• Title/Summary/Keyword: thin film silicon solar cell

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Plasmonic gold nanodot array optimization on a-Si thin film solar cells using anodic aluminum oxide templates (비정질 실리콘 박막 태양전지 효율 향상을 위한 양극산화 알루미늄 템플레이트을 이용한 플라즈모닉 금 나노점 배열 최적화)

  • Bae, Kyuyoung;Kim, Kyoungsik
    • Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.67-71
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    • 2013
  • The fabrication method of plasmonic nanodots on silicon substrate has been developed to improve the efficiency of thin film solar cells. Nanoscale metallic nanodots arrays are fabricated by anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template mask which can have different structural parameters by varying anodization conditions. In this paper, the structural parameters of gold nanodots, which can be controlled by the diverse structures of AAO template mask, are investigated to enhance the optical properties of a-Si thin film solar cells. It is found that optical properties of the thin film solar cells are improved by finding optimization values of the structural parameters of the gold nanodot array.

Prevention of P-i Interface Contamination Using In-situ Plasma Process in Single-chamber VHF-PECVD Process for a-Si:H Solar Cells

  • Han, Seung-Hee;Jeon, Jun-Hong;Choi, Jin-Young;Park, Won-Woong
    • Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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    • 2011.02a
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    • pp.204-205
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    • 2011
  • In thin film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is adopted instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. PECVD is a most widely used thin film deposition process for a-Si:H or ${\mu}c$-Si:H solar cells. For best performance of thin film silicon solar cell, the dopant profiles at p/i and i/n interfaces need to be as sharp as possible. The sharpness of dopant profiles can easily achieved when using multi-chamber PECVD equipment, in which each layer is deposited in separate chamber. However, in a single-chamber PECVD system, doped and intrinsic layers are deposited in one plasma chamber, which inevitably impedes sharp dopant profiles at the interfaces due to the contamination from previous deposition process. The cross-contamination between layers is a serious drawback of a single-chamber PECVD system in spite of the advantage of lower initial investment cost for the equipment. In order to resolve the cross-contamination problem in single-chamber PECVD systems, flushing method of the chamber with NH3 gas or water vapor after doped layer deposition process has been used. In this study, a new plasma process to solve the cross-contamination problem in a single-chamber PECVD system was suggested. A single-chamber VHF-PECVD system was used for superstrate type p-i-n a-Si:H solar cell manufacturing on Asahi-type U FTO glass. A 80 MHz and 20 watts of pulsed RF power was applied to the parallel plate RF cathode at the frequency of 10 kHz and 80% duty ratio. A mixture gas of Ar, H2 and SiH4 was used for i-layer deposition and the deposition pressure was 0.4 Torr. For p and n layer deposition, B2H6 and PH3 was used as doping gas, respectively. The deposition temperature was $250^{\circ}C$ and the total p-i-n layer thickness was about $3500{\AA}$. In order to remove the deposited B inside of the vacuum chamber during p-layer deposition, a high pulsed RF power of about 80 W was applied right after p-layer deposition without SiH4 gas, which is followed by i-layer and n-layer deposition. Finally, Ag was deposited as top electrode. The best initial solar cell efficiency of 9.5 % for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$ could be achieved by applying the in-situ plasma cleaning method. The dependence on RF power and treatment time was investigated along with the SIMS analysis of the p-i interface for boron profiles.

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Double Texturing of Glass Substrate and ZnO : Al Transparent Electrode Surfaces for High Performance Thin Film Solar Cells (고성능 박막태양전지를 위한 유리 기판 및 산화 아연 투명 전극의 2중 구조 표면 조직화 공정 연구)

  • Kang, Dong-Won
    • The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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    • v.66 no.8
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    • pp.1230-1235
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    • 2017
  • We studied surface texture-etching of glass substrate by using reactive ion etching process with various working pressure (0.7~9.0 mT). With the increase in the pressure, a haze parameter, which means diffusive transmittance/total transmittance, was increased in overall wavelength regions, as measured by spectrophotometer. Also, atomic force microscopy (AFM) study also showed that the surface topography transformed from V-shaped, keen surface to U-shaped, flattened surface, which is beneficial for nanocrystalline silicon semiconductor growth with suppressing defective crack formation. The texture-etched ZnO:Al combined with textured glass exhibited pronounced haze properties that showed 60~90 % in overall spectral wavelength regions. This promising optical properties of double textured, transparent conducting substrate can be widely applied in silicon thin film photovoltaics and other optoelectronic devices.

