• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.9-14
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• 2019

Carrier selective solar cell structure has allured curiosity of photovoltaic researchers due to the use of wide band gap transition metal oxide (TMO). Distinctive p/n-type character, broad range of work functions (2 to 7 eV) and risk free fabrication of TMO has evolved new concept of heterojunction intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cell employing carrier selective layers such as $MoO_x$, $WO_x$, $V_2O_5$ and $TiO_2$ replacing the doped a-Si layers on either front side or back side. The p/n-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers are deposited by Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD), which includes the flammable and toxic boron/phosphorous gas precursors. Due to this, carrier selective TMO is gaining popularity as analternative risk-free material in place of conventional a-Si:H. In this work hole selective materials such as $MoO_x$, $WO_x$ and $V_2O_5$has been investigated. Recently $MoO_x$, $WO_x$ & $V_2O_5$ hetero-structures showed conversion efficiency of 22.5%, 12.6% & 15.7% respectively at temperature below $200^{\circ}C$. In this work a concise review on few important aspects of the hole selective material solar cell such as historical developments, device structure, fabrication, factors effecting cell performance and dependency on temperature has been reported.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.97-102
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• 2019

Bifacial and semitransparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cells in p-i-n configuration were prepared with front and rear transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and tin-doped indium oxide films were used as front and rear TCO contacts, respectively. Film thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers were controlled from 150 nm to 450 nm by changing deposition time. The dependence of performance characteristics of solar cells on the front and rear illumination direction were investigated. For front illumination, gradual increase in the short-circuit current density (J_SC) from 10.59 mA/㎠ to 14.19 mA/㎠ was obtained, whereas slight decreases from 0.83 V to 0.81 V for the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and from 68.43% to 65.75% for fill factor (FF) were observed. The average optical transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 ~ 780 nm of the solar cells decreased gradually from 22.76% to 15.67% as the absorber thickness was changed from 150 nm to 450 nm. In case of the solar cells under rear illumination condition, the J_SC increased from 10.81 to 12.64 mA/㎠ and the FF deceased from 66.63% to 61.85%, while the V_OC values were maintained at 0.80 V with increasing the absorber thickness from 150 nm to 450 nm. By optimizing the deposition parameters, a high-quality bifacial and semitransparent a-Si:H solar cell with 350 nm-thick i-a-Si:H absorber layer exhibited the conversion efficiencies of 7.69% for front illumination and 6.40% for rear illumination, and average visible optical transmittance of 17.20%.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2010년도 제39회 하계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.297-297
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• 2010

Precise control of the position and density of doping elements at the nanoscale is becoming a central issue for realizing state-of-the-art silicon-based optoelectronic devices. As dimensions are scaled down to take benefits from the quantum confinement effect, however, the presence of interfaces and the nature of materials adjacent to silicon turn out to be important and govern the physical properties. Utilization of visible light is a promising method to overcome the efficiency limit of the crystalline Si solar cells. Si quantum dots (QDs) have been proposed as an emission source of visible light, which is based on the quantum confinement effect. Light emission in the visible wavelength has been reported by controlling the size and density of Si QDs embedded within various types of insulating matrix. For the realization of all-Si QD solar cells with homojunctions, it is prerequisite not only to optimize the impurity doping for both p- and n-type Si QDs, but also to construct p-n homojunctions between them. In this study, XPS and SIMS were used for the development of p-type and n-type Si quantum dot solar cells. The stoichiometry of SiOx layers were controlled by in-situ XPS analysis and the concentration of B and P by SIMS for the activated doping in Si nano structures. Especially, it has been experimentally evidenced that boron atoms in silicon nanostructures confined in SiO2 matrix can segregate into the Si/$SiO_2$ interfaces and the Si bulk forming a distinct bimodal spatial distribution. By performing quantitative analysis and theoretical modelling, it has been found that boron incorporated into the four-fold Si crystal lattice can have electrical activity. Based on these findings, p-type Si quantum dot solar cell with the energy-conversion efficiency of 10.2% was realized from a [B-doped $SiO_{1.2}$(2 nm)/$SiO_2(2\;nm)]^{25}$ superlattice film with a B doping level of $4.0{\times}10^{20}\;atoms/cm^2$.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.10-15
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• 2002

