We have studied methods to save Si source during the fabrication process of crystalline Si solar cells. One way is to use a thin silicon wafer substrate. As the thickness of the wafers is reduced, mechanical fractures of the substrate increase with the mechanical handling of the thin wafers. It is expected that the mechanical fractures lead to a dropping of yield in the solar cell process. In this study, the mechanical properties of 220-micrometer-solar grade Cz p-type monocrystalline Si wafers were investigated by varying saw-damage etching conditions in order to improve the flexural strength of ultra-thin monocrystalline Si solar cells. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution were used as etching solutions. Etching processes were operated with a varying of the ratio of KOH and TMAH solutions in different temperature conditions. After saw-damage etching, wafers were cleaned with a modified RCA cleaning method for ten minutes. Each sample was divided into 42 pieces using an automatic dicing saw machine. The surface morphologies were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and 3D optical microscopy. The thickness distribution was measured by micrometer. The strength distribution was measured with a 4-point-bending tester. As a result, TMAH solution at 90˚C showed the best performance for flexural strength.

Changes in surface morphology and roughness of dc sputtered ZnO:Al/Ag back reflectors by varying the deposition temperature and their influence on the performance of flexible silicon thin film solar cells were systematically investigated. By increasing the deposition temperature from 25˚C to 500˚C, the grain size of Ag thin films increased from 100 nm to 1000 nm and the grain size distribution became irregular, which resulted in an increment of surface roughness from 6.6 nm to 46.6 nm. Even after the 100 nm thick ZnO:Al film deposition, the surface morphology and roughness of the ZnO:Al/Ag double structured back reflectors were the same as those of the Ag layers, meaning that the ZnO:Al films were deposited conformally on the Ag films without unnecessary changes in the surfacefeatures. The diffused reflectance of the back reflectors improved significantly with the increasing grain size and surface roughness of the Ag films, and in particular, an enhanced diffused reflectance in the long wavelength over 800 nm was observed in the Ag back reflectors deposited at 500˚C, which had an irregular grain size distribution of 200-1000 nm and large surface roughness. The improved light scattering properties on the rough ZnO:Al/Ag back reflector surfaces led to an increase of light trapping in the solar cells, and this resulted in a noticeable improvement in the Jsc values from 9.94 mA/cm2 for the flat Ag back reflector at 25˚C to 13.36 mA/cm2 for the rough one at 500˚C. A conversion efficiency of 7.60% (Voc = 0.93, Jsc = 13.36 mA/cm2, FF = 61%) was achieved in the flexible silicon thin film solar cells at this moment.

To fabricate TiO2 nanoparticle-based dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) at a low-temperature, DSSCs were fabricated using hydropolymer and ZnO nanoparticles composites for the electron transport layer around a low-temperature (200˚C). ZnO nanoparticle with 20 nm and 60 nm diameter were used and Pt was deposited as a counter electrode on ITO/glass using an RF magnetron sputtering. We investigate the effect of ZnO nanoparticle concentration in hydropolymer and ZnO nanoparticle solution on the photoconversion performance of the low temperature fabricated (200˚C) DSSCs. Using cis-bis(isothiocyanato)bis(2,20 bipyridy1-4,40 dicarboxylato) ruthenium (II) bis-tetrabutylammonium (N719) dye as a sensitizer, the corresponding device performance and photo-physical characteristics are investigated through conventional physical characterization techniques. The effect of thickness of the ZnO photoelectrode and the morphology of the ZnO nanoparticles with the variations of hydropolymer to ZnO ratio on the photoconversion performance are also investigated. The morphology of the ZnO layer after sintering was examined using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). 60 nm ZnO nanoparticle DSSCs showed an incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) value of about 7% higher than that of 20 nm ZnO nanoparticle DSSCs. The maximum parameters of the short circuit current density (Jsc), the open circuit potential (Voc), fill factor (ff), and efficiency (η) in the 60 nm ZnO nanoparticle-based DSSC devices were 4.93 mA/cm2, 0.56V, 0.40, and 1.12%, respectively.

