• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2024

This work focuses on improving the light-harvesting efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells through innovative multi-architecture surface modifications. To create a regular optical structure, a lithographic process was performed to form it on a glass substrate through various etching processes, from Etch-1 to Etch-3. AZO was deposited on top of the structures and re-etched to create a multi-architectural surface. These surface-modified structures improved the light absorption and overall performance of the solar cell through changes in optical and physical properties, which we will analyze. In addition, we investigated the effect of post-cleaning on the etched glass structures through EDX analysis to understand the mechanism of the etching action. The results of this study are expected to provide important guidelines for the design and fabrication of solar cells and other photovoltaic devices.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.102-108
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• 2018

A glass-texturing technique was developed for photovoltaic (PV) module cover glass; periodic honeycomb textures were formed by using a conventional lithography technique and diluted hydrogen fluoride etching solutions. The etching conditions were optimized for three different types of textured structures. In contrast to a flat glass substrate, the textured glasses were structured with etched average surface angles of $31-57^{\circ}$, and large aspect ratios of 0.17-0.47; by using a finite difference time-domain simulation, we show that these textured surfaces increase the amount of scattered light and reduce reflectance on the glass surface. In addition, the optical transmittance of the textured glass was markedly improved by up to 95% for wavelengths ranging from 400 to 1100 nm. Furthermore, applying the textured structures to the cover glass of the PV module with heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer crystalline silicon solar cells resulted in improvements in the short-circuit current density and module efficiency from 39 to $40.2mA/cm^2$ and from 21.65% to 22.41%, respectively. Considering these results, the proposed method has the potential to further strengthen the industrial and technical competitiveness of crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2001

($Ba_x$$Sr_{1-x}$)$TiO_3$ (x=0.9, 0.7, 0.5) thin films were prepared on ITO-coated glass by sol-gel method. Perovskite phase formation temperature of BST thin films seemed to be higher than $600^{\circ}C$. Peaks of perovskite phase shift to high diffraction angles as the Sr/(Ba+Sr) ratio was increased, due to the smaller ionic size of $Sr^{2+}$ than $Ba^{2+}$ . As a heating temperature was increased, the grain became coarser. And as Sr/(Ba + Sr) ratio was increased, the grain became finer. Dielectric constants of the BST(50/50) thin film are higher and dielectric losses of that are lower than those of the others. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the BST(50/50) thin film were 652 and 0.042 at 1kHz, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.247-252
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• 2002

$(Pb_{1-x}La_x)TiO_3$ (x = 0.1) thin films were prepared on ITO-coated glass substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition using ultrasonic spraying. Effects of the post-annealing and the seeding layer on crystallization, microstructures and electrical properties of thin films were investigated. Dielectric constants of films increased due to the modification of crystallization and the changing of a surface morphology by applying the post-annealing. In addition, as the application of PT seed- ing layer offered nucleation sites to PLT thin films, electrical properties of films were enhanced by the increase of crys-tallinity and grain size. The dielectric constant of the films post-heated for 60 min and with a seeding layer was 213 at 1 kHz.

• Korean Journal of Crystallography
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 1991

ZnO thin films were deposited on p-Si(100) and Coming glass 7059 by f magnetron sputtering mothod. The effect of deposition parameters on the electrical, structural and optical properties were investigated. Highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin films were deposited at high rf power. Standard deviation(σ) of X-ray rocking curve of peak at 26θ=34,4˚ ranged from 6.8˚ to 7.2˚, depending on the deposition condition. ZnO thin films deposited on glass substrate eihibited 80% transmittance in the visible range, regardless of the deposition parameters. Resistivity of ZnO thin films was significantly affected by f power and Ar pressure, and ranged widely from 3×102 to 2×109 Ω.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.455-460
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• 2000

