• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.487-491
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• 2015

In photovoltaic power generation where minority carrier generation via light absorption is competing against minority carrier recombination, the substrate thickness and material quality are interdependent, and appropriate combination of the two variables is important in obtaining the maximum output power generation. Medici, a two-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool, is used to investigate the interdependency in relation to the maximum power output in front-lit Si solar cells. Qualitatively, the results indicate that a high quality substrate must be thick and that a low quality substrate must be thin in order to achieve the maximum power generation in the respective materials. The dividing point is $70{\mu}m/5{\times}10^{-6}sec$. That is, for materials with a minority carrier recombination lifetime longer than $5{\times}10^{-6}sec$, the substrate must be thicker than $70{\mu}m$, while for materials with a lifetime shorter than $5{\times}10^{-6}sec$, the substrate must be thinner than $70{\mu}m$. In substrate fabrication, the thinner the wafer, the lower the cost of material, but the higher the cost of wafer fabrication. Thus, the optimum thickness/lifetime combinations are defined in this study along with the substrate cost considerations as part of the factors to be considered in material selection.

• Proceedings of the Korea Association of Crystal Growth Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.155-159
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• 1997

We investigated the effect of mechanical backside damage in Czochralski silicon wafer. The intensity of mechanical damage were evaluated by minority carrier recombination lifetime by a laser excitation/microwave reflection photoconductance decay method, photo-acoustic displacement method, X-ray section topography, and wet oxidation/preferential etch methods. The data indicate that the higher the mechanical damage intensity, the lower the minority carrier lifetime, and the photoacoustic displacement values are also increased proportionally.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2017

The BCBJ (Back Contact and Back Junction) or back-lit solar cell design eliminates shading loss by placing the pn junction and metal electrode contacts all on one side that faces away from the sun. However, as the electron-hole generation sites now are located very far from the pn junction, loss by minority-carrier recombination can be a significant issue. Utilizing Medici, a 2-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool, the interdependency between the substrate thickness and the minority-carrier recombination lifetime was studied in terms of how these factors affect the solar cell power output. Qualitatively speaking, the results indicate that a very high quality substrate with a long recombination lifetime is needed to maintain the maximum power generation. The quantitative value of the recombination lifetime of minority-carriers, i.e., electrons in p-type substrates, required in the BCBJ cell is about one order of magnitude longer than that in the front-lit cell, i.e., $5{\times}10^{-4}sec$ vs. $5{\times}10^{-5}sec$. Regardless of substrate thickness up to $150{\mu}m$, the power output in the BCBJ cell stays at nearly the maximum value of about $1.8{\times}10^{-2}W{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, or $18mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, as long as the recombination lifetime is $5{\times}10^{-4}s$ or longer. The output power, however, declines steeply to as low as $10mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ when the recombination lifetime becomes significantly shorter than $5{\times}10^{-4}sec$. Substrate thinning is found to be not as effective as in the front-lit case in stemming the decline in the output power. In view of these results, for BCBJ applications, the substrate needs to be only mono-crystalline Si of very high quality. This bars the use of poly-crystalline Si, which is gaining wider acceptance in standard front-lit solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.408-413
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• 1995

We investigated the effect of mechanical backside damage upon minority carrier recombination lifetime measurement in Czochralski silicon substrate by laser excitation/microwave reflection photoconductance decay method. The intensity of mechanical damage was evaluated by X-ray double crystal rocking curve, X-ray section topography and wet oxidation/preferential etch methods. The data indicate that the higher the mechanical damage intensity, the lower the minority carrier lifetime, and the threshold full width at half maximum value which affect minority carrier lifetime measurement is about 13 secs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 1999

We investigated the effect of mechanical back side damage in viewpoint of electrical and surface morphological characteristics in Czochralski silicon wafer. The intensity of mechanical damage was evaluated by minority carrier recombination lifetime by laser excitation/microwave reflection photoconductance decay technique, atomic force microscope, optical microscope, wet oxidation/preferential etching methods. The data indicate that the higher the mechanical damage degree, the lower the minority carrier lifetime, and surface roughness, damage depth and density of oxidation induced stacking fault increased proportionally.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.111-115
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• 2015

