Effects of impurities concentration on the efficiency of solar cells manufactured with upgrade metallurgical silicon

Author

Côrtes, A. D S ; Silva, D.S. ; Viana, G.A. ; Motta, E.F. ; Zampieri, P.R. ; Marques, F.C. ; Mei, P.R.

Author_Institution

Fac. de Eng. Mec. - FEM, Univ. Estadual de Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil

fYear

2011

fDate

19-24 June 2011

Abstract

In this work we reported the production of upgraded metallurgical grade silicon using a combination of different purification techniques, i.e., vacuum degassing, directional solidification and Czochralski growth. Chemical composition, resistivity and efficiency of silicon solar cells are presented. It was observed that those methods have different purification efficiency for different elements. The use of vacuum degassing is demonstrated to be a potential procedure to be used in a combination with other techniques to reduce impurities in metallurgical silicon as well as reduce the final price of the silicon wafers. The combination of vacuum degassing and Czochralski method provided upgraded metallurgical grade silicon. Solar cells efficiency approaching 10% was obtained using this material.

Keywords

crystal growth from melt; crystal purification; directional solidification; elemental semiconductors; impurities; silicon; solar cells; Czochralski growth; Si; chemical composition; directional solidification; impurities concentration; purification techniques; silicon wafers; solar cells; upgraded metallurgical grade silicon; vacuum degassing; Boron; Conductivity; Impurities; Photovoltaic cells; Purification; Silicon; Vacuum technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2011 37th IEEE

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9966-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186380

Filename

6186380