• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.36-36
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• 2010

Currently, there are several newly developed energy resources for the future to replace petroleum resources such as hydrogen fuel cell, solar cell, wind power, and etc. Among them, solar cell has attracted a worldwide concern, because it has an enormous amount of resources. In general, a study of solar cells can be classified in to an area of bulk type and thin-film type. Inorganic solar cells based on silicon have been tremendously developed in technology and efficiency. However, since there are many lithographic steps, high processing temperature approximately $1000^{\circ}C$, and expensive raw materials, a manufacturing cost of device are nearly reaching a limit. Contrary to those disadvantages, organic solar cells can be manufactured at room temperature. Also, it has many advantages such as a low cost, easy fabrication of thin film, and possible manufacture to a large size. Because it can be made to be flexible, research and development on solar cells are actively in progress for the next generation. ever though an efficiency of the organic solar cell is low compared to that of inorganic one, a continuous study is needed. In this paper, we report optimal device structure obtained by a program simulation for design and development of highly efficient organic photovoltaic cells. we have also compared simulated results to experimental ones.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.407-408
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• 2010

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.91-91
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• 2012

We aim in synthesizing various functional thin films thinner than ~ 10 nm for environmental applications and photovoltaic devices. Atomic layer deposition is used for synthesizing inorganic thin films with a precise control of the film thickness. Several examples about application of our thin films for removing volatile organic compounds (VOC) will be highlighted, which are summarized in the below. 1) $TiO_2$ thin films prepared by ALD at low temperature ($<100^{\circ}C$) show high adsorption capacity for toluene. In combination with nanostructured templates, $TiO_2$ thin films can be used as building-block of high-performing VOC filter. 2) $TiO_2$ thin films on carbon fibers and nanodiamonds annealed at high temperatures are active for photocatalytic oxidation of VOCs, i.e. photocatalytic filter can be created by atomic layer deposition. 3) NiO can catalyze oxidation of toluene to $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ at $<300^{\circ}C$. $TiO_2$ thin films on NiO can reduce poisoning of NiO surfaces by reaction intermediates below $200^{\circ}C$. We also fabricated inverted organic solar cell based on ZnO electron collecting layers on ITO. $TiO_2$ thin films with a mean diameter less than 3 nm on ZnO can enhance photovoltaic performance by reducing electron-hole recombination on ZnO surfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.567-572
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• 2013

In many electro-devices, the vacuum process is used as the manufacturing process. However, the vacuum process has a problem, it is difficult to apply to a continuous process such as a R2R(roll to roll) printing process. In this paper, we propose an ESD (electro static deposition) printing process has been used to apply an organic solar cell of thin film forming. ESD is a method of liquid atomization by electrical forces, an electrostatic atomizer sprays micro-drops from the solution injected into the capillary with electrostatic force generated by electric potential of about several tens kV. The organic solar cell based on a P3HT/PCBM active layer and a PEDOT:PSS electron blocking layer prepared from ESD method shows solar-to-electrical conversion efficiency of 1.42% at AM 1.5G 1sun light illumination, while 1.86% efficiency is observed when the ESD deposition of P3HT/PCBM is performed on a spin-coated PEDOT:PSS layer.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.254-260
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• 2014

Organic solar cells have attracted extensive attention as a promising approach for cost-effective photovoltaic devices. However, organic solar cell has disadvantage of low power conversion efficiency in comparison with other type of solar cell, due to the recombination ratio of hole and electron is too large in the active layer. Thus we have change the surface structure of PEDOT:PSS layers to improve the current density by colloidal lithography method using various-size of polystyrene sphere. The two types of coating method were applied to fabricate the different pattern shape and height, such as spin coating and drop casting. Using the organic solvent, we easily eliminate the PS sphere and could make the varied pattern shapes by controlling the wet etching time. Also we have measured the electrical properties of patterned PEDOT:PSS film to check whether it is suitable for organic photovoltaics.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.194-202
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• 2016

