• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.364-364
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• 2009

The solar cell is in the spotlight as a future green energy source. In the solar cells based on silicon wafer, the improvement of efficiency is one of crucial issues. One of techniques for high efficiency is texturing on the surface of solar cells. We studied the laser texturing on the surface of multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. The laser texturing followed by chemical etching is adequate for the multi-crystalline structure which have random crystallographic directions. We used the fiber laser for texturing and the SiNx as a masking layer for etching process. We investigated the shapes of holes for texturing in the various laser power conditions and analyzed the holes after removal of thermal damages caused by laser ablation through a 3D profiler.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.48.1-48.1
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• 2010

Mono-crystalline silicon solar cell is fabricated by using alkali metals. These alkali metal, used in wet etching process, must be removed for the high efficiency solar cell. As wet etching process has been adapted due to its low cost. But lots of alkali metals like potassium remains on the silicon surface and acts as impurities. To remove these alkali metals many of cleaning process have to be applied when solar cell manufacturing process. In terms of alkali metal removal, modified etchant solution is required for concise cleaning process. In this paper ethylenediamine was used and proposed for the substituion of postassium hydroxide.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.419-419
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• 2016

High efficiency silicon solar cell requires the textured front surface to reduce reflectance and to improve the light trapping. In case of mono-crystalline silicon solar cell, wet etching with alkaline solution is widespread. However, the alkali texturing methods are ineffective in case of multi-crystalline silicon wafer due to grain boundary of random crystallographic orientation. The acid texturing method is generally used in multi-crystalline silicon wafer to reduce the surface reflectance. However the acid textured solar cell gives low short-circuit current due to high reflectivity while it improves the open-circuit voltage. To reduce the reflectivity of multi-crystalline silicon wafer, double texturing method with combination of acid and reactive ion etching is an attractive technical solution. In this paper, we have studied to optimize RIE experimental condition with change of RF power (100W, 150W, 200W, 250W, 300W). During experiment, the gas ratio of SF6 and O2 was fixed as 30:10.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.100.2-100.2
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• 2012

Surface texturing of crystalline silicon is carried out in alkaline solutions for anisotropic etching that leads to random pyramids of about $10{\mu}m$ in size. Recently textured pyramids size gradually reduced using new solution. In this paper, we investigated that texture pyramids size had an impact on emitter property and front electrode (Ag) contact. To make small (${\sim}3{\mu}m$) and large (${\sim}10{\mu}m$) pyramids size, texturing times control and one side texturing using a silicon nitride film were carried out. Then formation and quality of POCl3-diffused n+ emitter in furnace compare with small and large pyramids by using SEM images, simulation (SILVACO, Athena module) and emitter saturation current density (J0e). After metallization, Ag contact resistance was measured by transfer length method (TLM) pattern. And surface distributions of Ag crystallites were observed by SEM images. Also, performance of cell which is fabricated by screen-printed solar cells is compared by light I-V.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.841-845
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• 2013

We give a textured front on silicon wafer for high-efficiency solar cells by using micro contact printing method which uses PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) silicon rubber as a stamp and SAM (self assembled monolayer)s as an ink. A random pyramidal texturing have been widely used for a front-surface texturing in low cost manufacturing line although the cell with random pyramids on front surface shows relatively low efficiency than the cell with inverted pyramids patterned by normal optical lithography. In the past two decades, the micro contact printing has been intensively studied in nano technology field for high resolution patterns on silicon wafer. However, this promising printing technique has surprisingly never applied so far to silicon based solar cell industry despite their simplicity of process and attractive aspects in terms of cost competitiveness. We employ a MHA (16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid) as an ink for Au deposited $SiO_2/Si$ substrate. The $SiO_2$ pattern which is same as the pattern printed by SAM ink on Au surface and later acts as a hard resist for anisotropic silicon etching was made by HF solution, and then inverted pyramidal pattern is formed after anisotropic wet etching. We compare three textured surface with different morphology (random texture, random pyramids and inverted pyramids) and then different geometry of inverted pyramid arrays in terms of reflectivity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.58-61
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• 2012

In our report a relatively simple process for fast nano-texturing of p-type(100) CZ- silicon surface using silver catalyzed wet chemical etching in aqueous hydrofluoric acid (HF) and hydrogen peroxide solution($H_2O_2$) at room temperature. The wafers were saw-damaged by NaOH(6 wt%) at $60^{\circ}C$ for 150s. To obtain a nano-structured black surface, a thin layer of silver with thickness of 1 - 10 nm was deposited on the surfaces by evaporation system. After this process the samples were etched in HF : $H_2O_2$ : $H_2O$ = 1:5:10 at room temperature for 80s - 220s. Due to the local catalytic of the Ag clusters, this treatment results in the nano-scale texturing on the surface. This resulted in average reflectance values less than 9% after the silver on the surface of the wafers were removed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.455-460
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• 2016

A textured front surface is required in high efficiency silicon solar cells to reduce reflectance and to improve light trapping. Wet etching with alkaline solution is usually applied for mono crystalline silicon solar cells. However, alkali texturing method is not appropriate for multi-crystalline silicon wafers due to grain boundary of random crystallographic orientation. Accordingly, acid texturing method is generally used for multi-crystalline silicon wafers to reduce the surface reflectance. To reduce reflectivity of multi-crystalline silicon wafers, double texturing method with combination of acid and reactive ion etching is an attractive technical solution. In this paper, we have studied to optimize RIE condition by different RF power condition (100, 150, 200, 250, 300 W).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.143-146
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• 2009

One of the most important issues of crystalline silicon solar cell is minimizing reflectance at the surface. Laser texturing is an isotropic process that will sculpt the surface of a silicon wafer, regardless of its crystallographic orientation. We investigated surface texturing process using Nd-YAG laser ($\lambda$=1064 nm) on multi-crystalline silicon wafer. Removal of slag formed after the laser process was performed using acid solution (HF : $HNO_3$ : $CH_3COOH$ : DI water). The reflectance and carrier lifetime of the samples were measured and analyzed using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and carrier lifetime tester. It was found that the minimum reflectance of the samples was 16.39% and maximum carrier life time was $21.8\;{\mu}s$.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.496-500
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• 2003

A low-cost, large area, random, maskless texturing scheme independent of crystal orientation is expected to significantly impact terrestrial photovoltaic technology. We investigated silicon surface microstructures formed by reactive ion etching (RIE) in Multi-Hollow cathode system. Desirable texturing effect has been achieved when radio-frequency (rf) power of about 20 Watt per one hollow cathode glow is applied for our RF Multi-Hollow cathode system. The black silicon etched surface shows almost zero reflectance in the visible region as well as in near IR region. The etched silicon surface is covered by columnar microstructures with diameters from 50 to 100 nm and depth of about 500 nm. We have successfully achieved 11.7% efficiency of mono-crystalline silicon solar cell and 10.2% multi-crystalline silicon solar cell.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.171-174
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• 2016

The diamond wire sawing method to produce silicon wafers for the photovoltaic application is still a new and highly investigated wafering technology. This technology, featured as the higher productivity, lower wear of the wire, and easier recycling of the coolant, is expected to become the mainstream technique for slicing the silicon crystals. However, the saw marks on the wafer surface have to be investigated and improved. This paper discusses the removal of saw marks on diamond wire-sawn single crystalline silicon wafer. With a pretreatment step using tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide ($(CH_3)_4NOH$, TMAH) and conventional texturing process with KOH solution (1 % KOH, 8 % IPA, and DI water), the saw marks on the surface of the diamond wire-sawn silicon wafers can be effectively removed and they are invisible to naked eyes completely.