• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2002

We have proposed and fabricated two lateral type field emission diodes, poly-Si emitter by utilizing the local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) and GaN emitter using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process. The fabricated poly-Si diode exhibited excellent electrical characteristics such as a very low turn-on voltage of 2 V and a high emission current of $300{\;}\bu\textrm{A}/tip$ at the anode-to-cathode voltage of 25 V. These superior field emission characteristics was speculated as a result of strong surface modification inducing a quasi-negative electron affinity and the increase of emitting sites due to local sharp protrusions by an appropriate activation treatment. In respect, two kinds of procedures were proposed for the fabrication of the lateral type GaN emitter: a selective etching method with electron cyclotron resonance-reactive ion etching (ECR-RIE) or a simple selective growth by utilizing $Si_3N_4$ film as a masking layer. The fabricated device using the ECR-RIE exhibited electrical characteristics such as a turn-on voltage of 35 V for $7\bu\textrm{m}$ gap and an emission current of~580 nA/l0tips at anode-to-cathode voltage of 100 V. These new field emission characteristics of GaN tips are believed to be due to a low electron affinity as well as the shorter inter-electrode distance. Compared to lateral type GaN field emission diode using ECR-RIE, re-grown GaN emitters shows sharper shape tips and shorter inter-electrode distance.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.242-255
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• 2008

In lithium-ion batteries(LIB), the development of electrolytes had mainly focused on the characteristics of lithium cobalt oxide($LiCoO_2$) cathode and graphite anode materials since the commercialization in 1991. Various studies on compatibility between electrode and electrolytes had been actively developed on their interface. Since then, as they try to adopt silicon and tin as anode materials and three components(Ni, Mn, Co), spinel, olivine as cathode materials for advanced lithium batteries, conventional electrolyte materials are facing a lot of challenges. In particular, requirements for electrolytes performance become harsh and complicated as safety problems are seriously emphasized. In this report, we summarized the research trend of electrolyte materials for the electrode materials of lithium rechargeable batteries.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.241-245
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• 2010

One of the weak points of the Cr-doped SZO is that until now, it has only been fabricated on perovskite substrates, whereas NiO-ReRAM devices have already been deposited on Si substrates. The fabrication of RAM devices on Si substrates is important for commercialization because conventional electronics are based mainly on silicon materials. Cr-doped ReRAM will find a wide range of applications in embedded systems or conventional memory device manufacturing processes if it can be fabricated on Si substrates. For application of the commercial memory device, Cr-doped $SrZrO_3$ perovskite thin films were deposited on a $SrRuO_3$ bottom electrode/Si(100)substrate using pulsed laser deposition. XRD peaks corresponding to the (112), (004) and (132) planes of both the SZO and SRO were observed with the highest intensity along the (112) direction. The positions of the SZO grains matched those of the SRO grains. A well-controlled interface between the $SrZrO_3$:Cr perovskite and the $SrRuO_3$ bottom electrode were fabricated, so that good resistive switching behavior was observed with an on/off ratio higher than $10^2$. A pulse test showed the switching behavior of the Pt/$SrZrO_3:Cr/SrRuO^3$ device under a pulse of 10 kHz for $10^4$ cycles. The resistive switching memory devices made of the Cr-doped $SrZrO_3$ thin films deposited on Si substrates are expected to be more compatible with conventional Si-based electronics.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.35-45
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• 2020

Photovoltaic (PV) power system prices have been steadily dropping in recent years due to their mass production and advances in relevant technology. Crystalline silicon (c-Si wafers) account for the largest share of the price of solar cells; reducing the thickness of these wafers is an essential part of increasing the price competitiveness of PV power systems. However, reducing the thickness of c-Si wafers is challenging; typically, phenomena such as bowing and cracking are encountered. While several approaches to address the bowing phenomenon of the c-Si solar cells exist, the only method to study the crack phenomenon (related to the strength of the c-Si solar cells) is the bending test method. Moreover, studies on determining the strength properties of the solar cells have focused largely on c-Si wafers, while those on the strength properties of front and rear-side electrodes and SiNx, the other components of c-Si solar cells, are scarce. In this study, we analyzed the strength characteristics of each layer of c-Si solar cells. The strength characteristics of the sawing mark direction produced during the production of c-Si wafers were also tested. Experiments were conducted using a 4bending tester for a specially manufactured c-Si solar cell. The results indicate that the back side electrode is the main component that experienced bowing, while the front electrode was the primary component regulating the strength of the c-Si solar cell.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.208-212
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• 2013

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have taken much attention due to their low cost and easy fabrication method compare to silicon solar cells. But research on cost effective DSC is prerequisite for commercialization. Fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) which have been commonly used for electrode substrate as electron collector occupied most percentage of manufacturing cost. Therefore we studied FTO-less DSC using sputtered Ti deposited glass as photoelectrode instead of FTO to reduce manufacturing cost. Ti films sputtered on the glass for different time, 5 to 20 minutes with decreasing sheet resistance as deposition time increases. A light source illuminated to counter electrode in order to overcome opaque Ti films. The efficiency of DSC (Ti20) made Ti sputtered glass for 20 min as photoelectrode was 5.87%. There are no significant difference with conventional cell despite lower manufacturing cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.43-44
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• 2007

SiO and graphite composite has been prepared by adopting high energy ball milling technique. The anode material shows high initial discharge and charge capacity values of 1138 and 568 mAh/g, respectively. Since the materials formed during initial discharge process the nano silicon/$Li_4SiO_3\;and\;Li_2O$ remains as interdependent, it may be expected that the composite exhibiting higher amount of irreversible capacity$(Li_2O)$ will deliver higher reversible capacity. In this study, pretreatment method of constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV) Provided high coulombic efficiency of SiO/C composite electrode removing the greater part of irreversible capacity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.277-277
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• 2010