Mo thin films were used for the back electrode because of the low resistivity in the Mo/CuInGaSe2 contact inchalcopyrite solar cells. 1µm thick Mo thin films were deposited on soda lime glass by varying the Ar pressure with the dc-magnetron sputtering process. The effects of the Ar pressure on the morphology of the Mo back electrode were studied andthe relationships between the morphology and electro-optical properties, namely, the resistivity as well as the reflectance of theMo thin films, were investigated. The resitivity increased from 24µΩ·cm to 11833µΩ·cm; this was caused by the increasedsurface defect and low crystallinity as the Ar pressure increased from 3×10−3 to 3×10−2Torr. The surface morphologies ofthe Mo thin films changed from somewhat coarse fibrous structures to irregular and fine celled strucutures with increased surfacecracks along the cell boundaries, as the Ar pressure increased from 3×10−3 to 3×10−2Torr. The changes of reflectances in thevisible light range with Ar pressures were mainly attributed to the surface morphological changes of the Mo thin films. Thereflectance in the visible light range showed the highest value of 45% at 3×10−3Torr and decreased to 18.5% at 3×10−2Torr.

염료감응형 태양전지를 위한 고분자 전해질막을 제조하였다. 고분자물질로는 Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)를 사용하였으며, 가소제로서 poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)를 첨가하였고, 전해질염 및 I - /I3 - ,의 공급원으로서 KI 및 I2를 첨가하여 고분자 전해질막을 제조하였으며, 이와 같은 고분자 전해질막을 바탕으로 염료감응형 태양전지를 제조하였다. 고분자 전해질 내의 가소제로서의 PEG 함량은 0%에서 85%의 범위로 변화하였다. 이러한 PEG 함량 전 구간에서 고분자 전해질막은 그 형태를 자체적으로 유지하는(self supporting) 완벽한 고체 전해질막의 형태로 제조되었다. PEG 함량이 증가하면서 전해질막을 통한 이온전도도와 I3- 이온의 확산도계수는 증가하였다. 염료감응형 태양전지에 있어서는 고분자 전해질막 내의 PEG 함량이 증가하면서 그 효율이 증가함을 볼 수 있었다.

Changes in the surface morphology and light scattering of textured Al doped ZnO thin films on glasssubstrates prepared by rf magnetron sputtering were investigated. As-deposited ZnO:Al films show a hightransmittance of above 80% in the visible range and a low electrical resistivity of 4.5×10-4Ω·cm. The surfacemorphology 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 cratershape is obtained at a heater temperature of 350oC, working pressure of 0.5 mtorr, and etching time of 45seconds. The optical properties of light transmittance, haze, and angular distribution function (ADF) aresignificantly affected by the resulting surface morphologies of textured films. The film surfaces, havinguniformly size-distributed craters, represent good light scattering properties of high haze and ADF values.Compared with commercial Asahi U (SnO2:F) substrates, the suitability of textured ZnO:Al films as frontelectrode material for amorphous silicon thin film solar cells is also estimated with respect to electrical andoptical properties.

The influence of various surface morphologies on the mechanical strength of silicon substrates was investigated in this study. The yield for the solar cell industry is mainly related to the fracturing of silicon wafers during the manufacturing process. The flexural strengths of silicon substrates were influenced by the density of the pyramids as well as by the size and the rounded surface of the pyramids. To characterize and optimize the relevant texturing process in terms of mechanical stability and the fabrication yield, the mechanical properties of textured silicon substrates were investigated to optimize the size and morphology of random pyramids. Several types of silicon substrates were studied, including the planar type, a textured surface with large and small pyramids, and a textured surface with rounded pyramids. The surface morphology and a cross-section of the as-textured and fractured silicon substrates were investigated by scanning electron microscopy.

In this paper, a novel non-vacuum technique is described for the fabrication of a CuInSe2 (CIS) absorber layer for thin film solar cells using a low-cost precursor solution. A solution containing Cu- and Inrelated chemicals was coated onto a Mo/glass substrate using the Doctor blade method and the precursor layer was then selenized in an evaporation chamber. The precursor layer was found to be composed of CuCl crystals and amorphous In compound, which were completely converted to chalcopyrite CIS phase by the selenization process. Morphological, crystallographic and compositional analyses were performed at each step of the fabrication process by SEM, XRD and EDS, respectively.

