State of the development in manufacturing solar cells and modules made from S-web Si ribbons

The design and fabrication of large-sized solar cells made from S-web ribbons are discussed. The width was 6-7 cm, and the length was up to a few meters. The ribbons were cut to wafers with a size of 50 mm*100 mm. The p-type (3 Omega cm) large-grained wafers were then etched using an alkaline solution and subsequently p-diffused to obtain the p/n junction. Front and back contacts were made using a screen printing technique. An antireflection layer was formed by evaporating TiO₂. The solar cells are shown to have efficiencies of up to 9.5 %.