• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.07c
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• pp.1482-1484
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• 2002

Transparent conductive oxides (TCO) are necessary as front electrode for most thin film solar cell. In our paper, transparent conducting aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films (ZnO:Al) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (Corning 1737) substrate as a variation of the deposition condition. After deposition, the smooth ZnO:Al films were etched in diluted HCI (0.5%) to examine the electrical and surface morphology properties as a variation of the time. The most important deposition condition of surface-textured ZnO films by chemical etching is the processing pressure and the substrate temperature. In low pressures (0.9mTorr) and high substrate temperatures $({\leq}300^{\circ}C)$, the surface morphology of films exhibits a more dense and compact film structure with effective light-trapping to apply the silicon thin film solar cells.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.211-211
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• 2012

The electrical loss of the photo-generated carriers is dominated by the recombination at the metal- semiconductor interface. In order to enhance the performance of the solar cells, many studies have been performed on the surface treatment with passivation layer like SiN, SiO2, Al2O3, and a-Si:H. In this work, Al2O3 thin films were investigated to reduce recombination at surface. The Al2O3 thin films have two advantages, such as good passivation properties and back surface field (BSF) effect at rear surface. It is usually deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. However, ALD process is a very expensive process and it has rather low deposition rate. In this study, the ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering method was used to deposit Al2O3 thin films. For optimization of the properties of the Al2O3 thin film, various fabrication conditions were controlled, such as ICP RF power, substrate bias voltage and deposition temperature, and argon to oxygen ratio. Chemical states and atomic concentration ratio were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In order to investigate the electrical properties, Al/(Al2O3 or SiO2,/Al2O3)/Si (MIS) devices were fabricated and characterized using the C-V measurement technique (HP 4284A). The detailed characteristics of the Al2O3 passivation thin films manufactured by ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique will be shown and discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.434-442
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• 2014

Serious environmental problems have been caused by the greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide($CO_2$) or nitrogen oxides($NO_x$) generated by the use of fossil fuels, including oil and liquefied natural gas. Many countries, including our own, the United States, those of the European Union and other developed countries around the world; have shown growing interest in clean energy, and have been concentrating on the development of new energy-saving materials and devices. Typical non-fossil-fuel sources include solar cells, wind power, tidal power, nuclear power, and fuel cells. In particular, organic solar cells(OSCs) have relatively low power-conversion efficiency(PCE) in comparison with inorganic(silicon) based solar cells, compound semiconductor solar cells and the CIGS [$Cu(In_{1-x}Ga_x)Se_2$] thin film solar cells. Recently, organic cell efficiencies greater than 10 % have been obtained by means of the development of new organic semiconducting materials, which feature improvements in crystalline properties, as well as in the quantum-dot nano-structure of the active layers. In this paper, a brief overview of solar cells in general is presented. In particular, the current development status of the next-generation OSCs including their operation principle, device-manufacturing processes, and improvements in the PCE are described.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.47-57
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• 2017

CIGS thin film solar cells are technically suitable for BIPV applications than regularly used crystalline silicon solar cells. Particularly, CIGS PV has lower temperature coefficient than crystalline silicon PV, thus decrease in power generation is lowered in CIGS PV. Moreover, CIGS PV can decrease shading loss when applied to the BIPV system, and the total annual power generation is higher than crystalline silicon. However, there are few studies on the installation factors affecting the performance of BIPV system with CIGS module. In this study, BIPV curtain wall unit with CIGS PV module was designed. To prevent increase of temperature of CIGS PV module by solar radiation, ventilation was considered at the backside of the unit. The thermal specification and electrical performance of CIGS PV of the ventilated unit was analyzed experimentally. Non-ventilated unit was also investigated and compared with ventilated unit. The results showed that the average CIGS temperature of the ventilated curtain wall unit was $6.8^{\circ}C$ lower than non-ventilated type and the efficiency and power generation performance of ventilated CIGS PV on average was, respectively, about 6% and 5.8% higher than the non-ventilated type.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2021

The properties of the electron transport layer (ETL) have a great effect on perovskite solar cell performance. Depositing conformal SnO2 ETL on bottom textured silicon cells is essential to increase current density in terms of the silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells. In the recent study, the SnO2 electron transport layer deposited by the sputtering method showed an efficiency of 19.8%. Also, an electron transport layer with a sputtered TiO2 electron transport layer in a 4-terminal tandem solar cell has been reported. In this study, we synthesized SnOx ETL with a various sputtering power range of 30-60W by Radio-frequency (RF)-magnetron sputtering. The properties of SnOx thin film were characterized using ellipsometer, UV-vis spectrometer, and IV measurement. With a sputtering power of 50W, the solar cell showed the highest efficiency of 13.3%, because of the highest fill factor by the conductivity of SnOx film.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07c
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• pp.1737-1739
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• 2004