A study on TCO properties for thin-film silicon solar cells (박막형 실리콘 태양전지 적용을 위한 투명전도막 특성 연구)

  • Lee, Seungjik;Kim, Deokyeol
    • 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2010.11a
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    • pp.46.2-46.2
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    • 2010
  • For use of superstrate thin-film solar cells, surface texture of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) has been used to enhance short-circuit currents by increasing light trapping into the cell. ZnO:Al films were deposited by using DC magnetron sputtering on glass substrates with ceramic (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$) target. The as-deposited TCO before texturing exhibited high transparencies (T > 85% for visible light including all reflection losses) and excellent electrical properties ($r=3-6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}.cm$). The optical and electrical properties of the TCO are influenced by the texturing conditions such as not only etchant dilutions but also etching time. We obtained the haze value of 14-16 resulting in increase in light trapping and short-circuit currents also.

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Technology Trends and Prospects of Silicon Solar Cells (실리콘 태양전지의 기술현황 및 전망)

  • Park, Cheolmin;Cho, Jaehyun;Lee, Youngseok;Park, Jinjoo;Ju, Minkyu;Lee, Youn-Jung;Yi, Junsin
    • Current Photovoltaic Research
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.11-16
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    • 2013
  • The current solar cell industry is experiencing a temporary plateau due to a sluggish economy and oversupply. It is expected that the solar industry can see similar growth to that of the recent past by overcoming the current situation, as there is growing demand globally for solar energy. The current situation led to restructuring of the world's solar industry, and domestic firms will need to have competitiveness through strategic approaches and proprietary technology to survive in the global solar market. Crystalline and amorphous silicon based solar cells have led the solar industry and occupied half or more of the market thus far. They will do so in the future PV market as well by playing a pivotal role in the solar industry. In this paper, the current status and prospects of silicon based solar cells, from materials to comprehensive and high efficiency technology that can emerge in the future, are discussed.

Incident Angle Dependence of Quantum Efficiency in c-Si Solar Cell or a-Si Thin Film Solar Cell in BIPV System (광 입사각이 BIPV에 적용되는 단결정 또는 비정질 실리콘 태양전지의 양자효율에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Jeong-Wook;Son, Chan-Hee;Cho, Guang-Sup;Yoo, Jin-Hyuk;Kim, Joung-Sik;Park, Chang-Kyun;Cha, Sung-Duk;Kwon, Gi-Chung
    • Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.62-68
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    • 2012
  • The conversion efficiency of solar cells depending on incident angle of light is important for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) applications. The quantum efficiency is the ratio of the number of charge carriers collected by the solar cell to the number of photons of a given energy shining on the solar cell. The analysis of angle dependence of quantum efficiencies give more information upon the variation of power output of a solar cell by the incident angle of light. The variations in power output of solar cells with increasing angle of incidence is different for the type of cell structures. In this study we present the results of the quantum efficiency measurement of single-crystalline silicon solar cells and a-Si:H thin-film solar cells with the angle of incidence of light. As a result, as the angle of incidence increases in single-crystalline silicon solar cells, quantum efficiency at all wavelength (300~1,100 nm) of light were reduced. But in case of a-Si:H thin-film solar cells, quantum efficiency was increased or maintained at the angle of incidence from 0 degree to about 40 degrees and dramatically decrease at more than 40 degrees in the range of visible light. This results of quantum efficiency with increasing incident angle were caused by haze and interference effects in thin-film structure. Thus, the structural optimization considering incident angle dependence of solar cells is expected to benefit BIPV.

