• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.80-85
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• 2024

Purpose of higher conversion efficiencies, thin-film silicon solar cells based on amorphous silicon have been developed with a multiple-stack structure to fully utilize the absorption spectrum. Microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si) is commonly used in the bottom cell of such tandem junction solar cells, offering improved conversion efficiencies. However, the requirement for a thicker absorption layer to generate sufficient photocurrent presents challenges, primarily due to the lower absorption coefficient of µc-Si, resulting in longer deposition times and greater material thickness. To address these limitations, we propose the development of inorganic-organic hybrid solar cells by integrating a-Si tandem with solution-processed organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), using low-bandgap semiconducting polymers. The OPVs have garnered significant attention as promising candidates for next-generation photovoltaic technology. As part of this effort, we have optimized the a-Si tandem cell by exploring different materials for a tunnel recombination layer and high quality intrinsic layers. The hybrid approach combines the advantages of both inorganic and organic materials, potentially offering a pathway towards more efficient and cost-effective solar cell solutions.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.98-103
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• 2016

The surface morphology of the front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films plays a vital role in amorphous silicon thin film solar cells (a-Si TFSCs) due to their high transparency, conductivity and excellent light scattering properties. Recently, plasma textured glass surface morphologies received much attention for light trapping in a-Si TFSCs. We report various plasma textured glass surface morphologies for the high efficiency of a-Si TFSCs. Plasma textured glass surface morphologies showed high rms roughness, haze ratio with micro- and nano size surface features and are proposed for future high efficiency of a-Si TFSCs.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.1169-1174
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• 2011

CdTe thin-film solar cell technology is well known that it can theoretically improve its conversion efficiency and manufacturing costs compared to the conventional silicon solar cell technology, due to its optical band gap energy (about 1.45eV) for solar energy absorption, high light absorption capability and low cost requirements for producing solar cells. Although the prior studies obtained the high light absorption, CdTe thin film solar cell has not been come up to the sufficient efficiency yet. So, doping method was selected for the improvement of the electrical characteristics in CdTe solar cells. Some elements including Cu, Ag, Cd and Te were generally used for the p-dopant as substitutional acceptors in CdTe thin film. In this study, the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film was immersed in $AgNO_3$ solution for ion exchange method to dope Ag ions. The effects of immersion temperature and Ag-concentration were investigated on the optical properties and electrical characteristics of CdTe thin film by using Auger electron spectroscopy depth-profile, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and a Hall effect measurement system. The best optical and electrical characteristics were sucessfully obtained by Ag doping at high temperature and concentration. The larger and more uniform diffusion of Ag ions made increase of the Ag ion density in CdTe thin film to decrease the series resistance as well as mede the faster diffusion of light by the metal ions to enhance the light absorption.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1019-1023
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• 2012

In this research, a novel direct-aluminum-heating-induced crystallization method was developed for the purpose of application to solar cells. By applying a constant current of 3 A to an aluminum thin film, a 200-nm-thick amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film with a size of $1cm{\times}1cm$ can be crystallized into a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film within a few tens of seconds. The Raman spectrum analysis shows a peak of 520 $cm^{-1}$, which verifies the presence of poly-Si. After removing the aluminum layer, the poly-Si thin film was found to be porous. SIMS analysis showed that the porous poly-Si thin film was heavily p-doped with a doping concentration of $10^{21}cm^{-3}$. Thermal imaging shows that the crystallization from a-Si to poly-Si occurred at a temperature of around 820 K.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.192-195
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• 2012

We reported diborane ($B_2H_6$) doped wide bandgap hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (p-type a-SiOx:H) films prepared by using silane ($SiH_4$) hydrogen ($H_2$) and nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) in a radio frequency (RF) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. We improved the $E_{opt}$ and conductivity of p-type a-SiOx:H films with various $N_2O$ and $B_2H_6$ ratios and applied those films in regards to the a-Si thin film solar cells. For the single layer p-type a-SiOx:H films, we achieved an optical band gap energy ($E_{opt}$) of 1.91 and 1.99 eV, electrical conductivity of approximately $10^{-7}$ S/cm and activation energy ($E_a$) of 0.57 to 0.52 eV with various $N_2O$ and $B_2H_6$ ratios. We applied those films for the a-Si thin film solar cell and the current-voltage characteristics are as given as: $V_{oc}$ = 853 and 842 mV, $J_{sc}$ = 13.87 and 15.13 $mA/cm^2$. FF = 0.645 and 0.656 and ${\eta}$ = 7.54 and 8.36% with $B_2H_6$ ratios of 0.5 and 1% respectively.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.41-46
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• 2013

