According to the recent global warming, it is necessary to use energy efficiently together with eco-friendly energy. The development of alternative technologies is requisite for managing the current energy and climate crises. In this regard, “smart windows,” which can control solar radiation, can be used to mitigate energy demands. Electrochromic devices (ECDs) effectively control the amount of solar energy reaching commercial and other living areas and maintain climate conditions via color modulation in response to small external stimuli, such as temperature and light irradiation. However, the performance and the stability of ECDs depend on the state of the electrolyte and sealing of the device. To resolve the aforementioned issues, an ECD was manufactured by using a poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), and a laminating method was used to adequately seal the ECD. The concentrations of PMMA, acetonitrile (ACN), and ferrocene (Fc) were controlled to optimize the composition of the GPE to achieve an enhanced electrochromic performance. The fabricated GPE-based ECD afforded high optical contrast (~81.92%), with high electrochromic stability up to 10,000 cycles. Moreover, the lamination method employing the GPE could be used to fabricate large-area ECDs.

The carbonaceous materials have attracted much attention for utilization of anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Among them, hollow carbon spheres have great advantages (high specific capacity and good rate capability) to replace currently used graphite anode materials, due to their unique features such as high surface areas, high electrical conductivities, and outstanding chemical and thermal stability. Herein, we have synthesized various sizes of hollow carbon spheres by a facile hard-template method and investigated the anode properties for lithium-ion batteries. The obtained hollow carbon spheres have uniform diameters of 350 ~ 600 nm by varying the template condition, and they do not have any cracks after the optimization of the process. Increasing the diameter of hollow carbon spheres decreases their specific capacities, since the larger hollow carbon spheres have more useless spaces inside that could have a disadvantage for lithium storage. The hollow carbon spheres have outstanding rate and cyclic performance, which is originated from the high surface area and high electrical properties of the hollow carbon spheres. Therefore, hollow carbon spheres with smaller diameters are expected to have higher specific capacities, and the noble channel structures through various doping approaches can give the great possibility of high lithium storage properties.

In a solar cell, degradation refers to the decrease in performance parameters caused by defects originated due to various causes. During the fabrication process of solar cells, degradation is generally related to the processes such as passivation or firing. There exist sources of many types of degradation; however, the exact cause of Light and elevated Temperature Induced Degradation (LeTID) is yet to be determined. It is reported that the degradation and the regeneration occur due to the recombination of hydrogen and an arbitrary substance. In this paper, we report the deposition of Al₂O₃ and SiN_X on silicon wafers used in the Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) solar structure and its degradation pattern. A higher degradation rate was observed in the sample with single layer of Al₂O₃ only, which indicates that the degradation is affected by the presence or the absence of a passivation thin film. In order to alleviate the degradation, optimization of different steps should be carried out in consideration of degradation in the solar cell fabrication process.

This paper demonstrates a novel NAND flash memory structure and annealing configuration including through-silicon via (TSV) inside the silicon substrate to improve annealing efficiency using an electro-thermal annealing (ETA) technique. Compared with the conventional ETA which utilizes WL-to-WL current flow, the proposed annealing method has a higher annealing temperature as well as more uniform heat distribution, because of thermal isolation on the silicon substrate. In addition, it was found that the annealing temperature is related to the electrical and thermal conductivity of the TSV materials. As a result, it is possible to improve the reliability of NAND flash memory. All the results are discussed based on 3-dimensional (3-D) simulations with the aid of the COMSOL simulator.

Herein we investigated the effect of the conductive agent on the electrochemical performance of the SiOx anode. SiOx anodes have a relatively low volume expansion (~160%) compared to Pure-silicon, but have a problem in that they have a poor electrical conductivity characteristic. In this study, physical and electrochemical measurements were performed using two 0-dimensional amorphous carbon conductive agents with different crystallinity and surface area. The crystal structure of the conductive agents and the local graphitization degree were analyzed through XRD and Raman, and the surface area of the particles was observed through BET. In addition, the electrical performance according to the graphitization degree of the conductive agents was confirmed through a 4-point probe. As a result of the electrochemical cycle and rate performance, it was confirmed that the performance of SiOx using a conductive agent having a low graphitization degree and a high surface area was improved. The results in this study suggest that the graphitization degree and surface area of the amorphous carbon conductive agent may play an important role in the SiOx electrode.

