• 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.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.109-118
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• 2018

Silicon (Si) solar cells are the most successful technology which are ruling the present photovoltaic (PV) market. In that essence, multijunction (MJ) solar cells provided a new path to improve the state-of-art efficiencies. There are so many hurdles to grow the MJ III-V materials on Si substrate as Si with other materials often demands similar qualities, so it is needed to realize the prospective of Si tandem solar cells. However, Si tandem solar cells with MJ III-V materials have shown the maximum efficiency of 30 %. This work reviews the development of the III-V/Si solar cells with the synopsis of various growth mechanisms i.e hetero-epitaxy, wafer bonding and mechanical stacking of III-V materials on Si substrate. Theoretical approaches to design efficient tandem cell with an analysis of state-of-art silicon solar cells, sensitivity, difficulties and their probable solutions are discussed in this work. An analytical model which yields the practical efficiency values to design the high efficiency III-V/Si solar cells is described briefly.

• 한국태양에너지학회 논문집
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• 제40권5호
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• pp.35-45
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• 2020

Photovoltaic (PV) power system prices have been steadily dropping in recent years due to their mass production and advances in relevant technology. Crystalline silicon (c-Si wafers) account for the largest share of the price of solar cells; reducing the thickness of these wafers is an essential part of increasing the price competitiveness of PV power systems. However, reducing the thickness of c-Si wafers is challenging; typically, phenomena such as bowing and cracking are encountered. While several approaches to address the bowing phenomenon of the c-Si solar cells exist, the only method to study the crack phenomenon (related to the strength of the c-Si solar cells) is the bending test method. Moreover, studies on determining the strength properties of the solar cells have focused largely on c-Si wafers, while those on the strength properties of front and rear-side electrodes and SiNx, the other components of c-Si solar cells, are scarce. In this study, we analyzed the strength characteristics of each layer of c-Si solar cells. The strength characteristics of the sawing mark direction produced during the production of c-Si wafers were also tested. Experiments were conducted using a 4bending tester for a specially manufactured c-Si solar cell. The results indicate that the back side electrode is the main component that experienced bowing, while the front electrode was the primary component regulating the strength of the c-Si solar cell.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.94-101
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• 2020

This study was trying to focus on achieving high efficiency of multi junction solar cell with thin film silicon solar cells. The proposed thin film Si-Ge/c-Si tandem junction solar cell concept with a combination of low-cost thin-film silicon solar cell technology and high-efficiency c-Si cells in a monolithically stacked configuration. The tandem junction solar cells using amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) as an absorption layer of upper sub-cell were simulated through ASA (Advanced Semiconductor Analysis) simulator for acquiring the optimum structure. Graded Ge composition - effect of E_g profiling and inserted buffer layer between absorption layer and doped layer showed the improved current density (J_sc) and conversion efficiency (η). 13.11% conversion efficiency of the tandem junction solar cell was observed, which is a result of showing the possibility of thin film Si-Ge/c-Si tandem junction solar cell.

• 태양에너지
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.137-146
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• 1998

In this paper, the current status of manufacturing technologies for GaAs/Si solar cell were revived and provied new MOCVD. In the manufacturing process of GaAs/Si solar cells and an experiment to get the high efficiency GaAs solar cells, we must investigate the optimum growth conditions to get high quality GaAs films on Si substrates by MOCVD. The GaAs on Si substrates has been recognized as a lightweight alternative to pure substrate for space applicaton. Because its density is less the half of GaAs or Ge.So GaAs/Si has twofold weight advantage to GaAs monolithic cell. The theoretical conversion efficiecy limit of tandem GaAs/Si solar cell is 32% under AM 0 and $25^{\circ}C$ condition. It was concluded that the development of cost effective MOCVD technologies shoud be ahead GaAs solar cells for achived move high efficiency III-V solar cells involving tandem structure.

