• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.88-88
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• 2012

High efficiency thin film photovoltaic device technology is reviewed. At present market situation, the industrial players of thin film technologies have to confront the great recession and need to change their market strategies and find technical alternatives again. Most recent technology trends and technical or industrial progress for Silicon thin film and CIGS are introduced and common interests for high efficiency and reliability are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.58.1-58.1
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• 2007

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

The $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) thin film obtained by two-step process (metal deposition and Se annealing) has a rough surface morphology and many voids at the CIGS/Mo interface. To solve the problem a precursor that contains Se was employer by depositing a (In,Se)/(Cu,Ga) stacked layer. We devised a two-step annealing (vacuum pre-annealing and Se annealing) for the precursor because direct annealing of the precursor in Se environment resulted in the small grains with unwanted demarcation between stacked layers. After vacuum pre-annealing up to $500^{\circ}C$ the CIGS film consisted of CIGS phase and secondary phases including $In_4Se_3$, InSe, and $Cu_9(In,Ga)_4$. The secondary phases were completely converted to CIGS phase by a subsequent Se annealing. A void-free CIGS/Mo interface was obtained by the two-step annealing process. Especially, the CIGS film prepared by vacuum annealing $450^{\circ}C$ and subsequent Se annealing $550^{\circ}C$ showed a densely-packed grains with smooth surface, well-aligned bamboo grains on the top of the film, little voids in the film, and also little voids at the CIGS/Mo interface. The smooth surface enhanced the cell performance due to the increase of shunt resistance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.764-773
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• 2019

The gas response characteristic toward C₂H₅OH has been demonstrated in terms of copper-vacancy concentration, hole density, and microstructural factors for undoped/Li(I)-doped CuO thin films prepared by sol-gel method. For the films, both concentrations of intrinsic copper vacancies and electronic holes decrease with increasing calcination temperature from 400 to 500 to 600 ℃. Li(I) doping into CuO leads to the reduction of copper-vacancy concentration and the enhancement of hole density. The increase of calcination temperature or Li(I) doping concentration in the film increases both optical band gap energy and Cu2p binding energy, which are characterized by UV-vis-NIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The overall hole density of the film is determined by the offset effect of intrinsic and extrinsic hole densities, which depend on the calcination temperature and the Li(I) doping amount, respectively. The apparent resistance of the film is determined by the concentration of the structural defects such as copper vacancies, Li(I) dopants, and grain boundaries, as well as by the hole density. As a result, it is found that the gas response value of the film sensor is directly proportional to the apparent sensor resistance.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.88-94
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• 2014

The structural, optical and electrical properties of sputter-deposited CIGS films were directly influenced by the sputtering process parameters such as substrate temperature, working pressure, RF power and distance between target and substrate. CIGS thin films deposited by using a quaternary target revealed to be Se deficient due to Se low vapor pressure. This Se deficiency affected the overall stoichiometry of the films, causing the films to be Cu-rich. Current tends to pass through the Cu-Se channels which act as the shunting path increasing the film conductivity. The crystal structure of CIGS thin films depends on the substrate orientation due to the influence of surface morphology, grain size and stress of Mo substrate. The excess of Cu was removed from the CIGS films by KCN treatment, achieving a suitable Cu concentration (referred as Cu-poor) for the fabrication of solar cell. Due to high Cu concentrations on the CIGS film surface induced by Cu-Se phases after CIGS film deposition, KCN treatment proved to be necessary for the fabrication of high efficiency solar cells. Also during KCN treatment, dislocation density and lattice parameter decreased as excess Cu was removed, resulting in increase of bandgap and the decrease of conductivity of CIGS films. It was revealed that Cu-Se secondary phase could be removed by KCN wet etching of CIGS films, allowing the fabrication of high efficiency absorber layer.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.3C no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2003