Zinc oxide(ZnO) thin films were cathodically deposited on ITO glass from an aqueous zinc nitrate electrolyte. Three main fabrication parameters were taken into account : deposition potential, solution concentration and growth temperature. Different layers of ZnO thin films grown by varying the three parameters were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and optical absorption spectroscopy. The prepared ZnO thin films were shown as a hexagonal wurtzite structure on the X-ray diffraction patterns and the good quality of ZnO thin films were obtained by potentiostatic cathodic deposition at -0.7V vs. Ag/AgCl reference electrode onto ITO glass from aqueous 0.1 mol/liter zinc nitrate electrolyte at $60^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.249-254
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• 2020

An 80 nm thick zinc aluminate thin film was deposited on a glass substrate via radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering and heat treated to analyze changes in the wetting angles due to a surface modification. The thin films were modified from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by a simple thermal treatment. The surface modification from a heat treatment increased the wetting angles up to 111°, which was explained by the relationship with the excess surface area. The wetting angles of the annealed thin films decreased with increasing exposure time under ambient conditions, which was attributed to the oxygen vacancies in the films that were introduced during deposition. The annealed thin films were treated by ionized oxygen via oxygen plasma. After the oxygen plasma treatment, the decreased wetting angles were maintained at ~95° for 11 days.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.697-703
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• 2021

Aluminum nitride having a dense hexagonal structure is used as a high-temperature material because of its excellent heat resistance and high mechanical strength; its excellent piezoelectric properties are also attracting attention. The structure and residual stress of AlN thin films formed on glass substrate using TFT sputtering system are examined by XRD. The deposition conditions are nitrogen gas pressures of 1 × 10^-2, 6 × 10^-3, and 3 × 10^-3, substrate temperature of 523 K, and sputtering time of 120 min. The structure of the AlN thin film is columnar, having a c-axis, i.e., a <00·1> orientation, which is the normal direction of the glass substrate. An X-ray stress measurement method for crystalline thin films with orientation properties such as columnar structure is proposed and applied to the residual stress measurement of AlN thin films with orientation <00·1>. Strength of diffraction lines other than 00·2 diffraction is very weak. As a result of stress measurement using AlN powder sample as a comparative standard sample, tensile residual stress is obtained when the nitrogen gas pressure is low, but the gas pressure increases as the residual stress is shifts toward compression. At low gas pressure, the unit cell expands due to the incorporation of excess nitrogen atoms.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.169-175
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• 2020

Silicon nitride thin films are deposited by RF (13.57 MHz) magnetron sputtering process using a Si (99.999 %) target and with different ratios of Ar/N₂ sputtering gas mixture. Corning G type glass is used as substrate. The vacuum atmosphere, RF source power, deposit time and temperature of substrate of the sputtering process are maintained consistently at 2 ~ 3 × 10^-3 torr, 30 sccm, 100 watt, 20 min. and room temperature, respectively. Cross sectional views and surface morphology of the deposited thin films are observed by field emission scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The hardness values are determined by nano-indentation measurement. The thickness of the deposited films is approximately within the range of 88 nm ~ 200 nm. As the amount of N₂ gas in the Ar:N₂ gas mixture increases, the thickness of the films decreases. AFM observation reveals that film deposited at high Ar:N₂ gas ratio and large amount of N₂ gas has a very irregular surface morphology, even though it has a low RMS value. The hardness value of the deposited films made with ratio of Ar:N₂=9:1 display the highest value. The XPS spectrum indicates that the deposited film is assigned to non-stoichiometric silicon nitride and the transmittance of the glass with deposited SiO₂-Si_xN_y thin film is satisfactory at 97 %.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2012

We fabricated a-Si:H thin-film solar cell using the two-dimensional (2D) periodic patterned glass substrate. The use of a 3D periodic texture rather than a randomly texture at surface of TCO can result in higher short circuit current densities ($J_{sc}$). In order to analyze the optical effect of patterning glasses, ray-tracing simulations were performed. Also, p-i-n cells were deposited on patterned glasses as substrate by PECVD. UV-Vis spectroscopy, light I-V measurement were carried out for the optoelectronic characterization. The anti-reflective and light-trapping performance of patterning glass substrate was investigated by a comparison of experimental results with numerical simulations.