• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.368-368
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• 2007

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has drawn much interest as a potential transparent conducting oxide (TCO) for applying to solar cell and front electrode of electro-luminescent devices. For the enhancement of electrical property of TCOs, dopant introduction and hybridization with conductive nanoparticles have been investigated. In this work, ZnO films were formed on glass substrate by using photochemical solution deposition of Ag nanoparticles dispersed or various metal (Ag, Cd, In, or Sn) contained photosensitive ZnO solutions. The usage of photosensitive solution permits us to obtain a micron-sized direct patterning of ZnO film without using conventional dry etching procedure. The structural, optical, and electrical characteristics of ZnO films with the introduction of metal dopants with/without Ag nanoparticles have been investigated to check whether there is a combined effect between metal dopants and Ag nanoparticles on the characteristics of ZnO film. The phase formation and crystallinity of ZnO film were monitored with X-ray diffractometer. The optical transmittance measurement was carried out using UV-VIS-NIR spectrometer and the electrical properties such as sheet resistance and conductivity were observed by using four-point probe.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.185.2-185.2
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• 2015

Tin Oxide (SnO2) has been widely investigated as a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and can be used in optoelectronic devices such as solar cell and flat-panel displays. In addition, it would be applicable to fabricating the wide bandgap semiconductor because of its bandgap of 3.6 eV. There have been concentrated on the improvement of optical properties, such as conductivity and transparency, by doping Indium Oxide and Gallium Oxide. Recently, with development of fabrication techniques, high-qulaity SnO2 epitaxial thin films have been studied and received much attention to produce the electronic devices such as sensor and light-emitting diode. In this study, powder sputtering method was employed to deposit epitaxial thin films on sapphire (0001) substrates. A commercial SnO2 powder was sputtered. The samples were prepared with varying the growth parameters such as gas environment and film thickness. Then, the samples were characterized by using XRD, SEM, AFM, and Raman spectroscopy measurements. The details of physical properties of epitaxial SnO2 thin films will be presented.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.43.2-43.2
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• 2011

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) are transparent in the visible and show conductivity comparable to copper, and are environmentally stable. SWCNT films have high flexibility, conductivity and transparency approaching that indium tin oxide (ITO), and can be prepared inexpensively without vacuum equipment. Transparent conducting Films (TCF) of SWCNTs has the potential to replace conventional transparent conducting oxides (TCO, e.g. ITO) in a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, energy conversion and photovoltaic industry. However, the sheet resistance of SWCNT films is still higher than ITO films. A decreased in the resistivity of SWCNT-TCFs would be beneficial for such an application. We fabricated SWCNT sheet with $KAuBr_4$ on PET substrate. Arc-discharge SWCNTs were dispersed in deionized water by adding sodum dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surfactant and sonicated, followed by the centrifugation. The dispersed SWCNT was spray-coated on PET substrate and dried on a hotplate at $100^{\circ}C$. When the spray process was terminated, the TCF was immersed into deionized water to remove the surfactant and then it was dried on hotplate. The TCF film was then treated with AuBr4-, rinsed with deionized water and dried. The surface morphology of TCF was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The sheet resistance and optical transmission properties of the TCF were measured with a four-point probe method and a UV-visible spectrometry, respectively. $HNO_3$ treated SWCNT films with Au nano-particles have the lowest 61 ${\Omega}$/< sheet resistance in the 80% transmittance. Sheet resistance was decreased due to the increase of the hole concentration at the washed SWCNT surface by p-type doping of $AuBr_4{^-}$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.277-283
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• 2009

In this paper, aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films on plastic substrate such as poly carbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering method for flexible solar cell applications. Effects of the sputter pressure on the structural, electrical and optical properties were investigated. The crystallinity and the degree of the (002) orientation were deteriorated with increasing the sputter pressure. When the sputter pressure was higher, the conductivity of ZnO:Al films was improved because of the high carrier concentration and the Hall mobility. High quality ZnO:Al films with resistivity as low as $1.9{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$ and the optical transmittance over 80 % in the visible region have been obtained on PC substrate at 2 mTorr.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.354-355
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• 2009

