• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.232-242
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• 2015

Analytical study of surface recombination at the $Si/SiO_2$ interface is carried out in order to set the optimum surface conditions that result in minimum dark base current and maximum open circuit voltage in silicon solar cells. Recombination centers are assumed to form a continuum rather than to be at a single energy level in the energy gap. It is shown that the presence of a hump in the dark I-V characteristics of high efficiency PERL cells is due to the dark current transition from a high surface recombination regime at low voltage to a low surface recombination regime at high voltage. Successful fitting of reported dark I-V characteristics of a typical PERL cell is obtained with several possible combinations of surface parameters including equal electron and hole capture cross sections.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.468-475
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• 1997

The transient photocurrent in amorphous silicon radiation detectors (n-i-n and forward biased p-i-n) were analyzed. The transient photocurrents in these devices could be modeled using multiple trap levels in the forbidden gap. Using this model the rise and decay shapes of the photocurrents could be fitted. The decaying photocurrent shapes of the p-i-n and n-i-n devices after a short duration of light pulse showed a similar behavior at low dark current density levels, but at higher dark current density levels the photocurrent of the p-i-n diode decayed faster than that of the n-i-n, which could be explained by the decreased electron lifetimes in the forward biased p-i-n diode at high dark current densities. The transient photoconductive gain behaviors in the amorphous silicon radiation detectors are discussed in terms of device configuration, dark current density and time scale.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.75-76
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• 2006

In this paper, the polycrystalline silicon photodiodes utilizing vertically directed current path are investigated. The location of electrodes is considered with the grain direction and the current path. The relationships between grain boundaries and characteristics of photodiode are simulated to apply the vertically grown polycrystalline silicon to photodiodes. From the results, the vertically grown polycrystalline silicon photodiode is a potential candidate for CMOS image sensor. However, the increment of dark current related to grain boundaries should be reduced.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.179-183
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• 2005

A photodiode capable of obtaining a sufficient photo/ dark current ratio at both forward bias state and reverse bias state is proposed. The photodiode includes a glass substrate, an aluminum film formed as a lower electrode over the glass substrate, an alumina film formed as an insulator barrier over the aluminum film, a hydrogenated amorphous silicon film formed as a photo conduction layer over a portion of the alumina film, and a transparent conduction film formed as an upper electrode over the hydro-generated amorphous silicon film. A good quality alumina $(Al_2O_3)$ film is formed by oxidation of aluminum film using electrolyte solution of succinic acid. Alumina is used as a potential barrier between amorphous silicon and aluminum. It controls dark-current restriction. In case of photodiodes made by changing the formation condition of alumina, we can obtain a stable dark current $(\~10^{-12}A)$ in alumina thickness below $1000{\AA}$. At the reverse bias state of the negative voltage in ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), the photo current has substantially constant value of $5{\times}10^{-9}$ A at light scan of 100 1x. On the other hand, the photo/dark current ratios become higher at smaller thicknesses of the alumina film. Therefore, the alumina film is used as a thin insulator barrier, which is distinct from the conventional concept of forming the insulator barrier layer near the transparent conduction film. Also, the structure with the insulator thin barrier layer formed near the lower electrode, opposed to the ITO film, solves the interface problem of the ITO film because it provides an improved photo current/dark current ratio.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2004.08c
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• pp.482-485
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• 2004

We fabricated a hybrid bulk/fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel image sensor. The active pixel is comprised of reset and source follower transistors on the SOI seed wafer, while the pinned photodiode and readout gate and floating diffusion are fabricated on the SOI handle wafer after the removal of the buried oxide. The source of dark current is eliminated by hybrid bulk/FDSOI pixel structure between localized oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) and photodiode(PD). By using the low noise hybrid pixel structure, dark currents qm be suppressed significantly. The pinned photodiode can also be optimized for quantum efficiency and reduce the noise of dark current. The spectral response of the pinned photodiode on the SOI handle wafer is very flat between 400 nm and 700 nm and the dark current that is higher than desired is about 10 nA/cm2 at a $V_{DD}$ of 2 V.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.311-317
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• 2008

