• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-67
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• 2010

The organic solar cells with Glass/ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/Al structure were fabricated using regioregular poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) polymer:(6,6)- phenyl $C_{61}$-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) fullerene polymer as the bulk hetero-junction layer. The P3HT and PCBM as the electron donor and acceptor materials were spin casted on the indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates. The optimum mixing concentration ratio of photovoltaic layer was found to be P3HT:PCBM = 4:4 in wt%, indicating that the short circuit current density ($J_{SC}$), open circuit voltage ($V_{OC}$), fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) values were about 4.7 $mA/cm^2$, 0.48 V, 43.1% and 0.97%, respectively. To investigate the effects of the post annealing treatment, as prepared organic solar cells were post annealed at the treatment time range from 5min to 20min at $150^{\circ}C$. $J_{SC}$ and $V_{OC}$ increased with increasing the post annealing time from 5min to 15min, which may be originated from the improvement of the light absorption coefficient of P3HT and improved ohmic contact between photo voltaic layer and Al electrode. The maximum $J_{SC},\;V_{OC}$, FF and PCE values of organic solar cell, which was post annealed for 15min at $150^{\circ}C$, were found to be about 7.8 $mA/cm^2$, 0.55 V, 47% and 2.0%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2012

Copper zinc tin sulfide ($Cu_2ZnSnS_4$, CZTS) is a very promising material as a low cost absorber alternative to other chalcopyrite-type semiconductors based on Ga or In because of the abundant and economical elements. In addition, CZTS has a band-gap energy of 1.4~1.5eV and large absorption coefficient over ${\sim}10^4cm^{-1}$, which is similar to those of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$(CIGS) regarded as one of the most successful absorber materials for high efficient solar cell. Most previous works on the fabrication of CZTS thin films were based on the vacuum deposition such as thermal evaporation and RF magnetron sputtering. Although the vacuum deposition has been widely adopted, it is quite expensive and complicated. In this regard, the solution processes such as sol-gel method, nanocrystal dispersion and hybrid slurry method have been developed for easy and cost-effective fabrication of CZTS film. Among these methods, the hybrid slurry method is favorable to make high crystalline and dense absorber layer. However, this method has the demerit using the toxic and explosive hydrazine solvent, which has severe limitation for common use. With these considerations, it is highly desirable to develop a robust, easily scalable and relatively safe solution-based process for the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer with a thickness of 1.5~2.0 ${\mu}m$ and micrometer-scaled grains using two different non-vacuum approaches. The first solution-processing approach includes air-stable non-toxic solvent-based inks in which the commercially available precursor nanoparticles are dispersed in ethanol. Our readily achievable air-stable precursor ink, without the involvement of complex particle synthesis, high toxic solvents, or organic additives, facilitates a convenient method to fabricate a high quality CZTS absorber layer with uniform surface composition and across the film depth when annealed at $530^{\circ}C$. The conversion efficiency and fill factor for the non-toxic ink based solar cells are 5.14% and 52.8%, respectively. The other method is based on the nanocrystal dispersions that are a key ingredient in the deposition of thermally annealed absorber layers. We report a facile synthetic method to produce phase-pure CZTS nanocrystals capped with less toxic and more easily removable ligands. The resulting CZTS nanoparticle dispersion enables us to fabricate uniform, crack-free absorber layer onto Mo-coated soda-lime glass at $500^{\circ}C$, which exhibits a robust and reproducible photovoltaic response. Our simple and less-toxic approach for the fabrication of CZTS layer, reported here, will be the first step in realizing the low-cost solution-processed CZTS solar cell with high efficiency.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.493-498
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• 1998

CdTe films were deposited by close spaced sublimation with various substrate temperatures, cell areas, and thicknesses of CdTe and ITO layers and their effects on the CdS/CdTe solar cells were investigated. The resistivity of CdTe layers employed in this study was 3$\times$ $10^{4}$$\Omega$cm For constant substrate temperature the optimum substrate ternperature for CdTe deposition was $600^{\circ}C$. To obtain larger grain size and more compact microstructure, CdTe film was initially deposited at 62$0^{\circ}C$, and then deposited at 54$0^{\circ}C$. The CdTe film was annealed at 62$0^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$ sequentially to maintain the CdTe film quality. The photovoitaic cell efficiency improved by the "two-wave" process. For constant substrate temperature, the optimum thickness for CdTe was 5-6$\mu m$. Above 6$\mu m$ CdTe thickness, the bulk resistance of CdTe film degraded the cell performance. As the cell area increased the $V_{oc}$ remained almost constant, while $J_{sc}$ and FF strongly decreased because of the increase of lateral resistance of the ITO layer. The optimum thickness of the ITa layer in this study was 300~450nm. In this experiment we obtained the efficiency of 9.4% in the O.5cm' cells. The series resistance of the cell should be further reduced to increase the fill factor and improve the efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.276-276
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• 2010

