• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.111-122
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• 2021

Silicon heterojunction technology (HJT) solar cells have received considerable attention due to advantages that include high efficiency over 26%, good performance in the real world environment, and easy application to bifacial power generation using symmetric device structure. Furthermore, ultra-highly efficient perovskite/c-Si tandem devices using the HJT bottom cells have been reported. In this paper, we discuss the unique feature of the HJT solar cells, the fabrication processes and the current status of technology development. We also investigate practical challenges and key technologies of the HJT solar cell manufacturers for reducing fabrication cost and increasing productivity.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2023

Tin perovskite solar cells have attracted a lot of attention due to their potential to address the toxicity of lead, which is the biggest barrier to commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Unlike other lead-free perovskite, tin perovskite have a direct bandgap, which is suitable for use as light harvesting, and relatively good stability, which has led to a lot of attention. Since the first tin perovskite solar cell was reported in 2014, it has achieved an impressive power conversion efficiency of 14.81%. However, this efficiency is still low compared to that of lead perovskite solar cells, and the stability of tin perovskite solar cells is also an issue that needs to be addressed. In this review, we will discuss the basic properties of the tin atom in comparison to the lead atom, and then discuss the crystal structure, phase transition, and basic properties of tin perovskite. We will then discuss the advantages, applications, challenges, and strategies of tin perovskite, In particular, we will focus on how to prevent the oxidation of tin, which is arguably the biggest challenge for using tin perovskite solar cells. At the end, we summarize the key factors that need to be addressed for higher efficiency and stability, emphasizing what is needed to commercialize tin perovskite solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.306.1-306.1
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• 2016

ZnO semiconductor material has been widely utilized in various applications in semiconductor device technology owing to its unique electrical and optical features. It is a promising as solar cell material, because of its low cost, n-type conductivity and wide direct band gap. In this work ZnO/Si heterojunctions were fabricated by using pulsed laser deposition. Vacuum chamber was evacuated to a base pressure of approximately $2{\times}10^{-6}Torr$. ZnO thin films were grown on p-Si (100) substrate at oxygen partial pressure from 5mTorr to 40mTorr. Growth temperature of ZnO thin films was set to 773K. A pulsed (10 Hz) Nd:YAG laser operating at a wavelength of 266 nm was used to produce a plasma plume from an ablated a ZnO target, whose density of laser energy was $10J/cm^2$. Thickness of all the thin films of ZnO was about 300nm. The optical property was characterized by photoluminescence and crystallinity of ZnO was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. For fabrication ZnO/Si heterojunction diodes, indium metal and Al grid patterns were deposited on back and front side of the solar cells by using thermal evaporator, respectively. Finally, current-voltage characteristics of the ZnO/Si structure were studied by using Keithly 2600. Under Air Mass 1.5 Global solar simulator with an irradiation intensity of $100mW/cm^2$, the electrical properties of ZnO/Si heterojunction photovoltaic devices were analyzed.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2006

This paper suggests a 6-pulse-shift converter structure with PWM current-source inverter based on buck-boost configuration to improve the efficiency and to reduce the switching frequency of inverter for photovoltaic generation system, the device can be operated as interface system between solar module system and power system grid without energy storage cell. The circuit has six current-source buck-boost converter which operate chopper part and kas one full bridge inverter which make a decision the polarity of AC output. Therefore, the proposed PWM power inverter has advantages such as the reduction of witching loss and realization of unity power factor operation. The theoretical backgrounds are discussed and the input-output characteristics for the implemented prototype inverter using TMS320F2812 are verified experimentally in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2011

New photovoltaic (PV) materials and manufacturing approaches are needed for meeting the demand for lower-cost solar cells. The prototypal thin-film photovoltaic absorbers (CdTe and $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$) can achieve solar conversion efficiencies of up to 20% and are now commercially available, but the presence of toxic (Cd,Se) and expensive elemental components (In, Te) is a real issue as the demand for photovoltaics rapidly increases. To overcome these limitations, there has been substantial interest in developing viable alternative materials, such as $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) is an emerging solar absorber that is structurally similar to CIGS, but contains only earth abundant, non-toxic elements and has a near optimal direct band gap energy of 1.4~1.6 ev and a large absorption coefficient of ${\sim}10^4\;cm^{-1}$. The CZTS absorber layers are grown and investigated by various fabrication methods, such as thermal evaporation, e-beam evaporation with a post sulfurization, sputtering, non-vacuum sol-gel, pulsed laser, spray-pyrolysis method and electrodeposition technique. In the present work, we report an alternative method for large area deposition of CZTS thin films that is potentially high throughput and inexpensive when used to produce monolithically integrated solar panel modules. Specifically, we have developed an aqueous chemical approach based on chemical bath deposition (CBD) with a subsequent sulfurization heat treatment. Samples produced by our method were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, absorbance and photoluminescence. The results show that this inexpensive and relatively benign process produces thin films of CZTS exhibiting uniform composition, kesterite crystal structure, and good optical properties. A preliminary solar cell device was fabricated to demonstrate rectifying and photovoltaic behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.31A no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 1994

