 본 연구에서는 상업화가 가능한 n-type $ALU^+$ Emitter 태양전지에서 소성 횟수에 따른 특성을 연구 하였다. $ALU^+$ emitter 형성의 최적화를 위해 소성온도를 가변하고, 최적화된 온도에서 소성 횟수에 따른 DIV 측정을 통해 셀을 분석 하였다. 소성 횟수는 1~3회로 하였고, 그 결과 단락전류 밀도(Jsc)가 33.57mA/$cm^2$로 처음보다 15.1%증가 하였고, 곡선인자(Fill Factor)는 3회에서 66.04%로 218%증가 하였다. Al을 짧은 시간 안에 소성을 시키므로 해서 후면의 $P^+$ Emitter가 균일하게 형성되었기 때문에 개방전압(Voc)의 증가를 확인하였다. 본 연구를 통해 $ALU^+$ 태양전지의 후면 Aluminium 소성 조건의 최적화를 통하여 $ALU^+$ emitter가 충분히 형성되지 못하면 누설전류가 발생되고 직렬저항(Rs)이 크게 증가하여 개방전압(Voc) 및 단락전류밀도(Jsc)의 감소가 발생하게 되고, 직렬저항(Rs)의 증가와 병렬저항(Rsh)의 감소는 Fill Factor의 급격한 감소를 초래하게 됨을 알 수 있다. 이를 개선하면 태양전지 효율을 상승시키는 결과를 얻을 수 있음을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2011.10a
• /
• pp.30.1-30.1
• /
• 2011

Silicon is one of useful materials in various industry such as semiconductor, solar cell, and secondary battery. The metallic silicon produces generally melting process for ingot type or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for thin film type. However, these methods have disadvantages of high cost, complicated process, and consumption of much energy. Electrodeposition has been known as a powerful synthesis method for obtaining metallic species by relatively simple operation with current and voltage control. Unfortunately, the electrodeposition of the silicon is impossible in aqueous electrolyte solution due to its low oxidation-reduction equilibrium potential. Ionic liquids are simply defined as ionic melts with a melting point below $100^{\circ}C$. Characteristics of the ionic liquids are high ionic conductivities, low vapour pressures, chemical stability, and wide electrochemical windows. The ionic liquids enable the electrochemically active elements, such as silicon, titanium, and aluminum, to be reduced to their metallic states without vigorous hydrogen gas evolution. In this study, the electrodeposion of silicon has been investigated in ionic liquid of 1-butyl-3-methylpyrolidinium bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide ([bmpy]$Tf_2N$) saturated with $SiCl_4$ at room temperature. Also, the effect of electrode materials on the electrodeposition and morphological characteristics of the silicon electrodeposited were analyzed The silicon electrodeposited on gold substrate was composed of the metallic Si with single crystalline size between 100~200nm. The silicon content by XPS analysis was detected in 31.3 wt% and the others were oxygen, gold, and carbon. The oxygen was detected much in edge area of th electrode due to $SiO_2$ from a partial oxidation of the metallic Si.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.77-85
• /
• 2017

Thin crystalline silicon (C-Si) solar cell is expected to be a low price energy source by decreasing the consumption of Si. However, thin c-Si solar cell entails the bowing and crack issues in high temperature manufacturing process. Thus, the conventional tabbing process, based on high temperature soldering (> $250^{\circ}C$), has difficulties for applying to thin c-Si solar cell modules. In this paper, a conductive paste (CP) based interconnection process has been proposed to fabricate thin c-Si solar cell modules with high production yield, instead of existing soldering materials. To optimize the process condition for CP based interconnection, we compared the performance and stability of modules fabricated under various lamination temperature (120, 150, and $175^{\circ}C$). The power from CP based module is similar to that with conventional tabbing process, as modules are fabricated. However, the output of CP based module laminated at $120^{\circ}C$ decreases significantly (14.1% for Damp heat and 6.1% for thermal cycle) in harsh condition, while the output drops only in 3% in the samples process at $150^{\circ}C$, $175^{\circ}C$. The peel test indicates that the unstable performance of sample laminated at $120^{\circ}C$ is attributed to weak adhesion strength (1.7 N) between cell and ribbon compared to other cases (2.7 N). As a result, optimized lamination temperature for CP based module process is $150^{\circ}C$, considering stability and energy consumption during the fabrication.