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were prepared with RF-PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) method on coming glass and silicon substrates using methane ($CH_4$) and hydrogen ($H_2$) gases. We examined the effects of $CH_4$ to $H_2$ ratios on tribological and optical properties of the DLC films. The structure and surface morphology of the films were examined using Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The hardness of the DLC film was measured with nano-indentor. The optical properties of DLC thin film were investigated by UV/VIS spectrometer and ellipsometry. And also, solar cells were fabricated using DLC as antireflection coating before and after coating DLC on silicon substrate and compared the efficiency.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.61.1-61.1
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• 2010

$CuIn_{1-x}-GaxSe_2$ based materials with direct bandgap and high absorption coefficient are promising materials for high efficiency hetero-junction solar cells. CIGS champion cell efficiency(19.9%, AM1.5G) is very close to polycrystalline silicon(20.3%, AM1.5G). A reduction in the price of CIGS module is required for competing with well matured silicon technology. Price reduction can be achieved by decreasing the manufacturing cost and by increasing module efficiency. Manufacturing cost is mostly dominated by capital cost. Device properties of CIGS are strongly dependent on doping, defect chemistry and structure which in turn are dependent on growth conditions. The complex chemistry of CIGS is not fully understood to optimize and scale processes. Control of the absorber grain size, structural quality, texture, composition profile in the growth direction is important to achieving reliable device performance. In the present work, CIS nanoparticles were prepared by a simple wet chemical synthesis method and their structural and optical properties were investigated. XRD patterns of as-grown nanopowders indicate CIS(Cubic), $CuSe_2$(orthorhombic) and excess selenium. Further, as-grown and annealed nanopowders were characterized by HRTEM and ICP-OES. Grain growth of the nanopowders was followed as a function of temperature using HT-XRD with overpressure of selenium. It was found that significant grain growth occurred between $300-400^{\circ}C$ accompanied by formation of ${\beta}-Cu_{2-x}Se$ at high temperature($500^{\circ}C$) consistent with Cu-Se phase diagram. The result suggests that grain growth follows VLS mechanism which would be very useful for low temperature, high quality and economic processing of CIGS based solar cells.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.116-122
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• 2013

For fabricating silicon solar cells with high conversion efficiency, texturing is one of the most effective techniques to increase short circuit current by enhancing light trapping. In this study, four different types of textures, large V-groove, large U-groove, small V-groove, and small U-groove, were prepared by a wet etching process. Silicon substrates with V-grooves were fabricated by an anisotropic etching process using a KOH solution mixed with isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and the size of the V-grooves was controlled by varying the concentration of IPA. The isotropic etching process following anisotropic etching resulted in U-grooves and the isotropic etching time was determined to obtain U-grooves with an opening angle of approximately $60^{\circ}$. The results indicated that U-grooves had a larger diffuse reflectance than V-grooves and the reflectances of small grooves was slightly higher than those of large grooves depending on the size of the grooves. Then amorphous Si:H thin film solar cells were fabricated on textured substrates to investigate the light trapping effect of textures with different shapes and sizes. Among the textures fabricated in this work, the solar cells on the substrate with small U-grooves had the largest short circuit current, 19.20 mA/$cm^2$. External quantum efficiency data also demonstrated that the small, U-shape textures are more effective for light trapping than large, V-shape textures.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.93-93
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• 2009

실리콘 태양전지의 효율 향상을 위한 노력의 일환으로 결정질 실리콘 웨이퍼 표면passivation 물질 중 Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD)을 이용하여 증착한 $Al_2O_3$ 박막에 대한 관심이 증가하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 $Al_2O_3$ 박막의 증착 전 실리콘 웨이퍼의 산화막 두께에 따른 passivation 효과에 대해서 연구하였다. 실리콘 산화막은 $HNO_3$ 용액을 사용하여 화학적으로 생성시켰으며 $HNO_3$ 용액과의 반응 시간을 조절하여 실리콘 산화막의 두께를 조절하였다. 실리콘 산화막 생성 후 ALD로 $Al_2O_3$ 박막을 증착하였으며 증착 후 $N_2$ 분위기에서 annealing 하였다. Annealing 후 passivation 효과는 Quasi-Steady-State Photo Conductance를 사용하여 minority carrier의 lifetime을 측정하였다. Capacitance-Voltage measurement, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Ellipsometry를 사용하여 실리콘 산화막의 두께에 따른 $Al_2O_3$ 박막의 passivation 효과를 분석하였다.