• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.447-454
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• 2014

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have intensively studied in recent years due to their advantages such as cost effectiveness and possibility of applications in flexible devices. In spite of the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10 %, the OSCs still have a draw back of their low environmental stability due to the oxidization of aluminum cathode and etching of transparent conducting oxide as electrode. To solve these problems, the inverted structured OSCs (I-OSCs) having greatest potential for achieving an improvement of device performances are suggested. Therefore, there are a lot of studies to develope of interface layer based on organic/inorganic materials for the electron transport layer (ETL) and passivation layer, significant advancements in I-OSCs have driven the development of interface functional materials including electron transport layer. Recent efforts to employing 2D/3D zinc oxide (ZnO) based ETL into I-OSCs have produced OSCs with a power conversion efficiency level that matches the efficiency of ~9 %. In this review, the technical issues and recent progress of ZnO based ETL in I-OSCs to enhancement of device efficiency and stability in terms of materials, process and characterization have summarized.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.87-87
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• 2010

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems are promising methods of producing H2 gas using solar energy in an aqueous solution. The photoelectrochemical properties of numerous metal oxides have been studied. Among them, the PEC systems based on TiO2 have been extensively studied. However, the drawback of a PEC system with TiO2 is that only ultraviolet (UV) light can be absorbed because of its large band gap (3.2 - 3.4 eV). Two approaches have been introduced in order to use PEC cells in the visible light region. The first method includes doping impurities, such as nitrogen, into TiO2, and this technique has been extensively studied in an attempt to narrow the band gap. In comparison, research on the second method, which includes visible light water splitting in molecular photosystems, has been slow. Mallouk et al. recently developed electrochemical water-splitting cells using the Ru(II) complex as the visible light photosensitizer. the dye-sensitized PEC cell consisted of a dye-sensitized TiO2 layer, a Pt counter electrode, and an aqueous solution between them. Under a visible light (< 3 eV) illumination, only the dye molecule absorbed the light and became excited because TiO2 had the wide band gap. The light absorption of the dye was followed by the transfer of an electron from the excited state (S*) of the dye to the conduction band (CB) of TiO2 and its subsequent transfer to the transparent conducting oxide (TCO). The electrons moved through the wire to the Pt, where the water reduction (or H2 evolution) occurred. The oxidized dye molecules caused the water oxidation because their HOMO level was below the H2O/O2 level. Organic dyes have been developed as metal-free alternatives to the Ru(II) complexes because of their tunable optical and electronic properties and low-cost manufacturing. Recently, organic dye molecules containing multi-branched, multi-anchoring groups have received a great deal of interest. In this work, tri-branched tri-anchoring organic dyes (Dye 2) were designed and applied to visible light water-splitting cells based on dye-sensitized TiO2 electrodes. Dye 2 had a molecular structure containing one donor (D) and three acceptor (A) groups, and each ended with an anchoring functionality. In comparison, mono-anchoring dyes (Dye 1) were also synthesized. The PEC response of the Dye 2-sensitized TiO2 film was much better than the Dye 1-sensitized or unsensitized TiO2 films.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2018

Flexible electronics must be stable under various deformations such as bending, folding, and rolling. The reliability of ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) film used widely as a transparent electrode for flexible electronics has been studied using rolling fatigue test and bending test. During repeated rolling deformations, the electrical resistance was in-situ measured with different number of rotation. During rolling fatigue test, the electrical resistance of ITO film was significantly increased with increasing the number of rotation. As the stress state of ITO film is different according to the relative position of ITO and substrate, the rolling fatigue test was investigated under both outer and inner bending conditions. Inner rolling fatigue test showed superior electrical stability because the crack nucleation and propagation were retarded under compressive stress state.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.431-431
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• 2016

