• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제37권3호
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• pp.337-344
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• 2024

This work focuses on improving the light-harvesting efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells through innovative multi-architecture surface modifications. To create a regular optical structure, a lithographic process was performed to form it on a glass substrate through various etching processes, from Etch-1 to Etch-3. AZO was deposited on top of the structures and re-etched to create a multi-architectural surface. These surface-modified structures improved the light absorption and overall performance of the solar cell through changes in optical and physical properties, which we will analyze. In addition, we investigated the effect of post-cleaning on the etched glass structures through EDX analysis to understand the mechanism of the etching action. The results of this study are expected to provide important guidelines for the design and fabrication of solar cells and other photovoltaic devices.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.1-5
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• 2021

The properties of the electron transport layer (ETL) have a great effect on perovskite solar cell performance. Depositing conformal SnO2 ETL on bottom textured silicon cells is essential to increase current density in terms of the silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells. In the recent study, the SnO2 electron transport layer deposited by the sputtering method showed an efficiency of 19.8%. Also, an electron transport layer with a sputtered TiO2 electron transport layer in a 4-terminal tandem solar cell has been reported. In this study, we synthesized SnOx ETL with a various sputtering power range of 30-60W by Radio-frequency (RF)-magnetron sputtering. The properties of SnOx thin film were characterized using ellipsometer, UV-vis spectrometer, and IV measurement. With a sputtering power of 50W, the solar cell showed the highest efficiency of 13.3%, because of the highest fill factor by the conductivity of SnOx film.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2006년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.228-231
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• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

• 대한전기학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한전기학회 1990년도 하계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.183-186
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• 1990

The lattice mismatch between ZnS and Si is negligible because of its value being 0.39%. In this study, $ZnS/_{(P)}Si$ solar cell were fabricated as a layer of ZnS is epitaxially grown on a silicon substrate by PVD method and its photovoltaic properties were measured and discussed. The heat treatment was done after deposition. As the temperature increased up to a certain value, the film has better perfection in crystal structure and electrical characteristics. Measurments of the change that occur in the ZnS films were made by SEM., X-ray diffraction. The optimal thickness of film showned $0.6{\mu}m$, being measured by SEM. The great improvement of the grain growth ZnS film came out after heat-treatment. The result obtained from the $ZnS/_{(P)}Si$ solar cell as follows:short circuit current; $I_{sc}=54mA/cm^2$,open voltage; $V_{oc}=400mV$, fill factor FF=0.72, conversion efficiency; ${\eta}=15.6%$ under the irradiation of 100 ($mW/cm^2$) focused by solar energy. And these are discussed in comparison with other kinds.

• Composites Research
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.56-63
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• 2011

본 연구에서는 화석에너지 고갈과 환경문제로 인해 새로운 신재생에너지로 주목 받고 있는 태양전지를 대표적인 경량재료인 복합재료에 적용하기 위해 적절한 태양전지 접착 방법에 대한 연구를 진행하였다. 사용된 태양전지는 후면전극 태양전지로 에너지변환 실험실 효율이 약 24.2%인 태양전지를 사용하였다. 하지만, 실리콘계열 태양전지는 재료의 특성상 깨지기 쉽기 때문에 일반적으로 사용되고 있는 동시경화 접착법 대신 접착제를 이용한 이차 접착법을 사용하였다. 접착재료는 태양전지의 충진재 및 접착제로 사용되고 있는 EVA film 과 프리프레그의 수지인 Resin film, 그리고 탄성 접착제를 이용하여 실험을 진행 하였으며, 태양전지가 접착된 복합재료 시험편에 기계적 하중을 부가하여 접착제 종류별 태양전지의 성능변화를 측정하였다. 또한, 기계적 하중 하에서 실시간으로 태양전지의 성능을 평가할 수 있는 측정장치를 설계하여 접착재료별 파단 시점과 특성을 비교 평가 하였다. 파단면분석을 통해 태양전지 효율 감소원인을 분석하여 고찰하였다. 실험결과 태양전지의 접착방법에 따라서 태양전지의 효율이 크게 영향을 받는다는 것을 파악하였다. 또한, 탄성접착제를 사용한 접착 방법이 가장 높은 태양전지 효율 성능을 보여주고 있음을 확인하였다.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2011년도 제40회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.158-158
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• 2011

$Cu(In_xGa_{1-x})Se_2$ (CIGS) thin film solar cell is one of the most promising solar cells in photovoltaic devices. CIGS has a direct band gap which varied from 1.0 to 1.26 eV, depending on the Ga to In ratio. Also, CIGS has been studying for an absorber in thin film solar cells due to their highest absorption coefficient which is $1{\times}10^5cm^{-1}$ and good stability for deposition process at high temperature of $450{\sim}590^{\circ}C$. Currently, the highest efficiency of CIGS thin film solar cell is approximately 20.3%, which is closely approaching to the efficiency of poly-silicon solar cell. The deposition technique is one of the most important points in preparing CIGS thin film solar cells. Among the various deposition techniques, the sputtering is known to be very effective and feasible process for mass production. In this study, CIGS thin films have been prepared by rf magnetron sputtering method using a single target. The optical and structural properties of CIGS films are generally dependent on deposition parameters. Therefore, we will explore the influence of deposition power on the properties of CIGS films and the films will be deposited by rf magnetron sputtering using CIGS single target on Mo coated soda lime glass at $500^{\circ}C$. The thickness of CIGS films will be measured by Tencor-P1 profiler. The optical properties will be measured by UV-visible spectroscopy. The crystal structure will be analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Finally the optimal deposition conditions for CIGS thin films will be developed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.173-176
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• 2014

