Jin Man Park

Exploiting metallic glasses for 19.6% efficient back contact solar cell

An interdigitated back contact silicon solar cell with conversion efficiency of 19.6% was fabricated by screen-printing the Ag paste. In the Ag paste, oxide glass frits were totally replaced by Al85Ni5Y8Co2, Al-based metallic glass (MG) ones. The thermoplastic forming of the MG in the super cooled liquid region led to large contact area at the interface between Ag electrodes and Si layers and thus to specific contact resistance (ρc) as low as 0.86u2009mΩu2009cm2. The specific contact resistance was a function of both contact area and thickness of the interlayer formed at the interface working as a tunneling barrier.

Phase evolution, microstructure and mechanical properties of equi-atomic substituted TiZrHfNiCu and TiZrHfNiCuM (M = Co, Nb) high-entropy alloys

In this study, alloys with composition of equi-atomic substituted TiZrHfNiCu, TiZrHfNiCuCo, and TiZrHfNiCuNb high-entropy alloys (HEAs) were produced by suction casting method. The effects of addition elements on phase composition, microstructure and mechanical behaviors of the HEA were studied. The suction casted Ti20Zr20Hf20Ni20Cu20 HEA exhibits single C14 Laves phase (MgZn2-type) with fine homogeneous microstructure. When Co or Nb elements are added, morphologies are slightly modulated toward well-developed dendritic microstructure, phase constitutions are significantly changed from single Laves phase to mixed multi-phases as well as mechanical properties are also altered with increased plasticity and high strength. It is believed that modulated mechanical properties are mainly ascribed to the change of phase constitution and crystalline structure, together with the microstructural characteristics. This clearly reveals that the selection and addition of supplementary elements based on the formation rule for HEAs play an important role on the evolution of phase, microstructural morphology and mechanical properties of Ti20Zr20Hf20Ni20Cu20 HEA.

Effect of Metallic Glass Particle Size on the Contact Resistance of Ag/Metallic Glass Electrode

In this study, electrically conductive Al-based metallic glass (MG) has been applied as an alternative of oxide glass in silver paste. Al85Ni5Y8Co2 MG powder was produced by gas atomization process and simultaneously classified depending on the size of powder. The wetting behavior of MG was dramatically altered by the degree of crystallinity and the size of MG powder, resulting in the different sinterability of silver (Ag) and contact area between Si emitter and Ag. The Ag electrode with smaller MG powder shows much denser structure of Ag and larger contact area, leading to low contact resistance, 0.69xa0±xa00.38 at p-type and 0.56xa0±xa00.13xa0mΩcm2 at n-type emitter.

Influence of the permeability of networked primary Si on the ejection of hypereutectic Al-Si melts by centrifugation

The separation of high purity Si for solar cells from Al-Si alloy melt in the mushy zone was investigated using an advanced centrifugal technique. The efficiency of separating Si, based on the weight ratio of separated Si to Si in alloy melt, was maximized by optimizing the permeability of a porous structure of Si (Si foam.) For the optimization of the permeability, two fundamental microstructure variables, size and the solid fraction of primary Si platelets, were controlled by adjusting the Si content in the melts and the rotation start temperature, respectively. The best separation efficiency (48.3% with 3N purity) was achieved when Si content in melt was 24% and the solid fraction was 8.7%. The melt with 23% Si led to a higher separation efficiency (69.8%) for a solid fraction of 10.4%, but Al sandwiched between the Si platelets resulted in a decrease in the purity to 2N.