Single vacuum chamber with multiple close space sublimation sources to fabricate CdTe solar cells

Photovoltaic technologies have shown efficiencies of over 40%, however, manufacturing costs have prevented a more significant energy market penetration. To bridge the gap between the high efficiency technology and low cost manufacturing, a research and development tool and process was built and tested. This fully automated single vacuum photovoltaic manufacturing tool utilizes multiple inline close space sublimation (CSS) sources with automated substrate control. This maintains the proven scalability of the CSS technology and CSS source design but with the added versatility of independent substrate motion. This combination of a scalable deposition technology with increased cell fabrication flexibility has allowed for high efficiency cells to be manufactured and studied. The single vacuum system is capable of fabricating a 3.1 x 3.6 in. substrate every 45 min with a cell efficiency of 12% with a standard deviation of 0.6% as measured over 36 months. The substrate is generally scribed into 25 small area devices allowing for over 250 small area devices to be fabricated each day. The system can operate uninterrupted for maintenance for over 21 days. (C) 2016 American Vacuum Society.