Changes in Interface Properties of TCO/a-Si:H Layer by Zn Buffer Layer in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells (실리콘 이종접합 태양전지의 Zn 확산방지층에 의한 TCO/a-Si:H 층간의 계면특성 변화)

  • Tark, Sung-Ju;Son, Chang-Sik;Kim, Dong-Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Materials Research
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    • v.21 no.6
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    • pp.341-346
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    • 2011
  • In this study, we inserted a Zn buffer layer into a AZO/p-type a-si:H layer interface in order to lower the contact resistance of the interface. For the Zn layer, the deposition was conducted at 5 nm, 7 nm and 10 nm using the rf-magnetron sputtering method. The results were compared to that of the AZO film to discuss the possibility of the Zn layer being used as a transparent conductive oxide thin film for application in the silicon heterojunction solar cell. We used the rf-magnetron sputtering method to fabricate Al 2 wt.% of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). We analyzed the electro-optical properties of the ZnO as well as the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer. After inserting a buffer layer into the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layers to enhance the interface properties, we measured the contact resistance of the layers using a CTLM (circular transmission line model) pattern, the depth profile of the layers using AES (auger electron spectroscopy), and the changes in the properties of the AZO thin film through heat treatment. We investigated the effects of the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer on the characteristics of silicon heterojunction solar cells and the way to improve the interface properties. When depositing AZO thin film on a-Si layer, oxygen atoms are diffused from the AZO thin film towards the a-Si layer. Thus, the characteristics of the solar cells deteriorate due to the created oxide film. While a diffusion of Zn occurs toward the a-Si in the case of AZO used as TCO, the diffusion of In occurs toward a-Si in the case of ITO used as TCO.

Development of low cost and high efficiency silicon thin-film and a-Si:H/c-Si hetero-junction solar cells using low temperature silicon thin-films (고품질 실리콘 박막을 이용한 저가 고효율 실리콘 박막 및 a-Si:H/c-Si 이종접합 태양전지 개발)

  • Lee, Jeong-Chul;Lim, Chung-Hyun;Ahn, Sae-Jin;Yun, Jae-Ho;Kim, Seok-Ki;Kim, Dong-Seop;Yang, Sumi;Kang, Hee-Bok;Lee, Bo-young;Yi, Junsij;Son, Jinsoo;Yoon, Kyung-Hoon
    • 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2005.06a
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    • pp.113-116
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    • 2005
  • In this paper, silicon thin-film solar cells(Si- TFSC) and a-Si/c-Si heterojunction solar cells(HJ-cell) are investigated. The Si-TFSC was prepared on glass substrate by depositing $1-3{\mu}m$ thin-film silicons by glow discharge method. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells on textured ZnO:A1 TCO (transparent conducting oxide) showed improved Jsc in top and bottom cells than that on $SnO_2:F$ TCO. This enhancement of jsc resulted from improved light trapping effect by front textured ZnO:A1. The a-Si/c-Si HJ-cells with simple structure without high efficiency features are suffering from low Voc and Jsc. The improvement of front nip and back interface properties by adopting high quality silicon-films at low temperature should be done both for increasing device performances and production cost.

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Neutral Beam assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition at Low Temperature for n-type Doped nano-crystalline silicon Thin Film

  • Jang, Jin-Nyeong;Lee, Dong-Hyeok;So, Hyeon-Uk;Yu, Seok-Jae;Lee, Bong-Ju;Hong, Mun-Pyo
    • 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.

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Influence of Crystalline Si Solar Cell by Rie Surface Texturing (RIE 표면 텍스쳐링 모양에 따른 결정질 실리콘 태양전지의 영향)

  • Park, In-Gyu;Yun, Myoung-Soo;Hyun, Deoc-Hwan;Jin, Beop-Jong;Choi, Jong-Yong;Kim, Joung-Sik;Kang, Hyoung-Dong;Kwon, Gi-Chung
    • Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.314-318
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    • 2010
  • We fabricated a plasma texturing for multi-crystalline silicon cells using reactive ion etching (RIE). Multi-crystalline Si cells have not benefited from the cost-effective wet-chemical texturing processes that reduce front surface reflectance on single-crystal wafers. Elimination of plasma damage has been achieved while keeping front reflectance to extremely low levels. We will discuss reflectance, quantum efficiency and conversion efficiency for multi-crystalline Si solar cell by each RIE process conditions.