• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.116-117
• /
• 2006

We investigated selective emitter effect of Porous Silicon (PSI) as antireflection coatings (ARC). The thin PSi layer, less than 100nm, was electrochemically formed by electrochemical method in about $3{\mu}m$ thick $n^+$ emitter on single crystalline silicon wafer (sc-Si). The appropriate PSi formations for selective emitter effect were carried out a two steps. A first set of samples allowed to be etched after metal-contact processing and a second one to evaporate Ag front-side metallization on PSi layer, by evaluating the I-V features The PSi has reflectance less than 20% in wavelength for 450-1000nm and porosity is about 60%. The cell made after front-contact has improved cell efficiency of about in comparison with the one made after PSi. The observed increase of efficiency for samples with PSi coating could be explained not only by the reduction of the reflection loss and surface recombination but also by the increased short-circuit current (Isc) within selective emitter. The assumption was confirmed by numerical modeling. The obtained results point out that it would be possible to prepare a solar cell over 15% efficiency by the proposed simple technology.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.1 no.4
• /
• pp.11-15
• /
• 2000

This paper presents a process optimization of antireflection (AR) coating on crystalline Si solar cells. Theoretical and experimental investigations were performed on a double-layer AR(DLAR) coating of MgFe$_2$/GeO$_2$. We investigated GeO$_2$ films as an AR layer because they have a proper refractive index of 2.46 and demonstrate the same lattice constant as Si substrate. RF sputter grown GeO$_2$ film showed deposition temperature strong dependence. The GeO$_2$ at 400$\^{C}$ exhibited a strong (111) preferred orientation and the lowest surface roughness of 6.87 $\AA$. Refractive index of MgFe$_2$film was measured as 1.386 for the most of growth temperature. An optimized DLAR coating showed a reflectance as low as 2.04% in the wavelengths ranged from 0.4 ㎛ to 1.1 ㎛. Solar cells with a structure of MgFe$_2$/GeO$_2$/Ag/N$\^$+//p-type Si/P$\^$+//Al were investigated with the without DLAR coatings. We achieved the efficiency of solar cells greater than 15% with 3.12% improvement with DLAR coatings. Further details about MgFe$_2$,GeO$_2$ films, and cell fabrication parameters are presented in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.7
• /
• pp.616-621
• /
• 2009

Reduction of optical losses in crystalline silicon solar cells by surface modification is one of the most important issues of silicon photovoltaics. Porous Si layers on the front surface of textured Si substrates have been investigated with the aim of improving the optical losses of the solar cells, because an anti-reflection coating(ARC) and a surface passivation can be obtained simultaneously in one process. We have demonstrated the feasibility of a very efficient porous Si ARC layer, prepared by a simple, cost effective, electrochemical etching method. Silicon p-type CZ (100) oriented wafers were textured by anisotropic etching in sodium carbonate solution. Then, the porous Si layers were formed by electrochemical etching in HF solutions. After that, the properties of porous Si in terms of morphology, structure and reflectance are summarized. The structure of porous Si layers was investigated with SEM. The formation of a nanoporous Si layer about 100nm thick on the textured silicon wafer result in a reflectance lower than 5% in the wavelength region from 500 to 900nm. Such a surface modification allows improving the Si solar cell characteristics. An efficiency of 13.4% is achieved on a monocrystalline silicon solar cell using the electrochemical technique.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.367-367
• /
• 2013

Commercial applications of indium tin oxide (ITO) can be separated into two useful areas. As it is perceived to bear electrical properties and optical transparency at once, its chance to apply to promising fields, usually for an optical device, gets greater in the passing time. ITO is one of the transparent conducting oxides (TCO), and required to carry the relative resistance less than $10^{-3}{\Omega}$/cm and transmittances over 80 % in the visible wavelength of light. Because ITO has considerable refractive index, there exist applications for anti-reflection coatings. Anti-reflection properties require gradual change in refractive index from films to air. Such changes are obtained from film density or nano-clustered fractional void. Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method is a well known process for adjusting nanostructure of the films. From its shadowing effects, GLAD helps to deposit well-controlled porous films effectively. In this study, we are comparing the reference sample to samples coated with controlled ITO multilayer accumulated by an e-beam evaporation system. At first, the single ITO layer samples are prepared to decide refractive index with ellipsometry. Afterwards, ITO multilayer samples are fabricated and fitted by multilayer ellipsometric model based on single layer data. The structural properties were measured by using atomic force microscopy (AFM), and by scanning X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The ellipsometry was used to determine refractive indices and extinction coefficient. The optical transmittance of the film was investigated by using an ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.52 no.10
• /
• pp.447-450
• /
• 2003

This paper presents a process optimization of antireflection (AR) coating on crystalline Si solar cells. Theoretical and experimental investigations were performed on a double-layer AR (DLAR) coating of MgF$_2$/CeO$_2$. We investigated CeO$_2$ films as an AR layer because they have a proper refractive index of 2.46 and demonstrate the same lattice constant as Si substrate. RF sputter grown CeO$_2$ film showed strong dependence on a deposition temperature. The CeO$_2$ deposited at 40$0^{\circ}C$ exhibited a strong (111) preferred orientation and the lowest surface roughness of 6.87 $\AA$. Refractive index of MgF$_2$ film was measured as 1.386 for the most of growth temperature. An optimized DLAR coating showed a reflectance as low as 2.04% in the wavelengths ranged from 0.4${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ to 1.1${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. We achieved the efficiencies of solar cells greater than 15% with 3.12% improvement with DLAR coatings. Further details on MgF$_2$, CeO$_2$ films, and cell fabrication parameters are presented in this paper.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.323-329
• /
• 2000

In this study we have calculated an ideal complex refractive index of a TiN trim used in a layer of anl1reilecnon (I\R) coatmg, [air$ISiO_2ITiNIglass$] in the visible. Also we simulated the rellectance of lwo-layer AR coating by varying the thicknesses of TiN and $SiO_2$ layers, respecl1vely. The simolation results show that we can controllhe lowest reflectance and AR band of tile AR coating. The TIN fihns were fabricated by a RF magnetron sputtering apparalus. The chemical, structural and electrical properties of TiN fih11S were inveshgated by the Rutherford backscattering spech'oscopy (RBS), atomic force microscope (AFM) and 4-point probe. The optical properlies were inve,tigated by the spectrophotometer and vanable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer (VASE). The smface roughness of TiN flhns \vas $9~10\AA$. TIle resistivity of TiN films was TEX>$360~730\mu$\Omega $ cm. The ,toichlOllletry of TiN film was 1'1: O:N = I: 0.65 :0.95 and ilic oxygen wa~ found on ilie smface. With these experimental and simu]al1on resulLs, we deposited duo: two-layer AR coating, [air$ISiO_2ITiNIglass$] and the refleClance was under 0.5% ill the regIOn of 440-650 run. 0 run.