We fabricated a large-scale photovoltaic device for detecting-3-5$\mu$m IR, by forming of n$^{+}$-p junction in the $Hg_{1-x}Cd_{x}$Te (MCT) layer which was grown by LPE on CdTe substrate. The composition x of the MCT epitaxial layer was 0.295 and the hole concentration was 1.3${\times}10^{13}/cm^{4}$. The n$^{+}$-p junction was formed by B+ implantation at 100 keV with a does 3${\times}10^{11}/cm^{2}. The n$^{+}$ region has a circular shape with 2.68mm diameter. The vacuum-evaporated ZnS with resistivity of 2${\times}10^{4}{\Omega}$cm is used as an insulating layer over the epitaxial layer. ZnS plays the role of the anti-reflection coating transmitting more than 90% of 3~5$\mu$m IR. For ohmic contacts, gole was used for p-MCT and indium was used for n$^{+}$-MCT. The fabrication took 5 photolithographic masks and all the processing temperatures of the MCT wafer were below 90$^{\circ}C$. The R,A of the fabricated devices was 7500${\Omega}cm^{2}$. The carrier lifetime of the devices was estimated 2.5ns. The junction was linearly-graded and the concentration slope was measured to be 1.7${\times}10^{17}/{\mu}m$. the normalized detectivity in 3~5$\mu$m IR was 1${\times}10^{11}cmHz^{12}$/W, which is sufficient for real application.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2018

Beside several advantages, the PV power generation as a clean energy source, is still below the supply level due to high power generation cost. Therefore, the interest in fabricating low-cost thin film solar cells is increasing continuously. $Cu_2O$, a low cost photovoltaic material, has a wide direct band gap of ~2.1 eV has along with the high theoretical energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. On the other hand, it has other benefits such as earth-abundance, low cost, non-toxic, high carrier mobility ($100cm^2/Vs$). In spite of these various advantages, the efficiency of $Cu_2O$ based solar cells is still significantly lower than the theoretical limit as reported in several literatures. One of the reasons behind the low efficiency of $Cu_2O$ solar cells can be the formation of CuO layer due to atmospheric surface oxidation of $Cu_2O$ absorber layer. In this work, atomic layer deposition method was used to remove the CuO layer that formed on $Cu_2O$ surface. First, $Cu_2O$ absorber layer was deposited by electrodeposition. On top of it buffer (ZnO) and TCO (AZO) layers were deposited by atomic layer deposition and rf-magnetron sputtering respectively. We fabricated the cells with a change in the deposition temperature of buffer layer ranging between $80^{\circ}C$ to $140^{\circ}C$. Finally, we compared the performance of fabricated solar cells, and studied the influence of buffer layer deposition temperature on $Cu_2O$ based solar cells by J-V and XPS measurements.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.2963-2968
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• 2014

We report synthesis and photovoltaic properties of two new conjugated copolymers, PCPDTQxF and PDTSQxF, with 6,7-difluoro-2,3-dihexylquinoxaline unit prepared by Stille coupling reaction. The advantage of 6,7-difluoro-2,3-dihexylquinoxaline based copolymer are high PCEs due to lower HOMO energy level, long wavelength absorption and high hole mobility. The solid films of PCPDTQxF and PDTSQxF showed absorption bands with maximum peaks at about 623 and 493 nm and the absorption onsets at 711 and 635 nm, corresponding to band gaps of 1.74 and 1.95 eV, respectively. The oxidation onsets of the PCPDTQxF and PDTSQxF polymers were estimated to be 0.68 and 0.95 V, which correspond to HOMO energy levels of -5.48 and -5.75 eV, respectively. The PDTSQxF has lower HOMO energy level as compared to PCPDTQxF to lead higher $V_{OC}$ value. The device comprising PCPDTQxF:PCBM (1:2) dissolved to a concentration of 1 wt % in ODCB showed $V_{OC}$ value of 0.62 V, $J_{SC}$ value of $1.14mA/cm^2$, and FF of 0.35, which yielded PCE of 0.25%.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.1
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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.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 2021

A Photovoltaic power streetlight is a system that uses solar energy to charge a secondary battery and then uses it for night lighting through a lamp, and can be configured as a standalone or grid-connected type by installing an LED streetlight at the load end. The energy generated through the solar cell module can be charged to the secondary battery through the charge/discharge control device, and then the LED street light can be turned on and off by comparing the power generation voltage and the charging voltage according to the monitoring of solar radiation, or by setting a specific time after sunset or sunrise. Based on these contents, this paper designed and manufactured a simulated solar power streetlight for education using new and renewable energy utilization and storage functions. Using these educational equipment, students can 1) understand the flow of energy change using renewable energy including sunlight as electric energy, 2) understand new and renewable energy, and cultivate basic design and manufacturing application power of related products, 3) The use of new and renewable energy through power conversion and strengthening of practical training and analysis through hardware production can be instilled.