• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.68-73
• /
• 2008

It is very important that constitution of good hetero-junction interface with a high quality amorphous silicon thin films on very cleaned c-Si wafer for making high efficiency hetero-junction solar cells. For achieving the high efficiency solar cells, the inspection and management of c-Si wafer surface conditions are essential subjects. In this experiment, we analyzed the c-Si wafer surface very sensitively using Spectroscopic Ellipsometer for < ${\varepsilon}2$ > and u-PCD for effective carrier life time, so we accomplished < ${\varepsilon}2$ > value 43.02 at 4.25eV by optimizing the cleaning process which is representative of c-Si wafer surface conditions very well. We carried out that the deposition of high quality hydrogenated silicon amorphous thin films by RF-PECVD systems having high density and low crystallinity which are results of effective medium approximation modeling and fitting using spectroscopic ellipsometer. We reached the cell efficiency 12.67% and 14.30% on flat and textured CZ c-Si wafer each under AM1.5G irradiation, adopting the optimized cleaning and deposition conditions that we made. As a result, we confirmed that spectroscopic ellipsometry is very useful analyzing methode for hetero-junction solar cells which need to very thin and high quality multi layer structure.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.106-110
• /
• 2014

The passivation property of $Al_2O_3$ thin film formed using atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the application of crystalline Si solar cells was investigated using microwave photoconductance decay (${\mu}$-PCD). After post-annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min, $Al_2O_3$ thin film exhibited the structural stability having amorphous nature without the interfacial reaction between $Al_2O_3$ and Si. The post-annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min led to an increase in the relative effective lifetime of $Al_2O_3$ thin film. This could be associated with the field effective passivation combined with surface passivation of textured Si. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) with $Al_2O_3$ thin film post-annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min was carried out to evaluate the negative fixed charge of $Al_2O_3$ thin film. From the relationship between flatband voltage ($V_{FB}$) and equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), which were extracted from C-V characteristics, the negative fixed charge of $Al_2O_3$ thin film was calculated to be $2.5{\times}10^{12}cm^{-2}$, of which value was applicable to the passivation layer of n-type crystalline Si solar cells.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.315-315
• /
• 2016

The hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells using n/Al or n/Ag/Al back reflector have low short circuit current (Jsc) due to high absorption coefficients of Al or work function difference between n-layer and the metal. In this article, we utilized aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) to raise the internal reflectance for the improvement of short current density (Jsc) in a-Si:H thin film solar cells. It was found that there was a slight increase in the reflectance in the long wavelength range at the process temperature of 125oC due to improved crystalline quality of the AZO back reflector. The optical band gap (Eg) and work function were affected by the temperature and so did the internal reflectance. The increased internal reflectance within the solar cell resulted in Jsc of 14.94 mA/cm2 and the efficiency of 8.84%. Jsc for the cell without back reflector was 12.29 mA/cm2.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.65 no.10
• /
• pp.1694-1696
• /
• 2016

Present thin film solar cells with hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiO:H) as an absorber suffer from low fill factor(FF) of 61~64 [%] in spite of its benefits related to high open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$). Since degraded quality of a-SiO:H absorber by alloying with oxygen can affect the FF, we aimed to achieve high photosensitivity by minimizing $CO_2$ gas addition. Improving optical gap($E_{opt}$) has been attained by strong hydrogen dilution combined with lowering substrate temperature down to 100 [$^{\circ}C$]. Small amount of the $CO_2$ was added in order to disturb microcrystalline formation by high hydrogen dilution. The developed a-SiO:H has high photosensitivity (${\sim}2{\times}10^5$) and high $E_{opt}$ of 1.85 [eV], which contributed to attain remarkable FF of 74 [%] and high $V_{oc}$ (>1 [V]). As a result, high power conversion efficiency of 7.18 [%] was demonstrated by using very thin absorber layer of only 100 [nm], even though we processed all experiment at extremely low temperature of 100 [$^{\circ}C$].

