• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2006년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.228-231
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• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

• Advances in nano research
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.23-56
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• 2014

The significant growth of the Si photovoltaic industry has been so far limited due to the high cost of the Si photovoltaic system. In this regard, the most expensive factors are the intrinsic cost of silicon material and the Si solar cell fabrication processes. Conventional Si solar cells have p-n junctions inside for an efficient extraction of light-generated charge carriers. However, the p-n junction is normally formed through very expensive processes requiring very high temperature (${\sim}1000^{\circ}C$). Therefore, several systems are currently under study to form heterojunctions at low temperatures. Among them, carbon nanotube (CNT)/Si hybrid solar cells are very promising, with power conversion efficiency up to 15%. In these cells, the p-type Si layer is replaced by a semitransparent CNT film deposited at room temperature on the n-doped Si wafer, thus giving rise to an overall reduction of the total Si thickness and to the fabrication of a device with cheaper methods at low temperatures. In particular, the CNT film coating the Si wafer acts as a conductive electrode for charge carrier collection and establishes a built-in voltage for separating photocarriers. Moreover, due to the CNT film optical semitransparency, most of the incoming light is absorbed in Si; thus the efficiency of the CNT/Si device is in principle comparable to that of a conventional Si one. In this paper an overview of several factors at the basis of this device operation and of the suggested improvements to its architecture is given. In addition, still open physical/technological issues are also addressed.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.68-73
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• 2008

It is very important that constitution of good hetero-junction interface with a high quality amorphous silicon thin films on very cleaned c-Si wafer for making high efficiency hetero-junction solar cells. For achieving the high efficiency solar cells, the inspection and management of c-Si wafer surface conditions are essential subjects. In this experiment, we analyzed the c-Si wafer surface very sensitively using Spectroscopic Ellipsometer for < ${\varepsilon}2$ > and u-PCD for effective carrier life time, so we accomplished < ${\varepsilon}2$ > value 43.02 at 4.25eV by optimizing the cleaning process which is representative of c-Si wafer surface conditions very well. We carried out that the deposition of high quality hydrogenated silicon amorphous thin films by RF-PECVD systems having high density and low crystallinity which are results of effective medium approximation modeling and fitting using spectroscopic ellipsometer. We reached the cell efficiency 12.67% and 14.30% on flat and textured CZ c-Si wafer each under AM1.5G irradiation, adopting the optimized cleaning and deposition conditions that we made. As a result, we confirmed that spectroscopic ellipsometry is very useful analyzing methode for hetero-junction solar cells which need to very thin and high quality multi layer structure.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.103-109
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• 2014

Highly efficient hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin-film solar cells were prepared on flexible stainless steel substrates using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. To enhance the performance of solar cells, material properties of back reflectors, n-doped seed layers and wide bandgap nc-SiC:H window layers were optimized. The light scattering efficiency of Ag back reflectors was improved by increasing the surface roughness of the films deposited at elevated substrate temperatures. Using the n-doped seed layers with high crystallinity, the initial crystal growth of intrinsic nc-Si:H absorber layers was improved, resulting in the elimination of the defect-dense amorphous regions at the n/i interfaces. The nc-SiC:H window layers with high bandgap over 2.2 eV were deposited under high hydrogen dilution conditions. The vertical current flow of the films was enhanced by the formation of Si nanocrystallites in the amorphous SiC:H matrix. Under optimized conditions, a high conversion efficiency of 9.13% ($V_{oc}=0.52$, $J_{sc}=25.45mA/cm^2$, FF = 0.69) was achieved for the flexible nc-Si:H thin-film solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• 제24권3호
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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%.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국태양에너지학회 2011년도 춘계학술발표대회 논문집
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• pp.111-115
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• 2011