We investigated the properties of vanadium oxide (VOx) buffer layers deposited by a dual RF magnetron sputtering method under various target powers for inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs). Sputter fabricatged VOx thin films exhibited higher crystallinity with the increase of target power, resulting in a uniform and large grain size. The electrical properties of VOx films are improved with the increase of target power because of the increase of V content. In the results, the performance of IOSCs critically depended on the target power during the film growth because the crystalllinity of the VOx film affects the carrier mobility of the VOx film.

In this study, an induction heating system using resonance is developed to remove remaining moisture and contaminations which could be generated during fabricating secondary batteries. This system is composed of power supply and induction coil. Power supply needs an oscillator, zero crossing detection, frequency tracking function, and induction coil needs a dummy coil to obtain a uniform temperature distribution. It is very important to obtain a uniform heating temperature distribution of battery cell case in the induction heating system before pouring electrolyte into battery cell. Experimental results show a temperature distribution deviation of below 1℃ in the external position of battery cell cases. As well, the temperature of battery cell itself shows distribution of 40℃±3℃.

The deposition of indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin films was carried out on substrate at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering. The effects of substrate temperature, RF power and deposition pressure were investigated with respect to physical and optical properties of films such as deposition rate, electrical properties, structure, and transmittance. As the RF power increases, the resistivity gradually decreases, and the transmittance slightly decreases. For the variation of deposition pressure, the resistivity greatly increases, and the transmittance is decreased with increasing deposition pressure. As a result, it was demonstrated that an IZO film with the resistivity of 3.89 × 10^-4 Ω·cm, the hole mobility of 51.28 ㎠/Vs, and the light transmittance of 86.89% in the visible spectrum at room temperature can be prepared without post-deposition annealing.

The characteristics of write discharge were investigated when the conventional driving method with the unipolar sustain voltages, and the single sustain driving method applying the bipolar sustain voltage were applied in an AC plasma display. In the case of having a single sustain waveform, the strength of the write discharge is weakened compared to the conventional driving method during the address period, because the wall charge inside the panel is more dissipated by the lower scanning voltage. In the driving method with a single sustain waveform, the bias voltage of the other electrodes was changed to improve the write discharge characteristics. As a result, the intensity of the discharge was enhanced by 32% and the delay time was shortened by 60 μs.

Recently, renewable energy has been increasing in Korea to reduce greenhouse gas, and solar power generation, which accounts for the largest proportion of renewable energy, is noteworthy. The government policy will further increase solar power generation. In order to implement the policy, it is important to understand the current status of domestic solar power generation facilities. Therefore, the current status of solar power generation facilities in Jinju city close to the south coast and Jeonju city close to the west coast was investigated and compared. By 2020, 618 solar power plants had been installed in Jeonju city and 269 in Jinju city. However, there is not much difference in the amount of solar power generation for business at 9 GWh. The reason is that Jinju city has a lower population density than Jeonju city, so there are enough places to install a large-scale solar power facilities with a large power generation capacity. Monthly solar power generation was the highest in April in both Jeonju city and Jinju city and the lowest in January. In particular, in December, Jinju city showed more solar power generation than Jeonju city because of the large amount of insolation, long sunshine hours, and few clouds.

