• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.432-438
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• 2011

In this study, chemical bath deposited (CBD) indium sulfide buffer layers were investigated as a possible substitution for the cadmium sulfide buffer layer in CIGS thin film solar cells. The performance of the $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cell dramatically improved when the films were annealed at $300^{\circ}C$ in inert gas after the buffer layer was grown on the CIGS film. The thickness of the indium sulfide buffer layer was 80 nm, but decreased to 60 nm after annealing. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy it was found that the chemical composition of the layer changed to indium oxide and indium sulfide from the as-deposited indium hydroxide and sulfate states. Furthermore, the overall atomic concentration of the oxygen in the buffer layer decreased because deoxidation occurred during annealing. In addition, an In-thin layer was inserted between the indium sulfide buffer and CIGS in order to modify the $In_2S_3$/CIGS interface. The $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cell with the In interlayer showed improved photovoltaic properties in the $J_{sc}$ and FF values. Furthermore, the $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cells showed higher quantum efficiency in the short wavelength region. However, the quantum efficiency in the long wavelength region was still poor due to the thick buffer layer.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.438-440
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• 2008

Effects of Ga contents of CIGS absorber layer on the performance of thin films solar cells were investigated. As Ga content increased, the grain size of CIGS films decreased presumably because Ga diffusion during 2nd stage of co-evaporation process is more difficult than In diffusion. Performances of corresponding solar cell show systematic dependence on Ga content in which open circuit voltage increases and short circuit current and fill factor decrease as Ga contents increases. At a optimal condition of Ga/(In+Ga)=0.27, the solar cell shows a conversion efficiency of 15.6% with $V_{OC}$ of 0.625 V, $J_{SC}$ of 35.03 mA/$cm^2$ and FF of 71.3%.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.142-145
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• 2010

In this work, a numerical analysis of a CIGS ($CuIn_{1-x}Ga_xSe_2$) solar cell with a rectangular grating on the electrode is presented. The effects of the grating on the energy conversion efficiency are calculated using the RCWA (rigorous coupled wave analysis) method. In conventional CIGS solar cells, the thickness of the light absorption layer (CIGS) is $2\;{\mu}m$, at which the incident light is almost absorbed. By adopting a grating on the electrode and using a less than $1\;{\mu}m$ CIGS layer, we obtained a higher efficiency compared to the conventional solar cells.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.282-287
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• 2013

Hydrogen production from water using solar energy is attractive way to obtain clean energy resource. Among the various solar-to-hydrogen production techniques, a combination of a photovoltaic and an electrolytic cell is one of the most promising techniques in term of stability and efficiency. In this study, we show successful fabrication of precursor solution processed CIGS thin film solar cells which can generate high voltage. In addition, CIGS thin film solar cell modules producing over 2V of open circuit voltage were fabricated by connecting three single cells in series, which are applicable to water electrolysis. The operating current and voltage during water electrolysis was measured to be 4.23mA and 1.59V, respectively, and solar to hydrogen efficiency was estimated to be 3.9%.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.47-57
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• 2017

CIGS thin film solar cells are technically suitable for BIPV applications than regularly used crystalline silicon solar cells. Particularly, CIGS PV has lower temperature coefficient than crystalline silicon PV, thus decrease in power generation is lowered in CIGS PV. Moreover, CIGS PV can decrease shading loss when applied to the BIPV system, and the total annual power generation is higher than crystalline silicon. However, there are few studies on the installation factors affecting the performance of BIPV system with CIGS module. In this study, BIPV curtain wall unit with CIGS PV module was designed. To prevent increase of temperature of CIGS PV module by solar radiation, ventilation was considered at the backside of the unit. The thermal specification and electrical performance of CIGS PV of the ventilated unit was analyzed experimentally. Non-ventilated unit was also investigated and compared with ventilated unit. The results showed that the average CIGS temperature of the ventilated curtain wall unit was $6.8^{\circ}C$ lower than non-ventilated type and the efficiency and power generation performance of ventilated CIGS PV on average was, respectively, about 6% and 5.8% higher than the non-ventilated type.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.153-155
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• 2009

In this study, we fabricated the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) thin-film solar cells by using a polyimide substrate. The CIGS thin-film was deposited on Mo coated polyimide substrate by a 3-stage co-evaporation technique. Because the polyimide shows thermal transformation at about $400^{\circ}C$, the substrate temperature of co-evaporation process was set to below $400^{\circ}C$. Corresponding solar cell showed a conversion efficiency of 7.08 % with $V_{OC}$ of 0.58 V, $J_{SC}$ of 24.99 $mA/cm^2$ and FF of 0.49.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.152-153
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• 2006

