• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제24권12호
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• pp.1010-1017
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• 2011

The use of plated front contact for metallization of silicon solar cell may alternative technologies as a screen printed and silver paste contact. This technologies should allow the formation of contact with low contact resistivity a high line conductivity and also reduction of shading losses. A selective emitter structure with highly dopes regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing. When fabricated Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a selective emitter structure, it has been shown that efficiencies of up to 18% have been achieved using this technology.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2007년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.250-253
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• 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 Optical Society of Korea
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.217-221
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• 2015

Developing a metallization that has low cost and high efficiency is essential in solar-cell industries, to replace expensive silver-based metallization. Ni/Cu two-step metallization is one way to reduce the cost of solar cells, because the price of copper is about 100 times less than that of silver. Alkaline electroless plating was used for depositing nickel seed layers on the front electrode area. Prior to the nickel deposition process, 2% HF solution was used to remove native oxide, which disturbs uniform nickel plating. In the subsequent step, a nickel sintering process was carried out in $N_2$ gas atmosphere; however, copper was plated by light-induced plating (LIP). Plated nickel has different properties under different bath conditions because nickel electroless plating is a completely chemical process. In this paper, plating bath conditions such as pH and temperature were varied, and the metal layer's structure was analyzed to investigate the adhesion of Ni/Cu metallization. Average adhesion values in the range of 0.2-0.49 N/mm were achieved for samples with no nickel sintering process.

• 대한용접접합학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한용접접합학회 2002년도 Proceedings of the International Welding/Joining Conference-Korea
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• pp.620-625
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• 2002

Considering the fuel consumption of car, a light structure of aluminum alloys is desired for car body nowadays. However, fusion welding of aluminum alloys has some problems of reduction of joint efficiency, porosity formation and hot cracking. ill the present work, investigation to improve the joint performance of laser welded joint has been carried out by addition of Cu, Ni, and Zr to A6N01 alloy welds. Aluminum alloy plate of 2.0mm in thickness with filler metal bar was welded by twin beam Nd:YAG laser facility (total power:5kW). The filler metals were prepared by changing the chemical compositions for adding the elements into the weld metal. Thirteen filler metal bars were prepared and pre-placed into the base metal before welding. Ar gas shielding with a flow rate of 10 l/min was used. The defocusing distance is kept at 0 mm. At travel speeds of 3 to 9 m/min and at laser power of 5kW (front beam 2kW rear beam 3kW), full penetration welds were obtained, whereas at travel speeds of 12 to 18 m/min and same power, partial penetration was observed. The joint efficiency of laser-welded joint was improved by the addition of Cu, Ni, and Zr due to the solid solution hardening, grain refining and precipitation hardening. The type of hardening has been further considered by metallurgical examination.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.26-31
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• 2002

Considering the fuel consumption of car, a light structure of aluminum alloys is desired fer car body nowadays. However, fusion welding of aluminum alloys has some problems of reduction of joint efficiency, porosity formation and hot cracking. In the present work, investigation to improve the joint performance of laser welded joint has been carried out by addition of Cu, Ni, and Zr to A6NO 1 alloy welds. Aluminum alloy plate of 2.Omm in thickness with filler metal bar was welded by twin beam Nd: YAG laser facility (total power: 5kW). The filler metals were prepared by changing the chemical compositions for adding the elements into the weld metal. Thirteen filler metal bars were prepared and pre-placed into the base metal before welding. Ar gas shielding with a flow rate of 10 1/min was used. The defocusing distance is kept at 0 mm. At travel speeds off 3 to 9 and at laser power of 5kW (front beam 2kW rear beam 3kW), full penetration welds were obtained, whereas at travel speeds of 12 to 18 m/min and same power, partial penetration was observed. The joint efficiency of laser-welded joint was improved by the addition of Cu, Ni, and Zr due to the solid solution hardening, grain refining and precipitation hardening. The type of hardening has been further considered by metallurgical examination.

• 신재생에너지
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.37-43
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• 2005

High-efficiency silicon solar cells have potential applications on mobile electronics and electrical vehicles. The fabrication processes of the high efficiency cells necessitate com placated fabrication precesses and expensive materials. Ti/Pd/Ag metal contact has been used only for limited area In spite of good stability and low contact resistance because of Its expensive material cost and precesses. Screen printed contact formed by Ag paste causes a low fill factor and a high shading loss of commercial solar cells because of high contact resistance and a low aspect ratio. Low cost Ni/Cu metal contact has been formed by using a low cost electroless and electroplating. Nickel silicide formation at the interface enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance resulting In an energy conversion efficiency of $20.2\%\;on\;0.50{\Omega}cm$ FZ wafer. Tapered contact structure has been applied to large area solar cells with $6.7\times6.7cm^2$ in order to reduce power losses by the front contact The tapered front metal contact Is easily formed by the electroplating technique producing $45cm^2$ solar cells with an efficiency of $21.4\%$ on $21.4\%\;on\;2{\Omega}cm$ FZ wafer.

• E2M - 전기 전자와 첨단 소재
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.130-137
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• 1994

Indium, element of group III, was refined by using zone refining for high purity refinement. We have found the impurities of T1, Zn, Fe, Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu, Sn in the refined indium with ICP-AES, so that 3.9 weight ppm of T1 was reduced to less than 1 ppm, 1.0 weight ppm of Zn was reduced to 0.7 ppm, 2.8 weight ppm of Cd was reduced to 2.5 ppm and 14.0 weight ppm of Sn was reduced to 6.7 ppm with 5 melten zone passes only. 3.9 weight ppm of T1 was reduced to less than 1 ppm, 1.0 weight ppm of Zn was reduced to 0.3 ppm, 2.8 weight ppm of Cd was reduced to less than 1.0 ppm and 14.0 weight ppm of Sn was reduced to 0.4 ppm after vacuum baking with 5 melten zone passes. The surface morpholgy of metal Indium thin film in each conditions showed that porosities were reduced in the front of sampled ingot after vacuum baking with 5 zone melten zone passes. The average electrical resistivity of Indium thin film was reduced from 1.4*10$^{-3}$ .ohm.-cm in Indium origin ingot to 7.9*10$^{-6}$ .ohm.-cm after zone refined with 5 melten zone passes.

• 한국수산과학회지
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• 제46권6호
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• pp.930-940
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• 2013

We evaluated contamination with organic matter and trace metals by analyzing grain size, ignition loss (IL), chemical oxygen demand (COD), acid volatile sulfide (AVS), and trace metals (Al, Fe, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni, Cr, Mn, Hg, and As) in surface sediments at 28 stations around the Geum River estuary in July 2008. The surface sediments in the estuary were mainly composed of coarse sediment (sand and muddy sand), with mean grain size (Mz) ranging between $2-4{\O}$. The high concentrations of IL, COD, and trace metals were mainly found at stations in front of the Gusan outer port and industrial complex, and near the Seocheon coast with relatively fine sediments. In addition, the concentrations of IL and all trace metals, except Pb and As, showed good positive correlations with Mz, indicating that the concentrations of organic matter and trace metals were mainly dependent on sediment grain size. The concentrations of COD, AVS, and trace metals in most sediments did not exceed the sediment quality guideline (SQGs). Although the sediments in the study region are not polluted with organic matter and trace metals, there are many point sources of pollutants, such as Gusan port and industrial complex, Janghang refinery, and a thermoelectric power plant around the Geum River estuary. Thus, the management of coastal environments through periodic monitoring of organic matter and trace metals is required in the future.