• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.254-255
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• 2012

Interest in nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films has been growing because of their favorable processing conditions for certain electronic devices. In particular, there has been an increase in the use of nc-Si thin films in photovoltaics for large solar cell panels and in thin film transistors for large flat panel displays. One of the most important material properties for these device applications is the macroscopic charge-carrier mobility. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or nc-Si is a basic material in thin film transistors (TFTs). However, a-Si:H based devices have low carrier mobility and bias instability due to their metastable properties. The large number of trap sites and incomplete hydrogen passivation of a-Si:H film produce limited carrier transport. The basic electrical properties, including the carrier mobility and stability, of nc-Si TFTs might be superior to those of a-Si:H thin film. However, typical nc-Si thin films tend to have mobilities similar to a-Si films, although changes in the processing conditions can enhance the mobility. In polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films, the performance of the devices is strongly influenced by the boundaries between neighboring crystalline grains. These grain boundaries limit the conductance of macroscopic regions comprised of multiple grains. In much of the work on poly-Si thin films, it was shown that the performance of TFTs was largely determined by the number and location of the grain boundaries within the channel. Hence, efforts were made to reduce the total number of grain boundaries by increasing the average grain size. However, even a small number of grain boundaries can significantly reduce the macroscopic charge carrier mobility. The nano-crystalline or polymorphous-Si development for TFT and solar cells have been employed to compensate for disadvantage inherent to a-Si and micro-crystalline silicon (${\mu}$-Si). Recently, a novel process for deposition of nano-crystralline silicon (nc-Si) thin films at room temperature was developed using neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBaCVD) with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300 eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at room temperature. In previous our experiments, we verified favorable properties of nc-Si thin films for certain electronic devices. During the formation of the nc-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. The more resent work on nc-Si thin film transistors (TFT) was done. We identified the performance of nc-Si TFT active channeal layers. The dependence of the performance of nc-Si TFT on the primary process parameters is explored. Raman, FT-IR and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to study the microstructures and the crystalline volume fraction of nc-Si films. The electric properties were investigated on Cr/SiO2/nc-Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.237-241
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• 2004

Amorphous silicon (a-Si) films are used in a broad range of solar cell, flat panel display, and sensor. Because of the greater ease of deposition and lower processing temperature, thin films are widely used for thin film transistors (TFTs). However, they have lower stability under the exposure of visible light and because of their low field effect mobility ($\mu$$_{FE}$ ) , less than 1 c $m^2$/Vs, they require a driving IC in the external circuits. On the other hand, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films have superiority in $\mu$$_{FE}$ and optical stability in comparison to a-Si film. Many researches have been done to obtain high performance poly-Si because conventional methods such as excimer laser annealing, solid phase crystallization and metal induced crystallization have several difficulties to crystallize. In this paper, a new crystallization process using a molybdenum substrate has been proposed. As we use a flexible substrate, high temperature treatment and roll-to-roll process are possible. We have used a high temperature process above 75$0^{\circ}C$ to obtain poly-Si films on molybdenum substrates by a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of the amorphous silicon (a-Si) layers. The properties of high temperature crystallized poly-Si studied, and poly-Si has been used for the fabrication of TFT. By this method, we are able to achieve high crystal volume fraction as well as high field effect mobility.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.1095-1100
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• 2021

In this study, ITZO thin films were deposited on glass, sapphire, and PEN substrates by RF magnetron sputtering, and their electrical and optical properties were investigated. The resistivity of the ITZO thin film deposited on the glass and sapphire substrates was 3.08×10-4 and 3.21×10-4 Ω-cm, respectively, showing no significant difference, whereas the resistivity of the ITZO thin film deposited on the PEN substrate was 7.36×10-4 Ω-cm, which was a rather large value. Regardless of the type of substrate, there was no significant difference in the average transmittance of the ITZO thin film. Figure of Merits of the ITZO thin film deposited on the glass substrate obtained using the average transmittance in the absorption region of the amorphous silicon thin film solar cell and the absorption region of the P3HT : PCBM organic active layer were 10.52 and 9.28×10-3 Ω-1, respectively, which showed the best values. Through XRD and AFM measurements, it was confirmed that all ITZO thin films exhibited an amorphous structure and had no defects such as pinholes or cracks, regardless of the substrate type.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.322-327
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• 2019

