• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.249-249
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• 2010

We investigated novel surface treatment and its impact on silicon photovoltaic cells. Using 2-step etching methods, we have changed the nanostructure on pyramid surface so that less light is reflected. This work proposes an improved texturing technique of mono crystalline silicon surface for solar cells with sub-nanotexturing process. The nanotextured silicon surface exhibits a lower average reflectivity (~4%) in the wavelength range of 300-1100nm without antireflection coating layer. It is worth mentioning that the surface of pyramids may also affect the surface reflectance and carrier lifetime. In one word, we believe nanotextruing is a promising guide for texturization of monocrystalline silicon surface.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.112.1-112.1
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• 2011

The back contact solar cell (BCSC) has several advantages compared to the conventional solar cell since it can reduce grid shadowing loss and contact resistance between the electrode and the silicon substrate. This paper presents the effect of the surface texturing of the silicon BCSC by varying the texturing depth or the texturing gap in the commercially available simulation software, ATHENA and ATLAS of the company SILVACO. The texturing depth was varied from $5{\mu}m$ to $150{\mu}m$ and the texturing gap was varied from $1{\mu}m$ to $100{\mu}m$ in the simulation. The resulting efficiency of the silicon BCSC was evaluated depending on the texturing condition. The quantum efficiency and the I-V curve of the designed silicon BCSC was also obtained for the analysis since they are closely related with the solar cell efficiency. Other parameters of the simulated silicon BCSC are as follows. The substrate was an n-type silicon, which was doped with phosphorous at $6{\times}10^{15}cm^{-3}$, and its thickness was $180{\mu}m$, a typical thickness of commercial solar cell substrate thickness. The back surface field (BSF) was $1{\times}10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$ and the doping concentration of a boron doped emitter was $8.5{\times}10^{19}\;cm^{-3}$. The pitch of the silicon BCSC was $1250{\mu}m$ and the anti-reflection coating (ARC) SiN thickness was $0.079{\mu}m$. It was assumed that the texturing was anisotropic etching of crystalline silicon, resulting in texturing angle of 54.7 degrees. The best efficiency was 25.6264% when texturing depth was $50{\mu}m$ with zero texturing gap in case of low texturing depth (< $100{\mu}m$).

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.170-175
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• 2013

Silicon nanowires were detached and obtained from silicon nanowire arrays on silicon substrate using a ultrasono-method. Silicon nanowire arrays on silicon substrate were prepared with an electroless metal assisted etching of p-type silicon. The etching solution was an aqueous HF solution containing silver nitrate. SEM observation shows that well-aligned nanowire arrays perpendicular to the surface of the silicon substrate were produced. After sonication of silicon nanowire array, an individual silicon nanowire was confirmed by FESEM. Optical characteristics of SiNWs were measured by FT-IR spectroscopy. The surface of SiNWs are terminated with hydrogen.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.168-173
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• 2010

Novel porous silicon chip exhibiting dual optical properties, both Frbry-Perot fringe (optical reflectivity) and photoluminescence had been developed and used as chemical sensors. Porous silicon samples were prepared by an electrochemical etch of p-type sillicon wafer (boron-doped, <100> orientation, resistivity 1 - 10 ${\Omega}$). The ething solution was prepared by adding an equal volume of pure ethanol to an aqueous solution of HF (48% by weight). The porous silicon was illuminated with a 300 W tungsten lamp for the duration of etch. Ething was carried out as a two-electrode Kithley 2420 preocedure at an anodic current. The surface of porous silicon was characterized by FT-IR instrument. The porosity of samples was about 80%. Three different types of porous silicon, fresh porous silicon (Si-H termianated), oxidized porous silicon (Si-OH terminated), and surface-derivatized porous silicon (Si-R terminated), were prepared by the thermal oxidation and hydrosilylation. Then the samples were exposed to the wapor of various organics vapors. such as chloroform, hexane, methanol, benzene, isopropanol, and toluene. Both reflectivity and photoluminescence were simultaneously measured under the exposure of organic wapors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.110-110
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• 2011

