• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2013

In this study, the influence on the surface passivation properties of crystalline silicon according to silicon wafer thickness, and the correlation with a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cell performances were investigated. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers show poor passivation properties because of the doping elements, such as boron(B) and phosphorous(P), which result in a low minority carrier lifetime (MCLT). A decrease in open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) was observed when the wafer thickness was thinned from $170{\mu}m$ to $50{\mu}m$. On the other hand, wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer showed high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The implied $V_{oc}$ of the ITO/p a-Si:H/i a-Si:H/n c-Si wafer/i a-Si:H/n a-Si:H/ITO stacked layers was 0.715 V for $50{\mu}m$ c-Si substrate, and 0.704 V for $170{\mu}m$ c-Si. The $V_{oc}$ in the heterojunction solar cells increased with decreases in the substrate thickness. The high quality passivation property on the c-Si led to an increasing of $V_{oc}$ in the thinner wafer. Short circuit current decreased as the substrate became thinner because of the low optical absorption for long wavelength light. In this paper, we show that high quality passivation of c-Si plays a role in heterojunction solar cells and is important in the development of thinner wafer technology.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.47.2-47.2
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• 2011

High-efficient transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film-embedding Si heterojunction solar cells were fabricated. An improved crystalline indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film was grown on an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) template upon hetero-epitaxial growth. This double TCO-layered Si 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 a good interface, resulting in the enhanced photovoltaic performances. It discusses TCO film arrangement scheme for efficient TCO-layered heterojunction solar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2020

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a two-terminal tandem solar cell depends upon the tunnel-recombination junction (TRJ) between the top and bottom sub-cells. An optimized TRJ in a tandem cell helps improve its open-circuit voltage (V_oc), short-circuit current density (J_sc), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (PCE). One of the parameters that affect the TRJ is the buffer layer thickness. Therefore, we investigated various TRJs by varying the thickness of the buffer or intermediate layer (TRJ-buffer) in between the highly doped p-type and n-type layers of the TRJ. The TRJ-buffer layer was p-type nc-Si:H, with a doping of 0.06%, an activation energy (E_a) of 43 meV, an optical gap (E_g) of 2.04 eV, and its thickness was varied from 0 nm to 125 nm. The tandem solar cells we investigated were a combination of a heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) bottom sub-cell and an a-Si:H (amorphous silicon) top sub-cell. The initial cell efficiency without the TRJ buffer was 7.65% while with an optimized buffer layer, its efficiency improved to 11.74%, i.e., an improvement in efficiency by a factor of 1.53.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.115-118
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• 2017

Highly photosensitive and wide bandgap amorphous silicon oxide (a-$SiO_x$:H) films were developed at low temperature ranges ($100{\sim}150^{\circ}C$) with employing plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition by optimizing $H_2/SiH_4$ gas ratio and $CO_2$ flow. Photosensitivity more than $10^5$ and wide bandgap (1.81~1.85 eV) properties were used for making the a-$SiO_x$:H thin film solar cells, which exhibited a high open circuit voltage of 0.987 V at the substrate temperature of $100^{\circ}C$. In addition, a power conversion efficiency of 6.87% for the cell could be improved up to 7.77% by employing a new n-type nc-$SiO_x$:H/ZnO:Al/Ag triple back-reflector that offers better short circuit currents in the thin film photovoltaic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.102-107
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• 2010

a-Si solar cell has relatively dominant drift current when compared with crystalline solar cell due to the high internal electric field. Such drift current make an impact on the PV module in the local shading. In this paper, the a-Si PV module output characteristics of shading effects was approached in terms of process condition, because of the different deposition layer of thin film lead to rising the resistance. We suggested design condition to ensure the long-term durability of the module with regard to the degradation factors such as hot spot by analyzing the module specification. The result shows a remarkable difference on module uniformity for each shading position. In addition, the unbalanced power loss due to power mismatch of each module could intensify the degradation.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.84-89
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• 2022

c-Si solar cells currently account for more than 90% of the solar energy market. Research on tandem junction solar cells to overcome efficiency limitations is drawing attention at a time when new technologies are being developed to secure the price competitiveness of silicon solar cells. Among several candidate materials for silicon-based tandem solar cells, perovskite has recently been studied as it is suitable for the ease of process as well as for its properties as a tandem solar cell material. In this study, we want to review the research trends and technology limitations of 2-T Perovskite/SHJ tandem junction solar cells.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.96-101
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• 1988

