• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.300.2-300.2
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• 2013

Periodically shaped pillar-arrays and hole-arrays were fabricated on a Si wafer. Geometric features are similar in a periodic length of 4 ${\mu}m$ and a depth of 2 ${\mu}m$. For the hole-array patterns, positive PR processes were performed. UV exposed PR patterns were removed during a developing process to leave shapes of inversely replicated from a glass photomask. Meanwhile, negative PR processes were taken for the pillar-array patterns. UV exposed PR patterns were remained on a Si substrate having a same feature of patterns of a glass photomask. For an electrical aspect, a pillar structure has a short carrier-collection length resulting in the improved open-circuit voltage of 609 mV from 587 mV of a planar device. An improved performance may be achieved to reduce recombination loss along the patterning surface.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1529_1530
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• 2009

The process conditions for fabricating p-type silicon pillars were optimized by controlling current density, bath temperature. To get best process flexibility for pillar arrays formation, three factors affecting pillar formation were changed. First, the solution bath was designed to keep constant temperature during the experiment irrespective of external temperature. Second, the counter Pt electrode was changed from rod type to mesh to obtain uniform distribution of current density. Third, Cr-Cu alloy electrode instead of Cu was used to increase electrode current density.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.226-226
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• 2013

Si is a dominant solar material, which is the second most abundant element in the earth giving a benefit in the aspect in cost with low toxicity. However, the inherent limit of Si has an indirect band gap of 1.1 eV resulting in the limited optical absorption. Therefore, a critical issue has been raised to increase the utilization of the incident light into the Si absorber. The enhancement of light absorption is a crucial to improve the performances and thus relieves the cost burden of Si photovoltaics. For the optical aspect, an efficient design of a front surface, where the incident light comes in, has been intensively investigated to improve the performance of photon absorption. Lambertian light trapping can be attained when the light active surface is ideally rough to increase the optical length by about 50 compared to a planar substrate. This suggests that an efficient design may reduce thickness of the Si absorber from the conventional 100~300 ${\mu}m$ to less than 3 ${\mu}m$. Theoretically, a hole-array structure satisfies an equivalent efficiency of c-Si with only one-twelfth mass and one-sixth thickness. Various approaches have been applied to improve the incident light utilization in a Si absorber using textured structures, periodic gratings, photonic crystals, and nanorod arrays. We have designed hole and pillar structured Si absorbers. Four-different Si absorbers have been simultaneously fabricated on an identical Si wafer with hole arrays or pillar arrays at a fixed depth of 2 ${\mu}m$. We have found that the significant enhanced solar cell performances both for the hole arrayed and pillar arrayed Si absorbers compared to that of a planar Si wafer resulting from the effective improvement in the quantum efficiencies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.6 s.261
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• pp.679-685
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• 2007

Superhydrophobic surface, with a water contact angle greater than $150^{\circ}$, has a self-cleaning effect termed 'Lotus effect'. This surface is created by the combination of rough surface and the low surface energy. We proposed square pillar and square shapes to control surface roughness. Microstructure arrays are fabricated by DRIE(Deep Reactive Ion Etching) process and followed by PPFC(Plasma Polymerized Fluorocarbon) deposition. On the experimental result, contact angle at square pillar arrays is well matched with Cassie's model and largest contact angle is $173.37^{\circ}$. But contact angle of square pore shape arrays is lower than Cassie's theoretical contact angle about $5{\sim}10%$. Nevertheless, square pore arrays have more rigidity than square pillar arrays.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.7 s.250
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• pp.773-778
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• 2006

High-aspect-ratio nano-hair or nano-pillar arrays have great potential in a variety of applications. In this study, we present a simple and cost-effective replication method of high-aspect-ratio polymer nano-hair arrays. Highly ordered nano-porous AAO (anodic aluminum oxide) template was utilized as a reusable nano-mold insert. The AAO nano-mold insert fabricated by the two-step anodization process in this study had close- packed straight nano-pores, which enabled us to replicate densely arranged nano-hairs. The diameter, depth and pore spacing of the nano-pores in the fabricated AAO nano-mold insert were about 200nm, $1{\mu}m$ and 450nm, respectively. For the replication of polymer nano-hair arrays, a UV nano embossing process was applied as a mass production method. The UV nano embossing machine was developed by our group for the purpose of replicating nano-structures by means of non-transparent nano-mold inserts. Densely arranged high-aspect-ratio nano-hair arrays have been successfully manufactured by means of the UV nano embossing process with the AAO nano-mold insert under the optimum processing condition.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.43-48
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• 2012