To improve superconductor properties, the size of the crystal grains of the superconductor should be adjusted, the amount of electricity flowing through the superconductor should be increased, and the superconductor should be designed to withstand external magnetic fields. It is necessary to control the microstructure so that many flux pinning centers are developed inside the superconductor so that defects are generated physically or chemically, and the micro secondary phase for trapped magnetic flux must be dispersed inside the superconductor. In order to measure the superconducting magnetic force of the superconducting bulk in a simplified manner, the superconducting magnetic force was analyzed using an Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet of 3.80 kG. In particular, by delaying the growth of partially melted Y₂BaCuO₅ particles, we devised a plan to refine Y₂BaCuO₅ particles to effectively improve superconducting magnetic force, and analyzed superconducting magnetic force in a single crystal YBa₂Cu₃O_7-y superconducting bulk using a gauss meter. The melted superconducting bulk traps 80% or more of the applied magnetic field, and can be used as a bulk magnet of high magnetic field magnetization applicable to electric power equipment.

Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) thin films were grown on c-, a-, m-, r-plane sapphire substrates using a mist chemical vapor deposition system. Various growth temperature range of 400~600℃ was applied for Ga₂O₃ thin film deposition. Then, several structural properties were characterized such as film thickness, crystal phase, lattice orientation, surface roughness, and optical bandgap. Under the certain growth temperature of 500℃, all grown Ga₂O₃ featured rhombohedral crystal structures and well-aligned preferred orientation to sapphire substrate. The films grown on c-and r-plane sapphire substrates, showed low surface roughness and large optical bandgap compared to those on a-and m-plane substrates. Therefore, various sapphire orientation can be potentially applicable for future Ga₂O₃-based electronics applications.

Heaters using the resistance heating principle are used in various industrial fields that require heat and are also essentially used in bidet among small home appliances. A planar heater and a coil-inserted heater mounted on a conventional commercially used bidet have disadvantages and limitations of complicated manufacturing process and local heating. In this study, silver-palladium (Ag-Pd) powder material was used for a screen-printing process that is more advantageous in achieving simplification than the existing process, and a rod-type heater for bidet was manufactured. The on-off cycle test under actual conditions was conducted to confirm the durability and the capability of the fabricated heater, and the fabricated heater operated more than 2,600 on-off cycles, which means it could be applied for a commercial product. In addition, through the on-off cycles under harsh conditions, the cause of failure was identified after the test that the durability limit temperature of the heater was 850℃. Through Ag-Pd rod heater in this study, it is expected to contribute to the efficient development of electrode materials for heaters and the improvement of the durability of heaters in the future.

The ferroelectricity in Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ (HZO) thin films is one of the most interesting topics for next-generation nonvolatile memory applications. It is known that a crystallization process is required at a temperature of 400℃ or higher to form an orthorhombic phase that results in the ferroelectric properties of the HZO film. However, to realize the integration of ferroelectric HZO films in the back-end-of-line, it is necessary to reduce the annealing temperature below 400℃. This study aims to comprehensively analyze the ferroelectric properties according to the annealing temperature (350-500℃) and time (1-5 h) using a furnace as a crystallization method for HZO films. As a result, the ferroelectric behaviors of the HZO films were achieved at a temperature of 400℃ or higher regardless of the annealing time. At the annealing temperature of 350℃, the ferroelectric properties appeared only when the annealing time was sufficiently increased (4 h or more). Based on these results, it was experimentally confirmed that the optimization of the annealing temperature and time is very important for the ferroelectric phase crystallization of HZO films and the improvement of their ferroelectric properties.

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, and has been considered as a substitute for continuous power supply due to its high performance, simple structure and eco-friendliness. Recently, it is important to develop a TENG using a non-toxic material in order to use it as a power source for wearable, attachable, and body-embeddable electronics. Here, we developed a human friendly TENG using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel containing acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC), a non-toxic plasticizer. PVC gels were fabricated using various ratios of PVC and ATBC, and optimized by investigating dielectric properties, surface potential, output performance, and durability. The PVC gel based TENG generates output signals of 73 V and 4.3 μA, i.e., a 5-fold enhancement in the output power compared to pristine PVC-based TENG. In addition, the PVC gel can be stretched over 500% of strain. This study is expected to be helpful in the future development of non-toxic wearable TENG.