• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.194-199
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• 2016

We prepared polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) beads with a particle size of 80 nm to improve the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) by increasing the effective surface area and the dye absorption ability of the working electrodes (WEs) in a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). We prepared the $TiO_2$ layer with PMMA beads of 0.0~1.0 wt%; then, finally, a DSSC with $0.45cm^2$ active area was obtained. Optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure of the $TiO_2$ layer with PMMA. UV-VIS-NIR was used to determine the optical absorbance of the WEs with PMMA. A solar simulator and a potentiostat were used to determine the photovoltaic properties of the PMMA-added DSSC. Analysis of the microstructure showed that pores of 200 nm were formed by the decomposition of PMMA. Also, root mean square values linearly increased as more PMMA was added. The absorbance in the visible light regime was found to increase as the degree of PMMA dispersion increased. The ECE increased from 4.91% to 5.35% when the amount of PMMA beads added was increased from 0.0 to 0.4 wt%. However, the ECE decreased when more than 0.6 wt% of PMMA was added. Thus, adding a proper amount of PMMA to the $TiO_2$ layer was determined to be an effective method for improving the ECE of a DSSC.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.263-272
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• 2013

Printed electronics creates electrically functional devices by printing on variety of substrates. Printing typically uses common printing equipment or other low-cost equipment suitable for defining patterns on material, such as screen printing, flexography, gravure, offset lithography and inkjet. Compared to conventional manufacturing of microelectronics, printed electronics is characterized by simpler and more cost-effective fabrication of high and low volume products. Now there is huge effort towards printing many other more functional components, from displays to transistors to photovoltaic cells, using the full range of printing technologies - from inkjet to roll to roll analogue print techniques. The market for printed electronics will rise from $1.99 billion in 2010 to $55.10 billion in 2020. In 2030, this industry could be $300 billion - larger than the silicon semiconductor industry - from lighting to displays[8].

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.166-176
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• 2010

The output characteristics of photovoltaic(PV) arrays are nonlinear and are affected by the temperature and solar insolation of cells. Maximum power point tracking(MPPT) methods are used to maximize PV array output power by tracking maximum power point(MPP) continuously. To increase the output efficiency of PV system, it is important to have more efficient MPPT. This paper proposes a novel maximum power point tracking(MPPT) control algorithm considering insolation to improve efficiency of PV system. The proposed algorithm is composed perturb and observe(P&O) method and constant voltage(CV) method. The proposed method is simulated under varying operating conditions. The effectiveness of these different MPPT methods is investigated thoroughly by PSIM simulation. The simulation results show that this proposed method provides better performance than conventional methods at a variable insolation without self-excited vibration of the power. By the simulation results, the validity of the proposed HB method is proved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.869-873
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• 2002

$Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) thin film is one of the candidate materials for the solar cell. It has an excellent optical absorption coefficient as well as appropriate 1.4~1.5eV band gap. The purpose of this study is replacing a half of high-cost Indium(In) atoms with low-cost Zinc(Zn) atoms and the other half with low-cost Tin(Sn) atoms in the lattice of CIS. In annealing process of thin films deposited with mixture target, the thin films were appeared the peeling. The resistivity was decreased. Thin films were deposited on ITO glass substrates using a compound target which were made by $CU_2S$, ZnS, $SnS_2$ powder were sintered in the atmosphere of Al at room temperature by rf magnetron sputtering We investigated potentialities of a low-cost material for the solar cell by measuring of thin film composition, the structure and optical properties. We could get an appropriate $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ composition A (112) preferred orientation was appeared without annealing temperature as shown in the diffraction peaks of the CIS cells and was available for photovoltaic thin film materials. The band gap increased from 1.4 to 1.7eV as the composition ratio of Zn/Sn.. The optical absorption coefficient of the thin film was above $10^4cm^{-1}$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.104-110
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• 2001

Structural, optical and electrical properties of Cd$_{1-x}$ Zn$_{x}$S films deposited by chemical bath deposition(CBD), which is a very attractive method for low-cost and large-area solar cells, are presented. Especially, in order to control more effectively the zinc component of the films, zinc acetate, which was used as the zinc source, was added in the reaction solution after preheating the reaction solution and the pH of the reaction solution decreased with increasing the concentration of zinc acetate. The films prepared after preheating and pH control had larger zinc component and higher optical band gap. The crystal structures of Cd$_{1-x}$ Zn$_{x}$S films was a wurtzite type with a preferential orientation of the (002) plane and the lattice constants of the films changed from the value for CdS to those for ZnS with increasing the mole ratio of the zinc acetate. The minimum lattice mismatch between Cd$_{1-x}$ Zn$_{x}$S and CdTe were 2.7% at the mole ratio of (ZnAc$_2$)/(CdAc$_2$+ZnAc$_2$)=0.4. As the more zinc substituted for Cd in the films, the optical transmittance improved, while the absorption edge shifted toward a shorterwavelength. the photoconductivity of the films was higher than the dark conductivity, while the ratio of those increased with increasing the mole ratio of zinc acetate. acetate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.105-106
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• 2008

