• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.502-507
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• 2014

Recently, improvement in the conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells has been achieved by decreasing emitter doping concentration, because the lightly doped emitter can effectively prevent the recombination of electrons and holes generated by solar light irradiation. This type of emitter is very thin due to the low doping concentration, thus conductive materials (i.e., silver) used for front electrodes can easily penetrate the emitter during a firing process because of their large diffusivity in silicon. This results in junction leakage currents which might reduce cell efficiencies. In this study, $Al_2O_3$-coated Ag powders were synthesized by an ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method and applied to the conductive materials of the front electrode to control the junction leakage current. The $Al_2O_3$ shell obstructs the Ag diffusion into the emitter during the firing process. The powder is spherical with a core-shell structure and the thickness of the $Al_2O_3$ shell is tens of nanometers. Solar cells were fabricated using pure Ag powders or the $Al_2O_3$-coated Ag powder as front electrode materials, and the conversion efficiency and junction leakage current were compared to investigate the role of the $Al_2O_3$ shell during the firing processes.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.126-131
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• 2009

To overcome short channel effects, wrap-around field effect transistors have drawn a great deal of attention for their superior electrostatic coupling between the channel and the surrounding gate electrode. In this paper, we introduce a bottom-up technique to fabricate a wrap-around field effect transistor using silicon nanowires as the conduction channel. Device fabrication was consisted mainly of electron-beam lithography, dielectrophoresis to accurately align the nanowires, and the formation of gate electrode using electrochemical deposition. The electrolyte for electrochemical deposition was made up of non-toxic organic-based solution and liquid nitrogen was used as a method of maintaining the shape of polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA) during the process of electrochemical deposition. Patterned PMMA can be used as a nano-template to produce wrap-around gate nano-structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1993.05a
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• pp.96-99
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• 1993

Electrical properties of the Thin Film Transistor(TFT) electrode metal films were investigated through the Test Elements Group(TEG) experiment. The main purpose of this investigation was to characterize the electrical resistance properties of patterned metal films with respect to the variations of film thickness and TEG metal line width. Aluminum(Al), Tantalum(Ta) and Chromium(Cr) that are currently used as TFT electrode films were selected as the probed metal films. To date, no work in the electrical characterizations of patterned electrodes of a-Si TFT was accomplished. Bulk resistance$(R_b)$, sheet resistance$(R_s)$, and resistivities($\rho$) of TEG patterned metal lines were obtained. Electrical continuity test of metal film lines was also performed in order to investigate the stability of metallization process. Almost uniform-linear variations of the electrical properties with respect to the metal line displacements was also observed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.592-597
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• 2014

The graphite/$SiO_2$ composites as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries were prepared by sol-gel method to improve the graphite's electrochemical characteristics. The prepared graphite/$SiO_2$ composites were analysed by XRD, FE-SEM and EDX. The graphite surface modified by silicon dioxide showed several advantages to stabilize SEI layer. The electrochemical characteristics were investigated for lithium ion battery using graphite/$SiO_2$ as the working electrode and Li metal as the counter electrode. Electrochemical behaviors using organic electrolytes ($LiPF_6$, EC/DMC) were characterized by charge/discharge, cycle, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests. The lithium ion battery using graphite/$SiO_2$ electrodes had better capacity than that of using graphite electrodes and was able to deliver a discharge capacity with 475 mAh/g at a rate of 0.1 C. Also, the capacity retention ratio of the modified graphite reaches 99% at a rate of 0.8 C.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.245-252
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• 2009

Changes in the surface morphology and light scattering of textured Al doped ZnO thin films on glass substrates prepared by rf magnetron sputtering were investigated. As-deposited ZnO:Al films show a high transmittance of above 80% in the visible range and a low electrical resistivity of $4.5{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. The surface morphology of textured ZnO:Al films are closely dependent on the deposition parameters of heater temperature, working pressure, and etching time in the etching process. The optimized surface morphology with a crater shape is obtained at a heater temperature of $350^{\circ}C$, working pressure of 0.5 mtorr, and etching time of 45 seconds. The optical properties of light transmittance, haze, and angular distribution function (ADF) are significantly affected by the resulting surface morphologies of textured films. The film surfaces, having uniformly size-distributed craters, represent good light scattering properties of high haze and ADF values. Compared with commercial Asahi U ($SnO_2$:F) substrates, the suitability of textured ZnO:Al films as front electrode material for amorphous silicon thin film solar cells is also estimated with respect to electrical and optical properties.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.539-545
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• 2014

