• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.1473-1476
• /
• 2013

Solution-based deposition of $CuIn_xGa_{1-x}Se_2$ (CIGSe) thin films is well known non-vacuum process for the fabrication of CIGSe solar cells. However, due to the usage of organic chemicals in the preparation of CIG precursor solutions, the crystallization of the polycrystalline CIGSe and the performance of CIGSe thin film solar cells were significantly affected by the carbon residues from the organic chemicals. In this work, we have tried to eliminate the carbon residues in the CIG precursor thin films efficiently by using soft-annealing process. By adjusting soft-annealing temperature, it is possible to control the amount of carbon residues in CIG precursor thin films. The reduction of the carbon residues in CIG precursors by high temperature soft-annealing improves the grain size and morphology of polycrystalline CIGSe thin films, which are also closely related with the electrical properties of CIGSe thin film solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.7
• /
• pp.437-442
• /
• 2018

This work reports the preparation of Al-Ti based oxide thin films and their optical properties. Although the transmittance of a $TiO_2/Al2O_3$ bilayer structure was as high as 90% at wavelengths of 600 nm or larger, the reflectance of the bilayer reached its minimum at wavelengths of around 360 nm. The transmittance of an 89-nm-thick $TiO_2$ thin film rapidly increased and then decreased at a critical wavelength because of destructive interference. The wavelength corresponding to the reflectance minimum increased after an increase in $TiO_2$ film thickness. The smooth surface morphology of the AlTiO thin film was retained up to a film thickness of 65 nm, and the transmittance of the film was inversely proportional to film thickness, in accordance with the general tendency for optical films. The reflectance of the AlTiO film at visible light wavelengths was lower than that of the $TiO_2$ film, which implies that the AlTiO film is suitable for applications as an optical thin film layer in semitransparent solar cells.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.66 no.8
• /
• pp.1230-1235
• /
• 2017

We studied surface texture-etching of glass substrate by using reactive ion etching process with various working pressure (0.7~9.0 mT). With the increase in the pressure, a haze parameter, which means diffusive transmittance/total transmittance, was increased in overall wavelength regions, as measured by spectrophotometer. Also, atomic force microscopy (AFM) study also showed that the surface topography transformed from V-shaped, keen surface to U-shaped, flattened surface, which is beneficial for nanocrystalline silicon semiconductor growth with suppressing defective crack formation. The texture-etched ZnO:Al combined with textured glass exhibited pronounced haze properties that showed 60~90 % in overall spectral wavelength regions. This promising optical properties of double textured, transparent conducting substrate can be widely applied in silicon thin film photovoltaics and other optoelectronic devices.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.113.1-113.1
• /
• 2011

PEMS (printed electro-mechanical system) is fabricated by means of various printing technologies. Passive and active compo-nents in 2D or 3D such as conducting lines, resistors, capacitors, inductors and TFT(Thin Film Transistor), which are printed withfunctional materials, can be classified in this category. And the issue of PEMS is applied to a R2R process in the manu-facturing process. In many electro-devices, the vacuum process is used as the manufacturing process. However, the vacuum process has a problem, it is difficult to apply to a continuous process such as a R2R(roll to roll) printing process. In this paper, we propose an ESD (electro static deposition) printing process has been used to apply an organic solar cell of thin film forming. ESD is a method of liquid atomization by electrical forces, an electrostatic atomizer sprays micro-drops from the solution injected into the capillary with electrostatic force generated by electric potential of about several tens kV. ESD method is usable in the thin film coating process of organic materials and continuous process as a R2R manufacturing process. Therefore, we experiment the thin films forming of PEDOT:PSS layer and active layer which consist of the P3HT:PCBM. The organic solar cell based on a P3HT/PCBM active layer and a PEDOT:PSS electron blocking layer prepared from ESD method shows solar-to-electrical conversion efficiency of 1.42% at AM 1.5G 1sun light illumination, while 1.86% efficiency is observed when the ESD deposition of P3HT/PCBM is performed on a spin-coated PEDOT:PSS layer.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.135-139
• /
• 2017

