• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.318.2-318.2
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• 2014

The high contact resistance is still one of the major issues to be resolved in CdS/CdTe thin film solar cells. CdTe/Metal Schottky contact induced a high contact resistance in CdS/CdTe solar cells. It has been reported that the work function of CdTe thin film is more than 5.7 eV. There has not been a suitable back contact metal, because CdTe thin film has a high work function. In a few decades, some buffer layer was reported to improve a back contact problem. Buffer layers which are Te, $Sb_2Te_3$, $Cu_2Te$, ZnTe:Cu and so on was inserted between CdTe and metal electrode. A formed buffer layers made a tunnel junction. Hole carriers which was excited in CdTe film by light absorption was transported from CdTe to back metal electrode. In this report, we reported the variation of solar cell performance with different buffer layer at the back contact of CdTe thin film solar cell.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1146-1150
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• 2009

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is one of the most attractive photovoltaic materials due to its low cost, high efficiency and stable performance in physical, optical and electronic properties. Few researches on the influences of uniform surface on the photovoltaic characteristics in large-area CdTe solar cell were not reported. As the preceding study of the effects of thickness-uniformity on the photovoltaic characteristics for the large-area CdTe thin film solar cell, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process was investigated for an enhancement of thickness-uniformity. Removal rate of CdTe thin film was 3160 nm/min of the maximum value at the 200 $gf/cm^2$ of down force (pressure) and 60 rpm of table speed (velocity). The removal rate of CdTe thin film was more affected by the down force than the table speed which is the two main factors directly influencing on the removal rate in CMP process. RMS roughness and peak-to-valley roughness of CdTe thin film after CMP process were improved to 96.68% and 85.55%, respectively. The optimum process condition was estimated by 100 $gf/cm^2$ of down force and 60 rpm of table speed with the consideration of good removal uniformity about 5.0% as well as excellent surface roughness for the large-area CdTe solar cell.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.666-672
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• 1996

The optical property of CdTe thin film is important for applications such as the compound semiconductor type solar cells. CdTe films are prepared by RF sputtering at various substrate temperature between $25^{\circ}C$ and $300^{\circ}C$, then, annealed in argon gas environment at $400^{\circ}C$. The annealing process of the thin film caused variation in the film structure and the composition of films. The deformation of CdTe thin film was observed by X-ray diffractometry. After annealing, the grain size increased and the portion of the non-crystalline CdTe reduced. Futhermore, the structure of sputtered CdTe film grown at the substrate temperature more than $250^{\circ}C$ was enhanced in the (111) direction of zincblend structure. There was a discrepancy, in the spectroscopic ellipsometer spectrum, between the single crystal CdTe and the sputtered CdTe thin films, especially in the region over 3.2eV. An oxidation layer was found on the CdTe thin film by spectroscopic ellipsometry analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.343-346
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• 2010

We have investigated growth of CdTe thin films by using (As, GaAs) buffer layers for application of large scale IR focal plane arrays(IFPAs). Buffer layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy(MBE), which reduced the lattice mismatch of CdTe/Si and prevented native oxide on Si substrates. CdTe thin films were grown by metal organic chemical deposition system(MOCVD). As a result, polycrystalline CdTe films were grown on Si(100) and arsenic coated-Si(100) substrate. In other case, single crystalline CdTe(400) thin film was grown on GaAs coated-Si(100) substrate. Moreover, we observed hillock structure and mirror like surface on the (400) orientated epitaxial CdTe thin film.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.619-625
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• 1995

Polycrystalline CdTe thin film has been studied for photovoltaic application due to the 1.45 eV band gap energy ideal for solar energy conversion and high absorption coefficient. The formation of low resistance contact to p-CdTe is difficult because of large work function(>5.5eV). Common methods for ohmic contact to p-CdTe are to form a p+ region under the contact by in-diffusion of contact material to reduce the barrier height and modify a p-CdTe surface layer using chemical treatment. In this study, the surface chemical treatment of p CdTe was carried out by H$\_$3/PO$\_$4/+HNO$\_$3/ or K$\_$2/Cr$\_$2/O$\_$7/+H$\_$2/SO$\_$4/ solution to provide a Te-rich surface. And various thin film contact materials such as Cu, Au, and Cu/Au were deposited by E-beam evaporation to form ohmic contact to p-CdTe. After the metallization, post annealing was performed by oven heat treatment at 150.deg. C or by RTA(Rapid Thermal Annealing) at 250-350.deg. C. Surface chemical treatments of p-CdTe thin film improved metal/p-CdTe interface properties and post heat treatment resulted in low contact resistivity to p-CdTe.Of the various contact metal, Cu/Au and Cu show low contact resistance after oven and RTA post-heat treatments, respectively.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.1169-1174
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• 2011

CdTe thin-film solar cell technology is well known that it can theoretically improve its conversion efficiency and manufacturing costs compared to the conventional silicon solar cell technology, due to its optical band gap energy (about 1.45eV) for solar energy absorption, high light absorption capability and low cost requirements for producing solar cells. Although the prior studies obtained the high light absorption, CdTe thin film solar cell has not been come up to the sufficient efficiency yet. So, doping method was selected for the improvement of the electrical characteristics in CdTe solar cells. Some elements including Cu, Ag, Cd and Te were generally used for the p-dopant as substitutional acceptors in CdTe thin film. In this study, the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film was immersed in $AgNO_3$ solution for ion exchange method to dope Ag ions. The effects of immersion temperature and Ag-concentration were investigated on the optical properties and electrical characteristics of CdTe thin film by using Auger electron spectroscopy depth-profile, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and a Hall effect measurement system. The best optical and electrical characteristics were sucessfully obtained by Ag doping at high temperature and concentration. The larger and more uniform diffusion of Ag ions made increase of the Ag ion density in CdTe thin film to decrease the series resistance as well as mede the faster diffusion of light by the metal ions to enhance the light absorption.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.375-375
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• 2010

