• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.197-200
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• 2001

In this letter, we report on the investigation of Ni/Si/Ni Ohmic contacts to n-type 4H-SiC. Ohmic contacts have been formed by a vacuum annealing and N$_2$ gas ambient annealing method at 950$^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The specific contact resistivity($\rho$$\sub$c/), sheet resistance(R$\sub$S/), contact resistance(R$\sub$S/), transfer length(LT) were calculated from resistance(R$\sub$T/) versus contact spacing(d) measurements obtained from 10 TLM(transmission line method) structures. The resulting average values of vacuum annealing sample were $\rho$$\sub$c/=3.8x10$\^$-5/ Ω$\textrm{cm}^2$ , R$\sub$c/=4.9Ω, R$\sub$T/=9.8Ω and L$\sub$T/=15.5$\mu\textrm{m}$, resulting average values of another sample were $\rho$$\sub$c/=2.29x10$\^$-4/ Ω$\textrm{cm}^2$ , R$\sub$c/=12.9Ω, R$\sub$T/=25.8Ω. The Physical properties of contacts were examined using X-Ray Diffraction and Auger analysis, there was a uniform intermixing of the Si and Ni, migration of Ni into the SiC.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2016

Screen printing of commercially available Ag paste is the most widely used method for the front side metallization of Si solar cells. However, the metallization using Ag paste is expensive and needs high temperature annealing for reliable contact. Among many metallization schemes, Ni/Cu/Sn plating is one of the most promising methods due to low contact resistance and mass production, resulting in high efficiency and low production cost. Ni layer serves as a barrier which would prevent copper atoms from diffusion into the silicon substrate. However, Ni based schemes by electroless deposition usually have low thermal stability, and require high annealing process due to phosphorus content in the Ni based films. These problems can be resolved by adding W element in Ni-based film. In this study, Ni-W-P alloys were formed by electroless plating and properties of it such as sheet resistance, resistivity, specific contact resistivity, crystallinity, and morphology were investigated before and after annealing process by means of transmission line method (TLM), 4-point probe, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.162-165
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• 2011

In this paper, $CuInSe_2$ thin film was prepared by use of the co-evaporation method with the variation of the substrate temperature in the range of $100^{\circ}C$ to $400^{\circ}C$. The film was annealed at $300^{\circ}C$ for an hour in a vacuum chamber at $3{\times}10-4$ Pa. After annealing, the thin film prepared at the substrate temperatures of $100^{\circ}C$ and $200^{\circ}C$ was observed. The XRD (x-ray diffraction) pattern of sample prepared at $100^{\circ}C$ showed the single phase formation of $CuInSe_2$. However, at $200^{\circ}C$, there was no apparent difference in the XRD pattern except a variation in the intensity of the peak. As the annealing treatment of substrate improved the crystal structure of the film, it affected to the increase of an electron mobility, resulted in an increase in conductivity and a decrease in resistance. As a results, when the substrate temperature was at $200^{\circ}C$ and $300^{\circ}C$, the sheet resistance was 1.534 $\Omega/\Box$ and 1.554 $\Omega/\Box$, respectively, and the resistivity was $1.76{\times}10-6\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and $1.7210-6\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, respectively. From the absorption spectrum measurements, there was no variation between the before and after annealing conductions. And it means that the annealing step does not affect the thickness of the thin film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.314-314
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• 2013

Recently, flexibility is one of the hottest issues in the field of electronic devices. For flexible displays or solar cells, a development of transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) with flexibility, bendability and foldability is an essential element. Hundreds of nanometers indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films have been widely used and commercialized as a transparent electrode, but their brittleness make them difficulty to apply flexible electronics. Many researchers have been studying for flexible TCEs such as a few layers of graphene sheets, carbon nanotube networks, conductive polymer films and combinations among them. Although gained flexibility, their transmittance and resistivity have not reached those of commercialized ITO films. Metal grids electrode cannot act as TCEs only, but they can be used to lower the resistance of TCEs with few losses of transmittance. However, the possibility of device shortage will be rise at the devices with metal grids because a surface flatness of TCEs may be deteriorated when metal grids are introduced using conventional methods. In our research, we have developed hybrid TCEs, which combined tens of nanometers ITO film and metal grids which are embedded in flexible substrate. They show $13{\Omega}$/${\Box}f$ sheet resistance with 94% of transmittance. Moreover, the sheet resistance was maintained up to 1 mm of bending radius. Also, we have verified that flexible organic light emitting diodes and organic solar cells with the TCEs showed similar performances compared to commercial ITO (on glass substrate) devices.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2009

