• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.204-209
• /
• 2017

Thermal and structural stability in the glass transition region of chalcogenide glasses has been investigated in terms of thermodynamics for application to various optoelectronic devices. In this study, the compositions of $Ge_xSb_{20}Se_{80-x}$ (x = 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30) were selected to investigate the glass stability according to germanium ratios. The chalcogenide bulks were fabricated by using a traditional melt-quenching method. Thin films were deposited by a thermal evaporation system, maintaining the deposition ratio of $3{\sim}5{\AA}$ in order to have uniformity. The thermal and structural properties were measured by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The DSC analysis provided thermal parameters and theoretical glass region stabilities. The XRD analysis supported the theoretical stabilities because of where the crystallization peak data occurred.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.208-213
• /
• 2017

Flexible opto-electronic devices are developed on the insulating layer deposited stainless steel (STS) substrates. The silicon dioxide ($SiO_2$) material as the diffusion barrier of Fe and Cr atoms in addition to the electrical insulation between the electronic device and STS is processed using the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Noble silver (Ag) films of approximately 100 nm thickness have been formed on $SiO_2$ deposited STS substrates by E-beam evaporation technique. The films then were annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ for 20 min using the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) technique. It was investigated the variation of the surface morphology due to the interaction between Ag films and $SiO_2$ layers after the RTA treatment. The results showed the movement of Si atoms in silver film from $SiO_2$. In addition, the structural investigation of Ag annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ indicated that the Ag film has the material property of p-type semiconductor and the bandgap of approximately 1 eV. Also, the films annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ showed reflection with sinusoidal oscillations due to optical interference of multiple reflections originated from films and substrate surfaces. Such changes can be attributed to both formation of $SiO_2$ on Ag film surface and agglomeration of silver film between particles due to annealing.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.467-471
• /
• 1999

BN films were grown on silicon (l00) substrate by magnetically enhanced activated reactive evaporation (ME-ARE) with pulsed DC power instead of r.f. for substrate biasing. The deposited films were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). FTIR results show that the intensity of absorption band of $sp^2$ bond of BN decreased and that of $sp^3$ bond of c-BN increased with increasing pulsed DC bias voltage applied to substrate. The initially grown layer at the interface was observed by TEM and considered to be of$ sp^2$-bonded BN. The cross-sectional and planar TEM micrographs show that the upper layer on the initial layer was the single phase c-BN. It is concluded that cubic boron nitride films could be synthesized by ME-ARE process with pulsed DC biasing.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.20-26
• /
• 2001

Titanium boride ($\textrn{TiB}_{x}$) films were deposited on (100) silicon substrates at the substrate temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ by means of the co-evaporation of titanium and boron evaporants during deposition. The co-evaporation method makes it possible to deposit the non-stoichiometric films with different boron-to-titanium ratio($0{\le}B/Ti \le 2.5$). The resistivity increases linearly as the boron-to-titanium ratio in the as-deposited films is increased. The surface roughness of $\textrn{TiB}_{x}$ films is changed as a function of the boron-to-titanium ratio. The XRD spectrum for pure titanium film shows a highly (002) preferred orientation. For B/Ti=0.59 ratio only a single TiB phase that shows a (111) preferred orientation is observed. However, the $\textrn{TiB}_{x}$ phase with the hexagonal structure of the $AlB_2$(C32) type appears as the boron concentration increase, and only a single $\textrn{TiB}_{x}$ phase is observed for $B/Ti \ge 2.0$ ratio. The $\textrn{TiB}_{x}$/Si samples reveal a tensile stress (3~$20{\times}^9$dyn/$\textrm{cm}^2$) in the overall composition of the films, although the magnitude of the residual stresses is depended on the nominal B/Ti ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.375-375
• /
• 2010

