• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.149-152
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• 2012

$Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) is one of the most promising photovoltaic materials because of large conversion efficiency which has been achieved with an optimum Ga/(In+Ga) composition in $CuIn_{1-x}Ga_xSe_2$ (X~0.3). The Ga/(In+Ga) content is important to determine band gap, solar cell performances and carrier behaviors at grain boundary (GB). Effects of Ga/(In+Ga) content on physical properties of the CIGS layers have been extensively studied. In previous research, it is reported that GB is not recombination center of CIGS thin-film solar cells. However, GB recombination and electron-hole pair behavior studies are still lacking, especially influence of with different X on CIGS thin-films. We obtained the GB surface potential, local current and I-V characteristic of different X (00.7 while X~0.3 showed higher potential than 100 mV on GBs. Higher potential on GBs appears positive band bending. It can decrease recombination loss because of carrier separation. Therefore, we suggest recombination and electron-hole behaviors at GBs depending on composition of X.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.91.1-91.1
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• 2010

There are some methods for increasing efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. Among them, It is important to reduce the recombination loss of surface for high efficiency. In order to reduce recombination loss is a way to use the BSF(Back Surface Field). The BSF on the back of the p-type wafer forms a p+layer. so, it is prevented to act electrons of the p-area for the rear recombination. As a result, the leakage current is reduced and the rear-contact has a good Ohmic contact. therefore, open-circuit-voltage and Fill factor(FF) of solar cells are increased. This paper investigates the formation of rear contact process comparing Aluminum-paste(Al-paste) with Aluminum-Metal(99.9%). It is shown that the Aluminum-Metal provides high conductivity and low contact resistance of $21.35m{\Omega}cm$ using the Vacuum evaporation process but, it is difficult to apply the standard industrial process because high Vacuum is needed and it costs a tremendous amount more than Al-paste. On the other hand, using the Al-paste process by screen printing is simple for formation of metal contact and it is possible to produce the standard industrial process. however, it is lower than Aluminum-Metal(99.9) of conductivity because of including mass glass frit. In this study, contact resistances were measured by 4-point prove. each of contact resistances is $21.35m{\Omega}cm$ of Aluminum-Metal and $0.69m{\Omega}cm$ of Al-paste. and then rear contact have been analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM).

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.463-466
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• 2008

We report a method to increase the surface area of the titania films used as the anodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by applying additional titania-coating. The modification was achieved by spin-coating a coating solution that contained a surfactant with a titania source onto the titania electrodes, followed by calcination. Previous similar attempts without a surfactant all reported decreased surface areas. We fabricated DSSCs by using the modified titania films as the anode and measured their performances. The increased surface area increased the amount of adsorbed dyes, which resulted in increased current densities. At the same time, the titania-coating increased both the open-circuit voltage and the current density by reducing the charge-recombination rates of the injected electrons, similar to the results of literatures. Therefore, our method shows an additional mechanism to increase the current density of DSSCs in addition to the other mechanisms of surface modifications with titania-coatings.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.833-843
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• 2008

The effect of forward and reverse electrostatic discharge (ESD) on the electro-optical characteristics of oxide vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is investigated using a human body model for the purpose of understanding degradation behavior. Forward ESD-induced degradation is complicated, showing three degradation phases depending on ESD voltage, while reverse ESD-induced degradation is relatively simple, exhibiting two phases of degradation divided by a sudden distinctive change in electro-optical characteristics. We demonstrate that the increase in the threshold current is mainly due to the increase in leakage current, nonradiative recombination current, and optical loss. The decrease in the slope efficiency is mainly due to the increase in optical loss.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.571-574
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• 2010

Surface recombination loss should be reduced for high efficiency of solar cells. To reduce this loss, the BSF (back surface field) is used. The BSF on the back of the p-type wafer forms a p+layer, which prevents the activity of electrons of the p-area for the rear recombination. As a result, the leakage current is reduced and the rear-contact has a good Ohmic contact. Therefore, the open-circuit-voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) of solar cells are increased. This paper investigates the formation of the rear contact process by comparing aluminum-paste (Al-paste) with pure aluminum-metal(99.9%). Under the vacuum evaporation process, pure aluminum-metal(99.9%) provides high conductivity and low contact resistance of $4.2\;m{\Omega}cm$, but It is difficult to apply the standard industrial process to it because high vacuum is needed, and it's more expensive than the commercial equipment. On the other hand, using the Al-paste process by screen printing is simple for the formation of metal contact, and it is possible to produce the standard industrial process. However, Al-paste used in screen printing is lower than the conductivity of pure aluminum-metal(99.9) because of its mass glass frit. In this study, contact resistances were measured by a 4-point probe. The contact resistance of pure aluminum-metal was $4.2\;m{\Omega}cm$ and that of Al-paste was $35.69\;m{\Omega}cm$. Then the rear contact was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.10-12
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• 1996

