Electron-beam crystallized large grained silicon solar cell on glass substrate

Thin film hetero-emitter solar cells with large-grained poly-silicon absorbers of around 10 μm thickness have been prepared on glass. The basis of the cell concept is electron-beam-crystallization of an amorphous or nanocrystalline silicon layer deposited onto a SiC:B layer. The SiC:B layer covers a commercially well available glass substrate, serving as diffusion barrier, contact layer and dopand source. For silicon absorber deposition a low pressure chemical vapour deposition was used. The successively applied e-beam crystallization process creates poly-silicon layers with grain sizes up to 1 × 10 mm2 with low defect densities. The high electronic quality of the absorber is reflected in open circuit voltages as high as 545 mV, which are realized making use of the well-developed a-Si:H hetero-emitter technology. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Thin film solar cells with poly-silicon absorbers have been prepared on glass using electron beam crystallization. The applied zone melting process produces poly-Si layers with grain sizes up to 1× 10mm2 on a-SiC coated substrates. A high electronic quality of the absorber is reflected in open circuit voltages as high as 545 mV, which are realized using the well developed a-Si:H hetero-emitter technology.

Subjects

electron-beam crystallization

heterojunction

polycrystalline silicon

thin-film silicon solar cell

DDC Class

540: Chemie

600: Technik

620: Ingenieurwissenschaften

More Funding Information

The funding of the BMU contract no. 0329571 and the State of Hamburg is acknowledged.

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Electron-beam crystallized large grained silicon solar cell on glass substrate