We fabricated two different transparent conducting oxide thin films of ZnO doped with Ga ($Ga_2O_3$ 0.9 wt%) as well as Al ($Al_2O_3$ 2.1 wt%) (GAZO) and ZnO doped only with Al ($Al_2O_3$ 3 wt%) (AZO). It was investigated how it affects the moisture resistance of the transparent electrode. In addition, $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ thin film solar cells with two transparent oxides as front electrodes were fabricated, and the correlation between humidity resistance of transparent electrodes and device performance of solar cells was examined. When both transparent electrodes were exposed to high temperature distilled water, they showed a rapid increase in sheet resistance and a decrease in the fill factor of the solar cell. However, AZO showed a drastic decrease in efficiency at the beginning of exposure, while GAZO showed that the deterioration of efficiency occurred over a long period of time and that the long term moisture resistance of GAZO was better.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.426.1-426.1
• /
• 2016

We report high work function Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) films as insertion layer as a function of O2 flow rate between transparent conducting oxides (TCO) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiOx:H) layer to improve open circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) for high efficiency thin film solar cell. However, amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells exhibit poor fill factors due to a Schottky barrier like impedance at the interface between a-SiOx:H windows and TCO. The impedance is caused by an increasing mismatch between the work function of TCO and that of p-type a-SiOx:H. In this study, we report on the silicon thin film solar cell by using as insertion layer of O2 reactive AZO films between TCO and p-type a-SiOx:H. Significant efficiency enhancement was demonstrated by using high work-function layers (4.95 eV at O2=2 sccm) for engineering the work function at the key interfaces to raise FF as well as Voc. Therefore, we can be obtained the conversion efficiency of 7 % at 13mA/cm2 of the current density (Jsc) and 63.35 % of FF.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 2012

We were studied that AZO conductive thin film can substitute for FTO electrode in dye sensitized solar cell. Three types of AZO films were deposited on soda-lime glass(AZO/glass, AZO/AZO/glass, textured AZO/AZO/glass) using RF magnetron sputtering process and investigated their properties of electrical, optical, and photoelectric conversion rate. The textured AZO/AZO/glass has the lowest resistivity of $3.079{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}cm$ among other films. And the optical transmittance rate was better than both non textured AZO/AZO/glass and FTO/glass in the visible region. After manufacturing dye solar cells using the three types of AZO films, the textured AZO/AZO/glass showed the highest photoelectric conversion rate of 3.68% among AZO samples. But the transformation rate was slightly lower than FTO cells (4.52%). However, the conductive film of textured AZO/AZO/glass can be applicable to use an electrode in solar cells as cost-effective products.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.1200-1203
• /
• 2009

A solution processed polymer tandem cell has been fabricated by using the organic layer coated crystalline $TiO_2$ nanoparticle inter layer. The highly dispersive OL-$TiO_2$ has several advantages in terms of excellent film forming property, crystallinity, optical transparency, and well defined chemical composition. The surface morphology of the $TiO_2$ thin film was found to play a crucial role in the performance of the polymer tandem cell. The stability of the tandem cell, utilizing dense $TiO_2$ nanoparticles inter layer, was superior to the stability of the single junction cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.72.1-72.1
• /
• 2010

Thin film a-Si solar cells deposited by PECVD have many advantages compared to the traditional crystalline Si solar cells. They do not require expensive Si wafer, the process temperature is relatively low, possibility of scaling up for mass production, etc. In order to produce thin film solar cells, understanding the relationship between the material characteristics and deposition conditions is important. It has been reported by many groups that the band gap of the a-Si material and the deposition rate has an linear relationship, when RF power is used to control both. However, when the process pressure is changed in order to control the deposition rate and the band gap, a diversion from the well known linear relationship occurs. Here, we explain this diversion by the deposition condition crossing different plasma regions in the Paschen curve with a simple model. This model will become a guide to which condition a-Si thin films must be fabricated in order to get a high quality film.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.11a
• /
• pp.46.2-46.2
• /
• 2010

For use of superstrate thin-film solar cells, surface texture of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) has been used to enhance short-circuit currents by increasing light trapping into the cell. ZnO:Al films were deposited by using DC magnetron sputtering on glass substrates with ceramic (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$) target. The as-deposited TCO before texturing exhibited high transparencies (T > 85% for visible light including all reflection losses) and excellent electrical properties ($r=3-6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}.cm$). The optical and electrical properties of the TCO are influenced by the texturing conditions such as not only etchant dilutions but also etching time. We obtained the haze value of 14-16 resulting in increase in light trapping and short-circuit currents also.