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.228-231
• /
• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.236-242
• /
• 1986

The dependence of the current-voltage characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon pin solar cells on the illumimination light intensity has been investigated. The open circuit voltage increases linearly with increasing the logarithm of light intensity up to AM 1, and nearly saturates above AM 1, indicating the open circuit voltage approaching the built-in potential of the pin solar cell above AM 1. The short circuit current density increase with light intensity in proportion to I**0.85 before and I**0.97 after light exposure. Since the series resistance devreses and shunt resistance increases with light intensily, the fill factor increases with light illumination. To increase the fill factor at high illumination in large area solar cells, t6he grid pattern on the ITO substrates should be made. Long light exposure on the solar cells gives rise to the increase of bulk resistance and defect states, resulting in the decrease of the fil factor and short circuit current density. The potential drop in the bulk of the a-Si:H pin solar cells at short circuit condition increases with decreasing temperature, and increases after long light exposure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.02a
• /
• pp.153-153
• /
• 2010

p-i-n 형 비정질 실리콘 박막 태양전지에서 p층은 창물질(window material)로서 전기 전도도가 크고, 빛 흡수가 적어야한다. p층의 두께가 얇으면 p층 전체가 depletion layer가 되고 충분한 diffusion potential을 얻을 수 없어 open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$)가 작아진다. 반대로 p층 두께가 두꺼워지면 빛 흡수가 증가하고, 표면 재결합이 문제가 되어 변환효율이 감소한다. 밴드갭이 큰 물질로 창층을 제작하게 되면 보다 짧은 파장의 입사광이 직접 i층을 비추므로 Short-circuit current ($I_{sc}$) 와 fill factor를 증가시킬 수 있다. 하여 본 연구에서는 기존의 창층으로 사용되는 Boron을 doping한 p-type a-Si:H 대신에 $N_2O$를 첨가한 p-type a-$SiO_x$:H의 $N_2O$ flow rate에 따른 밴드갭의 변화에 관한 연구를 수행하였다. p-type a-$SiO_x$:H Layer는 $SiH_4$, $H_2$, $N_2O$, $B_2H_6$ 가스를 혼합하여 증착하게 되는데 $SiH_4$, 가스와 $H_2$ 가스의 혼합비는 1:20, $B_2H_6$ 농도는 0.5%로 고정 하였으며 $N_2O$의 flow rate을 가변하며 증착하였다. $N_2O$의 가변조건은 5에서 50sccm으로 가변하여 증착하며 일반적으로 사용되는 RF-PECVD (13.56MHz)를 이용하였고 증착 온도는 175도, 전극간의 거리는 40mm, 파워와 압력은 30W, 700mTorr로 고정하여 진행하였다. 전기적 특성을 알아보기 위해 eagle 2000 Glass를 사용하였고 구조적 특성은 p-type wafer를 사용하여 각각 대략 200nm의 두께로 증착하였다. 증착 두께는 Ellipsometry를 이용하였으며 전기 전도도는 Agilent사의 4156c를 구조적특성은 FT-IR을 사용하여 측정하였다. Conductivity(${\sigma}_d$)는 $N_2O$가 증가함에 따라 $8.73\;{\times}\;10^{-6}$에서 $5.06\;{\times}\;10^{-7}$으로 감소하였고 optical bandgap ($E_{opt}$)은 1.71eV에서 2.0eV로 증가함을 알 수 있었다. 또한 reflective index(n)의 경우는 4.32에서 3.52로 감소함을 나타내었다. 기존의 p-type a-Si:H에 비해 상당한 $E_{opt}$을 가지므로 빛 흡수에 의한 손실을 줄임으로서 $V_oc$를 향상 시킬 수 있으며 동시에 짧은 파장에서의 입사광이 직접 i층을 비추므로 $I_{sc}$와 FF를 향상 시킬 수 있으리라 예상된다. 다소 낮은 전도도만 개선한다면 고효율의 박막 태양전지를 제작 할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.120-124
• /
• 2011

