Journal
PROGRESS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS
Volume 15, Issue 7, Pages 575-586Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/pip.765
Keywords
silicon; polycrystalline; thin-film; aluminum-induced crystallization; CVD; heterojunction; plasma texturing; spin-on oxide
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A considerable cost reduction could be achieved in photovoltaics if efficient solar cells could be made from polycrystalline-silicon (pc-Si) thin films on inexpensive substrates. We recently showed promising solar cell results using pc-Si layers obtained by aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon in combination with thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). To obtain highly efficient pc-Si solar cells, however, the material quality has to be optimized and cell processes different from those applied for standard bulk-Si solar cells have to be developed. In this work, we present the different process steps that we recently developed to enhance the efficiency of pc-Si solar cells on alumina substrates made by AIC in combination with thermal CVD. Our present pc-Si solar cell process yields cells in substrate configuration with efficiencies so far of up to 8.0%. Spin-on oxides are used to smoothen the alumina substrate surface to enhance the electronic quality of the absorber layers. The cells have heterojunction emitters consisting of thin a-Si layers that yield much higher V-oc values than classical diffused emitters. Base and emitter contacts are on top of the cell in interdigitated finger patterns, leading to fill factors above 70%. The front surface of the cells is plasma textured to increase the current density. Our present pc-Si solar cell efficiency of 8% together with the fast progression that we have made over the last few years indicate the large potential of pc-Si solar cells based on the AIC seed layer approach. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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