• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.80-84
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• 2015

We suggest new emitter formation method using solid-phase epitaxy (SPE); solid-phase epitaxy emitter (SEE). This method expect simplification and cost reduction of process compared with furnace process (POCl3 or BBr3). The solid-phase epitaxy emitter (SEE) deposited a-Si:H layer by radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) on substrate (c-Si), then thin layer growth solid-phase epitaxy (SPE) using rapid thermal process (RTP). This is possible in various emitter profile formation through dopant gas ($PH_3$) control at deposited a-Si:H layer. We fabricated solar cell to apply solid-phase epitaxy emitter (SEE). Its performance have an effect on crystallinity of phase transition layer (a-Si to c-Si). We confirmed crystallinity of this with a-Si:H layer thickness and annealing temperature by using raman spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscope. The crystallinity is excellent as the thickness of a-Si layer is thin (~50 nm) and annealing temperature is high (<$900^{\circ}C$). We fabricated a 16.7% solid-phase epitaxy emitter (SEE) cell. We anticipate its performance improvement applying thin tunnel oxide (<2nm).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2017

The BCBJ (Back Contact and Back Junction) or back-lit solar cell design eliminates shading loss by placing the pn junction and metal electrode contacts all on one side that faces away from the sun. However, as the electron-hole generation sites now are located very far from the pn junction, loss by minority-carrier recombination can be a significant issue. Utilizing Medici, a 2-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool, the interdependency between the substrate thickness and the minority-carrier recombination lifetime was studied in terms of how these factors affect the solar cell power output. Qualitatively speaking, the results indicate that a very high quality substrate with a long recombination lifetime is needed to maintain the maximum power generation. The quantitative value of the recombination lifetime of minority-carriers, i.e., electrons in p-type substrates, required in the BCBJ cell is about one order of magnitude longer than that in the front-lit cell, i.e., $5{\times}10^{-4}sec$ vs. $5{\times}10^{-5}sec$. Regardless of substrate thickness up to $150{\mu}m$, the power output in the BCBJ cell stays at nearly the maximum value of about $1.8{\times}10^{-2}W{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, or $18mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, as long as the recombination lifetime is $5{\times}10^{-4}s$ or longer. The output power, however, declines steeply to as low as $10mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ when the recombination lifetime becomes significantly shorter than $5{\times}10^{-4}sec$. Substrate thinning is found to be not as effective as in the front-lit case in stemming the decline in the output power. In view of these results, for BCBJ applications, the substrate needs to be only mono-crystalline Si of very high quality. This bars the use of poly-crystalline Si, which is gaining wider acceptance in standard front-lit solar cells.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1738-1740
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• 1999

This paper deals with a novel structure of poly-Si solar cell. A solar cell conversion efficiency was degraded by grain boundary effect in Polycrystalline silicon. To reduce grain boundary effect, we performed a preferential grain boundary etching, $POCl_3$ n-type emitter doping, and then ITO film growth on poly-Si. Among the various preferential etchants, Schimmel etch solution exhibited the best result having grain boundary etch depth about $10{\mu}m$. RF magnetron sputter grown ITO films showed a low resistivity of $10^{-4}\Omega-cm$ and high transmittance of 85%. With well fabricated poly-Si solar cells. we were able to achieve as high as 15% conversion efficiency at the input power of 20mW/$cm^2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.209-209
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• 2012

High-efficient transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film-embedding Si heterojunction solar cells were fabricated. An additional doping was not applied for heterojunction solar cells due to the spontaneous junction formation between TCO films and an n-type Si substrate. Three different TCO coatings were formed by sputtering method for an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film, an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film and double stacks of ITO/AZO films. An improved crystalline ITO film was grown on an AZO template upon hetero-epitaxial growth. This double TCO films-embedding Si heterojunction solar cell provided significantly enhanced efficiency of 9.23% as compared to the single TCO/Si devices. The effective arrangement of TCO films (ITO/AZO) provides benefits of a lower front contact resistance and a smaller band offset to Si leading enhanced photovoltaic performances. This demonstrates a potential scheme of the effective TCO film-embedding heterojunction Si solar cells.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.1155-1159
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• 1999

Thin film solar cells on a glass/$SnO_2$ substrate with p-SiC/i-Si/n-Si heterojunction structures were fabricated using a plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition system. The photovoltaic properties of the solar cells were examined with varying the gas phase composition, x=$CH_4/\;(SiH_4+CH_4)$, during the deposition of the p-SiC layer. In the range of x=0~0.4, the efficiency of solar cell increased because of the increased band gap of the p-SiC window layer. Further increase in the gas phase composition, however, led to a decrease in the cell efficiency probably due to in the increased composition mismatch at the p-SiC/i-Si layers. As a result, the efficiency of a glass/$SnO_2$/p-SiC/i-SiC/i-Si/n-Si/Ag thin film solar cell with $1cm^2$ area was 8.6% ($V_{oc}$=0.85V, $J_{sc}$=16.42mA/$cm^2$, FF=0.615) under 100mW/$cm^2$ light intensity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.699-704
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• 2017

The amount of electric power for photovoltaic power generation depends on the location of the power plant and the direction of solar cell. The solar cell controls the generation of solar power plants. Therefore, the structure of solar cell, manufacturing method, and optic technology were factors contributing to increased solar cell efficiency; however, the technical limit has been reached. Herein, we propose a new method to increase the solar cell efficiency using a wavelength conversion technology that converts ultraviolet and infrared rays, which are not effectively used in solar cells, into effective wavelength of solar cell. We used fluoride $Na(Ca)YF_4$ phosphor for wavelength conversion. Then, a wavelength-conversion fluorescent paste, prepared using an organic-silicon binder, was used to prepare a film that was applied to Si solar cells. It was confirmed that conversion efficiency improved by 5% or more.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

Globally, the interest of renewable energy has become an upsurge. Especially, the solar industry is the one which is getting rapid growth rate. Many of researchers have been undertaking to improve the efficiency of solar cell to accomplish grid parity. The most of research has been concentrated on two methods, one on the selective emitter and the other is on LBSF (Local Back Surface Field) formation. Laser patterning will be needed to eliminate the thin film to form selective emitter and LBSF of solar cell. This paper reports some experimental results in laser patterning process for high-efficiency crystalline solar cell manufacturing. The experimental results indicate that the patterning quality depends on the average power and repetition rate of laser. The experimental results prove that the laser patterning process is an advantageous method to improve the efficiency of solar cell.

• 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.

• 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.29 no.6
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• pp.376-379
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• 2016

In this paper, the efficiency improvement of the heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells is obtained by optimization process of p-type a-SiC:H as emitter. The optoelectronic of p-type a-SiC:H layers including the optical band-gap and conductivity under the methane gas content variation is conducted in detail. A significant increase in the Jsc by $1mA/cm^2$ and Voc by 30 mV are attributed to enhanced photon-absorption due to broader band-gap of p-a-SiC:H and reduced band-offsets at p-side interface, respectively of HIT solar cells.