• 한국재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국재료학회 2010년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.13-13
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• 2010

The solar energy conversion will take 10 % global energy need by 2033. A thin film type solar cell has been considered as one of the promising candidates for a large area applicable solar cell fabrication at a low cost. The metal-assisted growth of microcrystalline Si (mc-Si) films has been reported for a quality Si film synthesis at a low temperature. It discusses the spontaneous growth of a Si film above a metal-layer for a thin film solar cell. Quite recently, a substantial demand of nanomaterials has been addressed for cost-effective solar cells. The nanostructure provides a large photoactive surface at a fixed volume, which is an advantage in the effective use of solar power. But the promising of nanostructure active solar cell has not been much fulfilled due mainly to the difficulty in architecture of nanostructures. We present here the Si nanowire (SiNW)-embedded Schottky solar cell. Multiple SiNWs were connected to two different metals to form a Schottky or an ohmic contact according to the metal work function values. It discusses the scheme of rectifying contact between metals and SiNWs and the SiNW-embedded Schottky solar cell performances.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.513-517
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• 2007

To elucidate possible challenges for outdoor practical use of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), we compared conventional Si solar cells with DSCs. DSC modules still require a larger area than conventional Si solar modules to attain the same rated output because of lower photoelectron-chemical conversion efficiency. However, in backup systems by using batteries, the measured data shows that DSCs generated 15% more electricity than Si solar cells of the same rated output power in the same interval of cloudy daylight. Moreover, the battery charging time of DSCs is about 1 hour faster than the same rate of Si solar cells under outdoor cloudy daylight. This result also indicates that conversion efficiency obtained by the certified condition less than AM 1.5 condition does not always coincide with the electricity generated outdoors daily, and it is not a crucial measure to evaluate the performance of solar cells.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2007년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.70-71
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• 2007

Multicrystalline silicon(mc-Si) solar cells are steadily increasing their share of the PV market due to the lower material costs. However, commercial mc-Si solar cells have lower efficiency than singlecrystalline silicon solar cells. To improve efficiency of mc-Si solar cells, it is important to reduce optical losses from front surface reflection. Isotropic etching with acid solution based on hydrofluoric acid(HF) and nitric acid$(HNO_3)$ is one of the promising methods that can reduce surface reflectance for mc-Si solar cells. Anisotropic etching is not suitable for mc-Si because of its various grain orientations. In this paper, we isotropically etched mc-Si using acid solution. After that, etched surface was observed by Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM) and surface reflectance was measured. We obtained 29.29% surface reflectance by isotropic etching with acid solution in wavelength from 400nm to 1000nm for fabrication of mc-Si solar cells.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.135.2-135.2
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• 2014

Photon conversion technology for thin film solar cells is reviewed. The high-energy photons which are hardly absorbed in solar cells can be transformed the low energy photon by the photon conversion process such as down conversion or down shift, which can improve the solar cell efficiency over the material limit. CdSe-based quantum dot materials commonly used in LED can be used as the photon conversion layer for Si thin film solar cells. The photon conversion structure of CdSe-based quantum dot for Si thin film solar cells will be presented and the pros and cons for the Si thin film solar cells integrated with the photon conversion layers will be discussed.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제36권5호
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• pp.442-453
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• 2023

Tandem or multijunction solar cells (MJSCs) can convert sunlight into electricity with higher efficiency (η) than single junction solar cells (SJSCs) by dividing the solar irradiance over sub-cells having distinct bandgaps. The efficiencies of various common SJSC materials are close to the edge of their theoretical efficiency and hence there is a tremendous growing interest in utilizing the tandem/multijunction technique. Recently, III-V materials integration on a silicon substrate has been broadly investigated in the development of III-V on Si tandem solar cells. Numerous growth techniques such as heteroepitaxial growth, wafer bonding, and mechanical stacking are crucial for better understanding of high-quality III-V epitaxial layers on Si. As the choice of growth method and substrate selection can significantly impact the quality and performance of the resulting tandem cell and the terminal configuration exhibit a vital role in the overall proficiency. Parallel and Series-connected configurations have been studied, each with its advantage and disadvantages depending on the application and cell configuration. The optimization of both growth mechanisms and terminal configurations is necessary to further improve efficiency and lessen the cost of III-V on Si tandem solar cells. In this review article, we present an overview of the growth mechanisms and terminal configurations with the areas of research that are crucial for the commercialization of III-V on Si tandem solar cells.