• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.150-154
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• 2016

Mg and In co-doped ZnO (MIZO) thin films with transparent conducting characteristics were successfully prepared on glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering technique. The Influence of different substrate temperature (from RT to $400^{\circ}C$) on the structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties of MIZO thin films were investigated. The MIZO thin film prepared at the substrate temperature of $350^{\circ}C$ showed the best electrical characteristics in terms of the carrier concentration ($4.24{\times}10^{20}cm^{-3}$), charge carrier mobility ($5.01cm^2V^{-1}S^{-1}$), and a minimum resistivity ($1.24{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$). The average transmission of MIZO thin films in the visible range was over 80% and the absorption edges of MIZO thin films were very sharp. The bandgap energy of MIZO thin films becomes wider from 3.44 eV to 3.6 eV as the substrate temperature increased from RT to $350^{\circ}C$. However, Band gap energy of MIZO thin film was narrow at substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2010

The effect of thermal anneal on the characteristics of structural properties and the enhancement of luminescence and photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of silicon-rich silicon-nitride films were investigated. By using an ultra high vacuum ion beam sputtering deposition, B-doped silicon-rich silicon-nitride (SRSN) thin films, with excess silicon content of 15 at. %, on P-doped (n-type) Si substrate was fabricated, sputtering a highly B doped Si wafer with a BN chip by N plasma. In order to examine the influence of thermal anneal, films were then annealed at different temperature up to $1100^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ environment. Raman, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy did not show any reliable evidence of amorphous or crystalline Si clusters allowing us concluding that nearly no Si nano-cluster could be formed through the precipitation of excess Si from SRSN matrix during thermal anneal. Instead, results of Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy clearly indicated that defective, amorphous Si-N matrix of films was changed to be well-ordered thanks to high temperature anneal. The measurement of spectral ellipsometry in UV-visible range was carried out and we found that the optical absorption edge of film was shifted to higher energy as the anneal temperature increased as the results of thermal anneal induced formation of $Si_3N_4$-like matrix. These are consistent with the observation that higher visible photoluminescence, which is likely due to the presence of Si-N bonds, from anneals at higher temperature. Based on these films, PV cells were fabricated by the formation of front/back metal electrodes. For all cells, typical I-V characteristic of p-n diode junction was observed. We also tried to measure PV properties using a solar-simulator and confirmed successful operation of PV devices. Carrier transport mechanism depending on anneal temperature and the implication of PV cells based on SRSN films were also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.33-43
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• 2019

In this study, reflecting long-term climate characteristics, we analyzed electricity generation and generation characteristics of 3kWp PV system, which was semi-integrated with air duct behind. Using PVsyst as a simulation analysis tool, we inputted "National reference standard weather data" of 16 regions as a typical climatic data. The result is summarized as follows: First, the national average annual electricity generation was 1,312 kWh/kWp (StDev, ${\sigma}=71$). It was most abundant in Mokpo with 1,434 kWh/kWp, which was average 21% greater than the lowest with 1,165 kWh/kWp in Seoul and 1,197 kWh/kWp in Jeju. National average daily generating time based on STC was 3.6 hours (${\sigma}=0.43$), and that of Mokpo and Seoul was 3.9 and 3.2 hours respectively. Second, Jeju showed the great difference of annual monthly generation by month (annual average = 99.7 kWh/kWp, ${\sigma}=25.5$), while Jinju showed the smallest difference (annual average = 115.5 kWh/kWp, ${\sigma}=10.6$). Generation in Jeju was at the largest in April with 132.2 kWh/kWp, which was 2.3 times greater than the lowest 55.2 kWh/kWp in January. However, generation in Jinju was at the largest in March with 129.3 kWh/kWp, which was only 1.3 times greater than the lowest 101.1 kWh/kWp in June. Third, the annual average PR was the highest in Incheon with 85.8% and the lowest in Jeju with 83.2%. PR of Mokpo was 84.3%, which was lower than that of national average.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.405-410
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• 2010

The photovoltaic performance of DSSCs fabricated with different electrode thickness and different annealing temperature with the P25 $TiO_2$ and the Dyesol $TiO_2$ was measured. Thickness change of $TiO_2$ electrodes was measured using cross-sectional FE-SEM before and after annealing. Photovoltaic efficiencies of DSSCs were also measured by changing annealing temperature of platinum (Pt) paste on the counter electrode. Photovoltaic performances of DSSCs made with one layer of P25 (${\sim}20.4\;{\mu}m$) and one layer of Dyesol $TiO_2$ (${\sim}9.1\;{\mu}m$) annealed at $500^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. showed highest efficiencies of 3.8% and 5.8%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.306.1-306.1
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• 2016

ZnO semiconductor material has been widely utilized in various applications in semiconductor device technology owing to its unique electrical and optical features. It is a promising as solar cell material, because of its low cost, n-type conductivity and wide direct band gap. In this work ZnO/Si heterojunctions were fabricated by using pulsed laser deposition. Vacuum chamber was evacuated to a base pressure of approximately $2{\times}10^{-6}Torr$. ZnO thin films were grown on p-Si (100) substrate at oxygen partial pressure from 5mTorr to 40mTorr. Growth temperature of ZnO thin films was set to 773K. A pulsed (10 Hz) Nd:YAG laser operating at a wavelength of 266 nm was used to produce a plasma plume from an ablated a ZnO target, whose density of laser energy was $10J/cm^2$. Thickness of all the thin films of ZnO was about 300nm. The optical property was characterized by photoluminescence and crystallinity of ZnO was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. For fabrication ZnO/Si heterojunction diodes, indium metal and Al grid patterns were deposited on back and front side of the solar cells by using thermal evaporator, respectively. Finally, current-voltage characteristics of the ZnO/Si structure were studied by using Keithly 2600. Under Air Mass 1.5 Global solar simulator with an irradiation intensity of $100mW/cm^2$, the electrical properties of ZnO/Si heterojunction photovoltaic devices were analyzed.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2006