The nanomechanical properties of fully lithiated and unlithiated silicon nanowire deposited on silicon substrate have been studied with atomic force microscopy. Silicon nanowires were synthesized using the vapor-liquid-solid process on stainless steel substrates using Au catalyst. Fully lithiated silicon nanowires were obtained by using the electrochemical method, followed by drop-casting on the silicon substrate. The roughness, derived from a line profile of the surface measured in contact mode atomic force microscopy, has a smaller value for lithiated silicon nanowire and a higher value for unlithiated silicon nanowire. Force spectroscopy was utilitzed to study the influence of lithiation on the tip-surface adhesion force. Lithiated silicon nanowire revealed a smaller value than that of the Si nanowire substrate by a factor of two, while the adhesion force of the silicon nanowire is similar to that of the silicon substrate. The Young's modulus obtained from the force-distance curve, also shows that the unlithiated silicon nanowire has a relatively higher value than lithiated silicon nanowire due to the elastically soft amorphous structures. The frictional forces acting on the tip sliding on the surface of lithiated and unlithiated silicon nanowire were obtained within the range of 0.5-4.0 Hz and 0.01-200 nN for velocity and load dependency, respectively. We explain the trend of adhesion and modulus in light of the materials properties of silicon and lithiated silicon. The results suggest a useful method for chemical identification of the lithiated region during the charging and discharging process.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.737-740
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• 1997

The influence of cyclic treatments with H2O2/DIW (1 : 10) and HF/DIW (1 : 100) on the roughness of silicon surface in the wet chemical processing was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). During the step of the SC-1 cleaning, there is a large increase in roughness on the silicon surface which will result in the poor gate oxide breakdown properties. The roughness of the silicon wafer after the SC-1 cleaning step was reduced by cyclic treatments of hydrogen peroxide solution and hydrofluoric acid solution instead of HF-only cleaning. AFM images after each step clearly illustrated that the average roughness of silicon surface after three times treatments with H2O2 and HF solutions was reduced by 10 times compared with that after the SC-1 cleaning step.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2006

Two methods that can reduce reflectance in solar cells are surface texturing and anti-reflection coating. Wet chemical etching is a typical method that surface texturing of multi-crystalline silicon. Wet chemical etching methods are the acid texturization of saw damage on the surface of multi-crystalline silicon or double-step chemical etching after KOH saw damage removal too. These methods of surface texturing are realized by chemical etching in acid solutions HF-$HNO_3$-$H_2O$. In this solutions we can reduce reflectance spectra by simple process etching of multi-crystalline silicon surface. We have obtained reflectance of 27.19% m 400~1100nm from acidic chemical etching after KOH saw damage removal. This result is about 7% less than just saw damage removal substrate. The surface morphology observed by microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.46.1-46.1
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• 2010

Surface passivation of crystalline silicon(c-Si) surface with a-Si:H thin films has been investigated by using quasi-steady-state photo conductance(QSSPC) measurements. Analyzing the influence of a-Si:H film thickness, process gas ratio, deposition temperature and post annealing temperature on the passivation properties of c-Si, we optimized the passivation conditions at the substrate temperature of $200-250^{\circ}C$. Best surface passivation has been obtained by post-deposition annealing of a-Si:H film layer. Post annealing around the deposition temperature was sufficient to improve the surface passivation for silicon substrates. We obtained effective carrier lifetimes above 5.5 ms on average.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.616-621
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• 2009

Reduction of optical losses in crystalline silicon solar cells by surface modification is one of the most important issues of silicon photovoltaics. Porous Si layers on the front surface of textured Si substrates have been investigated with the aim of improving the optical losses of the solar cells, because an anti-reflection coating(ARC) and a surface passivation can be obtained simultaneously in one process. We have demonstrated the feasibility of a very efficient porous Si ARC layer, prepared by a simple, cost effective, electrochemical etching method. Silicon p-type CZ (100) oriented wafers were textured by anisotropic etching in sodium carbonate solution. Then, the porous Si layers were formed by electrochemical etching in HF solutions. After that, the properties of porous Si in terms of morphology, structure and reflectance are summarized. The structure of porous Si layers was investigated with SEM. The formation of a nanoporous Si layer about 100nm thick on the textured silicon wafer result in a reflectance lower than 5% in the wavelength region from 500 to 900nm. Such a surface modification allows improving the Si solar cell characteristics. An efficiency of 13.4% is achieved on a monocrystalline silicon solar cell using the electrochemical technique.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.250-258
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• 2023

Ceramic oxide layer was formed on the surface of high silicon aluminum alloy by using PEO (plasma electrolytic oxidation) process. The microstructure of the oxide layer was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction patterns (XRD). The high silicon aluminum alloy prior to PEO process consists of Al, Si and Al₂Cu phases in XRD analysis, whereas Al₂Cu phase selectively disappeared after PEO treatment. Considerable decrease of relative intensity in most of peaks in XRD results of the high silicon aluminum alloy treated by PEO process was observed. It may be attributed to the formation of amorphous phases after PEO treatment. The corrosion behavior of the high silicon aluminum alloy treated by PEO process was investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and other electrochemical techniques (i.e., open circuit potential and polarization curve). Electroanalytical studies indicated that the high silicon aluminum alloy treated by PEO process shows greater corrosion resistance than that untreated by PEO process.