Surface Texturing is an essential process for high efficiency in multi-crystalline silicon solar cell. In order to reduce the reflectivity, there are two major methods; proper surface texturing and anti-reflection coating. For texturization, wet chemical etching is a typical method for multi-crystalline silicon. The chemical solution for wet etching consists of HF, $NHO_3$, DI and $CH_3COOH$. We carried out texturization by the change of etching time like 15sec, 30sec, 45sec, 60sec and measured the reflectivity of textured wafers. As making the silicon solar cells, we obtained the conversion efficiency and relationship between texturing condition and solar cell characteristics. The reflectivity from 300nm to 1200nm was the lowest with 15 sec texturing time and 60 sec texturing time showed almost same reflectivity as bare one. The 45 sec texturing time showed the highest conversion efficiency.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• 제46권12호
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• pp.835-840
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• 2008

Texturing for crystalline silicon solar cells is one of the important techniques to increase conversion efficiency by effective photon trapping. Generally, incoming wafers or alkali etched wafers are used for texturing. From this conventional etching process, $7{\sim}10{\mu}m$-sized random pyramids are formed. In this study, acid etching for removal of saw damages was practiced before texturing. This improved the resulting surface morphology, which consisted of $2{\sim}4{\mu}m$-sized pyramids. Because these pyramids covered the surface much more extensively, we obtained reduction of optical losses on the surface. In order to compare with conventional texturing, FE-SEM is used for observing surface morphology and reflectance data is analyzed by UV-VIS spectrophotometer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2009년도 하계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.444-445
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• 2009

The metallic contact system of silicon solar cell must have several properties, such as low contact resistance, easy application and good adhesion. Ni is shown to be a suitable barrier to Cu diffusion as well as desirable contact metal to silicon. Nickel monosilicide(NiSi) has been suggested as a suitable silicide due to its lower resistivity, lower sintering temperature and lower layer stress than $TiSi_2$. Copper and Silver can be plated by electro & light-induced plating method. Light-induced plating makes use the photovoltaic effect of solar cell to deposit the metal on the front contact. The cell is immersed into the electrolytic plating bath and irradiated at the front side by light source, which leads to a current density in the front side grid. Electroless plated Ni/ Electro&light-induced plated Cu/ Light-induced plated Ag contact solar cells result in an energy conversion efficiency of 16.446 % on $0.2\sim0.6\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, $20\;\times\;20\;mm^2$, CZ(Czochralski) wafer.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.69-72
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• 2013

Combined nano- and micro-wires (CNMWs) Si arrays were prepared using PR patterning and silver-assisted electroless etching. A $POCl_3$ doping process was applied to the fabrication of CNMWs solar cells. KOH solution was used to remove bundles in CNMWs and the etching time was varied from 30 to 240 s. The lowest reflectance of 3.83% was obtained at KOH etching time of 30 s, but the highest carrier lifetime of $354{\mu}s$ was observed after the doping process at 60 s. At the same etching time, a $V_{oc}$ of 574 mV, $J_{sc}$ of $28.41mA/cm^2$, FF of 74.4%, and Eff. of 12.2% were achieved in the CNMWs solar cell. CNMWs solar cells have potential for higher efficiency by improving the post-process and surface-rear side structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2004년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.5 No.1
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• pp.146-149
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• 2004

Porous silicon(PS) as an excellent light diffuser can be used as an antireflection layer without other antireflection coating(ARC) materials. PS layers were obtained by electrochemical etching(ECE) anodization of silicon wafers in hydrofluoric acid/ethanol/de-ionized(DI) water solution($HF/EtOH/H_2O$). This technique is based on the selective removal of Si atoms from the sample surface forming a layer of PS with adjustable optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. A PS layer with optimal ARC characteristics was obtained in charge density (Q) of 5.2 $C/cm^2$. The weighted reflectance is reduced from 33 % to 4 % in the wavelength between 400 and 1000 nm. The weighted reflectance with optimized PS layers is much less than that obtained with a commercial SiNx ARC on a potassium hydroxide(KOH) pre-textured multi-crystalline silicon(mc-Si) surface.