• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1146-1150
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• 2009

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is one of the most attractive photovoltaic materials due to its low cost, high efficiency and stable performance in physical, optical and electronic properties. Few researches on the influences of uniform surface on the photovoltaic characteristics in large-area CdTe solar cell were not reported. As the preceding study of the effects of thickness-uniformity on the photovoltaic characteristics for the large-area CdTe thin film solar cell, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process was investigated for an enhancement of thickness-uniformity. Removal rate of CdTe thin film was 3160 nm/min of the maximum value at the 200 $gf/cm^2$ of down force (pressure) and 60 rpm of table speed (velocity). The removal rate of CdTe thin film was more affected by the down force than the table speed which is the two main factors directly influencing on the removal rate in CMP process. RMS roughness and peak-to-valley roughness of CdTe thin film after CMP process were improved to 96.68% and 85.55%, respectively. The optimum process condition was estimated by 100 $gf/cm^2$ of down force and 60 rpm of table speed with the consideration of good removal uniformity about 5.0% as well as excellent surface roughness for the large-area CdTe solar cell.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1264_1265
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• 2009

Cadmium Telluride (CdTe)를 이용한 박막형 태양전지 제작과 실용화에 있어 가장 큰 이슈는 대면적화에 따른 에너지 변환효율의 저하를 줄임으로써 고효율의 대면적 태양전지를 대량으로 생산하는 것이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 태양전지 박막의 대면적 증착시 문제점 중에 하나인 불균일한 CdTe 박막의 증착을 방지하기 위한 선행연구를 진행하였다. 실험 방법으로는 Sputtering 법을 적용하여 박막 증착시 출력과 진공도에 따른 박막 두께의 표준편차와 RMS 표면 거칠기($R_{rms}$), 최고-최저점간 표면 거칠기($R_{p-v}$) 등의 거동을 고찰하였다. 이를 통해 Sputtering 공정 변수 중에 박막 두께의 표준 편차에 더 큰 영향을 미치는 변수를 조사하고, 후행 연구로 진행될 Sputtering 법을 이용하여 대면적에 균일하게 증착하는 방법에 적용하고자 한다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2020

Background: Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) is a promising material because of a high detection efficiency, good energy resolution, and operability at room temperature. However, the cost of CZT dramatically increases as its size increases. In this study, to achieve a large effective volume with relatively low cost, an array structure comprised of individual virtual Frisch-grid CZT detectors was proposed. Materials and Methods: The prototype consisted of 2 × 2 CZTs, a holder, anode and cathode printed circuit boards (PCBs), and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). CZTs were used and the non-contacting shielding electrode method was applied for virtual Frisch-grid effect. An ASIC was used, and the holder and the PCBs were fabricated. In the current system, because the CZTs formed a common cathode, a total of 5 channels were assigned for data processing. Results and Discussion: An experiment using ¹³⁷Cs at room temperature was conducted for 10 minutes. Energy and timing information was acquired and the depth of interaction was calculated by the timing difference between the signals of both electrodes. Based on obtained three-dimensional position information, the energy correction was carried out, and as a result the energy spectra showed the improvements. In addition, a Compton image was reconstructed using the iterative method. Conclusion: The virtual Frisch-grid CZT detector based on the array structure was developed and the energy spectra and the Compton image were successfully acquired.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.336-341
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• 2010

The present study focused on the synthesis of Bi-Sb-Te-based thermoelectric powder by an oxidereduction process. The phase structure, particle size of the synthesized powders were analyzed using XRD and SEM. The synthesized powder was sintered by the spark plasma sintering method. The thermoelectric property of the sintered body was evaluated by measuring the Seebeck coefficient and specific electric resistivity. The $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ powder had been synthesized by a combination of mechanical milling, calcination and reduction processes using mixture of $Bi_2O_3$, $Sb_2O_3$ and $TeO_2$ powders. The sintered body of the $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ powder synthesized by an oxide-reduction process showed p-type thermoelectric characteristics, even though it had lower thermoelectric properties than the sintered body of the $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ thermoelectric powder synthesized by the conventional melting-crushing method.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.285-290
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• 2012

