• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.58-61
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• 2012

In our report a relatively simple process for fast nano-texturing of p-type(100) CZ- silicon surface using silver catalyzed wet chemical etching in aqueous hydrofluoric acid (HF) and hydrogen peroxide solution($H_2O_2$) at room temperature. The wafers were saw-damaged by NaOH(6 wt%) at $60^{\circ}C$ for 150s. To obtain a nano-structured black surface, a thin layer of silver with thickness of 1 - 10 nm was deposited on the surfaces by evaporation system. After this process the samples were etched in HF : $H_2O_2$ : $H_2O$ = 1:5:10 at room temperature for 80s - 220s. Due to the local catalytic of the Ag clusters, this treatment results in the nano-scale texturing on the surface. This resulted in average reflectance values less than 9% after the silver on the surface of the wafers were removed.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.86-92
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• 2013

$SF_6/O_2$ inductively coupled plasmas were employed to texture Si surface as a pretreatment for nanocrystalline diamond film growth. It was found that the $SF_6/O_2$ plasma texturing provided a very wide process window where normalized roughness values in the range of 2~16 could be obtained. Significantly improved nucleation densities of ${\sim}6.5{\times}10^{10}cm^{-2}$ compared to conventional mechanical abrasion were achieved after seeding for the textured Si substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.410-420
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• 2016

The geometric dimension and shape of microchannels that are formed during surface texturing are widely studied for applications in flow control, and drag and friction reduction. In this research, a new method for controlling the deformation of U channels during micro-rolling-based surface texturing was developed. Since the width of the U channels is almost constant, controlling the depth is essential. A calibration procedure of initial rolling gap, and proportional-integral PI controllers and a linear interpolation have been applied simultaneously to control the depth. The PI controllers drive the position of the pre-U grooved roll as well as the rolling gap. The relationship between the channel depth and rolling gap is linearized to create a feedback signal in the depth control system. The depth of micro channels is studied on A2021 aluminum lamina surfaces. Overall, the experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of the method for controlling the depth of microchannels.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.191-195
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• 2011

Wet chemical etching methods were utilized to conduct Si surface texturing, which could enhance photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation rate. Two different etching methods tested, which were anisotropic metal-catalyzed electroless etching and isotropic etching. The Si nano-texture that was fabricated by the anisotropic etching showed ~25% increase in photocurrent for H2 generation. The photocurrent enhancement was attributed to the reduced reflection loss at the nano-textured Si surface, which provided a layer of intermediate density between water and the Si substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.270-270
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• 2010

결정질 실리콘 태양전지는 표면반사에 의한 광 에너지 손실을 최소화 시키고자 식각을 통한 표면 조직화(texturing)가 이루어진다. 단결정 실리콘 웨이퍼의 경우 알칼리 용액(alkali solution)을 사용하여 이방성 식각(anisotropic etching)을 함으로써 표면에 피라미드를 형성하고 광 포획(light trapping) 효과에 의해 반사율을 줄이게 된다. 그러나 피라미드 형성을 통한 반사율 감소에는 한계를 가지고 있다. Metal assisted etching을 기반으로 한 새로운 형태의 텍스쳐링인 nano texturing은 피라미드가 이루어진 표면에 수많은 nm사이즈의 구조를 형성시킴으로써 표면에서의 반사율을 현저히 감소시킨다. 먼저 $AgNO_3$용액으로 웨이퍼 표면에 Ag입자를 코팅한 후, 그 웨이퍼를 다시 $HF/H_2O_2$ 용액으로 일정시간 동안 식각을 거치게 된다. 그로 인해 표면에는 수 nm 사이즈의 구조물들이 피라미드 위에 생성되고, $AgNO_3$의 농도 및 식각 시간에 따라 그 구조물의 크기 및 굵기가 달라진다. 결과적으로 평균 10%이상의 반사율을 보이던 기존 텍스쳐링 웨이퍼에서 3%이하의 낮은 반사율을 얻을 수 있었다. 또한 이런 nano texturing을 n-emitter 형성 공정 등에 따른 영향과 carrer lifetime에 대하여 연구하였다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2018

