• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2013

In this study, the influence on the surface passivation properties of crystalline silicon according to silicon wafer thickness, and the correlation with a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cell performances were investigated. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers show poor passivation properties because of the doping elements, such as boron(B) and phosphorous(P), which result in a low minority carrier lifetime (MCLT). A decrease in open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) was observed when the wafer thickness was thinned from $170{\mu}m$ to $50{\mu}m$. On the other hand, wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer showed high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The implied $V_{oc}$ of the ITO/p a-Si:H/i a-Si:H/n c-Si wafer/i a-Si:H/n a-Si:H/ITO stacked layers was 0.715 V for $50{\mu}m$ c-Si substrate, and 0.704 V for $170{\mu}m$ c-Si. The $V_{oc}$ in the heterojunction solar cells increased with decreases in the substrate thickness. The high quality passivation property on the c-Si led to an increasing of $V_{oc}$ in the thinner wafer. Short circuit current decreased as the substrate became thinner because of the low optical absorption for long wavelength light. In this paper, we show that high quality passivation of c-Si plays a role in heterojunction solar cells and is important in the development of thinner wafer technology.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.160-163
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• 2013

We investigated the effect of light intensity and wavelength of a solar cell device by using photoconductive atomic force microscopy (PC-AFM). The $POCl_3$ diffusion doping process was used to produce a p-n junction solar cell device based on a Poly-Si wafer and the electrical properties of prepared solar cells were measured using a solar cell simulator system. The measured open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) is 0.59 V and the short circuit current ($I_{sc}$) is 48.5 mA. Also, the values of the fill factors and efficiencies of the devices are 0.7% and approximately 13.6%, respectively. In addition, PC-AFM, a recent notable method for nano-scale characterization of photovoltaic elements, was used for direct measurements of photoelectric characteristics in local instead of large areas. The effects of changes in the intensity and wavelength of light shining on the element on the photoelectric characteristics were observed. Results obtained through PC-AFM were compared with the electric/optical characteristics data obtained through a solar simulator. The voltage ($V_{PC-AFM}$) at which the current was 0 A in the I-V characteristic curves increased sharply up to 1.8 $mW/cm^2$, peaking and slowly falling as light intensity increased. Here, $V_{PC-AFM}$ at 1.8 $mW/cm^2$ was 0.29 V, which corresponds to 59% of the average $V_{oc}$ value, as measured with the solar simulator. Also, while light wavelength was increased from 300 nm to 1,100 nm, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and results from PC-AFM showed similar trends at the macro scale, but returned different results in several sections, indicating the need for detailed analysis and improvement in the future.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.680-684
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• 2018

We investigate the effect of light intensity and wavelength of a solar cell device using photoconductive atomic force microscopy(PC-AFM). A $POCl_3$ diffusion doping process is used to produce a p-n junction solar cell device based on a polySi wafer, and the electrical properties of prepared solar cells are measured using a solar cell simulator system. The measured open circuit voltage($V_{oc}$) is 0.59 V and the short circuit current($I_{sc}$) is 48.5 mA. Moreover, the values of the fill factors and efficiencies of the devices are 0.7 and approximately 13.6 %, respectively. In addition, PC-AFM, a recent notable method for nano-scale characterization of photovoltaic elements, is used for direct measurements of photoelectric characteristics in limited areas instead of large areas. The effects of changes in the intensity and wavelength of light shining on the element on the photoelectric characteristics are observed. Results obtained through PC-AFM are compared with the electric/optical characteristics data obtained through a solar simulator. The voltage($V_{PC-AFM}$) at which the current is 0 A in the I-V characteristic curves increases sharply up to $18W/m^2$, peaking and slowly falling as light intensity increases. Here, $V_{PC-AFM}$ at $18W/m^2$ is 0.29 V, which corresponds to 59 % of the average $V_{oc}$ value, as measured with the solar simulator. Furthermore, while the light wavelength increases from 300 nm to 1,100 nm, the external quantum efficiency(EQE) and results from PC-AFM show similar trends at the macro scale but reveal different results in several sections, indicating the need for detailed analysis and improvement in the future.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.56-59
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• 2011

The process conditions for high efficiency industrial crystalline Si solar cells with selective emitter were optimized. In the screen printed solar cells, the sheet resistance must be 50-60V/sq. because of metal contact resistance. But the low sheet resistance causes the increase of the recombination and blue response at the short wavelength. Therefore, the screen printed solar cells with homogeneous emitter have limitations of efficiency, and this means that the selective emitter must be used to improve cell efficiency. This work demonstrates the feasibility of a commercially available selective emitter process, based on screen printing and conventional diffusion process. Now, we improved cell efficiency from 18.29% to18.45% by transition of heavy emitter pattern and shallow emitter doping condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1019-1023
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• 2012

In this research, a novel direct-aluminum-heating-induced crystallization method was developed for the purpose of application to solar cells. By applying a constant current of 3 A to an aluminum thin film, a 200-nm-thick amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film with a size of $1cm{\times}1cm$ can be crystallized into a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film within a few tens of seconds. The Raman spectrum analysis shows a peak of 520 $cm^{-1}$, which verifies the presence of poly-Si. After removing the aluminum layer, the poly-Si thin film was found to be porous. SIMS analysis showed that the porous poly-Si thin film was heavily p-doped with a doping concentration of $10^{21}cm^{-3}$. Thermal imaging shows that the crystallization from a-Si to poly-Si occurred at a temperature of around 820 K.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.240-244
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• 2011