We have investigated the seed layer formation of front side contact using the inkjet printing process. Conductive silver ink was printed on textured Si wafers with 80 nm thick $SiN_x$ anti reflection coating (ARC) layers and thickened by light induced plating (LIP). The inkjet printable sliver inks were specifically formulated for inkjet printing on these substrates. Also, a novel method to prepare nano-sized glass frits by the sol-gel process with particle sizes around 5 nm is presented. Furthermore, dispersion stability of the formulated ink was measured using a Turbiscan. By implementing these glass frits, it was found that a continuous and uniform seed layer with a line width of $40{\mu}m$ could be formed by a inkjet printing process. We also investigated the contact resistance between the front contact and emitter using the transfer length model (TLM). On an emitter with the sheet resistance of $60{\Omega}/sq$, a specific contact resistance (${\rho}_c$) below $10m{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$ could be achieved at a peak firing temperature around $700^{\circ}C$. In addition, the correlation between the contact resistance and interface microstructures were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We found that the added glass particles act as a very effective fire through agent, and Ag crystallites are formed along the interface glass layer.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2016년도 제50회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.427-427
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• 2016

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite have attracted significant attention as a new revolutionary light absorber for photovoltaic device due to its remarkable characteristics such as long charge diffusion lengths (100-1000nm), low recombination rate, and high extinction coefficient. Recently, power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cell is above 20% that is approached to crystalline silicon solar cells. Planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells have simple device structure and can be fabricated low temperature process due to absence of mesoporous scaffold that should be annealed over 500 oC. However, in the planar structure, controlling perovskite film qualities such as crystallinity and coverage is important for high performances. Those controlling methods in one-step deposition have been reported such as adding additive, solvent-engineering, using anti-solvent, for pin-hole free perovskite layer to reduce shunting paths connecting between electron transport layer and hole transport layer. Here, we studied the effect of alkali metal halide to control the fabrication process of perovskite film. During the morphology determination step, alkali metal halides can affect film morphologies by intercalating with PbI2 layer and reducing $CH3NH3PbI3{\cdot}DMF$ intermediate phase resulting in needle shape morphology. As types of alkali metal ions, the diverse grain sizes of film were observed due to different crystallization rate depending on the size of alkali metal ions. The pin-hole free perovskite film was obtained with this method, and the resulting perovskite solar cells showed higher performance as > 10% of power conversion efficiency in large size perovskite solar cell as $5{\times}5cm$. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) are analyzed to prove the mechanism of perovskite film formation with alkali metal halides.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.196-201
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• 2015

This paper presents the impact of partial shading on $CuIn_xGa_{(1-x)}Se_2(CIGS)$ photovoltaic(PV) modules with bypass diodes. When the CIGS PV modules were partially shaded, the modules were under conditions of partial reverse bias. We investigated the characterization of the bypass diode and solar cell properties of the CIGS PV modules when these was partially shaded, comparing the results with those for a crystalline silicon module. In crystalline silicon modules, the bypass diode was operated at a partial shade modules of 1.67 % shading. This protected the crystalline silicon module from hot spot damage. In CIGS thin film modules, on the other hand, the bypass diode was not operated before 20 % shading. This caused damage because of hotspots, which occurred as wormlike defects in the CIGS thin film module. Moreover, the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module was operated fully at 60% shading, while the CIGS thin film module was not operated under these conditions. It is known that the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module operated more slowly than that of the crystalline silicon module; this bypass diode also failed to protect the module from damage. This was because of the reverse saturation current of the CIGS thin film, $1.99{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$, which was higher than that of crystalline silicon, $8.11{\times}10^{-7}A/cm^2$.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.210-216
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• 2010

This paper investigates the dependence of a-Si:H/c-Si passivation and heterojunction solar cell performances on various cleaning processes of silicon wafers. It is observed that the passivation quality of a-Si:H thin-films on c-Si wafers depends highly on the initial H-termination properties of the wafer surface. The effective minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) of highly H-terminated wafer is beneficial for obtaining high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers have low MCLT regardless of the initial H-termination quality. On the other hand, the MCLT of wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer shows sensitive variation with initial cleaning and H-termination schemes. By applying the improved cleaning processes, we can obtain an MCLT of $100{\mu}sec$ after H-termination and above $600{\mu}sec$ after i a-Si:H thin film deposition. By adapting improved cleaning processes and by improving passivation and doped layers, we can fabricate a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells with an active area conversion efficiency of 18.42%, which cells have an open circuit voltage of 0.670V, short circuit current of $37.31\;mA/cm^2$ and fill factor of 0.7374. These cells show more than 20% pseudo efficiency measured by Suns-$V_{oc}$ with an elimination of series resistance.