• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.1 no.1 s.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2005

High-efficiency silicon solar cells have potential applications on mobile electronics and electrical vehicles. The fabrication processes of the high efficiency cells necessitate com placated fabrication precesses and expensive materials. Ti/Pd/Ag metal contact has been used only for limited area In spite of good stability and low contact resistance because of Its expensive material cost and precesses. Screen printed contact formed by Ag paste causes a low fill factor and a high shading loss of commercial solar cells because of high contact resistance and a low aspect ratio. Low cost Ni/Cu metal contact has been formed by using a low cost electroless and electroplating. Nickel silicide formation at the interface enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance resulting In an energy conversion efficiency of $20.2\%\;on\;0.50{\Omega}cm$ FZ wafer. Tapered contact structure has been applied to large area solar cells with $6.7\times6.7cm^2$ in order to reduce power losses by the front contact The tapered front metal contact Is easily formed by the electroplating technique producing $45cm^2$ solar cells with an efficiency of $21.4\%$ on $21.4\%\;on\;2{\Omega}cm$ FZ wafer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.968-972
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• 2008

Ni/Ti/Al multilayer system ('/'denotes the deposition sequence) was tested for low-resistance ohmic contact formation to Al-implanted p-type 4H-SiC. Ni 30 nm / Ti 50 nm / Al 300 nm layers were sequentially deposited by e-beam evaporation on the 4H-SiC samples which were implanted with Al (norminal doping concentration = $4\times10^{19}cm^{-3}$) and then annealed at $1700^{\circ}C$ for dopant activation. Rapid thermal anneal (RTA) temperature for ohmic contact formation was varied in the range of $840\sim930^{\circ}C$. Specific contact resistances were extracted from the measured current vs. voltage (I-V) data of linear- and circular transfer length method (TLM) patterns. In constrast to Ni contact, Ni/Ti/Al contact shows perfectly linear I-V characteristics, and possesses much lower contact resistance of about $2\sim3\times10^{-4}\Omega{\cdot}cm^2$ even after low-temperature RTA at $840^{\circ}C$, which is about 2 orders of magnitude smaller than that of Ni contact. Therefore, it was shown that RTA temperature for ohmic contact formation can be lowered to at least $840^{\circ}C$ without significant compromise of contact resistance. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated the existence of intermetallic compounds of Ni and Al as well as $NiSi_{1-x}$, but characteristic peaks of $Ti_{3}SiC_2$, a probable narrow-gap interfacial alloy responsible for low-resistance Ti/Al ohmic contact formation, were not detected. Therefore, Al in-diffusion into SiC surface region is considered to be the dominant mechanism of improvement in conduction behavior of Ni/Ti/Al contact.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.619-625
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• 1995

Polycrystalline CdTe thin film has been studied for photovoltaic application due to the 1.45 eV band gap energy ideal for solar energy conversion and high absorption coefficient. The formation of low resistance contact to p-CdTe is difficult because of large work function(>5.5eV). Common methods for ohmic contact to p-CdTe are to form a p+ region under the contact by in-diffusion of contact material to reduce the barrier height and modify a p-CdTe surface layer using chemical treatment. In this study, the surface chemical treatment of p CdTe was carried out by H$\_$3/PO$\_$4/+HNO$\_$3/ or K$\_$2/Cr$\_$2/O$\_$7/+H$\_$2/SO$\_$4/ solution to provide a Te-rich surface. And various thin film contact materials such as Cu, Au, and Cu/Au were deposited by E-beam evaporation to form ohmic contact to p-CdTe. After the metallization, post annealing was performed by oven heat treatment at 150.deg. C or by RTA(Rapid Thermal Annealing) at 250-350.deg. C. Surface chemical treatments of p-CdTe thin film improved metal/p-CdTe interface properties and post heat treatment resulted in low contact resistivity to p-CdTe.Of the various contact metal, Cu/Au and Cu show low contact resistance after oven and RTA post-heat treatments, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.208-209
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• 2008

Ni/Ti/Al multilayer system was tested for low-resistance ohmic contact formation to Al-implanted p-type 4H-SiC. Compared with conventional process using Ni, Ni/Ti/Al contact shows perfect ohmic behavior, and possesses much lower contact resistance of about $2.5\times10^{-4}\Omega{\cdot}cm^2$ after $930^{\circ}C$ RTA, which is about 2 orders of magnitude smaller than that of Ni contact. Contact resistance gradually increased as the RTA temperature was lowered in the range of 840 ~ $930^{\circ}C$, and about $3.4\times10^{-4}\Omega{\cdot}cm^2$ was obtained at the lowest RTA temperature of $840^{\circ}C$. Therefore, it was shown that RTA temperature for ohmic contact formation can be lowered to at least $840^{\circ}C$ without significant compromise of contact resistance.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.170-177
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• 1992

