Suppression of substrate distortion during zone–melting recrystallization process for thin film silicon solar cells

The distortion of silicon substrate during zone–melting recrystallization (ZMR) process was investigated by thermal simulation and zone heating repetition. From the simulation result, the distortion becomes small with increasing Ts and it disappears when Ts is set above 1350°C. From zone heating repetition, the reduction of the distortion was confirmed by higher Ts experiment. When Ts is 1340°C the substrate is expected to be reused 20 times. When a substrate of thickness more than 1.5 mm is used in this high-Ts Z M R process, reuse number of times can be estimated as more than 100 times.