Efficient and inexpensive solar cells are necessary for photo-voltaic to be widely adopted for mainstream electricity generation. For this to occur, the recombination losses of charge carriers (i.e. electrons or holes) must be minimized using a surface passivation technique suitable for manufacturing. Recently it has been shown that aluminum oxide thin films are negatively charged dielectrics that provide excellent surface passivation of silicon solar cells to attract positive-charged holes. Especially aluminum oxide thin film is a quite suitable passivation on the rear side of p-type silicon solar cells. This paper, it demonstrate the interfacial microstructure and electrical properties of mono-crystalline silicon surface passivated by $Al_2O_3$ films during firing process as applied for screen-printed solar cells. The first task is a comparison of the interfacial microstructure and chemical bonds of PECVD $Al_2O_3$ and of PEALD $Al_2O_3$ films for the surface passivation of silicon. The second is to study electrical properties of double-stacked layers of PEALD $Al_2O_3$/PECVD SiN films after firing process in the temperature range of $650{\sim}950^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2012

Crystalline silicon solar cell remains the major player in the photovoltaic marketplace with 80% of the market, despite the development of various thin film technologies. Silicon's excellent efficiency, stability, material abundance and low toxicity have helped to maintain its position of dominance. However, the cost of silicon materials remains a major barrier to reducing the cost of silicon photovoltaics. Using the crystalline silicon wafer with thinner thickness is the promising way for cost and material reduction in the solar cell production. However, the thinner the silicon wafer is, the worse bow phenomenon is induced. The bow phenomenon is observed when two or more layers of materials with different temperature expansion coefficiencies are in contact, in this case silicon and aluminum. In this paper, the solar cells were fabricated with different thicknesses of Al layer in order to reduce the bow phenomenon. With less amount of paste applications, we observed that the bow could be reduced by up to 40% of the largest value with 120 micron thickness of the wafer even though the conversion efficiency decrease by 0.5% occurred. Since the bowed wafers lead to unacceptable yield losses during the module construction, the reduction of bow is indispensable on thin crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, we have studied on the counterbalance between the bow and conversion efficiency and also suggest the formation of enough back surface field (BSF) with thinner Al layer application.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.80-82
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• 2009

The dependence of the efficiency characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon single junction solar cells on the various intrinsic layer thickness has been investigate in the glass/$SnO_2$:F/p,i,n a-Si:H/Al type of amorphous silicon solar cells by cluster PECVD system. The open circuit voltage, short circuit current, fill factor and conversion efficiency have been measured under AM 1.5 condition. The result of the cell performance was improved about 8.2% due to an increase in the short circuit current.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.367-370
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• 2009

It is important to reduce a reflection of light as a solar cell is device that directly converts the energy of solar radiation to electrical energy in oder to improve efficiency of solar cells. The antireflection coating has proven effective in providing substantial increase in solar cell efficiency. This paper investigates the formation of thin film PSi(porous silicon) layer on the surface of crystalline silicon substrates without other ARC(antirefiection coating) layers. On the other hand the formation of $SO_{2}/SiN_x$ ARC layers on the surface of crystalline silicon substrates. After that, the structure of PSi and $SO_2/SiN_x$ ARC was investigated by SEM and reflectance. The formation of PSi layer and $SO_{2}/SiN_x$ ARC layers on the textured silicon wafer result about 5% in the wavelength region from 0.4 to $1.0{\mu}m$. It is achieved on the textured crystalline silicon solar cell that each efficiency is 14.43%, 16.01%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.230-230
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• 2013

In amorphous or microcrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is used instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. Hence, these p-i-n structured solar cells inevitably consist of many interfaces and the cell efficiency critically depends on the effective control of these interfaces. In this study, in-situ plasma treatment process of the interfaces was developed to improve the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cell. The p-i-n cell was deposited using a single-chamber VHF-PECVD system, which was driven by a pulsed-RF generator at 80 MHz. In order to solve the cross-contamination problem of p-i layer, high RF power was applied without supplying SiH4 gas after p-layer deposition, which effectively cleaned B contamination inside chamber wall from p-layer deposition. In addition to the p-i interface control, various interface control techniques such as thin layer of TiO2 deposition to prevent H2 plasma reduction of FTO layer, multiple applications of thin i-layer deposition and H2 plasma treatment, H2 plasma treatment of i-layer prior to n-layer deposition, etc. were developed. In order to reduce the reflection at the air-glass interface, anti-reflective SiO2 coating was also adopted. The initial solar cell efficiency over 11% could be achieved for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$.