• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.39-46
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• 2014

The performances of three different types of photovoltaic (PV) module technologies namely, copper-indium-diselenide (CIGS), mono-crystalline silicon (mo-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) have been comparatively studied in the grid-connected system for more than a year under the tropical monsoon climate of Thailand. The yields, performance ratios and system efficiencies for the respective PV module technologies have been calculated and a comparison is presented here. The performance ratios of the initial operation year for CIGS showed highest among the compared technologies under Thailand climate conditions by marking 97.0% while 89.6% for a-Si and 81.5% for mo-Si. Although mo-Si has shown highest efficiencies all over the period, under the testing conditions, the operating efficiency of mo-Si was down-graded from its reference value mainly due to high operating temperature and the efficiency of the tested CIGS module was also found as high as that of mo-Si in the study. Accordingly, outdoor assessment shows that CIGS modules have demonstrated high performance in terms of yields and performance ratios in Thailand climate conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2018

Solar panels are modules made up of many cells, like the N-type monosilicon, P-type monosilicon, P-type multisilicon, amorphous thin-film silicon, and CIGS solar cells. An efficient photovoltaic (PV) power is important to use to determine what kind of cell types are used because residential solar systems receive attention. In this study, we used 3-type solar panels - such as N-type monosilicon, P-type monosilicon, and CIGS solar cells - to investigate what kind of solar panel on a house or building performs the best. PV systems were composed of 3-type solar panels on the roof with each ~1.8 kW nominal power. N-type monosilicon solar panel resulted in the best power generation when monitored. Capacity Utilization Factor (CUF) and Performance Ratio (PR) of the N-type Si solar panel were 14.6% and 75% respectively. In comparison, N-type monosilicon and CIGS solar panels showed higher performance in power generation than P-type monosilicon solar power with increasing solar irradiance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.196-201
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• 2015

This paper presents the impact of partial shading on $CuIn_xGa_{(1-x)}Se_2(CIGS)$ photovoltaic(PV) modules with bypass diodes. When the CIGS PV modules were partially shaded, the modules were under conditions of partial reverse bias. We investigated the characterization of the bypass diode and solar cell properties of the CIGS PV modules when these was partially shaded, comparing the results with those for a crystalline silicon module. In crystalline silicon modules, the bypass diode was operated at a partial shade modules of 1.67 % shading. This protected the crystalline silicon module from hot spot damage. In CIGS thin film modules, on the other hand, the bypass diode was not operated before 20 % shading. This caused damage because of hotspots, which occurred as wormlike defects in the CIGS thin film module. Moreover, the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module was operated fully at 60% shading, while the CIGS thin film module was not operated under these conditions. It is known that the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module operated more slowly than that of the crystalline silicon module; this bypass diode also failed to protect the module from damage. This was because of the reverse saturation current of the CIGS thin film, $1.99{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$, which was higher than that of crystalline silicon, $8.11{\times}10^{-7}A/cm^2$.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2017

In this paper, (Ga,Al):ZnO layers were deposited by sputtering to evaluate the device performance according to the thickness of the layer. As the thickness increased, low transmittance was observed, but the electrical resistance was improved. On the other hand, the highest efficiency was recorded at 400 nm device than a 500 nm of it. Therefore, since the critical thickness exists, it is necessary to set an adequate TCO layer thickness in consideration of the characteristics of the underlying film and the device.

• Bulletin of the Korea Photovoltaic Society
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.8-17
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• 2017

$Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) 태양전지 기술은 1970년대 처음으로 소개된 이래 지속적인 기술적 진보를 통해 현재 소면적 유리 기판기준으로 세계최고효율 22.6%을 달성하였다. 최근에는 유리 기판뿐만 아니라 플렉서블 기판에도 적용되어 20%가 넘는 고효율이 유지됨으로써, 플렉서블 CIGS 박막태양전지의 BIPV로 응용에 대한 관심이 증가하고 있다. 따라서 본 글에서는 플렉서블 CIGS 박막태양전지의 주요 요소 기술에 대해서 살펴보고, 국내외 연구 및 산업적 현황 및 향후 전망에 대해서 기술하고자 한다.

