• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.350-355
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• 2009

The crysralline silicon solar cell where the solar cell market grows rapidly is occupying of about 85% or more high efficiency and low cost endeavors many crystalline solar cells. The fabricaion process of high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells necessitate complicated fabrication processes and Ti/Pd/AG contact, This metal contacts have only been used in limited areas in spite of their good srability and low contact resistance because of expensive materials and process. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed solar cells formed by using Ag paste suffer from loe fill factor and high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and light-induced electro plating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Copper and Silver can be plated by electro & light-induced plating method. Light-induced plating makes use the photovoltaic effect of solar cell to deposit the metal on the front contact. The cell is immersed into the electrolytic plating bath and irradiated at the front side by light source, which leads to a current density in the front side grid. Electroless plated Ni/ Electro&light-induced plated Cu/ Light-induced plated Ag contact solar cells result in an energy conversion efficiency of 16.446 % on 0.2~0.6${\Omega}$ cm, $20{\times}20mm^2$, CZ(Czochralski) wafer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.246-251
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• 2013

Screen printing is commonly used to form the front/back electrodes in silicon solar cell. But it has caused high resistance and low aspect ratio, resulting in decreased conversion efficiency in solar cell. Recently the plating method has been combined with screen-printed c-Si solar cell to reduce the resistance and improve the aspect ratio. In this paper, we investigated the effect of light induced silver plating with screen-printed c-Si solar cells and compared their electrical properties. All wafers were textured, doped, and coated with anti-reflection layer. The metallization process was carried out with screen-printing, followed by co-fired. Then we performed light induced Ag plating by changing the plating time in the range of 20 sec~5min with/without external light. For comparison, we measured the light I-V characteristics and electrode width by optical microscope. During plating, silver ions fill the porous structure established in rapid silver particle sintering during co-firing step, which results in resistance decrease and efficiency improvement. The plating rate was increased in presence of light lamp, resulting in widening the electrode with and reducing the short-circuit current by shadowing loss. With the optimized plating condition, the conversion efficiency of solar cells was increased by 0.4% due to decreased series resistance. Finally we obtained the short-circuit current of 8.66 A, open-circuit voltage of 0.632 V, fill factor of 78.2%, and efficiency of 17.8% on a silicon solar cell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.686-686
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• 2013

Crystalline silicon solar cell is a semiconductor device that converts light into electrical energy. Screen printing is commonly used to form the front/back electrodes in silicon solar cell. Screen printing method is convenient but usually shows high resistance and low aspect ratio, which cause the efficiency decrease in crystalline silicon solar cell. Recently the plating method is applied in c-Si solar cell to reduce the resistance and improve the aspect ratio. In this paper, we investigated the effect of additional electroless Ag plating into screen-printed c-Si solar cell and compared their electrical properties. All wafers used in this experiment were textured, doped, and anti-reflection coated. The electrode formation was performed with screen-printing, followed by the firing step. Aften then we carried out electroless Ag plating by changing the plating time in the range of 20 sec~5 min and light intensity. The light I-V curve and optical microscope were measured with the completed solar cell. As a result, the conversion efficiency of solar cells was increased mainly due to the decreased series resistance.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.199-204
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• 2015

Recently, fuel cell is a good alternative for energy source. Separator is a important component for fuel cell. In this study, The surface of separator was modified for corrosion resistance and electric conductivity. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was made by Staudenmaier's method. Nickel, phosphorus and rGO were coated on 6061 aluminum alloy as a separator of proton exchange membrane fuel cell by composite electroless plating. Scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to examine the morphology of Ni-P-rGO. Surface images were shown that the rGO was dispersed on the surface of Ni-P electroless plating, and nickel was combined with the un-reduced oxygen functional group of rGO.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.150-157
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• 2006

The alternate plating method was suggested by a tin-cobalt alloy plating process which has excellent mechanical characteristics and also favorable to environment. Tin-cobalt alloy plating has many advantages such as nontoxicity, variable color-tone, and no post-treatment process. In this study, the plating conditions such as temperature, pH, current density, plating time, and amount of additive (glycine) were determined in the tin-cobalt alloy plating process through Hull-cell test and surface analysis. As the result of Hull-cell analysis, brightness became superior as the amount of glycine increased. It was found that the optimum alloy ratio was 0.03 M of $SnCl_{2}{\cdot}2H_{2}O$ and 0.05 M of $CoSO_{4}{\cdot}7H_{2}O$ at $50^{\circ}C$, pH 8.5, and $0.5A/dm^2$. The optimum amount of additive was 15 g/L of glycine and 0.1 g/L of organic acid. Then, the solution including glycine was recommended as an optimum plating solution for a chromium plating process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.108-113
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• 2016