The high cost of crystalline silicon solar cells has been considered as one of the major obstacles to their terrestrial applications. Spin on doping (SOD) is presented as a useful process for the manufacturing of low cost solar cells. Phosphorus (P509) was used as an n-type emitters of solar cells. N-type emitters were formed on p-type EFG ribbon Si wafers by using a SOD at different spin speed (1,000~4,000 rpm), diffusion temperatures ($800^{\circ}C{\sim}950^{\circ}C$), and diffusion time (5~30 min) in $N_2+O_2$ atmosphere. With optimum condition, we were able to achieve cell efficiency of 14.1%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.39.2-39.2
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• 2010

In this work we have investigated electrical and optical properties of interface for ITO/Si with shallow doped emitter. The ITO is prepared by DC magnetron sputter on p-type monocrystalline silicon substrate. As an experimental result, The transmittance at 640nm spectra is obtained an average transmittance over 85% in the visible range of the optical spectrum. The energy bandgap of ITO at oxygen flow from 0% to 4% obtained between 3.57eV and 3.68eV (ITO : 3.75eV). The energy bandgap of ITO is depending on the thickness, sturcture and doping concentration. Because the bandgap and position of absorption edge for degenerated semiconductor oxide are determined by two competing mechanism; i) bandgap narrowing due to electron-electron and electron-impurity effects on the valance and conduction bands (> 3.38eV), ii) bandgap widening by the Burstein-Moss effect, a blocking of the lowest states of the conduction band by excess electrons( < 4.15eV). The resistivity of ITO layer obtained about $6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ at 4% of oxygen flow. In case of decrease resistivity of ITO, the carrier concentration and carrier mobility of ITO film will be increased. The contact resistance of ITO/Si with shallow doped emitter was measured by the transmission line method(TLM). As an experimental result, the contact resistance was obtained $0.0705{\Omega}cm^2$ at 2% oxygen flow. It is formed ohmic-contact of interface ITO/Si substrate. The emitter series resistance of ITO/Si with shallow doped emitter was obtained $0.1821{\Omega}cm^2$. Therefore, As an PC1D simulation result, the fill factor of EWT solar cell obtained above 80%. The details will be presented in conference.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 1999

The $n^+/p/p^+$ junction PERL solar cell of $0.1{\sim}2{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (100) p type silicon wafer was fabricated through the following steps; that is, wafer cutting, inverted pyramidally textured surfaces etching by KOH, phosphorus and boron diffusion, anti-reflection coating, grid formation and contact annealing. At this time, the optical characteristics of device surface and the efficiency of doping concentration for resistivity were investigated. And diffusion depth and doping concentration for n+ doping were simulated by silvaco program. Then their results were compared with measured results. Under the illumination of AM (air mass)1.5, $100\;mW/cm^2$ $I_{sc}$, $V_{oc}$, fill factor and the conversion efficiency were 43mA, 0.6 V, 0.62. and 16% respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.247.1-247.1
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• 2016

Low-cost, high efficiency solar cells are tremendous interests for the realization of a renewable and clean energy source. ZnTe based solar cells have a possibility of high efficiency with formation of an intermediated energy band structure by impurity doping. In this work, ZnO/ZnTe:Cr and ZnO/i-ZnTe structures were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. A pulsed (10 Hz) Nd:YAG laser operating at a wavelength of 266 nm was used to produce a plasma plume from an ablated a ZnTe target, whose density of laser energy was 10 J/cm2. The base pressure of the chamber was kept at approximately $4{\times}10-7Torr$. ZnTe:Cr and i-ZnTe thin films with thickness of 210 nm were grown on p-Si substrate, respectively, and then ZnO thin films with thickness of 150 nm were grown on ZnTe:Cr layer under oxygen partial pressure of 3 mTorr. Growth temperature of all the films was set to $250^{\circ}C$. For fabricating ZnO/i-ZnTe and ZnO/ZnTe:Cr solar cells, indium metal and Ti/Au grid patterns were deposited on back and front side of the solar cells by using thermal evaporator, respectively. From the fabricated ZnO/ZnTe:Cr and ZnO/i-ZnTe solar cell, dark currents were measured by using Keithley 2600. Solar cell parameters were obtained under Air Mass 1.5 Global solar simulator with an irradiation intensity of 100 mW/cm2, and then the photoelectric conversion efficiency values of ZnO/ZnTe:Cr and ZnO/i-ZnTe solar cells were measured at 1.5 % and 0.3 %, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.49-61
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• 1981

A generally applicable computer simulation program for diffused silicon solar cells has been developed on the basis of the experimental results. The program can be easily used to obtain the spectral response and I-V characteristics for N+P, P+N N+PP+, P+NN+cells by changing various input parameters. The insolated spectra can be taken from AMI and constant intensity and GE - ELH lamp light sources. The options for AR coating are Si3N4 film and materials with constant reflectance including zero reflectance for ideal case. The computer simulation demonstrates successful results compared with the measured values for the short circuit current, open circuit voltage, efficiency, spectral response, quantum efficiency, I-V characteristics, etc. This program was used to optimize doping concentration, cell thickness, light concentration, junction depth, and to obtain the limit values for front surface recornbination velocity, effective carrier life time in the depletion regions and shunt resistance, and also to drive the changing rate in conversion efficiency depending on operation temperature, series resistance and electric field strength in N+P+ bulk regions.