In the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), carbon counter electrode has been tested for replacing the platinum counter electrode which has two drawbacks: limited surface area and high material cost. Poor mechanical stability of carbon layer due to weak bonding strength to electrically conductive TCO (transparent conducting oxide) glass substrate is a crucial barrier for practical application of carbon counter electrode. In the present study a carbon counter electrode with high conversion efficiency, comparable to Pt counter electrode, could be fabricated by adaption of a bonding layer between particulate carbon material and TCO substrate.

Mono-sized silicon particles were effectively fabricated by a novel way named pulsated orifice ejection method (POEM). The particles are with very narrow particles size distribution and very small standard deviation of mean particle size. There are two different types spherical silicon particles were found. One consists of many grains mainly in random boundaries. The other consists of two or three grains with only twin orientation relationships, even single crystal in cross-section was also found within this type of spherical silicon particles.

Dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) have been under investigation for the past decade due to their attractive features such as high energy conversion efficiency and low production costs. The basis for energy conversion in the injection of electrons from a photoexcited stateof a dye sensitizer into the conduction band of the nanocrystalline semiconductor upon absorption of light. It is believed that the DSSC is one of the most promising technologies to solve the significant energy problems. In this article, the development trends and perspective of DSSCs were reviewed.

The polycrystalline CdS of large scale were grown by chemical pyrolysis deposition for Cu2S/CdS heterojunction solar cells. For high quality CdS polycrystalline thin films, the chemical solution was deposited on indium tin oxide(ITO) glasses at the temperature of 500℃ for 15 second and annealed at 350℃ for 20 minute or 500℃ for 30 second. To fabricate high efficiency solar cells, optical and electrical properties, morphology by SEM and x-ray diffraction on polycrystalline CdS thin films were investigated. From the I-V characteristics of Cu2S/CdS heterojunction, the open circuit voltage, Voc was 0.7 V and the short circuit current, Isc was 4.2 mA. We found that the fill factor(FF) was 0.5 and the efficiency was 2.5%.

플라즈마 화학증착 (PECVD) 장비를 이용하여 SnO2 투명전도막이 피막된 유리기판 위에 p-SiC/i-Si/n-Si 이종접합 태양전지를 제작하였다. p-SiC 층의 증착중에 기체조성 x=CH4/ (SiH4+CH4)의 변화에 대한 태양전지의 광기전 특성을 관찰하였다. 기체조성(x)이 0~0.4의 범위에서 p-SiC 창층의 광학적 밴드갭의 증가로 인하여 태양전지의 효율은 증가하였으나, 그 이상의 기체조성에서는 p-SiC/i-Si 계면에서의 조성불일치가 증가하여 태양전지의 효율이 감소하였다. 이러한 계면문제는 p-SiC 층과 i-Si 계면에서의 조성불일치가 증가하여 태양전지의 효율이 감소하였다. 이러한 계면문제는 p-SiC 층과 I-Si 층 사이에 I-SiC 완충층을 삽입함으로써 크게 감소하였다. 그 결과 유효면적이 1cm2인 glass/SnO2/p-SiC/i-SiC/i-Si/n-Si/Ag 구조의 박막 태양전지는 100mW/cm2 조도 하에서 8.6%의 효율을 나타내었다. (Voc=0.85V, Jsc=16.42mA/cm2, FF=0.615)

본 연구에서는 SOI 구조를 이용한 50μm 두계의 규소 태양전지의 이용 가능성과 제한사항을 제시하기 위하여, interdigitated contact을 이용한 전극을 형성하도록 전지를 설계한 후 단계별 사진공정을 통해 태양전지를 제조하였다. Bonded SOI wafer를 이용하여 제조된 50μm 두께의 결정질 규소 태양전지의 효율은 전극간격이 1100μm과 base width가 35μm인 경우에서 11.5%로 가장 높은 값을 나타내었다. 또한 실험결과로부터 전면전극을 이용한 태양전지의 구조는 power loss를 최소화하는 최적의 base fraction을 적용하는 것이 필요하며, 전지의 효율은 fill factor에 강한 의존성을 나타내기 때문에 fill factor loss를 최소화하는 설계조건이 필요함을 알 수 있었다.