In this paper, the electrical characteristics of fabricated p+-n junction diode are demonstrated and interpreted with different theoretical calculations. Dopants distribution by boron ion implantation on silicon wafer were simulated with TRIM-code and ICECaEM simulator. In order to make electrical activation of implanted carriers, thermal annealing treatments are carried out by RTP method for 1min. at $1000^{circ}C$ under inert $N_2$ gas condition. In this case, profiles of dopants distribution before and after heat treatments in the substrate are observed from computer simulations. In the I-V characteristics of fabricated diodes, an analytical description method of a new triangular junction model is demonstrated and the results with calculated triangular junction are compared with measured data and theoretical calculated results of abrupt junction. Forward voltage drop with new triangular junction model is lower than the case of abrupt junction model. In the C-V characteristics of diode, the calculated data are compared with the measured data. Another I-V characteristics of diodes are measured after proton implantation in electrical isolation method instead of conventional etching method. From the measured data, the turn-on characteristics after proton implantation is more improved than before proton implantation. Also the C-V characteristics of diode are compared with the measured data before proton implantation. From the results of measured data, reasonable deviations are showed. But the C-V characteristics of diode after proton implantation are deviated greatly from the calculated data because of leakage currents in defect regions and layer shift of depletion by proton implantation.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.328-332
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• 2014

Thin film transistors (TFTs) with an amorphous silicon zinc tin oxide (a-2SZTO) channel layer have been fabricated using an RF magnetron sputtering system. The effect of the change of excitation electron on the variation of the total interfacial trap states of a-2SZTO systems was investigated depending on sputtering power, since the interfacial state could be changed by changing sputtering power. It is well known that Si can effectively reduce the generation of the oxygen vacancies. However, The a-2SZTO systems of ZTO doped with 2 wt% Si could be degraded because the Si peripheral electron belonging to a p-orbital affects the amorphous zinc tin oxide (a-ZTO) TFTs of the s-orbital overlap structure. We fabricated amorphous 2 wt% Si-doped ZnSnO (a-2SZTO) TFTs using an RF magnetron sputtering system. The a-2SZTO TFTs show an improvement of the electrical property with increasing power. The a-2SZTO TFTs fabricated at a power of 30 W showed many of the total interfacial trap states. The a-2SZTO TFTs at a power of 30 W showed poor electrical property. However, at 50 W power, the total interfacial trap states showed improvement. In addition, the improved total interfacial states affected the thermal stress of a-2SZTO TFTs. Therefore, a-2SZTO TFTs fabricated at 50 W power showed a relatively small shift of threshold voltage. Similarly, the activation energy of a-2SZTO TFTs fabricated at 50 W power exhibits a relatively large falling rate (0.0475 eV/V) with a relatively high activation energy, which means that the a-2SZTO TFTs fabricated at 50 W power has a relatively lower trap density than other power cases. As a result, the electrical characteristics of a-2SZTO TFTs fabricated at a sputtering power of 50 W are enhanced. The TFTs fabricated by rf sputter should be carefully optimized to provide better stability for a-2SZTO in terms of the sputtering power, which is closely related to the interfacial trap states.

• 한국결정성장학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국결정성장학회 1996년도 The 9th KACG Technical Annual Meeting and the 3rd Korea-Japan EMGS (Electronic Materials Growth Symposium)
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• pp.422-448
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• 1996

Low-temperature epitaxial growth of Si and SiGe layers of Si is one of the important processes for the fabrication of the high-speed Si-based heterostructure devices such as heterojunction bipolar transistors. Low-temperature growth ensures the abrupt compositional and doping concentration profiles for future novel devices. Especially in SiGe epitaxy, low-temperature growth is a prerequisite for two-dimensional growth mode for the growth of thin, uniform layers. UHV-ECRCVD is a new growth technique for Si and SiGe epilayers and it is possible to grow epilayers at even lower temperatures than conventional CVD's. SiH and GeH and dopant gases are dissociated by an ECR plasma in an ultrahigh vacuum growth chamber. In situ hydrogen plasma cleaning of the Si native oxide before the epitaxial growth is successfully developed in UHV-ECRCVD. Structural quality of the epilayers are examined by reflection high energy electron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Nomarski microscope and atomic force microscope. Device-quality Si and SiGe epilayers are successfully grown at temperatures lower than 600℃ after proper optimization of process parameters such as temperature, total pressure, partial pressures of input gases, plasma power, and substrate dc bias. Dopant incorporation and activation for B in Si and SiGe are studied by secondary ion mass spectrometry and spreading resistance profilometry. Silicon p-n homojunction diodes are fabricated from in situ doped Si layers. I-V characteristics of the diodes shows that the ideality factor is 1.2, implying that the low-temperature silicon epilayers grown by UHV-ECRCVD is truly of device-quality.

• 센서학회지
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.237-244
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• 2006

Atomic force microscope (AFM) has become a common tool for the structural and physical studies of biological macromolecules, mainly because it provides the ability to perform experiments with samples in a buffer solution. In this study, structure of proteins and nucleic acids has been studied in their physiological environment that allows native intermolecular complexes to be formed. Cr and Au were deposited on p-Si (100) substrate by thermal evaporation method in sequence with the thickness of $200{\AA}$ and $500{\AA}$, respectively, since Au is adequate for immobilizing biomolecules by forming a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) with semiconductor-based biosensors. The SAM, streptavidin and biotin interacted each other with their specific binding energy and their adsorption was analyzed using the Bio-AFM both in a solution and under air environment. A silicon nitride tip was used as a contact tip of Bio-AFM measurement in a solution and an antimony doped silicon tip as a tapping tip under air environment. Actual morphology could also be obtained by 3-dimensional AFM images. The length and agglomerate size of biomolecules was measured in stages. Furthermore, $R_{a}$ (average of surface roughness) and $R_{ms}$ (mean square of surface roughness) and surface density for the adsorbed surface were also calculated from the AFM image.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.210-216
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• 2010