The measurement of dark ${\sigma}_D$, gamma-induced ${\sigma}_{\gamma}$ conductivities and the expected conductivity modulation ${\Delta}_{\sigma}$ in silicon wafers/samples is studied for developing a new technique for carrier lifetime evaluation. In this paper a simple method is introduced to find the carrier lifetime variations with the measured conductivity and conductivity modulation under dark and gamma irradiation conditions. It will be concluded that this simple method enables us to give an improved wafer evaluation, processing and quality control in the field of photovoltaic materials and other electronic devices.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.01a
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• pp.65-66
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• 2000

Various fluoride films on a glass substrate were prepared and characterized to provide a seed layer for crystalline Si film growth. The XRD analysis on $CaF_2/glass$ illustrated (220) preferential orientation and showed lattice mismatch less than 5 % with Si. We achieved a fluoride film with breakdown electric field of 1.27 MV/cm, leakage current density about $10^{-6}$ $A/cm^2$, and relative dielectric constant less than 5.6. This paper demonstrates microcrystalline silicon $({\mu}c-Si)$ film growth by using a $CaF_2/glass$ substrate. The ${\mu}c-Si$ films exhibited crystallization in (111) and (220) planes, grain size of $700\;{\AA}$, crystalline volume fraction over 65 %, dark- and photo-conductivity ratio of 124, activation energy of 0.49 eV, and dark conductivity less than $4{\times}10^{-7}$ S/cm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.52-52
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• 2011

A novel deposition process for n-type nanocrystalline silicon (n-type nc-Si) thin films at room temperature has been developed by adopting the neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBa-CVD). During formation of n-type nc-Si thin film by the NBa-CVD process with silicon reflector electrode at room temperature, the energetic particles could induce enhance doping efficiency and crystalline phase in polymorphous-Si thin films without additional heating on substrate; The dark conductivity and substrate temperature of P-doped polymorphous~nano crystalline silicon thin films increased with increasing the reflector bias. The NB energy heating substrate(but lower than $80^{\circ}C$ and increase doping efficiency. This low temperature processed doped nano-crystalline can address key problem in applications from flexible display backplane thin film transistor to flexible solar cell.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

The trend of x-ray image sensor has been evolved from an amorphous silicon sensor to a crystal silicon sensor. A crystal silicon X-ray sensor, meaning a X-ray CIS (CMOS image sensor), is consisted of three transistors (Trs), i.e., a Reset Transistor, a Source Follower and a Select Transistor, and a photodiode. They are highly sensitive to radiation exposure. As the frequency of exposure to radiation increases, the quality of the imaging device dramatically decreases. The most well known effects of a X-ray CIS due to the radiation damage are increments in the reset voltage and dark currents. In this study, a pixel array of a X-ray CIS was made of $20{\times}20pixels$ and this pixel array was exposed to a high radiation dose. The radiation source was Co-60 and the total radiation dose was increased from 1 to 9 kGy with a step of 1 kGy. We irradiated the small pixel array to get the increments data of the reset voltage and the dark currents. Also, we simulated the radiation effects of the pixel by MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle) simulation. From the comparison of actual data and simulation data, the most affected location could be determined and the cause of the increments of the reset voltage and dark current could be found.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.6 no.7
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• pp.733-741
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• 1996

In this study MeV Si self ion implantations were done to reveal the intrinsic behavior of defect formation by excluding the possibility of chemical interactions between substrate atoms and dopant ones. Self implantations were conducted using Tandem Accelerator with energy ranges from 1 to 3 MeV. Defect formation by high energy ion implantation has a significant characteristics in that the lattice damage is concentrated near Rp and isolated from the surface. In order to investigate the energy dependence on defect formation, implantation energies were varied from 1 to 3 MeV under a constant dose of $1{\times}10^{15}/cm^2$. RBS channe!ed spectra showed that the depth at which as-implanted damaged layer formed increases as energy increases and that near surface region maintains better crystallinity as energy increases. Cross sectional TEM results agree well with RBS ones. In a TEM image as-implanted damaged layer appears as a dark band, where secondary defects are formed upon annealing. In the case of 2 MeV $Si^+$ self implantation a critical dose for the secondary defect formation was found to be between $3{\times}10^{14}/cm^24$ and $5{\times}10^{14}/cm^2$. Upon annealing the upper layer of the dark band was removed while the bottom part of the dark band did not move. The observed defect behavior by TEM was interpreted by Monte Carlo computer simulations using TRIM-code. SIMS analyses indicated that the secondary defect formed after annealing gettered oxygen impurities existed in silicon.