The capacity of the carbonaceous materials reached ca. $350\;mAhg^{-1}$ which is close to theorestical value of the carbon intercalation composition $LiC_6$, resulting in a relatively low volumetric Li capacity. Notwithstanding the capacities of carbon, it will not adjust well to the need so future devices. Silicon shows the highest gravimetric capacities (up to $4000\;mAhg^{-1}$ for $Li_{21}Si_5$). Although Si is the most promising of the next generation anodes, it undergoes a large volume change during lithium insertion and extraction. It results in pulverization of the Si and loss of electrical contact between the Si and the current collector during the lithiation and delithiation. Thus, its capacity fades rapidly during cycling. We focused on electrode materials in the multiphase form which were composed of two metal compounds to reduce the volume change in material design. A combination of electrochemically amorphous active material in an inert matrix (Si-M) has been investigated for use as negative electrode materials in lithium ion batteries. The matrix composited of Si-M alloys system that; active material (Si)-inactive material (M) with Li; M is a transition metal that does not alloy with Li with Li such as Ti, V or Mo. We fabricated and tested a broad range of Si-M compositions. The electrodes were sputter-deposited on rough Cu foil. Electrochemical, structural, and compositional characterization was performed using various techniques. The structure of Si-M alloys was investigated using X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Surface morphologies of the electrodes are observed using a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The electrochemical properties of the electrodes are studied using the cycling test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). It is found that the capacity is strongly dependent on Si content and cycle retention is also changed according to M contents. It may be beneficial to find materials with high capacity, low irreversible capacity and that do not pulverize, and that combine Si-M to improve capacity retention.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.204-205
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• 2011

In thin film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is adopted instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. PECVD is a most widely used thin film deposition process for a-Si:H or ${\mu}c$-Si:H solar cells. For best performance of thin film silicon solar cell, the dopant profiles at p/i and i/n interfaces need to be as sharp as possible. The sharpness of dopant profiles can easily achieved when using multi-chamber PECVD equipment, in which each layer is deposited in separate chamber. However, in a single-chamber PECVD system, doped and intrinsic layers are deposited in one plasma chamber, which inevitably impedes sharp dopant profiles at the interfaces due to the contamination from previous deposition process. The cross-contamination between layers is a serious drawback of a single-chamber PECVD system in spite of the advantage of lower initial investment cost for the equipment. In order to resolve the cross-contamination problem in single-chamber PECVD systems, flushing method of the chamber with NH3 gas or water vapor after doped layer deposition process has been used. In this study, a new plasma process to solve the cross-contamination problem in a single-chamber PECVD system was suggested. A single-chamber VHF-PECVD system was used for superstrate type p-i-n a-Si:H solar cell manufacturing on Asahi-type U FTO glass. A 80 MHz and 20 watts of pulsed RF power was applied to the parallel plate RF cathode at the frequency of 10 kHz and 80% duty ratio. A mixture gas of Ar, H2 and SiH4 was used for i-layer deposition and the deposition pressure was 0.4 Torr. For p and n layer deposition, B2H6 and PH3 was used as doping gas, respectively. The deposition temperature was $250^{\circ}C$ and the total p-i-n layer thickness was about $3500{\AA}$. In order to remove the deposited B inside of the vacuum chamber during p-layer deposition, a high pulsed RF power of about 80 W was applied right after p-layer deposition without SiH4 gas, which is followed by i-layer and n-layer deposition. Finally, Ag was deposited as top electrode. The best initial solar cell efficiency of 9.5 % for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$ could be achieved by applying the in-situ plasma cleaning method. The dependence on RF power and treatment time was investigated along with the SIMS analysis of the p-i interface for boron profiles.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.327-333
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• 2022

In this study, silicon/carbon nanotube/carbon (Si/CNT/C) composites for anode were prepared to improve the volume expansion of silicon used as a high-capacity anode material. Si/CNT were prepared by electrostatic attraction of the positively charged Si and negatively charged CNT and then hydrothermal synthesis was performed to obtain the spherical Si/CNT/C composites. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) were used as binders for electrode preparation, and coin cell was assembled using 1.0 M LiPF₆ (EC:DMC:EMC = 1:1:1 vol%) electrolyte and fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive. The physical properties of Si/CNT/C anode materials were analyzed using SEM, EDS, XRD and TGA, and the electrochemical performances of lithium-ion batteries were investigated by charge-discharge cycle, rate performance, dQ/dV and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests. Also, it was confirmed that both capacity and rate performance were significantly improved using the PAA/SBR binder and 10 wt% FEC-added electrolyte. It is found that Si/CNT/C have the reversible capacity of 914 mAh/g, the capacity retention ratio of 83% during 50 cycles and the rate performance of 70% in 2 C/0.1 C.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-50
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• 2008

A new anode composition material comprising of SiO and Graphite has been prepared by adopting High energy ball milling (HEBM) technique. The anode material shows high initial charge and discharge capacity values of 1139 and 568 mAh/g, respectively. The electrode sustains reversible discharge capacity value of 719 mAh/g at 30th cycle with a high coulombic efficiency${\sim}99%$. Since the materials formed during initial charge process the nano silicon/$Li_4SiO_3$ and $Li_2O$ remains as interdependent, it may be expected that the composite exhibiting higher amount of irreversibility$(Li_2O)$ will deliver higher reversible capacity. In this study, constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV) charge method was employed in place of usual constant current (CC) method in order to convert efficiently all the SiO particles which resulted high initial discharge capacity at the first cycle. We improved considerably the initial discharge specific capacity of SiO/G composite by pretreatment(CC-CV).