This paper investigates the dependence of a-Si:H/c-Si passivation and heterojunction solar cell performances on various cleaning processes of silicon wafers. It is observed that the passivation quality of a-Si:H thin-films on c-Si wafers depends highly on the initial H-termination properties of the wafer surface. The effective minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) of highly H-terminated wafer is beneficial for obtaining high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers have low MCLT regardless of the initial H-termination quality. On the other hand, the MCLT of wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer shows sensitive variation with initial cleaning and H-termination schemes. By applying the improved cleaning processes, we can obtain an MCLT of $100{\mu}sec$ after H-termination and above $600{\mu}sec$ after i a-Si:H thin film deposition. By adapting improved cleaning processes and by improving passivation and doped layers, we can fabricate a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells with an active area conversion efficiency of 18.42%, which cells have an open circuit voltage of 0.670V, short circuit current of $37.31\;mA/cm^2$ and fill factor of 0.7374. These cells show more than 20% pseudo efficiency measured by Suns-$V_{oc}$ with an elimination of series resistance.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2012년도 제43회 하계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.193-193
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• 2012

In thin film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is adopted instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. PECVD is the most widely used thin film deposition process for a-Si:H or ${\mu}c$-Si:H solar cells. Single-chamber PECVD system for a-Si:H solar cell manufacturing has the advantage of lower initial investment and maintenance cost for the equipment. However, in single-chamber PECVD system, doped and intrinsic layers are deposited in one plasma chamber, which inevitably impedes sharp dopant profiles at the interfaces due to the contamination from previous deposition process. The cross-contamination between layers is a serious drawback of single-chamber PECVD system. In this study, a new plasma process to solve the cross-contamination problem in a single-chamber PECVD system was suggested. In order to remove the deposited B inside of the plasma chamber during p-layer deposition, a high RF power was applied right after p-layer deposition with SiH4 gas off, which is then followed by i-layer, n-layer, and Ag top-electrode deposition without vacuum break. In addition to the p-i interface control, various interface control techniques such as FTO-glass pre-annealing in O2 environment to further reduce sheet resistance of FTO-glass, thin layer of TiO2 deposition to prevent H2 plasma reduction of FTO layer, and hydrogen plasma treatment prior to n-layer deposition, etc. were developed. The best initial solar cell efficiency using single-chamber PECVD system of 10.5% for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$ could be achieved by adopting various interface control methods.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제31권12호
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• pp.1577-1587
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• 1994

TiO2 thin films with the substitution of oxygen with nitrogen were deposited on silicon substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using Ti(OCH(CH3)2)4 (titanium tetraisopropoxide, TTIP) and N2O as source materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that the crystal structure of the deposited thin films was anatase TiO2 with only (101) plane observed at the deposition temperatures of 36$0^{\circ}C$ and 38$0^{\circ}C$, and with (101) and (200) plane at above 40$0^{\circ}C$. Raman spectroscopic results indicated that the crystal structure was anatase TiO2 in accordance with the XRD results without any rutile, fcc TiN, or hcp TiN structure. No fundamental difference was observed with temperature increase, but the peak intensity at 194.5 cm-1 increased with strong intensity at 143.0 cm-1 for all samples. The crystalline size of the films varied from 49.2 nm to 63.9 nm with increasing temperature as determined by slow-scan XRD experiments. The refractive index of the films increased from 2.40 to 2.55 as temperature increased. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study showed only Ti 2s, Ti 2p, C 1s, O 1s and O 2s peaks at the surface of the film. The composition of the surface was estimated to be TiO1.98 from the quatitative analysis. In the bulk of the film Ti 2s, Ti 2p, O 1s, O 2s, N 1s and N 2s were detected, and Ti-N bonding was observed due to the substitution of oxygen with nitrogen. A satellite structure was observed in the Ti 2p due to the Ti-N bonding, and the composition of titanium nitride was determined to be about TiN1.0 from the position of the binding energy of Ti-N 2p3/2 and the quatitative analysis. The spectrum of Ti 2p energy level could be the sum of a 4, 5, or 6 Gaussian curve reconstruction, and the case of the sum of the 6 Gaussian curve reconstruction was physically most meaningful. From the results of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), it was known that the composition was not varied significantly throughout the whole thickness of the film, and silicon oxide was not observed at the interface between the film and the substrate. The composition of the film was possible (TiO2)1-x.(TiN)x or TiO2-2xNx and in this experimental condition x was found to be about 0.21-0.16.