In the fabrication of inverted top-emitting organic light emitting diodes (ITOLEDs), the sputtering process is needed for deposition of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) as top anode. Energetic particle bombardment, however, changes the physical properties of underlying layers. In this study, we examined plasma process effects on tungsten oxide ($WO_3$) hole injection layer (HIL). From our results, we suggest the theoretical mechanism to explain the correlation between the physical property changes caused by plasma process on $WO_3$ HIL and degradation of device performances.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.334.1-334.1
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• 2014

태양전지, 터치센서와 같이 투명한 전극(TCO: Transparent conducting oxide)이 필요로 하는 곳에는 금속 산화물 형태의 ITO, ZnO, FTO와 같은 투명 전극이 사용된다. 그중에서 FTO는 저렴한 가격과 높은 투과율, 낮은 저항으로 주목을 받고 있다. 뿐만아니라 FTO 박막은 다른 산화물 전도체에 비해 구부림에 강한 저항성을 보여 주고 있다. FTO 박막의 캐리어 전하 생성 원리는 F 원자가 O 원자의 자리를 치환하게 되면서 잉여 전자의 발생으로 전기가 흐를 수 있다. 아직까지는 화학적 조성비에 유리한 CVD를 이용한 증착 방법이 많이 사용되고 있다. 스퍼터 장비 역시 공정 가스에 따라 화학적 조성비 변화가 가능하고 CVD와 비교하여 공정이 간단하며 연속 공정이 쉽고 대면적 적용이 가능하다. 본 실험은 본사에서 R&D용으로 제작한 Daon-1000 S 장비를 사용하였으며 DaON-1000 S는 3개의 2" sputter gun이 장착 되어 있어 co-sputtering이 가능한 장비이다.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.14 no.1 s.60
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• pp.44-49
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• 2007

In the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), carbon counter electrode has been tested for replacing the platinum counter electrode which has two drawbacks: limited surface area and high material cost. Poor mechanical stability of carbon layer due to weak bonding strength to electrically conductive TCO (transparent conducting oxide) glass substrate is a crucial barrier for practical application of carbon counter electrode. In the present study a carbon counter electrode with high conversion efficiency, comparable to Pt counter electrode, could be fabricated by adaption of a bonding layer between particulate carbon material and TCO substrate.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2020

Doping or incorporation with exotic elements are two manners to regulate the optoelectronic properties of transparent conducting (TCO) cadmium oxide (CdO). Nevertheless, the method of doping host CdO by CdTe semiconductor is of high importance. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of CdTe-doped CdO films are studied for the sake of promoting their conducting parameters (CPs), including their conductivity, carrier concentration, and carrier mobility, along with transparency in the NIR spectral region; these are then compared with the influence of doping the host CdO by pure Te ions. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical absorption spectroscopy, and electrical measurements are used to characterise the deposited films prepared by thermal evaporation. Numerous results are presented and discussed in this work; among these results, the optical properties are studied through a merging of concurrent BGN (redshift) and BGW (blue shift) effects as a consequence of doping processes. The impact of hydrogenation on the characterisations of the prepared films is investigated; it has no qualitative effect on the crystalline structure. However, it is found that TCO-CPs are improved by the process of CdTe doping followed by hydrogenation. The utmost TCO-CP improvements are found with host CdO film including ~ 1 %Te, in which the resistivity decreases by ~ 750 %, carrier concentration increases by 355 %, and mobility increases by ~ 90 % due to the increase of N_carr. The improvement of TCO-CPs by hydrogenation is attributed to the creation of O-vacancies because of H₂ molecule dissociation in the presence of Te ions. These results reflect the potential of using semiconductor CdTe -doped CdO thin films in TCO applications. Nevertheless, improvements of the host CdO CPs with CdTe dopant are of a lesser degree compared with the case of doping the host CdO with pure Te ions.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.1430-1431
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• 2011