This paper suggests a 6-pulse-shift converter structure with PWM current-source inverter based on buck-boost configuration to improve the efficiency and to reduce the switching frequency of inverter for photovoltaic generation system, the device can be operated as interface system between solar module system and power system grid without energy storage cell. The circuit has six current-source buck-boost converter which operate chopper part and kas one full bridge inverter which make a decision the polarity of AC output. Therefore, the proposed PWM power inverter has advantages such as the reduction of witching loss and realization of unity power factor operation. The theoretical backgrounds are discussed and the input-output characteristics for the implemented prototype inverter using TMS320F2812 are verified experimentally in this paper.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.94-102
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• 2018

Purpose: In this study, a maintenance free super-capacitor battery charging system based on the photovoltaic module, to be used in agricultural electric carriers, was developed and its charging characteristics were studied in detail. Methods: At first, the electric carrier system configuration is introduced and the electric control components are presented. The super-capacitor batteries and photovoltaic module used in the experiment are specified. Next, the developed charging system consisting of a constant current / constant voltage Buck converter as the charging device and a super-capacitor cell as a balancing device are initiated. The proposed circuit design, a developed PCB layout of each device and a proportional control to check the current and voltage during the charging process are outlined. An experiment was carried out using a developed prototype to clarify the effectiveness of the proposed system. A power analyzer was used to measure the current and voltage during charging to evaluate the efficiency of the energy storage device. Finally, the conclusions of this research are presented. Results: The experimental results show that the proposed system successfully controls the charging current and balances the battery voltage. The maximum voltage of the super-capacitor battery obtained by using the proposed battery charger is 16.2 V, and the maximum charging current is 20 A. It was found that the charging time was less than an hour through the duty ratio of 95% or more. Conclusions: The developed battery charging system was successfully implemented on the agricultural electric carriers.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.133-141
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• 2015

Influence of Ag nanoparticles on optical and photovoltaic properties of, silicon substrates, silicon solar cells and glass have been investigated. Silver nanoparticles have been fabricated by evaporation of thin Ag layers followed by the thermal annealing. The surface plasmon resonance peak was observed in the absorbance spectrum at 470 nm of glass with deposited silver nanoparticles. It is demonstrated that deposition of silver nanoparticles on silicon substrates was accompanied with a significant decrease in reflectance at the wavelength 360-1100 nm and increase of the absorption at wavelengths close to the band gap for Si substrates. We studied influence of Ag nanoparticles on photovoltaic characteristics of silicon solar cells without and with common use antireflection coating (ARC). It is shown that silver nanoparticles deposited onto the front surface of the solar cells without ARC led to increase in the photocurrent density by 39% comparing to cells without Ag nanoparticles. Contrary to this, solar cells with Ag nanoparticles deposited on front surface with ARC discovered decrease in photocurrent density. The improved performance of investigated cells was attributed to Ag-plasmonic excitations that reduce the reflectance from the silicon surface and ultimately leads to the enhanced light absorption in the cell. This study showed possibility of application of Ag nanoparticles for the improvement of the conversion efficiency of waferbased silicon solar cells instead of usual ARC.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.102-108
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• 2010

The photovoltaic system changes solar energy into DC by solar cell and this DC is inverted into AC which is used in general houses by inverter. Recently, the use of power of the photovoltaic system is increased. Therefore, the study of 3 phase solar system to transmit large power is very important. This paper proposes a method that finds simply faults and diagnoses the switch open faults of 3-phase pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter of grid-connected photovoltaic system. The proposed method in $\alpha\beta$ plane uses the patterns of trajectory image as the characteristic parameters and differenciates a normal state and open states of switches. Then, the result is made into tree. The tree is composed of 21 fault patterns and the parameters to classify faults are a shape, a trajectory area, a distributed angle, and a typical vector angle. The result shows that the proposed method diagnosed fault diagnoses, classified correctly them, and made a pattern tree by fault patterns.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2010

This paper proposes an input-series-output-parallel connected ZVS full bridge converter with interleaved control for photovoltaic power conditioning systems (PV PCS). The input-series connection enables a fully modular power-system architecture, where low voltage and standard power modules can be connected in any combination at the input and/or at the output, to realize any given specifications. Further, the input-series connection enables the use of low-voltage MOSFETs that are optimized for a very low RDSON, thus, resulting in lower conduction losses. The system costs decrease due to the reduced current, and the volumes of the output filters due to the interleaving technique. A topology for a photovoltaic (PV) dc/dc converter that can dramatically reduce the power rating and increase the efficiency of a PV system by analyzing the PV module characteristics is proposed. The control scheme, consisting of an output voltage loop, a current loop and input voltage balancing loops, is proposed to achieve input voltage sharing and output current sharing. The total PV system is implemented for a 10-kW PV power conditioning system (PCS). This system has a dc/dc converter with a 3.6-kW power rating. It is only one-third of the total PV PCS power. A 3.6-kW prototype PV dc/dc converter is introduced to experimentally verify the proposed topology. In addition, experimental results show that the proposed topology exhibits good performance.