• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.61-61
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• 2011

Polymer solar cells have become one of the rising next generation solar cells due to their potential for lightweight and bendable plastic solar modules. Recently, the power conversion efficiency of polymer solar cells has reached ~8 %, which can make ~6 % plastic solar modules when it comes to the modular aperture ratio of ~80 %. Although this efficiency is far behind that of conventional inorganic solar cells, the plastic solar modules are expected to create new energy market into which the inorganic solar modules could not make inroads. In the near future, the plastic solar modules can be integrated with consumer electronics that should overcome the regulation of energy consumption. For this application, the polymer solar cells should be fabricated in a variety of module shapes, which can be resolved by employing conventional and/or advanced coating and molding technologies of plastics products. In this tutorial, the fundamental aspect of polymer solar cells will be briefly introduced and then recent trends in terms of materials and devices will be reviewed together with showing recent results in organic nanoelectronics laboratory.

• Ceramist
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.146-169
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• 2019

To overcome the theoretical efficiency of single-junction solar cells (> 30 %), tandem solar cells (or multi-junction solar cells) is considered as a strong nominee because of their excellent light utilization. Organic-inorganic halide perovskite has been regarded as a promising candidate material for next-generation tandem solar cell due to not only their excellent optoelectronic properties but also their bandgap-tune-ability and low-temperature process-possibility. As a result, they have been adopted either as a wide-bandgap top cell combined with narrow-bandgap silicon or CuIn_xGa_(1-x)Se₂ bottom cells or for all-perovskite tandem solar cells using narrow- and wide-bandgap perovskites. To successfully transition perovskite materials from for single junction to tandem, substantial efforts need to focus on fabricating the high quality wide- and narrow-bandgap perovskite materials and semi-transparent electrode/recombination layer. In this paper, we present an overview of the current research and our outlook regarding perovskite-based tandem solar technology. Several key challenges discussed are: 1) a wide-bandgap perovskite for top-cell in multi-junction tandem solar cells; 2) a narrow-bandgap perovskite for bottom-cell in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, and 3) suitable semi-transparent conducting layer for efficient electrode or recombination layer in tandem solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.49-63
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• 2017

Solar cells have widely been utilized for a satellite to convert sunlight energy into electricity in space. Many different types of solar cells appropriate for each satellite program are available in current markets, which enables us to construct a solar array light and small often required from a low Earth orbit (LEO) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite. Thus, it is important to choose a proper solar cell satisfying the requirements of mass and size for the solar array. In this article, we have surveyed typical suppliers and have discussed some characteristics of solar cells. Conceptual design examples of the solar array for LEO SAR satellites using several types of solar cells have been performed to show the pros and cons of solar cells by comparison of the total mass and size necessary for the solar array.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.526-532
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• 2015

Solar cells with other alternative energies are being importantly recognized related with post-2020 climate change regime formation. In a point of view of materials, solar cells are classified to organic and inorganic solar cells which can provide a plant-scale electricity. In particular, recent studies about compound semiconductor solar cells, such as III-V tandem solar cells, chalcopyrite-series CIGSSe solar cells, and kesterite-series CZTSSe solar cells were rapidly accelerated. In this report, we introduce a research trend and technical issues for the compound semiconductor solar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.73-77
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• 2014

To investigate the effect of metal back-reflective layers (MBLs) on the performance of GaAs solar cells, we fabricated GaAs solar cells on Al and Ag metal layers using the transfer printing technique. We also investigated the effect of MBL texturing on the performance of transfer printed GaAs solar cells. Transfer printed solar cells with MBLs exhibited improved photovoltaic performance compared to solar cells without MBLs due to light trapping. We demonstrated GaAs solar cells with MBLs on a flexible substrate and performed systematic bending tests. All the measured characteristics of solar cells showed little change in performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2015