The new approach to buffer layer design for CIGS solar cells that permitted to reduce the buffer absorption losses in the short wavelength range and to overcome the disadvantages inherent to Cd-free CIGS solar cells was proposed. A chemical bath deposition method has been used to produce a high duality buffer layer that comprises thin film of CdS and Zn-based film. The double layer was grown on either ITO or CIGS substrates and its morphological, structural and optical properties were characterized. The Zn-based film was described as the ternary compound $ZnS_x(OH)_y$. The composition of the $ZnS_x(OH)_y$ layer was not uniform throughout its thickness. $ZnS_x(OH)_y$/CdS/substrate region was a highly intermixed region with gradually changing composition. The short wavelength cut-off of double layer was shifted to shorter wavelength (400nm) compared to that (520 nm) for the standard CdS by optimization of the double buffer design. The results show the way to improve the light energy collection efficiency of the nearly cadmium-free CIGS-based solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.222-224
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• 2006

A non-vacuum process for $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) thin film solar cells from nanoparticle precursors was described in this work CIGS nanoparticle precursors was prepared by a low temperature colloidal route by reacting the starting materials $(CuI,\;InI_3,\;GaI_3\;and\;Na_2Se)$ in organic solvents, by which fine CIGS nanoparticles of about 20nm in diameter were obtained. The nanoparticle precursors were mixed with organic binder material for the rheology of the mixture to be adjusted for the doctor blade method. After depositing the mixture of CIGS with binder on Mo/glass substrate, the samples were preheated on the hot plate in air to evaporate remaining solvents ud to burn the organic binder material. Subsequently, the resultant (porous) CIGS/Mo/glass simple was selenized in a two-zone Rapid Thermal Process (RTP) furnace in order to get a solar ceil applicable dense CIGS absorber layer. Complete solar cell structure was obtained by depositing. The other layers including CdS buffer layer, ZnO window layer and Al electrodes by conventional methods. The resultant solar cell showed a conversion efficiency of 0.5%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.61.1-61.1
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• 2010

$CuIn_{1-x}-GaxSe_2$ based materials with direct bandgap and high absorption coefficient are promising materials for high efficiency hetero-junction solar cells. CIGS champion cell efficiency(19.9%, AM1.5G) is very close to polycrystalline silicon(20.3%, AM1.5G). A reduction in the price of CIGS module is required for competing with well matured silicon technology. Price reduction can be achieved by decreasing the manufacturing cost and by increasing module efficiency. Manufacturing cost is mostly dominated by capital cost. Device properties of CIGS are strongly dependent on doping, defect chemistry and structure which in turn are dependent on growth conditions. The complex chemistry of CIGS is not fully understood to optimize and scale processes. Control of the absorber grain size, structural quality, texture, composition profile in the growth direction is important to achieving reliable device performance. In the present work, CIS nanoparticles were prepared by a simple wet chemical synthesis method and their structural and optical properties were investigated. XRD patterns of as-grown nanopowders indicate CIS(Cubic), $CuSe_2$(orthorhombic) and excess selenium. Further, as-grown and annealed nanopowders were characterized by HRTEM and ICP-OES. Grain growth of the nanopowders was followed as a function of temperature using HT-XRD with overpressure of selenium. It was found that significant grain growth occurred between $300-400^{\circ}C$ accompanied by formation of ${\beta}-Cu_{2-x}Se$ at high temperature($500^{\circ}C$) consistent with Cu-Se phase diagram. The result suggests that grain growth follows VLS mechanism which would be very useful for low temperature, high quality and economic processing of CIGS based solar cells.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.235-243
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• 2021

As environmental problems accompanied by industrialization have emerged worldwide, solar and wind energy have entered the stage of commercialization, especially in Korea. In addition, research on improving aesthetics using solar cells is being actively conducted. Examples include developing a transmissive solar cell and developing a solar cell with flexibility and color. Therefore, in line with the upward trend of solar cell development and solar cell-based public facility installation, we will present guidelines for designing public facilities using solar cells to improve aesthetics. First of all, components were derived to increase the suitability of solar cell application through literature surveys on solar cells and case studies on public facilities using solar cells. Next, through prior research on public facility guidelines, we established evaluation principles and drafted design guidelines. Based on this, a Delphi survey was conducted on a group of experts to verify its validity. Design guidelines for solar cells application measures to improve the final public design aesthetics were derived. The goal is to improve the public facilities using solar cells, through Accessibility and cognition, Usability, Shape and aesthetics, Sustainability and energy efficiency, Continuity with the urban landscape. And it is expected that this data will be used to improve the aesthetics of public design using solar cells in the future.