• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.96-105
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• 2021

Even though above 22% efficiencies have been reported in Cd-free Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell with Zn-containing buffers, the efficiencies with Zn-containing buffers, in general, are well below 20%. One of the reasons is Zn diffusion from the Zn-containing buffer layer to CIGS film during buffer growth. To avoid the degradation, it is necessary to prevent the diffusion of Zn atoms from Zn-containing buffer to CIGS film. For the purpose, we characterized an In₂Se₃ film as a possible diffusion barrier layer because In₂Se₃ has no Zn component. It was found that an In₂Se₃ layer grown at 300℃ was very effective in preventing Zn diffusion from a Zn-containing buffer. Also, the In₂Se₃ had a large potential barrier in the valence band at the In₂Se₃/CIGS interface. Therefore, In₂Se₃ passivation has the potential to achieve a super-high efficiency in CIGS solar cells that employ Cd-free ALD processed buffers containing Zn.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.25-28
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• 2005

We have investigated the effects of hole-injection buffer layer in organic light-emitting diodes using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(stylenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS) in a device structure of $ITO/PEDOT:PSS/TPD/Alq_{3}/cathode$. Polymer PEDOT:PSS buffer layer was made by spin casting method. Current-voltage, luminance-voltage characteristics and efficiency of device were measured at room temperature with a variation of cathode materials; Al, LiF/Al, LiAl, and Ca/Al. The device with LiF/Al cathode shows an improvement of external quantum efficiency approximately by a factor of ten compared to that of Al cathode only device. Our observation shows that cathode is important in improving the efficiency of the organic light-emitting diodes.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.204-210
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• 1995

The characteristics of the internal circuits and the load capacitance should be included to optimize the size of BiCMOS buffer. In order to get the optimum size and delay time of the BiCMOS buffer, new size plane is suggested. By using the size plane, the optimum characteristics of CMOS buffer according to the number of stages can be obtained. From this method, delaytime, .tau.$_{D}$, is obtained 2.39 nsec with $V_{\var}$=5V, $C_{L}$=5pF, W=30.mu.m and $A_{e}$=135.mu. $m^{2}$.>..>...>.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.113-123
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• 2022

The required density relationship according to the press pressure of the floating die method and the homogeneity of the density distribution in the buffer block was evaluated to analyze the manufacturing characteristics of engineering scale bentonite-sand buffer blocks. In addition, the thermal conductivity was measured and compared with that of the pure bentonite buffer block to evaluate the level of thermal conductivity performance improvement of the bentonite-sand buffer material. As a result, it was confirmed that the standard deviation of dry density decreased to 0.011 and showed a homogeneous density distribution under the condition of press pressure greater than 400 kg/cm². Furthermore, as a result of the thermal conductivity test, the thermal conductivity of the buffer with optimum moisture content conditions was 1.345 and 1.261 W/(m·K) under the press pressure of 400 and 600 kg/cm², respectively. It increased by 16.1% and 11.0% compared to the pure bentonite buffer material. Based on the results of this study, it is judged that it can be used as fundamental data for manufacturing a homogeneous bentonite-sand buffer block on an engineering scale.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.140-140
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• 2009

The Metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor (MFS) structure has superior advantages such as high density integration and non-destructive read-out operation. However, to obtain the desired electrical characteristics of an MFS structure is difficult because of interfacial reactions between ferroelectric thin film and Si substrate. As an alternative solution, the MFS structure with buffer insulating layer, i.e. metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS), has been proposed to improve the interfacial properties. Insulators investigated as a buffer insulator in a MFIS structure, include $Ta_2O_5$, $HfO_2$, and $ZrO_2$ which are mainly high-k dielectrics. In this study, we prepared the Dy-doped $La_2O_3$ solution buffer layer as an insulator. To form a Dy-doped $La_2O_3$ buffer layer, the solution was spin-coated on p-type Si(100) wafer. The coated Dy-doped $La_2O_3$ films were annealed at various temperatures by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). To evaluate electrical properties, Au electrodes were thermally evaporated onto the surface of the samples. Finally, we observed the surface morphology and crystallization quality of the Dy-doped $La_2O_3$ on Si using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and x-ray diffractometer (XRD), respectively. To evaluate electrical properties, the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics of Au/Dy-doped La2O3/Si structure were measured.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.1070-1073
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• 2003