Typical Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS)-based solar cells have a buffer layer between CIGS absorber layer and transparent ZnO front electrode, which plays an important role in improving the cell performance. Among various buffer materials, chemical bath deposition (CBD)-ZnS is being steadily studied to alternative to conventional CdS and the efficiency of CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell shows the comparable values with that of CdS/CIGS solar cell. The intriguing thing is that reversible changes occur after exposure to illumination due to the metastable defect states in completed ZnS/CIGS solar cell, which induces an improvement of solar cell performance. Thus, it implies that the understanding of metastable defects in CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell is important issue. In this study, we fabricate the ITO/i-ZnO/CBD-ZnS/CIGS/Mo/SLG solar cells by controlling the NH4OH mole concentration (from 2 M to 3.5 M) of CBD-ZnS buffer layer and observe their conversion efficiency with and without light soaking for 1 hr. From the results, NH4OH mole concentration and light exposure can significantly affect the CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell performance. In order to investigate that which layer can contain metastable defect states to influence on solar cell performance, impedance spectroscopy and capacitance profiling technique with exposure to illumination have been applied to CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell. These techniques give a very useful information on the density of states within the bandgap of CIGS, free carriers density, and light-induced metastable effects. Here, we present the rearranged charge distribution after exposure to illumination and suggest the origin of the metastable defect states in CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2011

ZnO-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been fabricated and the mechanical characteristics of electric circuits, such as stress, strain, and deformation are analyzed by the finite element method (FEM). In this study, a mechanical-stability design guide for such systems is proposed; this design takes into account the stress and deformation of the bridge to estimate the stress distribution in an $SiO_2$ film with 0 to 5% stretched on 0.5-${\mu}m$-thick. The predicted buckle amplitude of $SiO_2$ bridges agrees well with experimental results within 0.5% error. The stress and strain at the contact point between bridges and a pad were measured in a previous structural analysis. These structural analysis suggest that the numerical measurement of deformation, SU-8 coating thickness for Neutral Mechanical Plane (NMP) and ITO electrode size on a dielectric layer was useful in enhancing the structural and electrical stabilities.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.420-424
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• 2016

In this study, we developed photocatalytic technology to address the emerging serious problem of air pollution through indoor air cleaning. A single layer of $WO_3$ was prepared by using the dry process of general RF magnetron sputtering. At a base vacuum of $1.8{\times}10^{-6}$[Torr], the optical and electrical properties of the resulting thin films were examined for use as a transparent electrode as well as a photocatalyst. The single layer of $WO_3$ prepared at an RF power of 100 [W], a pressure of 7 [mTorr] and Ar and $O_2$ gas flow rates of 70 and 2 sccm, respectively, showed uniform and good optical transmittance of over 80% in the visible wavelength range from 380 [nm] to 780 [nm]. The optical catalyst characteristics of the $WO_3$ thin film were examined by investigating the optical absorbance and concentration variance in methylene blue, where the $WO_3$ thin film was immersed in the methylene blue. The catalytic characteristics improved with time. The concentration of methylene blue decreased to 80% after 5 hours, which confirms that the $WO_3$ thin film shows the characteristics of an optical catalyst. Using the reflector of a CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) and the lens of an LED (lighting emitting diode), it is possible to enhance the air cleaning effect of next-generation light sources.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.8-16
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• 2010

In this paper, we investigated the effects of $O_2$ fraction on the properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. Hall, photoluminescence (PL), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements revealed that the p-type conductivity was exhibited for AZO films with an $O_2$ fraction of 0.9 while the n-type conductivity was observed for films with $O_2$ fractions in range of 0 - 0.6. PL and XPS also showed that the acceptor-like defects, such as zinc vacancies and oxygen interstitials, increased in films prepared by an $O_2$ fraction of 0.9, resulting in the p-type conductivity in the films. Hall results indicated that AZO films prepared by $O_2$ fractions in range of 0 - 0.6 can be used for electrode layers in the applications of transparent thin film transistor. We concluded from the X-ray diffraction analysis that worse crystallinity with a smaller grain size as well as higher tensile stress was observed in the films prepared by a higher $O_2$ fraction, which is related to incorporation of more oxygen atoms into the films during deposition. The study of atomic force microscope suggested that the smoother surface morphology was observed in films prepared by using $O_2$ fraction, which causes the higher resistivity in those films, as evidenced by Hall measurements.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.356-360
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• 2017