Two conjugated semiconducting copolymers consisting of 4,7-bis(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-2-thiophene)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (DTBT) and benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene with 5-(2-ethylhexyl)-2,2'-bithiophene (BDTBT) or 5-(2-ethylhexylthio)- 2,2'-bithiophene (BDTBT-S) were designed and synthesized as donor materials for organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). Alkylthio-substituted PBDTBT-S-DTBT showed a higher hole mobility and lower highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level (by 0.08 eV) than the corresponding alkyl-substituted PBDTBT-DTBT. An OPV fabricated using PBDTBT-S-DTBT showed higher V_OC and J_SC values of 0.83 V and 7.56 mA/cm², respectively, than those of a device fabricated using PBDTBT-DTBT (0.74 V) leading to a power conversion efficiency of 2.05% under AM 1.5G 100 mW/cm² illumination.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.157-158
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• 2013

Organic solar cell was fabricated using one-pot deposition of a mixture of NiO nanoparticles, P3HT and PCBM. In the presence of NiO, the photovoltaic performance was slightly increased comparing to that of the device without NiO. When $TiO_2$ thin films with a thickness of 2~3 nm was prepared on NiO nanoparticles using atomic layer deposition, the power conversion efficiency was increased by a factor 2.5 with respect to that with bare NiO. Moreover, breakdown voltage of the film consisting of NiO, P3HT, and PCBM on indium tin oxide was increased by more than 1 V in the presence of $TiO_2$-shell on NiO nanoparticles. It is evidenced that S atoms of P3HT can be oxidized on NiO surfaces, and $TiO_2$-shell on NiO nanoparticles. It is evidenced that S atoms of P3HT can be oxidzed on NiO surfaces, and $TiO_2$ shell heavily reduced oxidation of S at oxide/P3HT interfaces. Oxidized S atoms can most likely act as carrier generation sites and recombination centers within the depletion region, decreasing breakdown voltage and performance of organic solar cells. Our result shows that fabrication of various core-shell nanostruecutres of oxides by atomic layer deposition with controlled film thickness can be of potential importance for fabricating highly efficient organic solar cells.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.128-132
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• 2004

Short wave infrared (SWIR) photovoltaic devices have been fabricated from metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) grown n- on p- HgCdTe films on GaAs substrates. The MOVPE grown films were processed into mesa type discrete devices with wet chemical etching employed for meas delineation and ZnS surface passivatlon. ZnS was thermally evaporated from effusion cell in an ultra high vacuum (UHV) chamber. The main features of the ZnS deposited from effusion cell in UHV chamber are low fixed surface charge density, and small hysteresis. It was found that a negative flat band voltage with -0.6 V has been obtained for Metal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) capacitor which was evaporated at $910^{\circ}C$ for 90 min. Current-Voltage (I-V) and temperature dependence of the I-V characteristics were measured in the temperature range 80 - 300 K. The Zero bias dynamic resistance-area product ($R_{0}A$) was about $7500{\Omega}-cm^{2}$ at room temperature. The physical mechanisms that dominate dark current properties in the HgCdTe photodiodes are examined by the dependence of the $R_{0}A$ product upon reciprocal temperature. From theoretical considerations and known current expressions for thermal and tunnelling process, the device is shown to be diffusion limited up to 180 K and g-r limited at temperature below this.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.114-118
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• 2016

$Cu_{1.8}Zn_{1.2}(Sn_{1-x}Ge_x)S_4$ (CZTGeS) nanocrystals were mechanochemically synthesized from elemental precursor powders without using any organic solvents and any additives. The composition of CZTGeS nanocrystals were systematically varied with different Ge mole fraction (x) from 0.1 to 0.9. The XRD, Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution TEM, and diffuse reflectance studies show that the as-synthesized CZTGeS nanocrystals exhibited consistent changes in various structural and optical properties as a function of x, such as lattice parameters, wave numbers for $A_1$ Raman vibration mode, interplanar distances (d-spacing), and optical bandgap energies. The bandgap energy of the synthesized CZTGeS nanocrystals gradually increases from 1.40 to 1.61 eV with increasing x from 0.1 to 0.9, demonstrating that Ge-doping is useful means to tune the bandgap of mechanochemically synthesized nanocrystals-based kesterite thin-film solar cells. The preliminary solar cell performance is presented with an efficiency of 3.66%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.