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been explored recently as a promising approach to increase energy conversion efficiency in photovoltaic devices, particularly for thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. The LSPR is frequently excited via an electromagnetic (EM) radiation in proximate metallic nanostructures and its primary con sequences are selective photon extinction and local EM enhancement which gives rise to improved photogeneration of electron-hole (e-h) pairs, and consequently increases photocurrent. In this work, high-dielectric-constant (k) $ZrO_2$ (refractive index n=2.22, dielectric constant $\varepsilon=4.93$ at the wavelength of 550 nm) is proposed as spacing layer to enhance the LSPR for application to the thin film silicon solar cells. Compared to excitation of the LSPR using $SiO_2$ (n=1.46, $\varepsilon=2.13$ at the wavelength of 546.1 nm) spacing layer with Au nanoparticles of the radius of 45nm, that using $ZrO_2$ dielectric shows the advantages of(i) ~2.5 times greater polarizability, (ii) ~3.5 times larger scattering cross-section and ~1.5 times larger absorption cross-section, (iii) 4.5% higher transmission coefficient of the same thickness and (iv) 7.8% greater transmitted electric filed intensity at the same depth. All those results are calculated by Mie theory and Fresnel equations, and simulated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations with proper boundary conditions. Red-shifting of the LSPR wavelength using high-k $ZrO_2$ dielectric is also observed according to location of the peak and this is consistent with the other's report. Finally, our experimental results show that variation of short-circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) of the LSPR enhanced a-Si:H solar cell by using the $ZrO_2$ spacing layer is 45.4% higher than that using the $SiO_2$ spacing layer, supporting our calculation and theory.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.1155-1159
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• 1999

Thin film solar cells on a glass/$SnO_2$ substrate with p-SiC/i-Si/n-Si heterojunction structures were fabricated using a plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition system. The photovoltaic properties of the solar cells were examined with varying the gas phase composition, x=$CH_4/\;(SiH_4+CH_4)$, during the deposition of the p-SiC layer. In the range of x=0~0.4, the efficiency of solar cell increased because of the increased band gap of the p-SiC window layer. Further increase in the gas phase composition, however, led to a decrease in the cell efficiency probably due to in the increased composition mismatch at the p-SiC/i-Si layers. As a result, the efficiency of a glass/$SnO_2$/p-SiC/i-SiC/i-Si/n-Si/Ag thin film solar cell with $1cm^2$ area was 8.6% ($V_{oc}$=0.85V, $J_{sc}$=16.42mA/$cm^2$, FF=0.615) under 100mW/$cm^2$ light intensity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.251-255
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• 2021

a-Si is commonly considered as a primary candidate for the formation of passivation layer in heterojunction (HIT) solar cells. However, there are some problems when using this material such as significant losses due to recombination and parasitic absorption. To reduce these problems, a wide bandgap material is needed. A wide bandgap has a positive influence on effective transmittance, reduction of the parasitic absorption, and prevention of unnecessary epitaxial growth. In this paper, the adoption of a-SiO_x:H as the intrinsic layer was discussed. To increase lifetime and conductivity, oxygen concentration control is crucial because it is correlated with the thickness, bonding defect, interface density (D_it), and band offset. A thick oxygen-rich layer causes the lifetime and the implied open-circuit voltage to drop. Furthermore the thicker the layer gets, the more free hydrogen atoms are etched in thin films, which worsens the passivation quality and the efficiency of solar cells. Previous studies revealed that the lifetime and the implied voltage decreased when the a-SiOx thickness went beyond around 9 nm. In addition to this, oxygen acted as a defect in the intrinsic layer. The D_it increased up to an oxygen rate on the order of 8%. Beyond 8%, the D_it was constant. By controlling the oxygen concentration properly and achieving a thin layer, high-efficiency HIT solar cells can be fabricated.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2011

