• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.439-444
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• 2024

This study investigates the post-thermal treatment effects on the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells, specifically examining the influence of annealing on p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide and ITO thin films. By assessing changes in carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity, transmittance, and optical bandgap, we identified conditions that optimize these properties. Results reveal that appropriate annealing significantly enhances the fill factor and current density, leading to a notable improvement in overall solar cell efficiency. This research advances our understanding of thermal processing in silicon-based photovoltaics and provides valuable insights into the optimization of production techniques to maximize the performance of solar cells.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.354-356
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• 2017

We focused on light management technology in amorphous silicon solar cells to suppress increase in absorber thickness for improving power conversion efficiency (PCE). $MgF_2$ and $TiO_2$ anti-reflection layers were coated on both sides of Asahi VU ($glass/SnO_2:F$) substrates, which contributed to increase in PCE from 9.16% to 9.81% at absorber thickness of only 150 nm. Also, we applied very thin $MgF_2$ as a rear reflector at n-type nanocrystalline silicon oxide/Ag interface to boost photocurrent. By reinforcing rear reflection, we could find the PCE increase from 10.08% up to 10.34% based on thin absorber about 200 nm.

• 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.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.660-665
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• 2020

Silicon heterojunction solar cells can achieve high conversion efficiency with a simple structure. In this study, we investigate the passivation characteristics of VOx thin films as a hole-selective contact layer using ALD (atomic layer deposition). Passivation characteristics improve with iVoc (implied open-circuit voltage) of 662 mV and minority carrier lifetime of 73.9 µs after post-deposition annealing (PDA) at 100 ℃. The improved values are mainly attributed to a decrease in carbon during the VOx thin film process after PDA. However, once it is annealed at temperatures above 250 ℃ the properties are rapidly degraded. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to analyze the chemical states of the VOx thin film. As the annealing temperature increases, it shows more formation of SiOx at the interface increases. The ratio of V5+ to V4+, which is the oxidation states of vanadium oxide thin films, are 6:4 for both as-deposition and annealing at 100 ℃, and 5:5 for annealing at 300 ℃. The lower the carbon content of the ALD VOx film and the higher the V5+ ratio, the better the passivation characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.501-507
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• 2010

Changes in surface morphology and roughness of dc sputtered ZnO:Al/Ag back reflectors by varying the deposition temperature and their influence on the performance of flexible silicon thin film solar cells were systematically investigated. By increasing the deposition temperature from $25^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$, the grain size of Ag thin films increased from 100 nm to 1000 nm and the grain size distribution became irregular, which resulted in an increment of surface roughness from 6.6 nm to 46.6 nm. Even after the 100 nm thick ZnO:Al film deposition, the surface morphology and roughness of the ZnO:Al/Ag double structured back reflectors were the same as those of the Ag layers, meaning that the ZnO:Al films were deposited conformally on the Ag films without unnecessary changes in the surfacefeatures. The diffused reflectance of the back reflectors improved significantly with the increasing grain size and surface roughness of the Ag films, and in particular, an enhanced diffused reflectance in the long wavelength over 800 nm was observed in the Ag back reflectors deposited at $500^{\circ}C$, which had an irregular grain size distribution of 200-1000 nm and large surface roughness. The improved light scattering properties on the rough ZnO:Al/Ag back reflector surfaces led to an increase of light trapping in the solar cells, and this resulted in a noticeable improvement in the $J_{sc}$ values from 9.94 mA/$cm^2$ for the flat Ag back reflector at $25^{\circ}C$ to 13.36 mA/$cm^2$ for the rough one at $500^{\circ}C$. A conversion efficiency of 7.60% ($V_{oc}$ = 0.93, $J_{sc}$ = 13.36 mA/$cm^2$, FF = 61%) was achieved in the flexible silicon thin film solar cells at this moment.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.19-19
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• 2007

Recently, we have developed p-i-n hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) single junction (SJ) thin film solar cells with RF (13,56MHz) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) systems, and also successfully fabricated the mini-modules (>300$cm^2$), using laser scribing technique to form an integrated series connection, The efficiency of a mini-module was 7.4% (Area=305$cm^2$, $I_{SC}$=0.25A, $V_{OC}$=14.74V, FF=62%).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.1034-1037
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• 2003

Microcrystalline silicon(c-Si:H) thin-film solar cells are prepared with intrinsic Si-layer by hot wire CVD. The operating parameters of solar cells are strongly affected by the filament temperature ($T_f$) during intrinsic layer. Jsc and efficiency abruptly decreases with elevated $T_f$ to $1400^{\circ}C$. This deterioration of solar cell parameters are resulted from increase of crystalline volume fraction and corresponding defect density at high $T_f$. The heater temperature ($T_h$) are also critical parameter that controls device operations. Solar cells prepared at low $T_h$ ($<200^{\circ}C$) shows a similar operating properties with devices prepared at high $T_f$, i.e. low Jsc, Voc and efficiency. The origins for this result, however, are different with that of inferior device performances at high $T_f$. In addition the phase transition of the silicon films occurs at different silane concentration (SC) by varying filament temperature, by which highest efficiency with SC varies with $T_f$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.72.1-72.1
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• 2010

Thin film a-Si solar cells deposited by PECVD have many advantages compared to the traditional crystalline Si solar cells. They do not require expensive Si wafer, the process temperature is relatively low, possibility of scaling up for mass production, etc. In order to produce thin film solar cells, understanding the relationship between the material characteristics and deposition conditions is important. It has been reported by many groups that the band gap of the a-Si material and the deposition rate has an linear relationship, when RF power is used to control both. However, when the process pressure is changed in order to control the deposition rate and the band gap, a diversion from the well known linear relationship occurs. Here, we explain this diversion by the deposition condition crossing different plasma regions in the Paschen curve with a simple model. This model will become a guide to which condition a-Si thin films must be fabricated in order to get a high quality film.