• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.507-512
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• 2016

Expensive silver powder is used to form electrodes in most IT equipment, and recently, many attempts have been made to lower manufacturing costs by developing powders with Ag-Ni or Ag-Cu core-shell structures. This study examined the sintering behavior of Ag-Ni electrode powder with a core-shell structure for silicon solar cell with high energy efficiency. The electrode powder was found to have a surface similar to pure Ag powder, and cross-sectional analysis revealed that Ag was uniformly coated on Ni powder. Each electrode was formed by sintering in the range of $500^{\circ}C$ to $800^{\circ}C$, and the specimen sintered at $600^{\circ}C$ had the lowest sheet resistance of $5.5m{\Omega}/{\Box}$, which is about two times greater than that of pure Ag. The microstructures of electrodes formed at varying sintering temperatures were examined to determine why sheet resistance showed a minimum value at $600^{\circ}C$. The electrode formed at $600^{\circ}C$ had the best Ag connectivity, and thus provided a better path for the flow of electrons.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.115-119
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• 2014

$Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) thin films have been used as a light absorbing layer in high-efficiency solar cells. In order to improve the quality of the CIGS thin film, often selenization step is applied. Especially when the thin film was formed by non-vacuum powder process, selenization can help to induce grain growth of powder and densification of the thin film. However, selenization is not trivial. It requires either the use of toxic gas, $H_2Se$, or expensive equipment which raises the overall manufacturing cost. Herein, we would like to deliver a new, simple method for selenization. In this method, instead of using a costly two-zone furnace, use of a regular tube furnace is required and selenium is supplied by a mixture of selenium and ceramic powder such as alumina. By adjusting the ratio of selenium vs. alumina powder, selenium vaporization can be carefully controlled. Under the optimized condition, steady supply of selenium vapor was possible which was evidently shown by large grain growth of CIGS within a thin powder layer.