This work is concerned with the fabrication process and photo-response characteristics of Cd S/(p) Si solar cells. In order to fabricate the cell. low grade Si wafer has been used as an absorber and Cd S which works as a window material has been prepared by vacuum evaporation. Cd S thin film, as evaporated, is polycristal and resistance is very high but these properties are improved by annealing. The properties of the fabricated cells are found to depend largely on the transmittance of Cd S. The effects of Cd S thickness and annealing condition on the fill factor and efficiency of the cell are investigated quantitatively.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.305-308
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• 2007

The field of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) is being researched actively at present. Because DSC has several advantages to pass the limits of Si solar cells such as a low manufacturing expense, a simple manufacturing process and its transparency. A lot of researches are underway about materials and processes in the field of dye-sensitized solar cell but its structure has been fixed up as the sandwich structure that both edges are used as positive and negative terminals. But the structure as of present is a factor of decreasing efficiency because the more electrons are recombined the further distance from terminal, considering about the characteristic of dye-sensitized solar cell that electrons generated inside cell are moved by diffusion. In this study, we made experiment on expanding the terminal to shorten internal moving distance of electron and compared the results according to the variation of active area to find out the effect of this trial. As a result, we achieved about 15.5% improvement of maximum power and 0.5% improvement of efficiency from terminal-expanded dye-sensitized solar cell of $2cm^{2}$ active area and concluded that the increasing rate of efficiency is raised as the active area becomes wider.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 2009

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) play an important role in thin-film solar cells in terms of low cost and performance improvement. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) is a very promising material for thin-film solar cellfabrication because of the wide availability of its constituent raw materials and its low cost. In this study, AZO films were prepared by low pressurechemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) using trimethylaluminum (TMA), diethylzinc(DEZ), and water vapor. In order to improve the absorbance of light, atypical surface texturing method is wet etching of front electrode using chemical solution. Alternatively, LPCVD can create a rough surface during deposition. This "self-texturing" is a very useful technique, which can eliminate additional chemical texturing process. The introduction of a TMA doping source has a strong influence on resistivity and the diffusion of light in a wide wavelength range.The haze factor of AZO up to a value of 43 % at 600 nm was achieved without an additional surface texturing process by simple TMA doping. The use of AZO TCO resulted in energy conversion efficiencies of 7.7 % when it was applied to thep-i-n a-Si:H thin film solar cell, which was comparable to commercially available fluorine doped tin oxide ($SnO_2$:F).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.64.2-64.2
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• 2011

a-Si 박막 태양전지는 a-Si:H을 유리 기판 사이에 주입해 만드는 태양전지로, 뛰어난 적용성과 경제성을 지녔으나 c-Si 태양전지에 비해 낮은 변환 효율을 보이는 단점이 있다. 변환 효율을 높이기 위한 연구 방법으로는 a-Si 박막 태양전지 단일cell 제작 시 high Bandgap을 가지는 p-layer를 사용함으로 높은 Voc와 Jsc의 향상에 기여할 수 있는데, 이 때 p-layer의 defect 증가와 activation energy 증가도 동시에 일어나 변환 효율의 증가폭을 감소시킨다. 이를 보완하기 위해 본 실험에서는 p-layer에 기존의 p-a-Si:H를 사용함과 동시에 high Bandgap의 buffer layer를 p-layer와 i-layer 사이에 삽입함으로써 그 장점을 유지하고 높은 defect과 낮은 activation energy의 영향을 최소화하였다. ASA 시뮬레이션을 통해 a-Si:H보다 high Bandgap을 가지는 a-SiOx 박막을 사용하여 p-type buffer layer의 두께를 2nm, Bandgap 2.0eV, activation energy를 0.55eV로 설정하고, i-type buffer layer의 두께를 2nm, Bandgap 1.8eV로 설정하여 삽입하였을 때 박막 태양전지의 변환 효율 10.74%를 달성할 수 있었다. (Voc=904mV, Jsc=$17.48mA/cm^2$, FF=67.97).