• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.170-174
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• 2023

Nickel oxide is a nonstoichiometric transparent conductive oxide with p-type conductivity, a wide-band energy gap of 3.4~4.0 eV, and excellent chemical stability, making it a very important candidate as a material for bipolar devices. P-type conductivity in Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCO) is controlled by the oxygen vacancy concentration. During the TCO film deposition process, additional oxygen diffusing into the NiO structure causes the formation of Ni 3p ions and Ni vacancies. This eventually affects the hole concentration of the p-type oxide thin film. In this work, the surface morphology and the electrical characteristics were confirmed in accordance with the annealing atmosphere of the nickel oxide thin film.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.386-386
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• 2009

TCO/p/i/n 구조의 비정질 실리콘 박막 태양전지의 제작에 있어서 TCO계면과 p층사이의 이종접합에서의 큰 밴드갭 차이는 p층으로부터의 정공 재결합을 통하여 효율 저하의 원인이 된다. 이러한 재결합은 넓은 밴드갭을 가진 물질을 완충층으로 삽입함으로써 개선되어 질 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 비정질 실리콘 보다 넓은 광학적 밴드갭을 가지는 a-SiOx 박막을 완충층으로 사용하여 TCO/P 계면에서의 재결합 감소에 대한 시뮬레이션을 수행하였다. a-SiOX 박막 내에 포함된 산소의 양에 따라 밴드갭을 조절하여 1.8eV~2.0eV 사이의 완충층을 삽입하여 박막태양전지의 개방전압, 단락전류, 효율 등에 끼치는 영향을 ASA 시뮬레이션을 통하여 알아보았다.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2011

Photovoltaic effect is confirmed in DSSC fabricated under the common conditions. In upper electrodes, validity of ZnO as new TCO material was investigated and an improvement of characteristics in DSSC was tried by control of process conditions at semiconductive powder layer. ZnO thin film showed very high resistivity, therefore efficiency of solar cell was lower than that of conventional ITO-related material. DSSC characteristics was able to improve by thin blocking layer doposited between the TCO and semiconductor layer.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.55-71
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• 2017

Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO), especially Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) films are almost prepared by DC magnetron sputtering because of the advantage of obtaining homogeneous large area coatings with high reproducibility. The purpose of this report is describe a detailed investigation of key factors dominating electrical and structural properties of sputtered ITO films. It was confirmed that crystallinity and electrical properties of ITO films were strongly depend on the sputtering pressure and kinetic energy of sputtered particles which are expected to have a close relation with the transport processes between target and substrate. And also, nodule formation on the ITO target was suppressed by both $CaCO_3$ addition and decreasing micro-pore in the target. On the other hand, we focused on the characteristics of amorphous TCO film to use as transparent electrode for various applications. To realize high thermoelectric performance, it was tried to control both high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity for the amorphous IZO:Sn films.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.32-32
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• 2009

실리콘 박막 태양전지에서 전면 투명전도막(TCO)은 태양전지의 전기, 광학적 특성을 결정하는 중요한 기능을 한다. ZnO:Al TCO는 기존에 사용되던 $SnO_2:F$와는 비정질 실리콘(a-Si:H) 박막 태양전지의 윈도우 층으로 사용되는 p a-SiC:H와의 일함수(work function) 차이로 인해 접촉전위(contact barrier)를 형성하게 되며 이로 인해 태양전지의 충진율(fill factor)이 $SnO_2:F$에 비해 감소하는 단점을 보인다. 본 연구에서는 ZnO:Al/p a-SiC:H 계면의 접촉전위 발생원인 및 태양전지 충진율 감소현상에 관한 정확한 원인규명을 위해 다양한 특성을 갖는 버퍼층을 삽입하여 계면특성 및 태양전지의 동작특성을 분석하고자 한다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.169-174
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• 2024

In this study, the structural, electrical, and optical properties of AZO films of various thicknesses are compared. The AZO films were deposited on a glass substrate by FTS (Facing-Target-Sputtering) This research was conducted to find the optimal thickness for Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO). AZO has suitable properties for TCO such as low resistivity, and high transmittance. Thin films of all thicknesses showed a transmittance of over 80% in the visible light region and electrical properties improved as thickness increased. It was confirmed that the film of 300 nm thick had the best performance due to its low resistivity, and uniform surface. This research is expected to help find optimal conditions in various fields where TCO is used, such as solar cells, displays, and sensors in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.430.2-430.2
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• 2016

The front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films in thin fill solar cell should exhibit high transparency, conductivity, good surface morphology and excellent light scattering properties. The light trapping phenomenon is limited due to random surface structure of TCO films. The proper control of surface structure and uniform cauliflower TCO films may be appropriate for efficient light trapping. We report light trapping scheme of ICP-RIE glass texturing by SF6/Ar plasma for high roughness and haze ratio of ITO films. It was observed that the variation of etching time, pattern size and Ar flow ratio during ICP-RIE process were important factors to improve the diffused transmittance and haze ratio of textured glass. The ICP-RIE textured glass showed low etching rates due to the presence of metal elements like Al, B, F and Na. The ITO films deposited on textured glass substrates showed the high RMS roughness and haze ratio in the visible wavelength region. The change in surface morphology showed negligible influence on electrical and structural properties of ITO films. The ITO films with high roughness and haze ratio can be used to improve the performance of thin film solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.28-28
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• 2009

Fabrications of antireflection structures on solar cell were investigated to trap the light and to improve quantum efficiency. Introductions of patterned substrate or textured layer for Si solar cell were performed to prevent reflectance and to increase the path length of incoming light. However, it is difficult to deposit conformally flat electrode on perpendicular plane. ZnO is II-VI compound semiconductor and well-known wide band-gap material. It has similar electrical and optical properties as ITO, but it is nontoxic and stable. In this study, Al-doped ZnO thin films are deposited as transparent electrode by atomic layer deposition method to coat on Si substrate with micro-scale structures. The deposited AZO layer is flatted on horizontal plane as well as perpendicular one with conformal 200 nm thickness. The carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity of deposited AZO thin film on glass substrate were measured $1.4\times10^{20}cm^{-3}$, $93.3cm^2/Vs$, $4.732\times10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ with high transmittance over 80%. The AZO films were coated with polyimide and performed selective polyimide stripping on head of column by reactive ion etching to measure resistance along columns surface. Current between the micro-columns flows onto the perpendicular plane of deposited AZO film with low resistance.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.374-377
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• 2008

비정질 Si박막 태양전지의 후면 반사층을 위한 ZnO:Al TCO박막을 RF Magnetron Sputtering 방법으로 증착하였으며 이의 전기적, 광학적 특성 및 구조를 최적화하였다. Sputtering의 공정변수인 증착 RF 파워, 기판온도, 타겟-기판 거리, 증착압력을 변화시켜 ZnO:Al 단일막의 전기적, 광학적 특성을 최적화 하였고,이를 소면적 태양전지 셀 및 모듈에 적용하였다.그 중 증착 RF파워 및 압력이 단일막의 전기적,광학적 특성에 타겟-기판거리는 박막의 균일도에 큰 영향을 주었다. 압력에 따른 박막의 치밀도를 SE EMA방법으로 정량화하였고, 광학적, 전기적 특성과 연관하여 해석하였다. ZnO:Al 박막의 물성을 최적화하여 태양전지 셀에 적용한 결과 두께 80nm에서 가장 큰 Jsc의 증가를 보였고, 적용 전에 비해 약 18%의 광변환효율의 증가를 얻었다. 최적화된 태양전지 셀의 광변환효율은 9.9%, 모듈 효율은 7.4%였다.

• 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.