Using an evaporation system, $SiO_2$ was deposited as a buffer layer between a PET substrate and a ITO layer and then ITO/$SiO_2$/PET layers were annealed for 1.5 hours at the temperature of $180^{\circ}C$. Adhesion and electro-optical properties of ITO films were studied with thickness variance of a $SiO_2$ buffer layer. As a result of introduction of the $SiO_2$ buffer layer, sheet resistance and resistivity increased and a ITO film with optimum sheet resistance ($529.3{\Omega}/square$) for an upper ITO film of resistive type touch panel could be obtained when $SiO_2$ of $50{\AA}$ was deposited. And it was found that ITO films with $SiO_2$ buffer layer have higher transmittance of $88{\sim}90%$ at 550 nm wavelength than ITO films with no buffer layers and the transmittance was enhanced as $SiO_2$ thickness increased from $50{\AA}$ to $100{\AA}$. Adhesion property of ITO films with $SiO_2$ buffer layers became better than ITO films with no buffer layers and this property was independent of $SiO_2$ thickness variance ($50{\sim}100{\AA}$). By depositing a $SiO_2$ buffer layer of $50{\AA}$ on the PET substrate and sputtering a ITO thin film on the layer, a ITO film with enhanced adhesion, electro-optical properties could be obtained.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.231-236
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• 2011

The polyacrylate/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) composites were prepared and investigated for the application as a counter electrode in solar cell. The electrical conductivity of the composites was increased with increasing MWNT content and with the thickness of the sheet. The surface resistivity value of the composite at 50 wt% loading of MWNT was 0.36 ${\Omega}$/sq. The thermal decomposition temperature of the composites was also increased with the MWNT contents, and the increase of $15^{\circ}C$ was observed at the composite of polyacrylate/MWNT (50/50, w/w). The increase of storage modulus of the composites was observed, especially at the higher temperature compared to polyacrylate. The dimensional change of polyacrylate decreased over $20^{\circ}C$, but that of the composite increased linearly with the temperature. The morphology of the composites stands for the good dispersion of MWNT into the polyacrylate matrix.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.379-380
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• 2007

The characteristics of a co-sputtered indium zinc tin oxide (IZTO) films prepared by dual target dc magnetron sputtering from IZO and ITO targets at a room temperature are investigated. Film properties, such as sheet resistance, optical transmittance, surface work function and surface roughness were examined as a function of ITO dc power at constant IZO dc power of 100 W. It was shown that the increase of the ITO dc power during co-sputtering of ITO and IZO target resulted in an increase of sheet resistance of the IZTO films. This can be attributed to high resistivity of ITO film prepared at room temperature. Surface smoothness and roughness were investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The synchrotron x-ray scattering results obtained from IZTO film with different ITO contents showed that introduction of ITO atoms into amorphous IZO film resulted in a crystallization of IZTO film with (222) preferred orientation due to low alc transition temperature of ITO film. However, the transmittance of the IZTO films with thickness of 150 nm is between 80 and 85 % at wavelength of 550 nm regardless of ITO content. Possible mechanism to explain the ITO and IZO co-sputtering effect on properties of IZTO is suggested.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.296-296
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• 2016

ITO films doped with a small amount of high-permittivity materials not only retain the basic properties of ITO films but also improve some of their properties. We report the highly conductive and transparent (ITO:Zr) films with various substrate (RT to 300oC) temperatures on glass substrate for the HIT solar cell applications. We observed a decrease in sheet resistance from 36 to $11.8{\Omega}/{\Box}$ with the increasing substrate temperature from RT to 300oC, respectively. The ITO:Zr films showed also lowest resistivity of $1.38{\times}10-4{\Omega}.cm$ and high mobility of 42.37cm-3, respectively. The surface and grain boundaries are improved with the increase of substrate temperature as shown by SEM and AFM surface morphologies. The highly conductive and transparent ITO:Zr films were employed as front electrode in HIT solar cell and the best performance of device was found to be Voc = 710 mV, Jsc = 33.70 mA/cm2, FF = 0.742, ${\eta}=17.76%$ at the substrate temperature of $200^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.300.2-300.2
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• 2016

Increasing of the demand for energy savings for buildings, thermal barrier films have more attracted. In particular, as heat loss through the windows have been pointed out to major problems in the construction and automobile industries, the research is consistently conducted for improving the thermal blocking performance for windows. The main theory of the technology is reflect the infrared rays to help the cut off the inflow of the solar energy in summer and outflow of the heat from indoors in winter to save the energy on cooling and heating. Furthermore, this is well known for prevent glare, reduces fading caused by harmful ultraviolet radiation and easy to apply on constructed buildings if it made as a film. In addition to these advantages, apply the transparent electrode to eliminate condensation by heating. Generally ITO is used as a transparent electrode, but is has a low stability in environmental factors. In this study, ITO and its alternative, ATO, is deposited by sputtering system and then the characteristic is evaluated each material based thermal barrier thin film. The optical property was measured on wide range of wavelength (200 nm 2500 nm) to know the transparency in visible wavelength and reflectivity in IR wavelength range. The electrical property was judged by sheet resistivity. Finally the changes of the temperature and current of the deposited film was observed while applying a DC power.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.901-905
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• 2010

PV module has many power loss factors, and series resistance is the most important elements of them. It is therefore easy to expect the partial shading decrease the lifetime of the semiconductor depletion layer in thin film PV module. Different shading losses could be related with the hot spot which is critical in expecting the reliability issue. In this paper we have modelled the series resistance of the PV module with both different direction of the cell line and shading area of the panel. From the results, thin film a-Si PV module has shown different properties by shading direction.