• Journal of Electrical Engineering and information Science
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.65-71
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• 1997

We present heterojunction solar cells with a structure of metal/a-Si:H(n-i-p)/poly-Si(n-p)/metal for the terrestrial applications. This cell consists fo two component cells: a top n-i-p junction a-Si:Hi cell with wide-bandgap 1.8eV and a bottom n-p junction poly-Si cell with narrow-bandgap 1.1eV. The efficiency influencing factors of the solar cell were investigated in terms of simulation an experiment. Three main topics of the investigated study were the bottom cell with n-p junction poly-Si, the top a-Si:H cell with n-i-p junction, and the interface layer effects of heterojunction cell. The efficiency of bottom cell was improved with a pretreatment temperature of 900$^{\circ}C$, surface polishing, emitter thickness of 0.43$\mu\textrm{m}$, top Yb metal, and grid finger shading of 7% coverage. The process optimized cell showed a conversion efficiency about 16%. Top cell was grown by suing a photo-CVD system which gave an ion damage free and good p/i-a-Si:H layer interface. The heterojunction interface effect was examined with three different surface states; a chemical passivation, thermal oxide passivation, and Yb metal. the oxide passivated cell exhibited the higher photocurrent generation and better spectral response.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.11-17
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• 2013

Silicon nitride($SiN_x:H$) deposited by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(RF-PECVD) is commonly used for anti-reflection coating and passivation in crystalline silicon solar cell fabrication. In this paper, characteristics of the deposited silicon nitride was studied with change of working pressure, deposition temperature, gas ratio of $NH_3$ and $SiH_4$, and RF power during deposition. The deposition rate, refractive index and effective lifetime were analyzed. The (100) p-type silicon wafers with one-side polished, $660-690{\mu}m$, and resistivity $1-10{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ were used. As a result, when the working pressure increased, the deposition rate of SiNx was increased while the effective life time for the $SiN_x$-deposited wafer was decreased. The result regarding deposition temperature, gas ratio and RF power changes would be explained in detail below. In this paper, the optimized condition in silicon nitride deposition for silicon solar cell was obtained as 1.0 Torr for the working pressure, $400^{\circ}C$ for deposition temperature, 500 W for RF power and 0.88 for $NH_3/SiH_4$ gas ratio. The silicon nitride layer deposited in this condition showed the effective life time of > $1400{\mu}s$ and the surface recombination rate of 25 cm/s. The crystalline silicon solar cell fabricated with this SiNx coating showed 18.1% conversion efficiency.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2008

We investigated for comparison of large-area i-a-Si:H and p-a-SiC:H film quality like thickness uniformity, optical bandgap and surface roughness using both ICP-CVD and PECVD on the large-area substrate(diameter of 100 mm). As a whole, films using ICP-CVD could be achieved much uniform thickness and bandgap of that using PECVD. For i-a-Si:H films, its uniformity of thickness and optical bandgap were 2.8 % and 0.38 %, respectively. Also, thickness and optical bandgap of p-a-SiC:H films using ICP-CVD could be obtained at 1.8 % and 0.3 %, respectively. In case of surface roughness, average surface roughness (below 5 nm) of ICP-CVD film could be much better than that (below 30 nm) of PECVD film. HIT solar cell with 2 wt%-AZO/p-a-SiC:H/i-a-Si:H/c-Si/Ag structure was fabricated and characterized with diameter of 152.3 mm in this large-area ICP-CVD system. Conversion efficiency of 9.123 % was achieved with a practical area of $100\;mm\;{\times}\;100\;mm$, which can show the potential to fabrication of the large-area solar cell using ICP-CVD method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.139-143
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• 2017

N-type crystalline silicon solar cells have high metal impurity tolerance and higher minority carrier lifetime that increases conversion efficiency. However, junction quality between the boron diffused layer and the n-type substrate is more important for increased efficiency. In this paper, the current status and prospects for boron diffused layers in N-type crystalline silicon solar cell applications are described. Boron diffused layer formation methods (thermal diffusion and co-diffusion using $a-SiO_X:B$), boron rich layer (BRL) and boron silicate glass (BSG) reactions, and analysis of the effects to improve junction characteristics are discussed. In-situ oxidation is performed to remove the boron rich layer. The oxidation process after diffusion shows a lower B-O peak than before the Oxidation process was changed into $SiO_2$ phase by FTIR and BRL. The $a-SiO_X:B$ layer is deposited by PECVD using $SiH_4$, $B_2H_6$, $H_2$, $CO_2$ gases in N-type wafer and annealed by thermal tube furnace for performing the P+ layer. MCLT (minority carrier lifetime) is improved by increasing $SiH_4$ and $B_2H_6$. When $a-SiO_X:B$ is removed, the Si-O peak decreases and the B-H peak declines a little, but MCLT is improved by hydrogen passivated inactive boron atoms. In this paper, we focused on the boron emitter for N-type crystalline solar cells.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07c
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• pp.1595-1597
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• 2003