Silicon heterojunction solar cells have been studied by many research groups. In this work, silicon heterojunction solar cells having a simple structure of Ag/ZnO:Al/n type a-Si:H/p type c-Si/Al were fabricated. Samples were fabricated to investigate the effect of transparent conductive oxide growth conditions on the interface between ZnO:Al layer and a-Si:H layer. One sample was deposited by ZnO:Al at low working pressure. The other sample was deposited by ZnO:Al at alternating high working pressure and low working pressure. Electrical properties and chemical properties were investigated by light I-V characteristics and AES method, respectively. The light I-V characteristics showed better efficiency on sample deposited by ZnO:Al by alternating high working pressure and low working pressure. Atomic concentrations and relative oxidation states of Si, O, and Zn were analyzed by AES method. For poor efficiency samples, Si was diffused into ZnO:Al layer and O was diffused at the interface of ZnO:Al and Si. Differentiated O KLL spectra, Zn LMM spectra, and Si KLL spectra were used for interface reaction and oxidation state. According to AES spectra, sample deposited by high working pressure was effective at reducing the interface reaction and the Si diffusion. Consequently, the efficiency was improved by suppressing the SiOx formation at the interface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 1999.07a
• /
• pp.64-64
• /
• 1999

다결정 실리콘-게르마늄(poly-SiGe)은 태양전지 및 TFT-LCD와 같은 소자 응용에 있어서 중요하게 연구되고 있는 물질이다. 우리는 수소화된 비정질 실리콘-게르마늄 (a-Si1-xGex:H) 박막을 증착시키고 고상결정화시키며 XRD(x-ray diffraction) 및 ESR (electron spin resonance) 측정을 수행하였다. PECVD 증착가스는 SiH4과 GeH4가스를 사용하였고 Ge의 성분비는 x=0.0, 0.1, 0.5 정도로 조절되었다. 기판은 Corning 1737 glass를 사용하였고, 기판 온도는 20$0^{\circ}C$ 이었다. 증착압력과 r.f. 전력은 각각 0.6Torr와 3W이었다. 증착된 SiGe 박막은 고상결정화를 위해 $600^{\circ}C$ N2 분위기에서 가열되고, 그에 따른 XRD 및 ESR spectrum의 변화를 관찰하였다. ESR 측정은 X-band 그리고 상온에서 행해졌다. 먼저 XRD 측정으로부터 박막의 고상결정화 정도를 알 수 있었고, 고상결정화 과정이 초기 핵형성 단계와 결정화 단계, 그리고 더 이상 결정화가 일어나지 않는 완료 단계로 구분될 수 있음을 보여주었다. X값이 증가함에 따라 결정화 시간은 훨씬 단축되었다. ESR로 측정된 스핀 밀도는 a-Si1-xGex:H 박막이 처음 가열됨에 따라 전체적으로 크게 증가했다가, 결정화가 일어나면서 다시 감소하여 나중에는 거의 변화가 없었다. ESR 신호의 초기 증가는 수소 이탈에 의한 dangling bond의 증가에 기인하며, 다음 단계의 감소 및 안정 상태는 결정화에 따른 결정경계 영역의 감소와 결함들의 안정성에 기인하는 것으로 생각된다. 그러나 흥미로운 것은 Si1-xGex 합금의 경우 가열시간이 증가됨에 따라 Si-db(Si-dangling bond)와 Ge-db에 의한 신호가 서로 분리되어 나타났으며, 이 Si-db 스핀 밀도와 Ge-db 스핀밀도의 변화정도는 x값에 크게 의존함을 보여준 것이다. 즉 순수한 a-Si:H의 경우 Si-db 의 스핀밀도의 증가시간은 4시간 정도였고, 그리고 다시 감소하였으며, x=0.1 인 박막에서 Si-db와 Ge-db의 변화 시간은 순수 S-db 변화의 경우와 거의 유사하였다. 그러나 x=0.5 샘플에서는 Si-db의 변화가 빨라져서 0.1 시간 안에 증가되었고, Ge-db의 변화는 더 빠르게 수 분 동안에 증가 된후 다시 감소하였다. 이것은 수소의 Si에 대한 친화력 뿐 만아니라 Si-H과 Ge-H 결합에너지가 주위 원자들의 구성에 크게 영향받을 수 있는 가능성을 제시해준다.