• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.31-38
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• 2018

Multijunction solar cells present a practical solution towards a better photovoltaic conversion for a wider spectral range. In this review, we compare different types of multi-ijunction solar cell. First, we introduce thin film multijunction solar cell include to the thin film silicon, III-V material and chalcopyrite material. Until now the maximum reported power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of solar cells having different component sub-cells are 14.0% (thin film silicon), 46% (III-V material), 4.4% (chalcopyrite material) respectively. We then discuss the development of multijunction solar cell in which c-Si is used as bottom sub-cell while III-V material, thin film silicon, chalcopyrite material or perovskite material is used as top sub-cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2014

Extensive investigation on silicon based thin film reveals a wide range of film characteristics, from low optical gap to high optical gap, from amorphous to micro-crystalline silicon etc. Fabrication of single junction, tandem and triple junction solar cell with suitable materials, indicate that fabrication of solar cell of a relatively moderate efficiency is possible with a better light induced stability. Due to these investigations, various competing materials like wide band gap silicon carbide and silicon oxide, low band gap micro-crystalline silicon and silicon germanium etc were also prepared and applied to the solar cells. Such a multi-junction solar cell can be a technologically promising photo-voltaic device, as the external quantum efficiency of such a cell covers a wider spectral range.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1995.05a
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• pp.172-176
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• 1995

Schemes to trap weakly absorbed light into the cell have played an important role in improving the efficiency of both amorphous and crystlline silicon solar cells. One class of scheme relies on randomizing the direction of light within the cell by use of Lambertian(diffuse)surfaces. A second class of scheme relies on the use fo well defined geometrical features to control the direction of light wihin the cell, Widly used geometrical features in crystalline silicon solar cells are the square based pyramids and V-shaped grooves formed in (100) orientated surfaces by intersecting(III) crystallographic planes exposed by anisotropic etching. 18.5% conversion efficiency of Buried Contact Solar Cell with pyramidally textured surface has been achieved. 18.5% efficiency of silicon solar cell is one the highest record in the world The efficieny of cell without textured surface was 16.6%, When adapting textured surface to the Cell, the efficiency has been improved over 12%.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.94-101
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• 2018

Light elevated temperature induced degradation (LeTID) was noted as an issue in multi-crystalline silicon solar cells (MSSC) by Ram speck in 2012. In contrast to light induced degradation (LID), which has been researched in silicon solar cells for a long time, research about both LeTID and the mechanism of LeTID has been limited. In addition, research about LeTID in single-crystalline silicon solar cells (SSSC) is even more limited. In order to improve understanding of LeTID in SSSC with a passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) structure, we fabricated four group samples with boron and oxygen factors and evaluated the solar cell characteristics, such as the cell efficiency, $V_{oc}$, $I_{sc}$, fill factor (FF), LID, and LeTID. The trends of LID of the four group samples were similar to the trend of LeTID as a function of boron and oxygen.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.43.2-43.2
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• 2011

Minority Carrier recombination should be suppressed for high efficiency solar cells. However, impurities in the silicon bulk region deteriorate the minority carrier lifetimes, causes conversion efficiency drop. In this study, we introduced phosphorus external gettering for silicon heterojunction solar cell substrates. Gettering was undergone at 750, 800, 850 and $900^{\circ}C$ in furnace for 30 minutes. Bulk lifetimes and calculated diffusion length were improved. We applied phosphorus gettering to silicon heterojunction solar cells. Gettered group and ungettered group were used as substrate of silicon heterojunction solar cells. After fabrication, characteristics of solar cells were analyzed. The results were observed to see the enhancement of substrate quality which directly connects with solar cell properties.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.24-33
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• 2013

Renewable energy industries, including sola cell plants, has been ever increasing ones for reducing fossil fuel consumption and strengthening national energy policy. In this paper we tried to identify occupational health hazards in solar cell-related industries operated in Korea. Poly silicon, silicon ingot and wafer, solar cell and module are major processes for producing solar cells. Poly silicon operations may cause hazards to workers from metal silicon, silanes, silicon, hydro fluoric acid and nitric acid. Solar cells could not be constructed without using metals such as aluminum and silver, acids such as hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid, bases such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, and solvent and phosphorus chloride oxide. Workers in module assembly process may exposed to isopropanol, flux, solders that contain lead, tin and/or copper. To prevent occupational exposure to these hazards, it is essential to identify the hazards in each process and educate workers in industries with proper engineering and administrative control measures.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.45-49
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• 2015

Using a combined CVD and ALD equipment system, multi-layer quantum well structures of $Al_2O_3/a-Si/Al_2O_3$ were fabricated on silicon Schottky junction devices and implemented to quantum well solar cells, in which the 1~1.5 nm thicknesses of the aluminum oxide films and the a-Si thin film layers were deposited at $300^{\circ}C$ and $450^{\circ}C$, respectively. Fabricated solar cell was operated by tunneling phenomena through the inserted quantum well structure being generated electrons on the silicon surface. Efficiency of the fabricated solar cell inserted with multi-quantum well of 41 layers has been increased by about 10 times that of the solar cell of pure Schottky junction solar cell.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.317-321
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• 2019

We investigated the characteristics of nano crystalline silicon(nc-Si) thin-film solar cells on graphite substrates. Amorphous silicon(a-Si) thin-film solar cells on graphite plates show low conversion efficiency due to high surface roughness, and many recombination by dangling bonds. In previous studies, we deposited barrier films by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) on graphite plate to reduce surface roughness and achieved ~7.8 % cell efficiency. In this study, we fabricated nc-Si thin film solar cell on graphite in order to increase the efficiency of solar cells. We achieved 8.45 % efficiency on graphite plate and applied this to nc-Si on graphite sheet for flexible solar cell applications. The characterization of the cell is performed with external quantum efficiency(EQE) and current density-voltage measurements(J-V). As a result, we obtain ~8.42 % cell efficiency in a flexible solar cell fabricated on a graphite sheet, which performance is similar to that of cells fabricated on graphite plates.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2012

Crystalline silicon solar cell remains the major player in the photovoltaic marketplace with 80% of the market, despite the development of various thin film technologies. Silicon's excellent efficiency, stability, material abundance and low toxicity have helped to maintain its position of dominance. However, the cost of silicon materials remains a major barrier to reducing the cost of silicon photovoltaics. Using the crystalline silicon wafer with thinner thickness is the promising way for cost and material reduction in the solar cell production. However, the thinner the silicon wafer is, the worse bow phenomenon is induced. The bow phenomenon is observed when two or more layers of materials with different temperature expansion coefficiencies are in contact, in this case silicon and aluminum. In this paper, the solar cells were fabricated with different thicknesses of Al layer in order to reduce the bow phenomenon. With less amount of paste applications, we observed that the bow could be reduced by up to 40% of the largest value with 120 micron thickness of the wafer even though the conversion efficiency decrease by 0.5% occurred. Since the bowed wafers lead to unacceptable yield losses during the module construction, the reduction of bow is indispensable on thin crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, we have studied on the counterbalance between the bow and conversion efficiency and also suggest the formation of enough back surface field (BSF) with thinner Al layer application.

• 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.