CdTe as an absorber material is widely used in thin film solar cells with the heterostructure due to its almost ideal band gap energy of 1.45 eV, high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, low cost and stable performance. The deposition methods and preparation conditions for the fabrication of CdTe are very important for the achievement of high solar cell conversion efficiency. There are some rearranged reports about the deposition methods available for the preparation of CdTe thin films such as close spaced sublimation (CSS), physical vapor deposition (PVD), vacuum evaporation, vapor transport deposition (VTD), closed space vapor transport, electrodeposition, screen printing, spray pyrolysis, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and RF sputtering. The RF sputtering method for the preparation of CdTe thin films has important advantages in that the thin films can be prepared at low growth temperatures with large-area deposition suitable for mass-production. The authors reported that the optical and electrical properties of CdTe thin film were closely connected by the thickness-uniformity of the film in the previous study [1], which means that the better optical absorbance and the higher carrier concentration could be obtained in the better condition of thickness-uniformity for CdTe thin film. The thickness-uniformity could be controlled and improved by the some process parameters such as vacuum level and RF power in the sputtering process of CdTe thin films. However, there is a limitation to improve the thickness-uniformity only in the preparation process [1]. So it is necessary to introduce the external or additional method for improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film because the cell size of thin film solar cell will be enlarged. Therefore, the authors firstly applied the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin films with a G&P POLI-450 CMP polisher [2]. CMP process is the most important process in semiconductor manufacturing processes in order to planarize the surface of the wafer even over 300 mm and to form the copper interconnects with damascene process. Some important CMP characteristics for CdTe were obtained including removal rate (RR), WIWNU%, RMS roughness, and peak-to-valley roughness [2]. With these important results, the CMP process for CdTe thin films was performed to improve the thickness-uniformity of the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film which had the worst two thickness-uniformities of them. Some optical properties including optical transmittance and absorbance of the CdTe thin films were measured by using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Varian Techtron, Cary500scan) in the range of 400 - 800 nm. After CMP process, the thickness-uniformities became better than that of the best condition in the previous sputtering process of CdTe thin films. Consequently, the optical properties were directly affected by the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film. The absorbance of CdTe thin films was improved although the thickness of CdTe thin film was not changed.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.94-98
• /
• 2011

A Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) nanowire photoelectrode was produced using a simple metal evaporation method at low synthesis temperature (< $540^{\circ}C$). The nanowire electrodes have large surface area compared with that of flat ITO thin film, and show low electrical resistivity of $5.6{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$ at room temperature. In order to apply ITO nanowires to the photoelectrodes of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), those surfaces were modified by $TiO_2$ nanoparticles using a chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The conversion efficiency of the fabricated $TiO_2$/ITO nanostructure-based DSSC was obtained at 1.4%, which was increased value by a factor of 6 than one without ITO nanowires photoelectrode. This result is attributed to the large surface area and superior electrical property of the ITO nanowires photoelectrode, as well as the structural advantages, including short diffusion length of photo-induced electrons, of the fabricated $TiO_2$/ITO nanostructure-based DSSC.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.262-268
• /
• 2009

We investigated the properties of inorganic diatomic films like silicon oxide ($SiO_2$) and zinc oxide (ZnO) and their composite films are packed as a passivation layer around Ca cells on glass substrates by using an electron-beam evaporation technique and rf-magnetron sputtering method. When these Ca cells are exposed to an ambient atmosphere, the water vapor penetrating through the passivation layers is adsorbed in the Ca cells, resulting in a gradual progress of transparency in the Ca cells, which can be represented by changes of the optical transmittance in the visible range. Compared with the saturation times for the Ca cells to become completely transparent in the atmosphere, the protection effects against permeation of water vapor are estimated for various passivation films. The thin composite films consist of$SiO_2$ and ZnO are found to show a superior protection effect from water vapor permeation compared with diatomic inorganic films like $SiO_2$ and ZnO. Also, this inorganic thin composite films are also found that their protection effect against permeation of water vapor can be significantly enhanced by choosing their suitable composition ratio and deposition method, in addition, the main factors affecting the permeation of water vapor through the oxide films are found to be the polarizability and the packing density.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.45 no.8
• /
• pp.472-476
• /
• 2008

The surface region of commercial stainless steel 304 and 316 plates has been modified through deposition of the multi-layered coatings composed of titanium film ($0.1{\mu}m$) and gold film ($1-2{\mu}m$) by an electron beam evaporation method. XRD patterns of the stainless steel plates deposited with conductive metal films showed the peaks of the external gold film and the stainless steel substrate. Surface microstructural morphologies of the stainless steel bipolar plates modified with multi-layered coatings were observed by AFM and FE-SEM images. The stainless steel plates modified with $0.1{\mu}m$ titanium film and $1{\mu}m$ gold film showed microstructure of grains of under 100 nm diameter. The external surface of the stainless steel plates deposited with $0.1{\mu}m$ titanium film and $2{\mu}m$ gold film represented somewhat grain growth of Au grains in FE-SEM image. The electrical resistance and water contact angle of the stainless steel bipolar plates modified with multi-layered coatings were examined with the thickness of the gold film.

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

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.184-189
• /
• 2002

The electrical and optical properties of $(Pb_{0.91}La_{0.09})(Zr_{0.65}Ti_{0.35})O_3$(PLZT) thin films by MOCVD using ultrasonic spraying were investigated. To compensate the Pb loss by evaporation, 5 and 10 wt% of excess Pb was added to 0.2 M precursor. After deposition of films on ITO-coated glasses in oxygen atmosphere for 30 min, films were heated by in-situ RTA (rapid thermal annealing) method. When the films were heat treated at $600^{\circ}C$, perovskite single phase was obtained. The optical property of the film with 10 wt% excess Pb was excellent showing about 84 % of transmittance near 520 nm. The dielectric constant of the film was about 308 and the leakage current of the film was lower than the Pb excess 0, 5 wt% PLZT thin films.