Contact resistance and contact leakage current of the Al/TiSiS12T/Si system are investigated for NS0+T and PS0+T junctions. SALICIDE (Self Aligned Silicide) process was used to make the Al/TiSiS12T/Si system. Titanium disilicide is one of the most common silicides because of its thermal stability, ability to form selective formation and low resistivity. In this paper, RTA temperature effect and Junction implant dose effect were evaluated to characterize contact resistance and contact leakage current. The TiSiS12T contact resistance to NS0+T silicon is lower than that to PS0+T silicon, and TiSiS12T of contact leakage current to NS0+T silicon is lower than that to PS0+T silicon. Contact resistance and contact leakage current of the Al/TiSiS12T/Si system by this method were possible for VLSI application.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. The Ni contact was formed on the front grid pattern by electroless plating followed by anneal ing at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ for $15{\sim}30$ min at $N_{2}$ gas to allow formation of a nickel-silicide in a tube furnace or a rapid thermal processing(RTP) chamber because nickel is transformed to NiSi at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$. The Ni plating solution is composed of a mixture of $NiCl_{2}$ as a main nickel source. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. The Ni/Cu contact was found to be well suited for high-efficiency solar cells and was successfully formed by using electroless plating and electroplating, which are more cost effective than vacuum evaporation. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electroless and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.267-268
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• 2002

Engine testing of new low-sulfur, low-phosphorus anti wear components is expensive and time consuming so bench testing of potential candidates is highly desirable as a first step evaluation. Electrical contact resistance (ECR) has been shown to be a convenient method to assess antiwear film formation in a ball-on-flat bench wear test. Correlation of the bench test to fired engines was demonstrated for lubricants varying only in the type of detergent. Previous papers have examined film formation by one and two component formulations of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZnDTP) and detergents. In this study, the ECR technique is systematically extended to formulations including ZnDTP, detergent, and dispersant. Both type and level of components are considered and the implications for engine performance are discussed.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1991.07a
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• pp.178-182
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• 1991

Contact resistance and contact leakage current of the $Al/TiSi_2/Si$ system are investigated for $N^+\;and\;P^+$ junctions. Titanium disilicide is one of the most common silicides because of its thermal stability, ability, to form selective formation and low resistivity. In this paper, the effect of RTA temperature and Junction implant dose are characterized. The $TiSi_2$ contact resistance to $N^+$ silicon is lower than that of Al to $N^+$ silicon, but $TiSi_2$ of contact resistance to $P^+$ silicon is higher than that of Al to $P^+$ silicon. The $TiSi_2$ of contact leakage current to $N^+\;and\;P^+$ silicon is similar to that of Al contact.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.91.2-91.2
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• 2010

The use of plated front contact for metallization of silicon solar cell may alternative technologies as a screen printed and silver paste contact. This technologies should allow the formation of contact with low contact resistivity a high line conductivity and also reduction of shading losses. The better performance of Ni/Cu contacts is attributed to the reduced series resistance due to better contact conductivity of Ni with Si and subsequent electroplating of Cu on Ni. The ability to pattern narrower grid lines for reduced light shading combined with the lower resistance of a metal silicide contact and improved conductivity of plated deposit. This improves the FF as the series resistance is deduced. This is very much required in the case of low concentrator solar cells in which the series resistance is one of the important and dominant parameter that affect the cell performance. A selective emitter structure with highly dopes regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing. This paper using selective emitter structure technique, fabricated Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a cell efficiency of 17.19%.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.438-444
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• 2000

We report the effects of etch process parameters on the ohmic contact formation in the plasma etching of GaN. Planar inductively coupled plasma system with $CH_4/H_2/Ar$gas chemistry has been used as etch reactor. The contact resistance and the specific contact resistance have been investigated using transfer length method as a function of RF bias power and %Ar gas concentration in total flow rate. AES(Auger electron spectroscopy) analysis revealed that the etched GaN has nonstoichiometric Ga rich surface and was contaminated by carbon and oxygen. Especially large amount of carbon was detected at the sample etched for high bias power (or voltage) condition, where severe degradation of contact resistance was occurred. We achieved the low ohmic contact of $2.4{\times}10^{-3} {\Omega}cm^2$ specific contact resistance at the input power 400 W, RF bias power 150 W, and working pressure 10mTorr with 10 sccm $CH_4$, 15 sccm H2, 5 sccm Ar gas composition.