Hole carrier selective MoOx film is obtained by atomic layer deposition(ALD) using molybdenum hexacarbonyl[$Mo(CO)_6$] as precursor and ozone($O_3$) oxidant. The growth rate is about 0.036 nm/cycle at 200 g/Nm of ozone concentration and the thickness of interfacial oxide is about 2 nm. The measured band gap and work function of the MoOx film grown by ALD are 3.25 eV and 8 eV, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) result shows that the $Mo^{6+}$ state is dominant in the MoOx thin film. In the case of ALD-MoOx grown on Si wafer, the ozone concentration does not affect the passivation performance in the as-deposited state. But, the implied open-circuit voltage increases from $576^{\circ}C$ to $620^{\circ}C$ at 250 g/Nm after post-deposition annealing at $350^{\circ}C$ in a forming gas ambient. Instead of using a p-type amorphous silicon layer, high work function MoOx films as hole selective contact are applied for heterojunction silicon solar cells and the best efficiency yet recorded (21 %) is obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.480.1-480.1
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• 2014

In this study, we suggest the new emitter formation applied solid phase epitaxy (SPE) growth process using rapid thermal process (RTP). Preferentially, we describe the SPE growth of intrinsic a-Si thin film through RTP heat treatment by radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD). Phase transition of intrinsic a-Si thin films were taken place under $600^{\circ}C$ for 5 min annealing condition measured by spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE) applied to effective medium approximation (EMA). We confirmed the SPE growth using high resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) analysis. Similarly, phase transition of P doped a-Si thin films were arisen $700^{\circ}C$ for 1 min, however, crystallinity is lower than intrinsic a-Si thin films. It is referable to the interference of the dopant. Based on this, we fabricated 16.7% solar cell to apply emitter layer formed SPE growth of P doped a-Si thin films using RTP. We considered that is a relative short process time compare to make the phosphorus emitter such as diffusion using furnace. Also, it is causing process simplification that can be omitted phosphorus silicate glass (PSG) removal and edge isolation process.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.97-102
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• 2019

Bifacial and semitransparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cells in p-i-n configuration were prepared with front and rear transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and tin-doped indium oxide films were used as front and rear TCO contacts, respectively. Film thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers were controlled from 150 nm to 450 nm by changing deposition time. The dependence of performance characteristics of solar cells on the front and rear illumination direction were investigated. For front illumination, gradual increase in the short-circuit current density (J_SC) from 10.59 mA/㎠ to 14.19 mA/㎠ was obtained, whereas slight decreases from 0.83 V to 0.81 V for the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and from 68.43% to 65.75% for fill factor (FF) were observed. The average optical transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 ~ 780 nm of the solar cells decreased gradually from 22.76% to 15.67% as the absorber thickness was changed from 150 nm to 450 nm. In case of the solar cells under rear illumination condition, the J_SC increased from 10.81 to 12.64 mA/㎠ and the FF deceased from 66.63% to 61.85%, while the V_OC values were maintained at 0.80 V with increasing the absorber thickness from 150 nm to 450 nm. By optimizing the deposition parameters, a high-quality bifacial and semitransparent a-Si:H solar cell with 350 nm-thick i-a-Si:H absorber layer exhibited the conversion efficiencies of 7.69% for front illumination and 6.40% for rear illumination, and average visible optical transmittance of 17.20%.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1995.07c
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• pp.1019-1021
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• 1995

Light induced degradation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) are related to the number of weak dangling bonds which are thought to be responsible for the Staebler-Wronski effects, and caused the many photoelectric problems in applications of thin film transistors and solar cell, etc. In this paper, we deposited fluorinated amorphous silicon films(a-Si:H;F) with $SiH_4$ and $SiF_4$ gas mixture and investigated the effects of fluorine atoms on the evoluations of the crystallinity and improvements of light instability. We have found that micro-crystallinity produced in a-SI:H;F films and marked maximum value of 22% at the flow rate of $SiH_4:SiF_4$=2:10 sccm by UV spectrophotometer measurement, while n-Si:H film deposited with only $SiH_4$ gas showed no crystallinity. Light-induced degradation property of a-Si:H;F films is also improved which is mainly due to the etching effects of fluorine atoms on the weak Si-Si bonds and unstable hydrogen bonds. It is considered that involving fluorine atoms in a-Si:H films may contribute to the suppression of light-induced degradation and evolution of micro-crystallinity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.127-127
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• 2009

