• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.571-576
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• 2008

The simulation program for solar cells, PC1D, was briefly reviewed and the device modeling of a multicrystalline Si solar cell using the program was carried out to understand the internal operating principles. The effects of design parameters on the light absorption and the quantum efficiency were investigated and strategies to reduce carrier recombination, such as back surface field and surface passivation, were also characterized with the numerical simulation. In every step of the process, efficiency improvements for the key performance characteristics of the model device were determined and compared with the properties of the solar cell, whose efficiency (20.3%) has been confirmed as the highest in multicrystalline Si devices. In this simulation work, it was found that the conversion efficiency of the prototype model (13.6%) can be increased up to 20.7% after the optimization of design parameters.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.227-234
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• 2018

We investigate the effect of the modification of cellulose acetate propionate as an organic vehicle for silver paste on solar cell efficiency. For the modification of cellulose acetate propionate, poly(ethylene glycol) is introduced to the hydroxyl groups of a cellulose acetate propionate backbone via esterification reaction. The chemical structure and composition of poly(ethylene glycol) functionalized cellulose acetate propionate is characterized by Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared, $^1H$ nuclear magnetic resonance, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. Due to the effect of structural change for poly(ethylene glycol) functionalized cellulose acetate propionate on the viscosity of silver paste, the solar cell efficiency increases from 18.524 % to 18.652 %. In addition, when ethylene carbonate, which has a structure similar to poly(ethylene glycol), is introduced to cellulose acetate propionate via ring opening polymerization, we find that the efficiency of the solar cell increases from 18.524 % to 18.622 %.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 1999

This paper deals with stand-alone photovoltaic system(SPVS) with charge and discharge controller. Main power source of SPVS are generally solar cell and battery. Therefore SPVS can be classified into variable types in accordance with connection type between battery and solar cell. Mainly used one of them is direct connection type which has advantages such as simple structure and simple controller. However most big drawback of this system is energy loss by voltage disharmony between solar cell and battery. Therefore SPVS with charge and discharge controller which can operate solar cell at maximum power point is suggested and designed with instantaneous controller. And system operating characteristics are verifieded by experiment with a laboratory prototype in this paper.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1146-1150
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• 2009

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is one of the most attractive photovoltaic materials due to its low cost, high efficiency and stable performance in physical, optical and electronic properties. Few researches on the influences of uniform surface on the photovoltaic characteristics in large-area CdTe solar cell were not reported. As the preceding study of the effects of thickness-uniformity on the photovoltaic characteristics for the large-area CdTe thin film solar cell, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process was investigated for an enhancement of thickness-uniformity. Removal rate of CdTe thin film was 3160 nm/min of the maximum value at the 200 $gf/cm^2$ of down force (pressure) and 60 rpm of table speed (velocity). The removal rate of CdTe thin film was more affected by the down force than the table speed which is the two main factors directly influencing on the removal rate in CMP process. RMS roughness and peak-to-valley roughness of CdTe thin film after CMP process were improved to 96.68% and 85.55%, respectively. The optimum process condition was estimated by 100 $gf/cm^2$ of down force and 60 rpm of table speed with the consideration of good removal uniformity about 5.0% as well as excellent surface roughness for the large-area CdTe solar cell.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2017

The screen printing technique is one of process to form electrode for crystalline silicon solar cell and has been studied a lot, because it has many advantages such as low price, high efficiency and mass production due to simple and fast process. The reason why electrode formation is important is for influence of series resistance and amount of incident light in crystalline silicon solar cell. In this study, electrode was formed by screen printing method with various conditions like squeegee angle, printing speed, snap off, printing pressure. After optimizing various conditions, double printing method was applied to obtain low series resistance and high aspect ratio. As a result, we obtained electrode resistance 45.31 ohm, aspect ratio 4.38, shading loss 7.549% mono-crystalline silicon solar cell with optimal double screen printing condition.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.662-666
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• 2005