Current major photovoltaic (PV) market share (> 60%) is being occupied by the multicrystalline (mc)-silicon solar cells despite of low efficiency compared to single crystalline silicon solar cells. The diamond wire sawing technology reduces the production cost of crystalline silicon solar cells, it increases the optical loss for the existing mc-silicon solar cells and hence its efficiency is low in the current mass production line. To overcome the optical loss in the mc-crystalline silicon, caused by the diamond wire sawing, next generation texturing process is being investigated by various research groups for the PV industry. In this review, the limitation of surface structure and optical loss due to the reflectivity of conventional mc-silicon solar cells are explained by the typical texturing mechanism. Various texturing technologies that could minimize the optical loss of mc-silicon solar cells are explained. Finally, next generation texturing technology to survive in the fierce cost competition of photovoltaic market is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.345-346
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• 2013

InGaN material is being studied increasingly as a prospective material for solar cells. One of the merits for solar cell applications is that the band gap energy can be engineered from 0.7 eV for InN to 3.4 eV for GaN by varying of indium composition, which covers almost of solar spectrum from UV to IR. It is essential for better cell efficiency to improve not only the crystalline quality of the epitaxial layers but also fabrication of the solar cells. Fabrication includes transparent top electrodes and surface texturing which will improve the carrier extraction. Surface texturing is one of the most employed methods to enhance the extraction efficiency in LED fabrication and can be formed on a p-GaN surface, on an N-face of GaN, and even on an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer. Surface texturing method has also been adopted in InGaN-based solar cells and proved to enhance the efficiency. Since the texturing by direct etching of p-GaN, however, was known to induce the damage and result in degraded electrical properties, texturing has been studied widely on ITO layers. However, it is important to optimize the ITO thickness in Solar Cells applications since the reflectance is fluctuated by ITO thickness variation resulting in reduced light extraction at target wavelength. ITO texturing made by wet etching or dry etching was also revealed to increased series resistance in ITO film. In this work, we report a new way of texturing by deposition of thickness-optimized ITO films on ITO nano dots, which can further reduce the reflectance as well as electrical degradation originated from the ITO etching process.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2010

The reduction of optical losses in mono-crystalline silicon solar cell by surface texturing is a critical step to improve the overall cell efficiency. In this study, we have changed the sub-micrometer structure on the micrometer pyramidal structure by 2-step texturing. The Ag particles were coated on the micrometer pyramid surface in $AgNO_3$ solution, and then the etching with hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen peroxide created even smaller nano-pyramids in these pyramids. As a result, we observed that the changes of size and thickness of nano structure on pyramidal surface were determined by $AgNO_3$ concentration and etching time. Using 2-step texturing, the surface of wafers is etched to resemble the rough surface of a lotus leaf. Lotus surface can reduce average reflectance from 10% to below 3%. This reflectance is less than conventional textured wafer including anti-reflection coating.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.43-44
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• 2015

Electrodeposited Ni and Ni-SiC composite coatings were prepared on Cu substrates by using the Ni-Sulfamate electrolytic bath. Thus prepared samples were subjected for the two different types of post surface modification techniques; i.e. Laser Surface Texturing (LST) and Ultrasonic Nano Surface Modification (UNSM), respectively in order to investigate their effects on surface and interface related properties of the coatings. Hemispherical dimples, with 80 to 200 um dimple spacing, were created and examined on the surfaces of the materials studied. The results revealed that micro-surface texturing with 150 um dimple spacing considerably improved the coefficient of friction. Dimple spacing accuracy and incorporated second phase ceramic particles both contributed significantly to reduction in coefficient of friction. On the other hand, application of UNSM considerably modified the surface topography, led to increase the Vickers microhardness, and reduced the wear and coefficient of friction as compared to non UNSM treated Ni and Ni-SiC samples.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1127-1132
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• 2014

Fast tool servo (FTS) is an enabling technology to fabricate various shapes of functional surface geometries in a precise and controllable manner. FTS can be also employed as a straightforward and efficient surface treatment way of making such products more durable. In this work, process characteristics using high-precision FTS-based surface texturing were qualitatively and quantitatively investigated to provide a class of surface design rule. The morphologies of surfaces processed with different conditions were first examined by observing the resultant 2D/3D surface profiles. In addition, the effects of the surface treatment using FTS on hardness and wear properties were characterized and compared to those without treatment.