In the past decades, green energy, such as solar energy, wind power, hydropower, biomass energy, geothermal energy, and so on, has been widely investigated and developed to solve energy shortage. Recently, organic solar cells have attracted much attention, because they have many advantages, including low-cost, flexibility, light weight, and easy fabrication [1-3]. Organic solar cells are as a potential candidate of the next generation solar cells. In this abstract, to improve the power conversion efficiency and the stability, the inverted polymer solar cells with various structures were developed [4-6]. The novel cell structures included the P3HT:PCBM inverted polymer solar cells with AZO nanorods array, with pentacene-doped active layer, and with extra P3HT interfacial layer and PCBM interfacial layer. These three difference structures could respectively improve the performance of the P3HT:PCBM inverted polymer solar cells. For the inverted polymer solar cells with AZO nanorods array as the electronic transportation layer, by using the nanorod structure, the improvement of carrier collection and carrier extraction capabilities could be expected due to an increase in contact area between the nanorod array and the active layer. For the inverted polymer solar cells with pentacene-doped active layer, the hole-electron mobility in the active layer could be balanced by doping pentacene contents. The active layer with the balanced hole-electron mobility could reduce the carrier recombination in the active layers to enhance the photocurrent of the resulting inverted polymer solar cells. For the inverted polymer solar cells with extra P3HT and PCBM interfacial layers, the extra PCBM and P3HT interfacial layers could respectively improve the electron transport and hole transport. The extra PCBM interfacial layer served another function was that led more P3HT moving to the top side of the absorption layer, which reduced the non-continuous pathways of P3HT. It indicated that the recombination centers could be further reduced in the absorption layer. The extra P3HT interfacial layer could let the hole be more easily transported to the MoO3 hole transport layer. The high performance of the novel P3HT:PCBM inverted polymer solar cells with various structures were obtained.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.192-195
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• 2005

The silicon thin film solar cells were fabricated by 13.56 MHz PECVD (Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Deposition) and 60 MHz VHF PECVD (Very High-Frequency Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Deposition). We focus on textured ZnO:Al films prepared by RF sputtering and post deposition wet chemical etching and studied the surface morphology and optical properties. These films were optimized the light scattering properties of the textured ZnO:Al after wet chemical etching. Finally, the textured ZnO:Al films were successfully applied as substrates for silicon thin films solar cells. The efficiency of tandem solar cells with $0.25 cm^2$ area was $11.8\%$ under $100mW/cm^2$ light intensity. The electrical properties of tandem solar cells were measured with solar simulator (AM 1.5, $100 mW/cm^2)$ and spectral response measurements.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.31-38
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• 2018

Multijunction solar cells present a practical solution towards a better photovoltaic conversion for a wider spectral range. In this review, we compare different types of multi-ijunction solar cell. First, we introduce thin film multijunction solar cell include to the thin film silicon, III-V material and chalcopyrite material. Until now the maximum reported power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of solar cells having different component sub-cells are 14.0% (thin film silicon), 46% (III-V material), 4.4% (chalcopyrite material) respectively. We then discuss the development of multijunction solar cell in which c-Si is used as bottom sub-cell while III-V material, thin film silicon, chalcopyrite material or perovskite material is used as top sub-cells.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1988.10a
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• pp.620-626
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• 1988

GaAs solar cells may be the most attractive and efficient power source of a satellite. GaAs is more radiation tolerant and less temperature sensitive than widely used silicon. $Al_{x}$ Ga$_{1-x}$ As/GaAs solar cells have been designed and fabricated by Liquid Phase Epitaxial method. GaAs solar cells, of which structure is about 0.2 .mu.m p$^{+}$ - window layer, 0.6-1.O .mu.m Ge-doped p-layer. 3.mu.m n-GaAs layer and n$^{+}$ - buffer layer, have been characterized as a function of operating temperature from 25 .deg.C to 130 .deg.C. Open circuit voltage decreases linearly with increasing temperature by 1.4-1.51 mV/ .deg.C while degradation of silicon solar cells is about 2.2-2.5 mV/ .deg.C, short circuit current does not increase much with increasing temperature. Relative efficiency decreases with increasing of temperature by about 0.21-0.29 %/ .deg.C. Efficiency degradation of silicon solar cells with temperature is known to be about 0.5%/ .deg.C and our results show GaAs solar cells may be an excellent candidate for concentrated solar cells.ells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2005.08a
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• pp.67-67
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• 2005