To improve the efficiency of the Si solar cell, high minority carrier life time is required. Therefore, the passivation technology is important to eliminate point defects on the silicon surface, causing the loss of minority carrier recombination. PECVD or post-annealing of thermally-grown $SiO_2$ is commonly used to form the passivation layer, but a high-temperature process and low thermal stability is a critical factor of low minority carrier lifetime. In this study, atomic layer deposition was used to grow the $Al_2O_3$ passivation layer at low temperature process. $Al_2O_3$ was selected as a passivation layer which has a low surface recombination velocity because of the fixed charge density. For the high charge density, an improved minority carrier lifetime, and a low surface recombination, nitrogen was doped in the $Al_2O_3$ thin film and the improvement of passivation was studied.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.157-161
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• 1999

We investigated the effect of mechanical back side damage in Czochralski silicon wafer. The intensity of mechanical damage was evaluated by minority carrier recombination lifetime by laser excitation/microwave reflection photoconductance decay ($\mu$-PCD) technique, wet oxidation/preferential etching methods, near surface micro defect (NSMD) analysis, and X-ray section topography. The data indicate that the higher the mechanical damage intensity, the lower the minority carrier lifetime, and NSMD density increased proportionally, also correlated to the oxidation induced stacking fault (OISF) density. Thus, NSMD technique can be used separately from conventional etching method in OISF measurement.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.117-123
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• 1998

We investigated the effect of mechanical backside damage in Czochralski grown silicon wafer. The intensity of mechanical damage was evaluated by minority carrier recombination lifetime by laser excitation/microwave reflection photoconductivity decay method, photo-acoustic displacement method, X-ray section topography, and wet oxidation/preferential etching methods. The data indicate that the higher the mechanical damage intensity, the lower the minority carrier lifetime, and the photo-acoustic displacement values increased proportionally, and it was at Grade 1: Grade 2:Grade 3 = 1:19.6:41 that the normalized relative quantization ratio of excess photo-acoustic displacement in damaged wafer was calculated, which are normalized to the excess PAD from sample Grade 1.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.124-130
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• 2023

Background: When bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) are used as switches, their switching characteristics can be deteriorated because the recombination time of the minority carriers is long during turn-off transient. When BJTs operate as low frequency switches, the power dissipation in the on-state is large. However, when BJTs operate as high frequency switches, the power dissipation during switching transients increases rapidly. Materials and Methods: When silicon (Si) BJTs are irradiated by fast neutrons, defects occur in the Si bulk, shortening the lifetime of the minority carriers. Fast neutron irradiation mainly creates displacement damage in the Si bulk rather than a total ionization dose effect. Defects caused by fast neutron irradiation shorten the lifetime of minority carriers of BJTs. Furthermore, these defects change the switching characteristics of BJTs. Results and Discussion: In this study, experimental results on the switching characteristics of a pnp Si BJT before and after fast neutron irradiation are presented. The results show that the switching characteristics are improved by fast neutron irradiation, but power dissipation in the on-state is large when the fast neutrons are irradiated excessively. Conclusion: The switching characteristics of a pnp Si BJT were improved by fast neutron irradiation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.38-42
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• 2018

Continuous efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of Si solar cells, which is the prevailing technology at this time. As opposed to the standard front-lit solar cell design, the back-lit design suffers no shading loss because all the metal electrodes are placed on one side close to the pn junction, which is referred to as the front side, and the incoming light enters the denuded back side. In this study, a systematic comparison between the two designs was conducted by means of computer simulation. Medici, a two-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool, was utilized for this purpose. The $0.6{\mu}m$ wavelength, the peak value for the AM-1.5 illumination, was chosen for the incident photons, and the minority-carrier recombination lifetime (${\tau}$), a key indicator of the Si substrate quality, was the main variable in the simulation on a p-type $150{\mu}m$ thick Si substrate. Qualitatively, minority-carrier recombination affected the short circuit current (Isc) but not the opencircuit voltage (Voc). The latter was most affected by series resistance associated with the electrode locations. Quantitatively, when ${\tau}{\leq}500{\mu}s$, the simulation yielded the solar cell power outputs of $20.7mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ and $18.6mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, respectively, for the front-lit and back-lit cells, a reasonable 10 % difference. However, when ${\tau}$ < $500{\mu}s$, the difference was 20 % or more, making the back-lit design less than competitive. We concluded that the back-lit design, despite its inherent benefits, is not suitable for a broad range of Si solar cells but may only be applicable in the high-end cells where float-zone (FZ) or magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) Si crystals of the highest quality are used as the substrate.