To develope the transparent conducting oxide(TCO) films is one of the essential technologies to improve various properties of electro-optical devices such as dye-sensitized solar cells(DSCs). ITiO thin film is considered one of the candidates as TCO electrodes of DSCs because it shows many advantages such as the high transparency in long wavelength range above 700nm and excellent properties of electrical necking between nanoporous TiO2 and ITiO transparent electrode. This paper presents the effect of sputtering processes on the structural, electrical and optical properties of ITiO thin film deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering. The effect of doping concentration of Ti on the chemical compounds and C axis-orientation properties of were mainly studied experimentally. The morphology and electrical properties were greatly influenced by deposition processes, especially by the doping concentration of Ti. The $3.8{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ of minimum volume resistivity were obtained under the experimental conditions of gas pressure 7mTorr, substrate temperature $300^{\circ}C$, and 2.5% of Ti doping concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.591-591
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• 2012

본 연구는 Transparent conducting oxide (TCO, 산화물투명전극)를 이용한 박막태양전지 효율향상에 관한 것으로, 이중의 TCO층(Double-stacked TCO layer)의 효과적인 광학 및 전기적 설계에 관한 것이다. 기존 박막 태양전지에서는 투명전극 TCO layer로서, ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide), FTO (Fluorine- Tin-Oxide), 및 AZO(Aluminum-doped Zinc Oxide) 등을 사용해 왔다. 각 TCO layer마다 장점이 있지만 단점 또한 존재한다. ITO의 경우 높은 전기적 특성을 가지는 반면 수소 플라즈마에 취약하고 기계적 강도에 취약해 ITO 단일층만으로 박막 태양전지에 적용하는 것에 제한을 받는다. 한편, AZO의 경우 전기적 특성도 우수할 뿐만 아니라 수소 플라즈마에도 내구성이 강한 장점이 있지만, 일함수가 p형 반도체보다 낮아 Schottky junction이 되어, 높은 전위장벽이 형성된다. 이는 정공의 이동을 방해하고, 정공의 축적이 일어나서 순방향 전압을 인가할 때 많은 전류의 감소를 가져온다. 또한, AZO와 p형 반도체 사이의 높은 직렬저항으로 인해 광전압(Voc, Open circuit voltage)와 충실률 (FF, Fill factor)가 떨어진다는 단점이 있다. 본 실험에서는 ITO/AZO 2중구조의 TCO층을 적용하여 상기의 문제점을 해결하고자 한다. 이중 구조 TCO층은 Magnetron sputter system을 이용하여, 단계적으로 증착되었다. 빛이 입사하는 유리에 ITO를 제1전도층으로 증착하였는데, ITO는 입사광의 투과도와 전기전도성이 우수하다. 제2전도층으로는 AZO층을 이용하였으며, 실리콘 반도체층과 접하게 된다. AZO는 실리콘 증착시 발생하는 수소 플라즈마에 안정적이고, 물리적 강도 또한 우수한 장점이 있다. 이중 구조층위에 실리콘 광흡수층(Si absorber)을 증착하였으며, pin 구조를 가진다. 기존, 단일막 TCO층과 2중구조 TCO층을 이용하여, 실리콘 박막 태양전지를 구성하였다. 이때, ITO/AZO의 2중구조를 적용하였을 때 태양 전지 특성이 크게 향상된 결과를 얻을 수가 있었다. 특히, 전류밀도의 경우 ITO, FTO, AZO 각각 14.5 mA/cm2, 11.2 mA/cm2, 8.18 mA/cm2를 나타낸 반면 ITO/AZO 2중구조의 경우 약 17mA/cm2 로 크게 향상 되었고, 태양전지 변환 효율도 각각 7.5%, 6.9%, 4%에서 ITO/AZO 2중 구조의 경우 8.05%로 크게 향상되었다. 본 발표에서는 2중구조 TCO를 이용한 현공정에 적용 가능한 박막태양전지 효율향상 기법에 대해 논의하고자 한다.