• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.187-187
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• 2015

The past thirty years have seen increasingly rapid advances in the field of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) transparent thin film.[1] However, a major problem with this ITO thin film application is high cost compared with other transparent thin film materials.[2] So far, in order to overcome this disadvantage, we show a transparent ITO/Ag/i-ZnO multilayer thin film electrode can be the solution. In comparison with using amount of ITO as a transparent conducting material, intrinsic-Zinc-Oxide (i-ZnO) based on ITO/Ag/i-ZnO multilayer thin film showed cost-effective and it has not only highly transparent but also conductive properties. The aim of this research has therefore been to try and establish how ITO/Ag/i-ZnO multilayer thin film would be more effective than ITO thin film. Herein, we report ITO/Ag/i-ZnO multilayer thin film properties by using optical spectroscopic method and measuring sheet resistance. At a certain total thickness of thin film, sheet resistance of ITO/Ag/i-ZnO multilayer was drastically decreased than ITO layer approximately $40{\Omega}/{\square}$ at same visible light transmittance.(minimal point $5.2{\Omega}/{\square}$). Tendency, which shows lowly sheet resistive in a certain transmittance, has been observed, hence, it should be suitable for transparent electrode device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.278.2-278.2
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• 2014

We have investigated the highly flexible and transparent Si-doped $In_2O_3$(ISO)/Ag/ISO multilayer grown on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using a roll-to-roll sputtering system. The electrical and optical properties of ISO/Ag/ISO multilayer electrodes depended on the insertion of a nano-size Ag layer. Due to the high conductivity of a nano-size Ag layer, the optimized ISO/Ag/ISO multilayer electrodes showed the lowest resistivity of $3.679{\times}10^{-5}Ohm-cm$, even though the ISO/Ag/ISO multilayer electrodes was sputtered at room temperature. Furthermore, the ISO/Ag/ISO multilayer electrodes exhibited a high transmittance of 86.33%, because of the anti-reflection effect, comparable to Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) electrodes. In addition, the ISO/Ag/ISO multilayer electrodes had a very smooth surface morphology without surface defects and showed good flexibility. The flexible OSCs fabricated on ISO(30nm)/Ag(8nm)/ISO(30nm) multilayer electrode showed a power conversion efficiency of 3.272%. This result indicates that the ISO/Ag/ISO multilayer is a promising transparent conducting electrode for flexible OSCs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.285-291
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• 2020

Recent advances in technology using ultra-thin noble metal film in oxide/metal/oxide structures have attracted attention because this material is a promising alternative to meet the needs of transparent conduction electrodes (TCE). AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films are prepared by magnetron sputtering for Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) of kesterite solar cells. It is shown that the electrical and optical properties of the AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films can be improved by the very low resistivity and surface plasmon effects due to the deposition of different thicknesses of Ag layer between oxide layers fixed at AZO 30 nm. The AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films of Ag 15 nm show high mobility of 26.4 ㎠/Vs and low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.58^⁎10^-5 Ωcm and 5.0 Ω/sq. Also, the AZO/Ag (15 nm)/AZO multilayer film shows relatively high transmittance of more than 65 % in the visible region. Through this, we fabricated CZTSSe thin film solar cells with 7.51 % efficiency by improving the short-circuit current density and fill factor to 27.7 mV/㎠ and 62 %, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2020

Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks have been adopted as a front electrode in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells due to their low cost and compatibility with the solution process. When an AgNW network is applied to a CIGS thin film solar cell, reflection loss can increase because the CdS layer, with a relatively high refractive index (n ~ 2.5 at 550 nm), is exposed to air. To resolve the issue, we apply solution-processed ZnO nanorods to the AgNW network as an anti-reflective coating. To obtain high performance of the optical and electrical properties of the ZnO nanorod and AgNW network composite, we optimize the process parameters - the spin coating of AgNWs and the concentration of zinc nitrate and hexamethylene tetramine (HMT - to fabricate ZnO nanorods. We verify that 10 mM of zinc nitrate and HMT show the lowest reflectance and 10% cell efficiency increase when applied to CIGS thin film solar cells.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.378-382
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• 2003

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 md 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 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.391-394
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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 HCl (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 (0.9 mTorr) and high substrate temperatures ($\leq$30$0^{\circ}C$), 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 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.103-104
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• 2006

Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) are necessary as front electrode for increased efficiency of LED. In our paper, transparent conducting alminum-doped Zinc oxide films (AZO) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (corning 1737) substrate, were then annealed at temperature $400^{\circ}C$ for 2hr. The smooth AZO films were etched in diluted HCL (0.5%) to examine the surface morphology properties as a variation of the time. The surface morphology of AZO films increased as a time. We observed texture structure of AZO thin film etched for 1min.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2017

We fabricated two different transparent conducting oxide thin films of ZnO doped with Ga ($Ga_2O_3$ 0.9 wt%) as well as Al ($Al_2O_3$ 2.1 wt%) (GAZO) and ZnO doped only with Al ($Al_2O_3$ 3 wt%) (AZO). It was investigated how it affects the moisture resistance of the transparent electrode. In addition, $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ thin film solar cells with two transparent oxides as front electrodes were fabricated, and the correlation between humidity resistance of transparent electrodes and device performance of solar cells was examined. When both transparent electrodes were exposed to high temperature distilled water, they showed a rapid increase in sheet resistance and a decrease in the fill factor of the solar cell. However, AZO showed a drastic decrease in efficiency at the beginning of exposure, while GAZO showed that the deterioration of efficiency occurred over a long period of time and that the long term moisture resistance of GAZO was better.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2014

Transparent and conducting aluminum-doped ZnO electrodes were fabricated by atomic layer deposition methods. The electrode showed the lowest resistivity of $5.73{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ at a 2.5% cyclic layer deposition ratio of Trimethyl-aluminum and Diethyl-zinc chemicals. The electrodes showed minimum resistivity when deposited at a temperature of $225^{\circ}C$. The electrode also showed optical transmittance of about 92% at 300 nm. An organic solar cell made with a 300-nm-thick aluminum-doped ZnO electrode exhibited 2.0% power conversion efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.633-634
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• 2005

Transparent conducting glasses exhibit high ohmic losses that are apparent in the case of large size Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). In this study, we investigated the impact of current collectors over the efficiency of DSSCs. The Silver current collectors were prepared on both counter electrode and working electrode surface by screen printing method. For long term stability in electrolyte environment and also to avoid the charge recombination, current collectors are protected by sodium silicate overcoat layer. These current collectors were characterized for their microstructure parameters. Also current collector's stability in electrolyte environment has been investigated.