The screen printing method is much used in the flat panel display field including the LCD, PDP, FED, organic EL, and etc. for forming the high precision micro-pattern. Also A number of studies of screen printing method has been conducted as the method for the cost down through the improvement of productivity. Because of being the dot printing method of the cylindrical shape not being the line printing method like the existing PDP barrier rib and phosphor, the pillar arrays using the screen printing method is deposited in the hemispherical type not being cylindrical shape in the existing printing process conditions. In this paper, the parameters were set on the screen printing device in order to deposit the cross-sectional shape with the cone or trapezoid shape of the pillar in depositing the pillars used the screen printing device for vacuum glazing. The cross-sectional shape slope of the pillar according to the parameters was measured. And analysis the effect of the screen printing process conditions on the cross-sectional shape slope of pillars based upon the result of being measured. The processing conditions were drawn to minimize the cross-sectional shape slope of pillar.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2007

This paper describes physical meanings of various influences of cavity (or pillar) shape and filling factor of dielectric material on band structures in two-dimensional photonic crystals. Influences of circular and rectangular cross-sections of cavity (or pillar) arrays on photonic band structures are considered theoretically, and significant aspects of square and triangular lattices are compared. It is shown that both averaged dielectric constant of the photonic crystal and distribution profile of photon energy play important roles in designing optical properties. For the triangular lattice, especially, it is shown that cavity array with a rectangular cross-section breaks the band structure symmetry. So, we discuss this point from the band structure and address optical properties of lattice with a circular cross-section cavity.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.50
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• pp.17.1-17.9
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• 2020

Recent advances in fabrication have enabled radial-junction architectures for cost-effective and high-performance optoelectronic devices. Unlike a planar PN junction, a radial-junction geometry maximizes the optical interaction in the three-dimensional (3D) structures, while effectively extracting the generated carriers via the conformal PN junction. In this paper, we report characterizations of radial PN junctions that consist of p-type Si micropillars created by deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) and an n-type layer formed by phosphorus gas diffusion. We use electron-beam induced current (EBIC) microscopy to access the 3D junction profile from the sidewall of the pillars. Our EBIC images reveal uniform PN junctions conformally constructed on the 3D pillar array. Based on Monte-Carlo simulations and EBIC modeling, we estimate local carrier separation/collection efficiency that reflects the quality of the PN junction. We find the EBIC efficiency of the pillar array increases with the incident electron beam energy, consistent with the EBIC behaviors observed in a high-quality planar PN junction. The magnitude of the EBIC efficiency of our pillar array is about 70% at 10 kV, slightly lower than that of the planar device (≈ 81%). We suggest that this reduction could be attributed to the unpassivated pillar surface and the unintended recombination centers in the pillar cores introduced during the DRIE processes. Our results support that the depth-dependent EBIC approach is ideally suitable for evaluating PN junctions formed on micro/nanostructured semiconductors with various geometry.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-59
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• 2014

The roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication method to make micro-scale pillar arrays for biomimetic functionalization of surfaces is presented. Inspired by the micro-structure of plants in nature, a surface with a synthetic micro-scale pillar array is fabricated via maskless photolithography. After the surface is SAM (self-assembled monolayer) coated with trichlorosilane in a vacuum desiccator, it displays a hydrophobic property even in R2R replicas of original substrate, whose properties are further characterized using various pitches and diameters. In order to perform a comparison between the original micro-pattern and its replicas, surface morphology was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and wetting characteristics were measured via a contact angle measurement tool with a $10{\mu}L$ water droplet. Efficient roll-to-roll imprinting for a biomimetic functionalized surface has the potential for use in many fields ranging from water repelling and self-cleaning to microfluidic chips.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.86-86
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• 2012

The new approaches for silicon solar cell of new concept have been actively conducted. Especially, solar cells with wire array structured radial p-n junctions has attracted considerable attention due to the unique advantages of orthogonalizing the direction of light absorption and charge separation while allowing for improved light scattering and trapping. One-dimenstional semiconductor nano/micro structures should be fabricated for radial p-n junction solar cell. Most of silicon wire and/or pillar arrays have been fabricated by vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) growth because of its simple and cheap process. In the case of the VLS method has some weak points, that is, the incorporation of heavy metal catalysts into the growing silicon wire, the high temperature procedure. We have tried new approaches; one is electrochemical etching, the other is noble metal catalytic etching method to overcome those problems. In this talk, the silicon pillar formation will be characterized by investigating the parameters of the electrochemical etching process such as HF concentration ratio of electrolyte, current density, back contact material, temperature of the solution, and large pre-pattern size and pitch. In the noble metal catalytic etching processes, the effect of solution composition and thickness of metal catalyst on the etching rate and morphologies of silicon was investigated. Finally, radial p-n junction wire arrays were fabricated by spin on doping (phosphor), starting from chemical etched p-Si wire arrays. In/Ga eutectic metal was used for contact metal. The energy conversion efficiency of radial p-n junction solar cell is discussed.