Indium tin oxide (ITO) provides high electrical conductivity and transparency at visible and near-IR wavelengths. ITO is widely used as a transparent electrode for the fabrication of LCDs, OLEDs, and many kinds of optical applications. It is widely employed for electrodes in various electric and display sectors because of its transparency in the visible range and high conductivity. Therefore, one issue is removing a specific area of a layer of material such as ITO or metallic film on a substrate, without affecting the properties of the substrate. ITO-on-glass removal using a laser is friendlier to the environment than traditional methods. In this study, ablation of ITO film on glass using a femtosecond-laser micromachining system (wavelength 1026 nm, pulse duration 150 fs) and a nanosecond-laser micromachining system (wavelength 1027 nm, pulse duration 5 ns) are described, compared, and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2008

We have investigated the effect of annealing on the structural and optical properties of polycrystalline Ga doped ZnO (GZO) films grown on glass substrates by RF-magnetron sputter at room temperature. The structural and optical properties of as-grown GZO films were characterized and then samples were annealed at $400{\sim}600^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 30, 60 minutes, respectively. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to measure the grain size and the crystalline quality of the films. We found that the crystalline quality was improved and the grain size tends to be increased. The optical properties of GZO thin films were analyzed by UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometers. It is found that optical properties of thin films are increased by annealing and can be used for transparent electrode application. We believe that the appropriate post-growth heat treatment could be contributed to the improvement of GZO-based devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.344-344
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• 2014

Transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors such as a In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) have advantages for large area electronic devices; e.g., uniform deposition at a large area, optical transparency, a smooth surface, and large electron mobility >10 cm2/Vs, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than that of hydrogen amorphous silicon (a-Si;H).1) Thin film transistors (TFTs) that employ amorphous oxide semiconductors such as ZnO, In-Ga-Zn-O, or Hf-In-Zn-O (HIZO) are currently subject of intensive study owing to their high potential for application in flat panel displays. The device fabrication process involves a series of thin film deposition and photolithographic patterning steps. In order to minimize contamination, the substrates usually undergo a cleaning procedure using deionized water, before and after the growth of thin films by sputtering methods. The devices structure were fabricated top-contact gate TFTs using the a-IGZO films on the plastic substrates. The channel width and length were 80 and 20 um, respectively. The source and drain electrode regions were defined by photolithography and wet etching process. The electrodes consisting of Ti(15 nm)/Al(120 nm)/Ti(15nm) trilayers were deposited by direct current sputtering. The 30 nm thickness active IGZO layer deposited by rf magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The deposition condition is as follows: a rf power 200 W, a pressure of 5 mtorr, 10% of oxygen [O2/(O2+Ar)=0.1], and room temperature. A 9-nm-thick Al2O3 layer was formed as a first, third gate insulator by ALD deposition. A 290-nm-thick SS6908 organic dielectrics formed as second gate insulator by spin-coating. The schematic structure of the IGZO TFT is top gate contact geometry device structure for typical TFTs fabricated in this study. Drain current (IDS) versus drain-source voltage (VDS) output characteristics curve of a IGZO TFTs fabricated using the 3-layer gate insulator on a plastic substrate and log(IDS)-gate voltage (VG) characteristics for typical IGZO TFTs. The TFTs device has a channel width (W) of $80{\mu}m$ and a channel length (L) of $20{\mu}m$. The IDS-VDS curves showed well-defined transistor characteristics with saturation effects at VG>-10 V and VDS>-20 V for the inkjet printing IGZO device. The carrier charge mobility was determined to be 15.18 cm^2 V-1s-1 with FET threshold voltage of -3 V and on/off current ratio 10^9.