In this study, the influence on the surface passivation properties of crystalline silicon according to silicon wafer thickness, and the correlation with a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cell performances were investigated. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers show poor passivation properties because of the doping elements, such as boron(B) and phosphorous(P), which result in a low minority carrier lifetime (MCLT). A decrease in open circuit voltage (Voc) was observed when the wafer thickness was thinned from 170μm to 50μm. On the other hand, wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer showed high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The implied Voc of the ITO/p a-Si:H/i a-Si:H/n c-Si wafer/i a-Si:H/n a-Si:H/ITO stacked layers was 0.715 V for 50μm c-Si substrate, and 0.704 V for 170μm c-Si. The Voc in the heterojunction solar cells increased with decreases in the substrate thickness. The high quality passivation property on the c-Si led to an increasing of Voc in the thinner wafer. Short circuit current decreased as the substrate became thinner because of the low optical absorption for long wavelength light. In this paper, we show that high quality passivation of c-Si plays a role in heterojunction solar cells and is important in the development of thinner wafer technology.

The a-Si:H/c-Si hetero-junction (HJ) solar cells have a variety of advantages in efficiency and fabrication processes. It has already demonstrated about 23% in R&D scale and more than 20% in commercial production. In order to further reduce the fabrication cost of HJ solar cells, fabrication processes should be simplified more than conventional methods which accompany separate processes of front and rear sides of the cells. In this study, we propose a simultaneous deposition of intrinsic thin a-Si:H layers on both sides of a wafer by dual hot wire CVD (HWVCD). In this system, wafers are located between tantalum wires, and a-Si:H layers are simultaneously deposited on both sides of the wafer. By using this scheme, we can reduce the process steps and time and improve the efficiency of HJ solar cells by removing surface contamination of the wafers. We achieved about 16% efficiency in HJ solar cells incorporating intrinsic a-Si:H buffers by dual HWCVD and p/n layers by PECVD.

This paper investigates the dependence of a-Si:H/c-Si passivation and heterojunction solar cell performances on various cleaning processes of silicon wafers. It is observed that the passivation quality of a-Si:H thin-films on c-Si wafers depends highly on the initial H-termination properties of the wafer surface. The effective minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) of highly H-terminated wafer is beneficial for obtaining high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers have low MCLT regardless of the initial H-termination quality. On the other hand, the MCLT of wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer shows sensitive variation with initial cleaning and H-termination schemes. By applying the improved cleaning processes, we can obtain an MCLT of 100μsec after H-termination and above 600μsec after i a-Si:H thin film deposition. By adapting improved cleaning processes and by improving passivation and doped layers, we can fabricate a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells with an active area conversion efficiency of 18.42%, which cells have an open circuit voltage of 0.670V, short circuit current of 37.31 mA/cm2 and fill factor of 0.7374. These cells show more than 20% pseudo efficiency measured by Suns-Voc with an elimination of series resistance.

NREX, an upper limb exoskeleton robot, was developed at the National Rehabilitation Center to assist in the upper limb movements of subjects with weak muscular strength and control ability of the upper limbs, such as those with hemiplegia. For the free movement of the shoulder of the existing NREX, three passive joints were added, which improved its wearability. For the flexion/extension movement and internal/external rotation movement of the shoulder of the robot, the ball lock pin is used to fix or rotate the passive joint. The force and torque between a human and a robot were measured and analyzed in a reaching movement for four targets using a six-axis force/torque sensor for 20 able-bodied subjects. The addition of two passive joints to allow the user to rotate the shoulder can confirm that the average force of the upper limb must be 31.6% less and the torque must be 48.9% less to perform the movement related to the axis of rotation.

This paper describes the development of a hand module of NREX (National Rehabilitation Center Robotic Exoskeleton) designed to assist individuals with sustained neurological impairments such as stroke and spinal cord injuries. To construct a simple and lightweight hand module, the robotic hand adopts a mechanism driven by a motor and moved by two four-bar linkages. The motor facilitates the flexion-extension movements of the thumb and the other four fingers simultaneously. Thus, an individual using the robotic hand module can effectively grip and release objects related to daily life activities. The robotic hand module has been designed to cover the range of motion with respect to its link distance. This hand module can be used in therapeutic rehabilitation as well as for daily life assistance. In addition, this hand module can either be mounted on an NREX or used as a standalone module.