This paper presents the deposition of ${\mu}c$-Si:H thin-film and fabrication of a solar cell by VHF-PECVD method. The ${\mu}c$-Si:H thin films and pin-type solar cells are fabricated using multi-chamber cluster tool system. A 7.4% conversion efficiency was achieved from ${\mu}c$-Si:H thin film solar cells with total thickness less than $5{\mu}m$. The physical characteristic was measured by Raman spectroscopy, Solar cell characteristic was measured under AM1.5 illumination.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.30-37
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• 1989

The PIN type a-SiC:H/a-Si:H heterojunction solar cells were fabricated by using the rf glow discharge decomposition of $SiH_4$ mixed with $CH_4,B_2,H_6\;and\;PH_3.$ The efficiency of the solar cell of the $SnO_2/ITO$ was higher than that of ITO transparent oxide layer by 1.5%. The P layer was prepared with the thickness of $100{\AA}$ and $CH_4/SiH_4$ ration of 5. The I layer has been deposited on the P layer and it is not pure intrinsic but near N type. So $SiH_4$ mixed with $B_2H_6$ of 0.3ppm was used to change this N type nature to intrinsic having the thickness of 5000${\AA}$. And consecutively, the N layer was deposited with t ethickness of $400{\AA}$ using $SiH_4/PH_3$ mixtures. The solar cell demonstrated 0.94V of $V_{oc'}$ 14.6mA/cm of $J_{sc}$ and 58.2% of FF, resulting the efficiency of 8.0%. To minimize loss by the reflection of light, $MgF_2$ layer was coated on the lgass and the efficiency was improved by 0.5%. Therefore, the solar cell indicated overall efficiency of 8.5%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.128.1-128.1
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• 2011

In amorphous silicon and crystalline silicon(a-Si:H/c-Si) heterojuction solar cells, intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) films play an important role to passivate the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces. We have studied the correlation between the surface passivation quality and nature of the Si-H bonding at the a-Si:H/c-Si interface. The samples were obtained by VHF-CVD under different deposition conditions. The passivation quality and analysis of all structures studied was performed by means of quasi steady state photoconductance(QSSPC) methods and fourier transform infrared spectrometer(FTIR) measurements respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2012

We fabricated a-Si:H thin-film solar cell using the two-dimensional (2D) periodic patterned glass substrate. The use of a 3D periodic texture rather than a randomly texture at surface of TCO can result in higher short circuit current densities ($J_{sc}$). In order to analyze the optical effect of patterning glasses, ray-tracing simulations were performed. Also, p-i-n cells were deposited on patterned glasses as substrate by PECVD. UV-Vis spectroscopy, light I-V measurement were carried out for the optoelectronic characterization. The anti-reflective and light-trapping performance of patterning glass substrate was investigated by a comparison of experimental results with numerical simulations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.1034-1037
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• 2003

Microcrystalline silicon(c-Si:H) thin-film solar cells are prepared with intrinsic Si-layer by hot wire CVD. The operating parameters of solar cells are strongly affected by the filament temperature ($T_f$) during intrinsic layer. Jsc and efficiency abruptly decreases with elevated $T_f$ to $1400^{\circ}C$. This deterioration of solar cell parameters are resulted from increase of crystalline volume fraction and corresponding defect density at high $T_f$. The heater temperature ($T_h$) are also critical parameter that controls device operations. Solar cells prepared at low $T_h$ ($<200^{\circ}C$) shows a similar operating properties with devices prepared at high $T_f$, i.e. low Jsc, Voc and efficiency. The origins for this result, however, are different with that of inferior device performances at high $T_f$. In addition the phase transition of the silicon films occurs at different silane concentration (SC) by varying filament temperature, by which highest efficiency with SC varies with $T_f$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.320-320
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• 2014

Amorphous silicon alloy (a-Si) solar cells and modules have been receiving a great deal of attention as a low-cost alternate energy source for large-scale terrestrial applications. Key to the achievement of high-efficiency solar cells using the multi-junction approach is the development of high quality, low band-gap materials which can capture the low-energy photons of the solar spectrum. Several cell designs have been reported in the past where grading or buffer layers have been incorporated at the junction interface to reduce carrier recombination near the junction. We have investigated profiling the composition of the a-SiGe alloy throughout the bulk of the intrinsic material so as to have a built-in electrical field in a substantial portion of the intrinsic material. As a result, the band gap mismatch between a-Si:H and $a-Si_{1-x}Ge_x:H$ creates a barrier for carrier transport. Previous reports have proposed a graded band gap structure in the absorber layer not only effectively increases the short wavelength absorption near the p/i interface, but also enhances the hole transport near the i-n interface. Here, we modulated the GeH4 flow rate to control the band gap to be graded from 1.75 eV (a-Si:H) to 1.55 eV ($a-Si_{1-x}Ge_x:H$). The band structure in the absorber layer thus became like a U-shape in which the lowest band gap was located in the middle of the i-layer. Incorporation of this structure in the middle and top cell of the triple-cell configuration is expected to increase the conversion efficiency further.