Structural, optical and electrical properties of CdS films deposited by chemical bath deposition (CBD), which are a very attractive method for low-cost and large-area solar cells, are presented. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) is II-VI semiconductor with a wide band gap of approximately 2.42 eV. CdS films have a great application potential such as solar cell, optical detector and optoelectronics device. In this paper, effects of Rapid Thermal Process (RTP) on the properties of CdS films were investigated. The CdS films were prepared on a glass by chemical bath deposition (CBD) and subsequently annealed at standard temperature $(400^{\circ}C)$ and treatment time (10 min) in various atmospheres (air, vacuum and $N_2$). The CdS films treated RTP in $N_2$ for to min were showed larger grain size and higher carrier density than the other samples.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.823-828
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• 2013

To reduce the cost per watt of photovoltaic power, it is important to reduce the cell thickness of crystalline silicon solar cells. As the thickness of the silicon layer is reduced, two distinctive thermal expansion rates between the silicon and the aluminum layer induce bowing in a solar cell. With a thinner silicon layer, the bowing distance grows exponentially. Excessive bowing could damage the silicon wafer. In this study, we tried to measure an irregularly curved silicon solar cell more accurately using a 3D image scanner. For the detailed analysis of the three-dimensional bowing shape, a least square fit was applied to the point data from the scanned image. It has been found that the bowing distance and shape distortion increase with a decrease in the thickness of the silicon layer. An Ag strip on top of the silicon layer can reduce the bowing distance.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.69-74
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• 2013

Silicon (Si) wafer was grown by using direct growth from Si melt and contaminations of wafer during the process were investigated. In our process, BN was coated inside of all graphite parts including crucible in system to prevent carbon contamination. In addition, coated BN layer enhance the wettability, which ensures the favorable shape of grown wafer by proper flow of Si melt in casting mold. As a result, polycrystalline silicon wafer with dimension of $156{\times}156$ mm and thickness of $300{\pm}20$ um was successively obtained. There were, however, severe contaminations such as BN and SiC on surface of the as-grown wafer. While BN powders were easily removed by brushing surface, SiC could not be eliminated. As a result of BN analysis, C source for SiC was from binder contained in BN slurry. Therefore, to eliminate those C sources, additional flushing process was carried out before Si was melted. By adding 3-times flushing processes, SiC was not detected on the surface of as-grown Si wafer. Polycrystalline Si wafer directly grown from Si melt in this study can be applied for the cost-effective Si solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.99.2-99.2
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• 2011

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) supported on glass are widely used as substrates in PEC studies for photovoltaic hydrogen generation applications However, high sheet resistane ($10{\sim}15{\Omega}/cm^2$) and fragileness of glass-supported TCO substrates are the obstacles to produce the large area PEC cells. Such internal sheet resistance is detrimental to efficient collection of photogenerated majority charge carriers at the photoactive material and electrolyte interface. Moreover, these TCO substrates are very expensive and consume about 40~60% cost of the devices. Hence, a low sheet resistance of the substrate is a key point in improving the performance of PEC devices. Metallic substrates coated with a photoactive material would be a good choice for efficient charge collection. Such metal substrates based photanodes are best candidate for large-scale phtoelectrochemical water splitting for hydrogen generation. In this study, we report the enhanced PEC performance of $WO_3$ film on metal(chemical etched, bare) substrate. It is proposed that interface between $WO_3$ and the metal substrate is responsible for efficient charge transfer and demonstrated significant improvement in the photoelectrochmical performance. X-ray diffration and FESEM suduies reveled that $WO_3$ films are monoclinic, porous, polycrystalline with average grain size of ~50nm. Photocurrent of $WO_3$ prepared on metal substrates was measured in 0.5M $H_2SO_4$ electroyte under simulated $100mW/cm^2$ illumination.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.47.1-47.1
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• 2011

We report on a direct measurement of two-dimensional chemical and electrical distribution on the surface of photovoltaic Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ thin-films using a nano-scale spectroscopic and electrical characterization, respectively. The Raman measurement reveals non-uniformed surface phonon vibration which comes from different compositional distribution and defects in the nature of polycrystalline thin-films. On the other hand, potential analysis by scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy shows a higher surface potential or a small work function on grain boundaries of the thin-films than on the grain surfaces. This demonstrates the grain boundary is positively charged and local built-in potential exist on grain boundary, which improve electron-hole separation on grain boundary. Local electrical transport measurements with scanning probe microscopy on the thin-films indicates that as external bias is increases, local current is started to flow from grain boundary and saturated over 0.3 V external bias. This accounts for carrier behavior in the vicinity of grain boundary with regard to defect states. We suggest that electron-hole separation at the grain boundary as well as chemical and electrical distribution of polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ thin-films.