The most important part of the fabrication solar cells is the anti-reflection coating when excludes the kinds of silicon substrates (crystalline, polycrystalline, or amorphous), patterns and materials of electrodes. Anti-reflection coatings reduce the reflection of sunlight and at last increase the intensity of radiation to inside of solar cells. So, we can obtain increase of solar cell efficiency about 10% using anti-reflection coating. There are many kinds of anti-reflection film for solar cell, such as SiN, $SiO_2$, a-Si, and so on. And, they have two functions, anti-reflection and passivation. However such materials could not perfectly prevent reflection. So, in this work, we investigated the anti-reflection coating with the columnar structure ZnO thin film. We synthesized columnar structure ZnO film on glass substrates. The ZnO films were synthesized using a RF magnetron sputtering system with a pure (99.95%) ZnO target at room temperature. The anti-reflection coating layer was sputtered by argon and oxygen gases. The angle of target and substrate measures 0, 20, 40, 60 degrees, the working pressure 10 mtorr and the 250 W of RF power during 40 minutes. The confirm the growth mechanism of ZnO on columnar structure, the anti-reflection coating layer was observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The optical trends were observed by UV-vis and Elleso meter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.279.1-279.1
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• 2016

박막 트랜지스터 (thin film transistor, TFT)는 고밀도, 대면적화로 높은 전자의 이동도가 요구되면서, 비정질 실리콘 (a-Si)에서 다결정 실리콘 (poly-Si) TFT 로 연구되었다. 이에 따라 비정질 실리콘에서 결정질 실리콘으로의 상변화에 대한 결정화 연구가 활발히 진행되었다. 또한, 박막 태양전지 분야에서도 유리기판 위에 비정질 층을 증착한 후에 열처리를 통해 상변화하는 고상 결정화 (solid-phase crystallization, SPC) 기술을 적용하여, CSG (thin-film crystalline silicon on glass) 태양전지를 보고하였다. 이러한 비정질 실리콘 층의 결정화 기술을 결정질 실리콘 태양전지 에미터 형성 공정에 적용하고자 한다. 이 때, 플라즈마화학증착 (Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, PECVD) 장비로 증착된 비정질 실리콘 층의 열처리를 통한 결정화 정도가 중요한 요소이다. 따라서, 비정질 실리콘 층의 결정화에 영향을 주는 인자에 대해 연구하였다. 비정질 실리콘 증착 조건(H2 가스 비율, 도펀트 유무), 실리콘 기판의 결정방향, 열처리 온도에 따른 결정화 정도를 엘립소미터(elipsometer), 투과전자현미경 (transmission electron microscope, TEM), 적외선 분광기 (Fourier Transform Infrared, FT-IR) 측정을 통하여 비교 하였다. 이를 기반으로 결정화 온도에 따른 비정질 실리콘의 결정화를 위한 활성화 에너지를 계산하였다. 비정질 실리콘 증착 조건 보다 기판의 결정방향이 결정화 정도에 크게 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.276-276
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• 2010

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been explored recently as a promising approach to increase energy conversion efficiency in photovoltaic devices, particularly for thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. The LSPR is frequently excited via an electromagnetic (EM) radiation in proximate metallic nanostructures and its primary con sequences are selective photon extinction and local EM enhancement which gives rise to improved photogeneration of electron-hole (e-h) pairs, and consequently increases photocurrent. In this work, high-dielectric-constant (k) $ZrO_2$ (refractive index n=2.22, dielectric constant $\varepsilon=4.93$ at the wavelength of 550 nm) is proposed as spacing layer to enhance the LSPR for application to the thin film silicon solar cells. Compared to excitation of the LSPR using $SiO_2$ (n=1.46, $\varepsilon=2.13$ at the wavelength of 546.1 nm) spacing layer with Au nanoparticles of the radius of 45nm, that using $ZrO_2$ dielectric shows the advantages of(i) ~2.5 times greater polarizability, (ii) ~3.5 times larger scattering cross-section and ~1.5 times larger absorption cross-section, (iii) 4.5% higher transmission coefficient of the same thickness and (iv) 7.8% greater transmitted electric filed intensity at the same depth. All those results are calculated by Mie theory and Fresnel equations, and simulated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations with proper boundary conditions. Red-shifting of the LSPR wavelength using high-k $ZrO_2$ dielectric is also observed according to location of the peak and this is consistent with the other's report. Finally, our experimental results show that variation of short-circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) of the LSPR enhanced a-Si:H solar cell by using the $ZrO_2$ spacing layer is 45.4% higher than that using the $SiO_2$ spacing layer, supporting our calculation and theory.