A miniaturized lab-scale Cu plating cell for the metallization of electronic devices was fabricated and its deposit uniformity and profile were investigated. The plating cell was composed of a polypropylene bath, an electrolyte ejection nozzle which is connected to a circulation pump. In deposit uniformity evaluation, thicker deposit was found on the bottom and sides of substrate, indicating the spatial variation of deposit thickness was governed by the tertiary current distribution which is related to $Cu^{2+}$ transport. The surface morphology of Cu deposit inside photo-resist pattern was controlled by organic additives in the electrolyte as it led to the flatter top surface compared to convex surface which was observed in the deposit grown without organic additives.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1010-1017
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• 2011

The use of plated front contact for metallization of silicon solar cell may alternative technologies as a screen printed and silver paste contact. This technologies should allow the formation of contact with low contact resistivity a high line conductivity and also reduction of shading losses. A selective emitter structure with highly dopes regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing. When fabricated Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a selective emitter structure, it has been shown that efficiencies of up to 18% have been achieved using this technology.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.575-579
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• 2010

The technologies of Ni/Cu plating contact is attributed to the reduced series resistance caused by a better contact conductivity of Ni with Si and the subsequent electroplating of Cu on Ni. The ability to pattern narrower grid lines for reduced light shading was combined with the lower resistance of a metal silicide contact and an improved conductivity of the plated deposit. This improves the FF (fill factor) as the series resistance is reduced. This is very much requried in the case of low concentrator solar cells in which the series resistance is one of the important and dominant parameter that affect the cell performance. A Selective emitter structure with highly dopeds regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing In this paper the formation of a selective emitter, and the nickel silicide seed layer at the front side metallization of silicon cells is considered. After generating the nickel seed layer the contacts were thickened by Cu LIP (light induced plating) and by the formation of a plated Ni/Cu two step metallization on front contacts. In fabricating a Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a selective emitter structure it has been shown that the cell efficiency can be increased by at least 0.2%.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.228-235
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• 2008

Nickel plating thickness increased with the electric current density, and the augmentation was more thick in $6{\sim}10A/dm^2$ than low current. Hull-cell analysis was tested to evaluate the current density. Optimum thickness was obtained at a temperature of $60^{\circ}C$, and the pH fluctuation of 3.5~4.0. Over the Nickel ion concentration of 300 g/L, plating thickness increased with the current density. The rate of decrease in nickel ion concentration was increased with the current density. The quantity of plating electro-deposition was increased at the anode surface, which was correlated with the increase of plating thickness. The plating thickness was increased because of the quick plating speed. However, the condition of the plating surface becomes irregular and the minuteness of nickel plating layer was reduced with the plating rate. After the corrosion test of 25 h, it was resulted in that maintaining low electric current density is desirable for the excellent corrosion resistance in lustered nickel plating. According to the program simulation, the thickness of diffusion layer was increased and the concentration of anode surface was lowered for the higher current densities. The concentration profile showed the regular distribution at low electric current density. The field plating process was controlled by the electric current density and the plating thickness instead of plating time for the productivity. The surface physical property of plating structure or corrosion resistance was excellent in the case of low electric current density.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2018

The screen printing method for forming the electrode by applying the existing pressure is difficult to apply to thin wafers, and since expensive Ag paste is used, it is difficult to solve the problem of cost reduction. This can solve both of the problems by forming the front electrode using a plating method applicable to a thin wafer. In this paper, the process conditions of electrode formation are optimized by using LIEP (Light-Induced Electrode Plating). Experiments were conducted by varying the Ni plating bath temperature $40{\sim}70^{\circ}C$, the applied current 5 ~ 15 mA, and the plating process time 5 ~ 20 min. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the optimal condition of the structural characteristics was obtained at the plating bath temperature of $60^{\circ}C$, 15 mA, and the process time of 20 min. The Cu LIEP process conditions, experiments were conducted with Cu plating bath temperature $40{\sim}70^{\circ}C$, applied voltage 5 ~ 15 V, plating process time 2 ~ 15 min. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the optimum conditions were obtained as a result of electrical and structural characteristics at the plating bath temperature of $60^{\circ}C$ and applied current of 15 V and process time of 15 min. In order to form Ni silicide, the firing process time was fixed to 2 min and the temperature was changed to $310^{\circ}C$, $330^{\circ}C$, $350^{\circ}C$, and post contact annealing was performed. As a result, the lowest contact resistance value of $2.76{\Omega}$ was obtained at the firing temperature of $310^{\circ}C$. The contact resistivity of $1.07m{\Omega}cm^2$ can be calculated from the conditionally optimized sample. With the plating method using Ni / Cu, the efficiency of the solar cell can be expected to increase due to the increase of the electric conductivity and the decrease of the resistance component in the production of the solar cell, and the application to the thin wafer can be expected.