Significantly decreased production times for a-Si/μc-Si tandem cells on texture-etched ZnO:Al

Several approaches that lead to shorter production times of a-Si/mu c-Si tandem cells are combined in this paper: high-rate sputtering of aluminum-doped zinc oxide, high-rate 40 MHz plasma deposition of microcrystalline silicon and reduced ilayer thicknesses. On standard lab type texture-etched ZnO:Al, I cm(2) a-Si:H/mu c-Si:H tandem test cells on a deposition area of 30 x 30 cm(2) were made that Showed an initial efficiency of 9.9%, whereas the total effective deposition time of intrinsic layers was only 22 min (15 min for the top cell and 7 min for the bottoin-cell). The silicon thickness is only 600 nm. On high-rate texture-etched ZnO:Al an efficiency of 9.4% initial Was reached. Standard light-induced degradation experiments showed :a degradation rate of only 5.5-7.9% after 1000 h. This regirrie,A,Ve:ry' short preparation times and relatively high-stabiliz effieiencies is highly interesting from the production point-of-view. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim