• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.236-240
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• 2012

Limiting thermal exposure time using rapid thermal processing(RTP) has emerged as promising simplified process for manufacturing of solar cell in a continuous way. This paper reports the simplification of co-firing using RTP. Actual temperature profile for co-firing after screen printing is a key issue for high-quality metal-semiconductor contact. The plateau time during the firing process were varied at $450^{\circ}C$ for 10~16 sec. Glass frit in Ag paste etch anti-reflection layer with plateau time. Glass frit in Ag paste is important for the Ag/Si contact formation and performances of crystalline Si solar cell. We achieved 17.14% efficiency with optimum conditions.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.98-101
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• 2005

변환 효율이 $16\%$에 근접하는 다결정 실리콘 태양전지를 위한 열처리 공정에 대한 연구를 수행하였다. 고속 열처리 공정이 가능한 RTP 를 사용하여 다결정 실리콘 태양전지의 효율 향상에 요구되는 PECVD $SiN_x$ 반사방지막을 이용한 결정 결함의 수소화 효과를 극대화하는 동시에 양산 가능한 screen-printed contacts 의 특성 (FF >0.76) 올 최적화함으로써 다결정 실리콘 태양전지의 변환 효율을 $15.9\%$까지 향상시킬 수 있었다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.169-172
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• 2004

The effect of the process parameters on the stable lifetime in rapid thermal firing(RTF) was investigated in order to optimize the process for the Cz-silicon. The process temperature was varied between $700^{\circ}C\;and\;950^{\circ}C$ while the process time was chosen 1 s and 10 s. At below $850^{\circ}C$ the stable lifetime for 10 s is higher than that for 1 s and increases with increasing by the process temperature. However, at over $850^{\circ}C$ the improved stable lifetime is not dependent on the process time and temperature. On the other hand, two high temperature processes in solar cell fabrics are combined with the optimized process and the non-optimized process. The last process determines the stable lifetime. Also, the degraded stable lifetime could be increased by processing in optimized process. The decreased lifetime can increase using the optimized oxidation process, which is a final process in solar cells. Finally, the optimized and non-optimized processes are applied solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.490.2-490.2
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• 2014

Since the general solar cells accept sun light at the front side, excluding the electrode area, electrons move from the emitter to the front electrode and start to collect at the grid edge. Thus the edge of gridline can be important for electrical properties of screen-printed silicon solar cells. In this study, the improvement of electrical properties in screen-printed crystalline silicon solar cells by contact treatment of grid edge was investigated. The samples with $60{\Omega}/{\square}$ and $70{\Omega}/{\square}$ emitter were prepared. After front side of samples was deposited by SiNx commercial Ag paste and Al paste were printed at front side and rear side respectively. Each sample was co-fired between $670^{\circ}C$ and $780^{\circ}C$ in the rapid thermal processing (RTP). After the firing process, the cells were dipped in 2.5% hydrofluoric acid (HF) at room temperature for various times under 60 seconds and then rinsed in deionized water. (This is called "contact treatment") After dipping in HF for a certain period, the samples from each firing condition were compared by measurement. Cell performances were measured by Suns-Voc, solar simulator, the transfer length method and a field emission scanning electron microscope. According to HF treatment, once the thin glass layer at the grid edge was etched, the current transport was changed from tunneling via Ag colloids in the glass layer to direct transport via Ag colloids between the Ag bulk and the emitter. Thus, the transfer length as well as the specific contact resistance decreased. For more details a model of the current path was proposed to explain the effect of HF treatment at the edge of the Ag grid. It is expected that HF treatment may help to improve the contact of high sheet-resistance emitter as well as the contact of a high specific contact resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.280-284
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• 2004

Multicrystalline silicon wafers were textured in an alkaline bath, basically using sodium hydroxide and in acidic bath, using mainly hydrofluoric acid (HF), nitric acid $(HNO_3)$ and de-ionized water (DIW). Some wafers were also acid polished for the comparative study. Comparison of average reflectance of the samples treated with the new recipe of acidic solution showed average diffuse reflectance less than even 5 percent in the optimized condition. Solar cells were thus fabricated with the samples following the main steps such as phosphorus doping for emitter layer formation, silicon nitride deposition for anti-reflection coating by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and front surface passivation, screen printing metallization, co-firing in rapid thermal processing (RTP) Furnace and laser edge isolation and confirmed >14 % conversion efficiency from the best textured samples. This isotropic texturing approach can be instrumental to achieve high efficiency in mass production using relatively low cost silicon wafers as starting material.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.276-279
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• 2004

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of silicon nitride (SiN) is a proven technique for obtaining layers that meet the needs of surface passivation and anti-reflection coating. In addition, the deposition process appears to provoke bulk passivation as well due to diffusion of atomic hydrogen. This bulk passivation is an important advantage of PECVD deposition when compared to the conventional CVD techniques. A further advantage of PECVD is that the process takes place at a relatively low temperature of 300t, keeping the total thermal budget of the cell processing to a minimum. In this work SiN deposition was performed using a horizontal PECVD reactor system consisting of a long horizontal quartz tube that was radiantly heated. Special and long rectangular graphite plates served as both the electrodes to establish the plasma and holders of the wafers. The electrode configuration was designed to provide a uniform plasma environment for each wafer and to ensure the film uniformity. These horizontally oriented graphite electrodes were stacked parallel to one another, side by side, with alternating plates serving as power and ground electrodes for the RF power supply. The plasma was formed in the space between each pair of plates. Also this paper deals with the fabrication of multicrystalline silicon solar cells with PECVD SiN layers combined with high-throughput screen printing and RTP firing. Using this sequence we were able to obtain solar cells with an efficiency of 14% for polished multi crystalline Si wafers of size 125 m square.