Silicon nitride $(SiN_x)$ film is a promising material for anti-reflection coating and passivation of multicrystalline silicon (me-Si) solar cells. In this work, a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system with batch-type reactor tube was used to prepare highly robust $SiN_x$ films for screen-printed mc-Si solar cells. The Gas flow ratio, $R=[SiH_4]/[NH_3]$, in a mixture of silane and ammonia was varied in the range of 0.0910.235 while maintaining the total flow rate of the process gases to 4,200 sccm. The refractive index of the $SiN_x$ film deposited with a gas flow ratio of 0.091 was measured to be 2.03 and increased to 2.37 as the gas flow ratio increased to 0.235. The highest efficiency of the cell was $14.99\%$ when the flow rate of $SiH_4$ was 350 sccm (R=0.091). Generally, we observed that the efficiency of the mc-Si solar cell decreased with increasing R. From the analysis of the reflectance and the quantum efficiency of the cell, the decrease in the efficiency was shown to originate mainly from an increase in the surface reflectance for a high flow rate of $SiH_4$ during the deposition of $SiN_x$ films.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.593-599
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• 1996

Laser scribing of silicon plays an important role in metallization including the grid pattern and the front surface geometry which means aspect ratio of metal contacts. To make a front metal electrode of buried contact solar cell, we used ND:YAG lasers that deliver average 3-4W at TEM$\_$00/ mode power to sample stage. The Q-switched Nd:YAG laser of 1.064 gm wavelength was used for silicon scribing with 20-40.mu.m width and 20-200.mu.m depth capabilities. After silicon slag etching, the groove width and depth for buried contact solar cell are -20.mu.m and 30-50.mu.m respectively. Using MEL 40 Nd:YAG laser system, we can scribe the silicon surface with 18-23.mu.m width and 20-200.mu.m depth controlled by krypton arc lamp power, scan speed, pulse frequency and beam focusing. We fabricated a buried contact Silicon Solar Cell which had an energy conversion efficiency of 18.8 %. In this case, the groove width and depth are 20.mu.m and 50.mu.m respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1045-1050
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• 2009

The current-voltage characteristics of solar cell has been analyzed using MicroTec in this paper. The current-voltage characteristics represents a efficiency of solar cell. The part of metal contact is doped highly, but active region is doped lowly. We have investigated the current-voltage characteristics according to variation of doping concentration from $10^{14}cm^{-3}$ to $10^{17}cm^{-3}$. We has also determined the doping concentration to obtain the maximum efficiency of solar cell, and analyzed this current-voltage characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.9-9
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• 2008

Recently, the thickness of solar cell gets thinner to reduce the quantity of silicon. And the reduced thickness make it easy to be broken while PV module fabrication process. This phenomenon might make PV module's maximum power and durability down. So, when using thin solar cell for PV module fabrication, it is needed to optimize the material and fabrication condition which is quite different from normal thick solar cell process. Normally, gel-content of EVA sheet should be higher than 80% so PV module has long term durability. But high gel-content characteristic might cause micro-crack on solar cell. In this experiment, we fabricated several specimen by varying curing temperature and time condition. And from the gel-content measurement, we figure the best fabrication condition. Also we examine the crack generation phenomenon during experiment.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2004

Photovoltaic(PV) system has been studied and watched with keen interest due to a clean and renewable power source. But, the output power of PV system is not only unstable but uncontrollable, because the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of PV system is still hard with the tracking failure under the sudden fluctuation of irradiance. Authors suggest that the optimal voltage for MPPT be obtained by only solar cell temperature. Having an eye on that the optimal voltage point of solar cell is in proportion to its panel temperature, with operating the power converter whose operating point keeps its input voltage to the optimal voltage imagined by the surface's temperature of PV panel, the maximum power point becomes tenderly possible to be tracked. In order to confirm the availability of the proposed control scheme. And both control methods are simulated not only on the various angle of sampling time of switching control, but also with the real field weather condition. As the results of that, the conversion efficiency between PV panel and converter of the proposed control scheme was much better than that of the power comparison MPPT control, and what is better, the output voltage of PV panel was extremely in stable when the optimal voltage for MPPT is obtained by only solar cell temperature.