CdTe as an absorber material is widely used in thin film solar cells with the heterostructure due to its almost ideal band gap energy of 1.45 eV, high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, low cost and stable performance. The deposition methods and preparation conditions for the fabrication of CdTe are very important for the achievement of high solar cell conversion efficiency. There are some rearranged reports about the deposition methods available for the preparation of CdTe thin films such as close spaced sublimation (CSS), physical vapor deposition (PVD), vacuum evaporation, vapor transport deposition (VTD), closed space vapor transport, electrodeposition, screen printing, spray pyrolysis, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and RF sputtering. The RF sputtering method for the preparation of CdTe thin films has important advantages in that the thin films can be prepared at low growth temperatures with large-area deposition suitable for mass-production. The authors reported that the optical and electrical properties of CdTe thin film were closely connected by the thickness-uniformity of the film in the previous study [1], which means that the better optical absorbance and the higher carrier concentration could be obtained in the better condition of thickness-uniformity for CdTe thin film. The thickness-uniformity could be controlled and improved by the some process parameters such as vacuum level and RF power in the sputtering process of CdTe thin films. However, there is a limitation to improve the thickness-uniformity only in the preparation process [1]. So it is necessary to introduce the external or additional method for improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film because the cell size of thin film solar cell will be enlarged. Therefore, the authors firstly applied the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin films with a G&P POLI-450 CMP polisher [2]. CMP process is the most important process in semiconductor manufacturing processes in order to planarize the surface of the wafer even over 300 mm and to form the copper interconnects with damascene process. Some important CMP characteristics for CdTe were obtained including removal rate (RR), WIWNU%, RMS roughness, and peak-to-valley roughness [2]. With these important results, the CMP process for CdTe thin films was performed to improve the thickness-uniformity of the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film which had the worst two thickness-uniformities of them. Some optical properties including optical transmittance and absorbance of the CdTe thin films were measured by using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Varian Techtron, Cary500scan) in the range of 400 - 800 nm. After CMP process, the thickness-uniformities became better than that of the best condition in the previous sputtering process of CdTe thin films. Consequently, the optical properties were directly affected by the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film. The absorbance of CdTe thin films was improved although the thickness of CdTe thin film was not changed.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1995.11a
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• pp.332-334
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• 1995

In this paper, structual, optical properties of CdTe thin films and photovoltaic properties of thin film CdS/CdTe solar cell prepared by thermal vacuum evaporation were studied. The crystal structure of CdTe films was zircblend type with preferential orientation of the (111)plane parallel to the substrate. The heat treatment appears to stabilize this structure. The result of optical absorption and transmittance show that solar radiation with energy larger than bandgap is almost completely absorbed within an about $2{\mu}m$ thickness of the evaporated CdTe layer and transmittance of the CdTe film was larger with increasing annealing temperature. It was found that CdS/CdTe solar cell characteristics were improved by the heat treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.451-451
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• 2009

CdTe는 에너지밴드갭이 1.45eV인 직접천이헝 II-VI 화합물 반도체로서 높은 광홉수율과 가시광 영역의 에너지밴드캡으로 태양전지, x-선 검출기 등에 널리 사용되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD)으로 Si 기판위에 CdTe 에피 박막을 성장 하고자 하였다. Cd, Te의 금속유기 화합물로는 Dimethylcadmium(DmCd)과 Diisopropyltellurium(DIPTe)을 사용하였다. 기판으로는 Si 을 사용하였으며 박막성장 온도를 $360^{\circ}C\;{\sim}\;500^{\circ}C$로 제어하여 에피박막이 형성되는 조건을 얻고자 하였다. $360^{\circ}C$, $450^{\circ}C$에서 성장된 CdTe박막은 다양한 방향이 존재하는 다결정 구조 였으며 $500^{\circ}C$의 경우 단결정 에피 박막 성장이 이루어졌음을 확인하였다. 본 연구를 통한 CdTe 에피박막은 기존의 열증착 등으로 제조되는 다결정 CdTe 박막과 비교하여 높은 에너지변환 효율을 얻을 것으로 기대된다.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.15-18
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• 2003

The Cd$\_$1-x/Zn$\_$x/Te film was produced by thermal evaporation for the flat-panel X-ray detector. The crystal structure and the surface morphology of poly crystalline Cd$\_$1-x/Zn$\_$x/Te film were examined using XRD and SEM, respectively. The leakage current and X-ray sensitivity of the fabricated films were measured to analyze the X-ray response characteristic of Zn in a polycrystalline CdZnTe thin film. The leakage current and the output charge density of Cd$\_$0.7/Zn$\_$0.3/Te thin film were measured to 0.3 1nA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and 260 pC/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at an applied voltage of 2.5 V/$\mu\textrm{m}$, respectively. Experimental results showed that the increase of Zn doping rates in Cd$\_$1-x/Zn$\_$x/Te detectors reduced the leakage current and improved the X-ray sensitivity significantly. The leakage current was drastically diminished by the formation of thin parylene layer in the Cd$\_$0.7/Zn$\_$0.3/Te detector.