We have studied the characteristics of organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs) with the PTFE buffer layer. The OLEDs have been based on the molecular compounds, N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis (3-methylphenyl)-1, 1'- biphenyl-4, 4'-diamine (TPD) as a hole transport, tris(8-hydroxyquinolinoline) aluminum (III) ($Alq_3$) as an electron transport and the Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as a buffer layer. The devices of structure were fabricated ITO/PTFE/TPD(40nm)/$Alq_3$(60nm)/Al( 150nm) to see the effects of the PTFE buffer layer in organic EL devices. The thickness of the PTFE layer varied from 0.5 to 10[nm]. We were measured Current-Voltage-Luminance Characteristics and Luminance efficiency due to the variation of PTFE thickness. the PTFE layer was reported that helped to enhance the hole tunneling injection and effectively impede induim diffusion from the ITO electrode. We have obtained an improvement of luminance efficiency when the PTFE thickness is 0.5[nm] is used. The improvement of efficiency of is expected due to a function of hole-blocking of PTFE in OLEDs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.625-630
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• 2017

ZnS was chemically deposited as a buffer layer alternative to CdS, for use as a Cd-free buffer layer in $Cu(In_{1-x}Ga_x)Se_2$ (CIGS) solar cells. The deposition of a thin film of ZnS was carried out by chemical bath deposition, following which the structural and optical properties of the ZnS layer were studied. For the experiments, zinc sulfate hepta-hydrate ($ZnSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$), thiourea ($SC(NH_2)_2$), and ammonia ($NH_4OH$) were used as the reacting agents. The mole concentrations of $ZnSO_4$ and $SC(NH_2)_2$ were fixed at 0.03 M and 0.8 M, respectively, while that of ammonia, which acts as a complexing agent, was varied from 0.3 M to 3.5 M. By varying the mole concentration of ammonia, optimal values for parameters like optical transmission, deposition rate, and surface morphology were determined. For the fixed mole concentrations of $0.03M\;ZnSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ and $0.8M\;SC(NH_2)_2$, it was established that 3.0 M of ammonia could provide optimal values of the deposition rate (5.5 nm/min), average optical transmittance (81%), and energy band gap (3.81 eV), rendering the chemically deposited ZnS suitable for use as a Cd-free buffer layer in CIGS solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.303-308
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• 2011

The Gallium-doped ZnO(GZO) film deposited at a temperature of $200^{\circ}C$ and a pressure of 10 mtorr has an optical transmittance of 89.0% and a resistivity of $2.0\;m{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ because of its high crystallinity. Effect of $Al_2O_3$ oxide buffer layers on the optical and electrical properties of sputtered ZnO films were intensively investigated for developing the electrodes of opto-electronic devices which demanded high optical transmittance and low resistivity. The use of $Al_2O_3$ buffer layer could increase optical transmittance of GZO film to 90.7% at a wavelength of 550 nm by controlling optical spectrum. Resistivity of deposited GZO films were much dependent on the deposition condition of $O_2/(Ar+O_2)$ flow rate ratio during the buffer layer deposition. It is considered that the $Al_2O_3$ buffer layer could increase the carrier concentration of the GZO films by doping effect of diffused Al atoms through the rough interface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.200-201
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• 2007

The SBT($SrBi_2Ta_2O_9$) thin films with $Bi_2O_3$ buffer layer were deposited on Pt/Ti/$SiO_2$/Si substrate by R.F. magnetron sputtering method in order to improve the ferroelectric characteristics. In SBT thin films, the deficiency of bismuth during the process due to its volatility results in an obvious non stoichiometry of the films and the presence of secondary phases. $Bi_2O_3$ buffer layer was found to be effective to achieve the low temperature crystallization and improve the ferroelectric properties of SBT thin films. Ferroelectric properties and crystallinities of SBT thin films with various post annealing of $Bi_2O_3$ buffer layer were observed as various annealing temperature, using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Keithley 237 and HP 4192A Impedance Analyzer.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.24.1-24.1
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• 2009

The zinc oxide (ZnO) material as the II-VI compound semiconductor is useful in various fields of device applications such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), solar cells and gas sensors due to its wide direct band gap of 3.37eV and high exciton binding energy of 60meV at room temperature. In this study, the ZnO nanorods were deposited onto homogenous buffer layer/Si(100) substrates by a hydrothermal synthesis. The Effects of the buffer layer annealing and post annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO nanorods grown by a hydrothermal synthesis were investigated. For the buffer layer annealing case, the annealed buffer layer surface became rougher with increasing of annealing temperature up to $750^{\circ}C$, while it was smoothed with more increasing of annealing temperature due to the evaporation of buffer layer. It was found that the roughest surface of buffer layer improved the structural and optical properties of ZnO nanorods. For the post annealing case, the hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods were annealed with various temperatures ranging from 450 to $900^{\circ}C$. Similarly in the buffer layer annealing case, the post annealing enhanced the properties of ZnO nanorods with increasing of annealing temperature up to $750^{\circ}C$. However, it was degraded with further increasing of annealing temperature due to the violent movement of atoms and evaporation. Finally, the buffer layer annealing and post annealing treatment could efficiently improve the properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods. The morphology and structural properties of ZnO nanorods grown by the hydrothermal synthesis were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The optical properties were also analyzed by photoluminescence (PL) measurement.