Poly[2,3-dimethyl-5,8-dithiophene-2-yl-quinoxaline-alt-9,9-dihexyl-9H-fluorene] (PFTQT) and poly[2,3-dimethyl-5,8-dithiophen-2-yl-quinoxaline-alt-10-hexyl-10H-phenothiazine (PPTTQT) based on 2,3-dimethyl-5,8-dithiophen-2-yl-quinoxaline weresynthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction. All polymers were soluble in common organic solvents such as chloroform, chlorobenzene, o-dichlorobenzene, tetrahydrofuran (THF) and toluene. The maximum absorption wavelength and band gap of PFTQT were 440 nm and 2.30 eV, and PPTTQT were 445 nm and 2.23 eV, respectively. The HOMO and LUMO energy level of PFTQT were -6.05 and -3.75 eV, and PPTTQT were -5,89 and -3.66 eV, respectively. The organic photovoltaic devices based on the blend of polymer and PCBM (1 : 2 by weight ratio) were fabricated. Efficiencies of devices were 0.24% (PFTQT) and 0.16% (PPTTQT), respectively. The short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$), fill factor (FF), and open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of the device with PFTQT were $0.97mA/cm^2$, 29% and 0.86 V, and the device based on PPTTQT were $0.80mA/cm^2$, 28% and 0.71 V, 31% and 0.71 V, respectively, under air mass (AM) 1.5 G and 1 sun condition ($100mA/cm^2$).

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.31 no.3 s.119
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• pp.229-233
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• 2007

This paper presents the performance of PV(Photovoltaic) system, the design of MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracker). Output of PV power system is DC, and PV power system is linked to the DC bus. The current(I)-voltage(V) output characteristic of PV cells changes with solar irradiance and cell temperature as parameters. As various PV modules respond differently to each of the parameters cited above. Maximum output of PV modules am be achieved by MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracker) algorithm This paper includes a discussion on the performance of PV module, MPPT algorithm and the influence of PV module angle.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2012

Crystalline silicon solar cell remains the major player in the photovoltaic marketplace with 80% of the market, despite the development of various thin film technologies. Silicon's excellent efficiency, stability, material abundance and low toxicity have helped to maintain its position of dominance. However, the cost of silicon materials remains a major barrier to reducing the cost of silicon photovoltaics. Using the crystalline silicon wafer with thinner thickness is the promising way for cost and material reduction in the solar cell production. However, the thinner the silicon wafer is, the worse bow phenomenon is induced. The bow phenomenon is observed when two or more layers of materials with different temperature expansion coefficiencies are in contact, in this case silicon and aluminum. In this paper, the solar cells were fabricated with different thicknesses of Al layer in order to reduce the bow phenomenon. With less amount of paste applications, we observed that the bow could be reduced by up to 40% of the largest value with 120 micron thickness of the wafer even though the conversion efficiency decrease by 0.5% occurred. Since the bowed wafers lead to unacceptable yield losses during the module construction, the reduction of bow is indispensable on thin crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, we have studied on the counterbalance between the bow and conversion efficiency and also suggest the formation of enough back surface field (BSF) with thinner Al layer application.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.88.1-88.1
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• 2010

Organic dyes, because of their many advantages, such as high molar extinction coefficients, convenience of customized molecular design for desired photophysical and photochemical properties, inexpensiveness with no transition metals contained, and environment-friendliness, are suitable as photosensitizers for the Dye-sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). The efficiency of DSSC based on metal-free organic dyes is known to be much lower than that of Ru dyes generally, but a high solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency of up to 8% in full sunlight has been achieved by Ito et al. using an indoline dye. This result suggests that smartly designed and synthesized metal-free organic dyes are also highly competitive candidates for photosensitizers of DSSCs with their advantages mentioned above. Recently, the performance of DSSC based on metal-free organic dyes has been remarkably improved by several groups. We had reported the novel organic dye with double electron acceptor chromophore, which was a new strategy to design an efficient photosensitizer for DSSC. To verify the strategy, we synthesized organic dyes whose geometries, electronic structures and optical properties were derived from preceding density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations. In this paper, we successfully synthesized the chromophore containing multi-acceptor push-pull system from triphenylamine with thiophene moieties as a bridge unit. Organic dyes with a single electron acceptor and double acceptor system were also synthesized for comparison purposes. The photovoltaic performances of these dyes were compared, and the recombination dark current curves and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) efficiencies were also measured in order to characterize the effects of the multi-anchoring groups on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current. In order to match specifications required for practical applications to be implemented outdoors, light soaking and thermal stability tests of these DSSCs, performed under $100mWcm^{-2}$ and $60^{\circ}C$ for 1000h.