The present study was focused on the analysis of the electric and thermal properties of spark plasma sintered $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ thermoelectric material. The crystal structure, microstructure, electric and thermal properties of the sintered body were evaluated by measuring XRD, SEM, electric resistivity, Hall effect and thermal conductivity. The $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ sintered body showed anisotropic crystal structure. The c-axis of the $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ crystal aligned in a parallel direction with applied pressure during spark plasma sintering. The degree of the crystal alignment increased with increasing sintering temperature and sintering time. The electric resistivity and thermal conductivity of the $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ sintered body showed anisotropic characteristics result from crystal alignment.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.108-114
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• 2017

We fabricate fine (<$20{\mu}m$) powders of $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ alloys using a large-scale production method and subsequently consolidate them at temperatures of 573, 623, and 673 K using a spark plasma sintering process. The microstructure, mechanical properties, and thermoelectric properties are investigated for each sintering temperature. The microstructural features of both the powders and bulks are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and the crystal structures are analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The grain size increases with increasing sintering temperature from 573 to 673 K. In addition, the mechanical properties increase significantly with decreasing sintering temperature owing to an increase in grain boundaries. The results indicate that the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient ($217{\mu}V/K$) of the sample sintered at 673 K increase simultaneously owing to decreased carrier concentration and increased mobility. As a result, a high ZT value of 0.92 at 300 K is achieved. According to the results, a sintering temperature of 673 K is preferable for consolidation of fine (<$20{\mu}m$) powders.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 1995

Abstract The principal factor affecting the increased penetration of photovoltaics into the marketplace is cost. For traditional crystalline silicon modules, half of the cost is that of the silicon wafers. As a result much effort has centered on reducing this cost by the use of thin film technologies. Substantial technical progress has been made towards improving the efficiencies of polycrystalline thin film solar cells to reduce the production costs. Progress in semiconductor deposition techniques has also been rapid. The most mature of these are based on polycrystalline silicon (p - Si), amorphous silicon (a - Si), copper indium diselenide $SuInSe_2$(CIS), and cadmium telluride (CdTe). This paper explores the recent advances in the development of polycrystalline thin film solar cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.953-958
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• 2007

Anchoring quantum dots (QDs) onto thermodynamically stable, large band gap oxide semiconductors is a very important strategy to enhance their quantum yields for solar energy conversion in both visible and near-IR regions. We describe a general procedure for anchoring a few chalcogenide QDs onto the titanium oxide layer. To anchor the colloidal QDs onto a mesoporous TiO2 layer, linker molecules containing both carboxylate and thiol functional groups were initially attached to TiO2 layers and subsequently used to capture dispersed QDs with the thiol group. Employing the procedure, we exploited cadmium selenide (CdSe) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) as inorganic sensitizers for a large band gap TiO2 layer of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Their attachment was confirmed by naked eyes, absorption spectra, and photovoltaic effects. A few QD-TiO2 systems thus obtained have been characterized for photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.2346-2352
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• 2020

Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the noninvasive method to diagnose osteoporosis disease characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue. Many global companies and research groups have developed the various DXA detectors using a direct photon-counting detector such as a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) sensor. However, this approach using CZT sensor has some drawback such as the limitation of scalability by high cost and the loss of efficiency due to the requirement of a thin detector. In this study, a SiPM based DXA system was developed and its performance evaluated experimentally. The DXA detector was composed of a SiPM sensor coupled with a single LYSO scintillation crystal (3 × 3 × 2 ㎣). The prototype DXA detector was mounted on the dedicated front-end circuit consisting of a voltage-sensitive preamplifier, pulse shaping amplifier and constant fraction discriminator (CFD) circuit. The SiPM based DXA detector showed the 34% (at 59 keV) energy resolution with good BMD accuracy. The proposed SiPM based DXA detector showed the performance comparable to the conventional DXA detector based on CZT.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.398-402
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• 2010

The liquid phase epitaxy(LPE) method was widely used to growth of mercury cadmium telluride(MCT) thin films. However, this method lead to Hg-vacancies in MCT thin film, because Hg has high vapor pressure at this temperature range. This is a well known defect in HgCdTe grown by LPE method. In this study, we report the development of techniques for improving the crystalline quality and controlling the composite uniformity of HgCdTe thin films using high- pressure Hg-ambient annealing method. As a result, we achieved the improvement of the composite uniformity of HgCdTe thin films. It was observed by the high angle annular dark field scanning TEM(HAADF-STEM) analysis. Moreover, new HgTe phase and a shrinking of lattice fringe were observed.