Structural properties of Cu-Ni alloy films, such as preferred orientation, crystallite size, in-ter-planar spacing, cross-sectional morphology, and electrical resistivity, are investigated in terms of tar-get configurations that are used in the film deposition by means of magnetron co-sputtering. Two different target configurations are considered in this study: a dual-type configuration in which two separate tar-gets (Cu and Ni) and different bias types (RF and DC) are used and a Ni-on-Cu type configuration in which Ni chips are attached to a Cu target. The dual-type configuration appears to have some advantages over the Ni-on-Cu type regarding the accurate control of atomic composition of the deposited Cu-Ni alloy. However, the dual-type-produced film exhibits a porous and columnar structure, the relatively large internal stress, and the high electrical resistivity, which are mainly due to the relatively low mobility of adatoms. The affects of thermal treatment and deposition conditions on the structural and electrical properties of dual-type Cu-Ni films are also discussed.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.18-20
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• 2016

Transparent and conducting IGZO thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on thin Cu coated glass substrates to investigate the effect of a Cu buffer layer on the structural, optical, and electrical film properties. Although X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that both the IGZO single layer and IGZO/Cu bi-layered films were in the amorphous phase, the IGZO/Cu films showed a lower resistivity of 5.7×10⁻⁴ Ωcm due to the increased mobility and high carrier concentration. The decreased optical transmittance of the IGZO/Cu films was also attributed to a one order of magnitude higher carrier concentration than the IGZO films. From the observed results, the thin Cu layer is postulated to be an effective buffer film that can enhance the opto-electrical performance of the IGZO films in transparent thin film transistors.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.967-972
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• 2004

The role of transfer films formed during sliding of polymer composites against steel counterfaces was studied in terms of the tribological behaviors of composites. Four kinds of composites were included in this study: (1) unfilled PPS, (2) PPS+2%CuO, (3) PPS+2%CuO+5% carbon fiber (CF), and (4) PPS+2%CuO+15%Kevlar. The filler material CuO was in nanoscale particulate form and the reinforcing material was in the form of short fibers. The composites were prepared by compression molding at $310^{\circ}C$ and sliding tests were run in the pin-on-disk sliding configuration. The counterface was made of tool steel hardened to 55-60 HRC and finished to a surface roughness of 0.09-0.10 ${\mu}m$ Ra. Wear tests were run for 6 hrs at the sliding speed of 1 m/s and contact pressure of 0.65 MPa. Transfer films formed on the counterfaces during sliding were investigated using AFM and SEM. The results showed that as the transfer film became smooth and uniform, wear rate decreased. PPS+2%CuO+15%Kevlar composite showed the lowest steady state wear rate in this study and its transfer film showed the smoothest and the most uniform characteristics. The examination of worn surfaces of PPS+2%CuO composite using X-ray area scanning (dot mapping) showed back-transfer of steel counterface material to the polymer pin surface. This behavior is believed to strengthen the polymer pin surface during sliding thereby contributing to the decrease in wear rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.12a
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• pp.119-122
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• 2006

Process variables for manufacturing the $CuInSe_2$ thin film were established in order to clarify optimum conditions for growth of the thin film depending upon process conditions (substrate temperature, sputtering pressure, DC/RF Power), and then by changing a number of vapor deposition conditions and Annealing conditions variously, structural and electrical characteristics were measured. Thereby, optimum process variables were derived. For the manufacture of the $CuInSe_2$, Cu, In and Se were vapor-deposited in the named order. Among them, Cu and In were vapor-deposited by using the sputtering method in consideration of their adhesive force to the substrate, and the DC/RF power was controlled so that the composition of Cu and In might be 1:1, while the surface temperature having an effect on the quality of the thin film was changed from 100[$^{\circ}C$] to 300[$^{\circ}C$] at intervals of 50[$^{\circ}C$].

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1571-1576
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• 2018

Recent study shows that the main reason for limiting CZTS device performance lies in the low open circuit voltage, and crucial factor that could affect the $V_{oc}$ is secondary phases like ZnS existing in absorber layer and its interfaces. In this work, the $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ thin film solar cells were prepared by sputtering CuSn and CuZn alloy targets. Through tuning the Zn/Sn ratios of the CZTS thin films, the crystal structure, morphology, chemical composition and phase purity of CZTS thin films were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. The statistics data show that the CZTS solar cell with a ratio of Zn/Sn = 1.2 have the best power convention efficiency of 5.07%. After HCl etching process, the CZTS thin film solar cell with the highest efficiency 5.41% was obtained, which demonstrated that CZTS film solar cells with high efficiency could be developed by sputtering CuSn and CuZn alloy targets.