Contact resistivity between silver electrodes and the emitter layer of a silicon solar cell wafer has been measured using either the circular transmission line method or the linear transmission line method. The circular transmission line method has an advantage over the linear transmission line method, in that it does not require an additional process for mesa etching to eliminate the leakage current. In contrast, the linear transmission line method has the advantage that its specimen can be acquired directly from a silicon solar cell. In this study, measured resistance data for the calculation of contact resistivity is compared for these two methods, and the mechanism by which the linear transmission line method can more realistically reflect the impact of the width and thickness of a silver electrode on contact resistivity is investigated.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1822-1828
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• 2004

Electrochemical, in situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope (EC-STM), and attenuated total reflectance-FTIR (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopic methods were employed to investigate the preparation of atomically flat Si(111)-H surface in ammonium fluoride solutions. Electrochemical properties of atomically flat Si(111)-H surface were characterized by anodic oxidation and cathodic hydrogen evolution with the open circuit potential (OCP) of ca. -0.4 V in concentrated ammonium fluoride solutions. As soon as the natural oxide-covered Si(111) electrode was immersed in fluoride solutions, OCP quickly shifted to near -1 V, which was more negative than the flat band potential of silicon surface, indicating that the surface silicon oxide had to be dissolved into the solution. OCP changed to become less negative as the oxide layer was being removed from the silicon surface. In situ EC-STM data showed that the surface was changed from the initial oxidecovered silicon to atomically rough hydrogen-terminated surface and then to atomically flat hydrogenterminated surface as the OCP moved toward less negative potentials. The atomically flat Si(111)-H structure was confirmed by in situ EC-STM and ATR-FTIR data. The dependence of atomically flat Si(111)-H terrace on mis-cut angle was investigated by STM, and the results agreed with those anticipated by calculation. Further, the stability of Si(111)-H was checked by STM in ambient laboratory conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 1998

The fabrication process and emission characteristics of gated silicon field emitter arrays(FEAs) using chemical-mechanical-polishing (CMP) method are described. Novel fabrication techniques consisting of two-step dry etching with oxidation of silicon and CMP processes were developed for the formation of sharp tips and clear-cut edged gate electrodes, respectively. The gate height and aperture could be easily controlled by varying the polishing time and pressure in the CMP process. We obtained silicon FEAs having self-aligned and clear-cut edged gate electrode opening by eliminating the dishing problem during the CMP process with an oxide mask layer. The tip height of the finally fabricated FEAs was about 1.1 $\mu$m and the end radius of the tips was smaller than 100 $\AA$. The emission current meaured from the fabricated 2809 tips array was about 31 $\mu$A at a gate voltage of 80 V.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.435-436
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• 2008

Dye-sensitized Solar Cells(DSSCs) which convert incident sun light into electricity were expected to overcome global warming and depletion of fossil fuels. And it is one of study that is lately getting into the spotlight because manufacturing method is more simple and inexpensive than existing silicon solar cells. In this respect, DSSCs are in the limelight as the next generation solar cells. DSSCs are generally composed of a dye-modified $TiO_2$ photoelectrode, a Pt counter electrode, and an electrolytes containing a redox couple$(I^-/I_3^-)$. Among these elements, pt electrode were prepared by applying electric potential to FTO substrate in the $H_2PtCl_6$ solution. In this study, we report the solar cell efficiency depending on $PtCl_4$ concentration change. $PtCl_4$ concentration was 1mM, 5mM, 10mM, and 20mM, and adhered on FTO glass substrate by sintering process. When applied each $PtCl_4$ counter electrode on DSSC, the best efficiency was found at 10mM of $PtCl_4$ concentration. The catalyst promotes the movement of electron from the counter electrode to the electrolyte the higher the molarity, the better the efficiency. However, in case of 20mM, it is estimated that over-deposited $PtCl_4$ tends to restrict the movement of electron due to its bundle formation.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.409-413
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• 2013

In this paper, we device stress-diffusion full coupling multiscale analysis method for battery electrode simulation. In proposed method, the diffusive and mechanical properties of electrode material depend on Li concentration are estimated using density function theory(DFT) simulation. Then, stress-diffusion full coupling continuum formulation based on finite element method(FEM) is constructed with the diffusive and mechanical properties calculated from DFT simulation. Finally, silicon nanowire anode charge and discharge simulations are performed using the proposed method. Through numerical examples, the stress-diffusion full coupling method shows more resonable results than previous one way continuum analysis.