• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.31 no.10
• /
• pp.2909-2912
• /
• 2010

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c$-Si:H) thin film for solar cells is prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and physical properties of the ${\mu}c$-Si:H p-layer has been investigated. With respect to stable efficiency, this film is expected to surpass the performance of conventional amorphous silicon based solar cells and very soon be a close competitor to other thin film photovoltaic materials. Silicon in various structural forms has a direct effect on the efficiency of solar cell devices with different electron mobility and photon conversion. A Raman microscope is adopted to study the degree of crystallinity of Si film by analyzing the integrated intensity peaks at 480, 510 and $520\;cm^{-1}$, which corresponds to the amorphous phase (a-Si:H), microcrystalline (${\mu}c$-Si:H) and large crystals (c-Si), respectively. The crystal volume fraction is calculated from the ratio of the crystalline and the amorphous phase. The results are compared with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) for the determination of crystallinity factor. Optical properties such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, and band gap are studied with reflectance spectra.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.442-453
• /
• 2023

Tandem or multijunction solar cells (MJSCs) can convert sunlight into electricity with higher efficiency (η) than single junction solar cells (SJSCs) by dividing the solar irradiance over sub-cells having distinct bandgaps. The efficiencies of various common SJSC materials are close to the edge of their theoretical efficiency and hence there is a tremendous growing interest in utilizing the tandem/multijunction technique. Recently, III-V materials integration on a silicon substrate has been broadly investigated in the development of III-V on Si tandem solar cells. Numerous growth techniques such as heteroepitaxial growth, wafer bonding, and mechanical stacking are crucial for better understanding of high-quality III-V epitaxial layers on Si. As the choice of growth method and substrate selection can significantly impact the quality and performance of the resulting tandem cell and the terminal configuration exhibit a vital role in the overall proficiency. Parallel and Series-connected configurations have been studied, each with its advantage and disadvantages depending on the application and cell configuration. The optimization of both growth mechanisms and terminal configurations is necessary to further improve efficiency and lessen the cost of III-V on Si tandem solar cells. In this review article, we present an overview of the growth mechanisms and terminal configurations with the areas of research that are crucial for the commercialization of III-V on Si tandem solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.228-231
• /
• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

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

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.28-32
• /
• 2008

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon(${\mu}c$-Si:H) films were prepared using inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition(ICP-CVD) method, electrical and optical properties of these films were studied as a function of silane concentration. And then, effect of $PH_3\;and\;B_2H_6$ addition on their electrical properties was also investigated for solar cell application. Characterization of these films from X-ray diffraction revealed that the conductive film exists in microcrystalline phase embedded in an amorphous network. At $PH_3/SiH_4$ gas ratio of $0.9{\times}10^{-3}$, dark conductivity has a maximum value of ${\sim}18.5S/cm$ and optical bandgap also a maximum value of ${\sim}2.39eV$. Boron-doped ${\mu}c$-Si:H films, satisfied with p-layer of solar cell, could be obtained at ${\sim}10^{-2}\;of\;B_2H_6/SiH_4$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.38-42
• /
• 2018

Continuous efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of Si solar cells, which is the prevailing technology at this time. As opposed to the standard front-lit solar cell design, the back-lit design suffers no shading loss because all the metal electrodes are placed on one side close to the pn junction, which is referred to as the front side, and the incoming light enters the denuded back side. In this study, a systematic comparison between the two designs was conducted by means of computer simulation. Medici, a two-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool, was utilized for this purpose. The $0.6{\mu}m$ wavelength, the peak value for the AM-1.5 illumination, was chosen for the incident photons, and the minority-carrier recombination lifetime (${\tau}$), a key indicator of the Si substrate quality, was the main variable in the simulation on a p-type $150{\mu}m$ thick Si substrate. Qualitatively, minority-carrier recombination affected the short circuit current (Isc) but not the opencircuit voltage (Voc). The latter was most affected by series resistance associated with the electrode locations. Quantitatively, when ${\tau}{\leq}500{\mu}s$, the simulation yielded the solar cell power outputs of $20.7mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ and $18.6mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, respectively, for the front-lit and back-lit cells, a reasonable 10 % difference. However, when ${\tau}$ < $500{\mu}s$, the difference was 20 % or more, making the back-lit design less than competitive. We concluded that the back-lit design, despite its inherent benefits, is not suitable for a broad range of Si solar cells but may only be applicable in the high-end cells where float-zone (FZ) or magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) Si crystals of the highest quality are used as the substrate.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.7
• /
• pp.375-379
• /
• 2015

A proper estimate of solar cell efficiency is of great importance for the feasibility analysis of solar cell power plant development. Since solar cell efficiency depends on temperature, several methods have been introduced to measure it by operating temperature modulation. However, the methods either rely on the external environment or need expensive equipment. In this paper, a thermoelectric module was used to control the operating temperature of crystalline silicon solar cells effectively and precisely over a wide range. The output characteristics of crystalline silicon solar cells in response to operating temperatures from $-5^{\circ}C$ to $100^{\circ}C$ were investigated experimentally. Their efficiencies decreased as the temperature rose, since the decrease in the open circuit voltage and fill factor exceeded the increase in the short circuit current. The maximum power temperature coefficient of the single crystalline solar cell was more sensitive to temperature change than that of the polycrystalline solar cell.

• Solar Energy
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.74-83
• /
• 1991

In this study, the (p)ZnTe/(n)Si solar cell and (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si poly-junction thin film are fabricated by vaccum deposition method at the substrate temperature of $200{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and then their electrical properties are investigated and compared each other. The test results from the (p)ZnTe/(n)Si solar cell the (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si poly-junction thin fiim under the irradiation of solar energy $100[mW/cm^2]$ are as follows; Short circuit current$[mA/cm^2]$ (p)ZnTe/(n)Si:28 (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si:6.5 Open circuit voltage[mV] (p)ZnTe/(n)Si:450 (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si:250 Fill factor (p)ZnTe/(n)Si:0.65 (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si:0.27 Efficiency[%] (p)ZnTe/(n)Si:8.19 (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si:2.3 The thin film characteristics can be improved by annealing. But the (p)ZnTe/(n)Si solar cell are deteriorated at temperatures above $470^{\circ}C$ for annealing time longer than 15[min] and the (n)CdS-(p)ZnTe/(n)Si thin film are deteriorated at temperature about $580^{\circ}C$ for longer than 15[min]. It is found that the sheet resistance decreases with the increase of annealing temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.07b
• /
• pp.995-998
• /
• 2003

This paper presents the deposition of poly-Si thin-film and fabrication of a solar cell by VHF-PECVD method. The poly-Si thin films. and pin-type solar cells are fabricated using multi-chamber cluster tool system. A 7.4% conversion efficiency was achieved from poly-Si 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.426.1-426.1
• /
• 2016

We report high work function Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) films as insertion layer as a function of O2 flow rate between transparent conducting oxides (TCO) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiOx:H) layer to improve open circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) for high efficiency thin film solar cell. However, amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells exhibit poor fill factors due to a Schottky barrier like impedance at the interface between a-SiOx:H windows and TCO. The impedance is caused by an increasing mismatch between the work function of TCO and that of p-type a-SiOx:H. In this study, we report on the silicon thin film solar cell by using as insertion layer of O2 reactive AZO films between TCO and p-type a-SiOx:H. Significant efficiency enhancement was demonstrated by using high work-function layers (4.95 eV at O2=2 sccm) for engineering the work function at the key interfaces to raise FF as well as Voc. Therefore, we can be obtained the conversion efficiency of 7 % at 13mA/cm2 of the current density (Jsc) and 63.35 % of FF.