• Prospectives of Industrial Chemistry
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS)계 박막 태양전지 기술은 1970년대 처음으로 소개된 이래 지속적인 기술적 진보를 이루어 왔으며, 저가·고안정성·고효율이라는 다양한 장점으로 태양광 시장에서 성공적인 안착을 노리고 있다. 이 논문은 CIGS 박막 태양전지의 개발 이력 및 요소 기술에 대해서 살펴보고 국가별 연구·개발 활동에 대해서 약술하였다. 아울러, 앞으로의 사회·시장에 변화에 대응한 연구 개발 방향에서 대해서도 논하였다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.103-110
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• 2019

Cu(In,Ga)₃Se₅ (β-CIGS) has a band gap of 1.35 eV, which is an optimum value for high solar-energy conversion efficiency. The effects of Cu and Ga content on the cell performance were investigated previously. However, the effect of Se content on the cell performance is not well understood yet. In this work, β-CIGS films were fabricated by three-stage co-evaporation of elemental sources with various Se fluxes at the third stage instead of at all stages. The average composition of five samples was Cu_1.05(In_0.59,Ga_0.41)3Se_y, where the stoichiometric y value is 5.03 and the stoichiometric Se/metal (Se/M) ratio is 1.24. We varied the Se/metal ratio in a range from 1.18 to 1.28. We found that the best efficiency was achieved when the Se/M ratio was 1.24, which is exactly the stoichiometric value where the CIGS grains on the CIGS surface were tightly connected and faceted. With the optimum Se/M ratio, we were able to enhance the cell efficiency of a β-CIGS solar cell from 9.6% to 12.0% by employing a Na₂S post deposition treatment. Our results indicate that Na₂S post deposition treatment is very effective to enhance the cell efficiency to a level on par with that in α-CIGS cell.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.56-61
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• 2018

In this study, CIGS absorber layers were deposited on low-alkali glass and sodalime glass substrates and potasium floride (KF) of various thicknesses was supplied at an elevated temperature after the CIGS growth. The effect of KF post-deposition treatment on the two types of substrates was extremely different. On the low-alkali substrate, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) was improved but the fill-factor (FF) degradation was severe, whereas the sodalime substrate showed Voc deterioration and FF improvement. In the case of supplying 20 nm of KF on both substrates, the efficiency gain of 0.3~1.1%p was obtained. With increasing the KF thickness, a small protrusion-like microstructure developed on the surface of the absorber layer, and the microstructures that were not removed in the subsequent process were found to be the main cause of the FF loss.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.295-295
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• 2010

Nanoparticles of the compound semiconductor, Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS), were synthesized in solution under ambient pressure below $100^{\circ}C$ and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical absorption spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses. These materials have chalcopyrite crystal structures and the particle sizes less than 100 nm. Synthetic conditions were studied for the crystallized CIGS nanoparticles formation to prevent from side products of Cu2Se, Cu2-xSe, and CuSe etc. The single phase CIGS nanoparticles were applied to coating of thin films photovoltaic cells. The electro deposition of CIGS thin films is also a good non-vacuum technology and under investigation. In aqueous solutions, the different chemical compositions of CIGS thin films were obtained, depending on pH, concentration of starting materials and deposition potentials. The surface morphology of the prepared CIGS thin films depends on the complexing ligands to the solutions during the electrochemical deposition.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1895-1897
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• 1999

This paper describes the fabrication and performance characterizations of the CIGS$(CuInGaSe_2)$ solar cells and its prototype module. The CIGS cell and module were fabricated on the sodalime glass$(5\times5cm^2)$ by the well known three stage co-evaporation and series connection followed by patterning process. respectively. The developed minimodule with active area of $14.7cm^2$ showed 6.0% solar efficiency($V_{oc}$=3.2V, $I_{sc}$=79.8mA, FF=34.6%) in AM 1.5 condition.