AlGaAs/GaAs Heterojunotion Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) with various emitter areas were fabricated and the device size dependence on the current gain was examined. With the different emitter areas, the passivated devices having the same peripheral length were fabricated and measured. The measured base current density in the Gummel plots shows an ideality factor of nearly 2. It is found that as the emitter area becomes small, the base current density with the ideality factor of 2 increases linearly, and as the emitter perimeter/area ratio becomes large, the surface recombination current density component increases. The current gain performance in AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs is mainly determined by either the larger emitter area or the smaller ratio of the emitter perimeter to the emitter area. These results will be compared with experimental works for GaInP/GaAs HBTs

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.633-634
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• 2005

Transparent conducting glasses exhibit high ohmic losses that are apparent in the case of large size Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). In this study, we investigated the impact of current collectors over the efficiency of DSSCs. The Silver current collectors were prepared on both counter electrode and working electrode surface by screen printing method. For long term stability in electrolyte environment and also to avoid the charge recombination, current collectors are protected by sodium silicate overcoat layer. These current collectors were characterized for their microstructure parameters. Also current collector's stability in electrolyte environment has been investigated.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 2017

This paper presents a Technology-CAD (TCAD) simulation of the characteristics of crystalline Si pillar array solar cells. The junction depth and the surface concentration of the solar cells were optimized to obtain the targeted sheet resistance of the emitter region. The diffusion model was determined by calibrating the emitter doping profile of the microscale silicon pillars. The dimension parameters determining the pillar shape, such as width, height, and spacing were varied within a simulation window from ${\sim}2{\mu}m$ to $5{\mu}m$. The simulation showed that increasing pillar width (or diameter) and spacing resulted in the decrease of current density due to surface area loss, light trapping loss, and high reflectance. Although increasing pillar height might improve the chances of light trapping, the recombination loss due to the increase in the carrier's transfer length canceled out the positive effect to the photo-generation component of the current. The silicon pillars were experimentally formed by photoresist patterning and electroless etching. The laboratory results of a fabricated Si pillar solar cell showed the efficiency and the fill factor to be close to the simulation results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.471.2-471.2
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• 2014

We demonstrate here that an improvement in precursor film density (green density) leads to a great enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of CuInSe2 (CISe) thin film solar cells fabricated with Cu-In nanoparticle precursor films via chemical solution deposition. A cold-isostatic pressing (CIP) technique was applied to uniformly compress the precursor film over the entire surface (measuring 3~4 cm2) and was found to increase its relative density (particle packing density) by ca. 20%, which resulted in an appreciable improvement in the microstructural features of the sintered CISe film in terms of lower porosity, reduced grain boundaries, and a more uniform surface morphology. The low-bandgap (Eg=1.0 eV) CISe PV devices with the CIP-treated film exhibited greatly enhanced open-circuit voltage (VOC, from 0.265 V to 0.413 V) and fill factor (FF, from 0.34 to 0.55), as compared to the control devices. As a consequence, an almost 3-fold increase in the average power conversion efficiency, 3.0 to 8.2% (with the highest value of 9.02%), was realized without an anti-reflection coating. A diode analysis revealed that the enhanced VOC and FF were essentially attributed to the reduced reverse saturation current density (j0) and diode ideality factor (n). This is associated with the suppressed recombination, likely due to the reduction in recombination sites such as grain/air surfaces (pores), inter-granular interfaces, and defective CISe/CdS junctions in the CIP-treated device. From the temperature dependences of VOC, it was confirmed that the CIP-treated devices suffer less from interface recombination.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.86-90
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• 2018

To generate more current in crystalline silicon solar cells, surface texturing is adopted by reducing the surface reflection. Conventionally, random pyramid texturing by the wet chemical process is used for surface texturing in crystalline silicon solar cell. To achieve higher efficiency of solar cells, well ordered inverted pyramid texturing was introduced. Although its complicated process, superior properties such as lower reflectance and recombination velocity can be achieved by optimizing the process. In this study, we investigated optical and passivation properties of inverted pyramid texture. Lifetime, implied-Voc and reflectance were measured with different width and size of the texture. Also, effects of chemical rounding at the valley of the pyramid were observed.