A treatment to allow contacting CdTe with different conductors [solar cells]

Author

McCandless, B.E. ; Qu, Y. ; Birkmire, R.W.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Energy Conversion, Delaware Univ., Newark, DE, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1994

fDate

5-9 Dec 1994

Firstpage

107

Abstract

A new method is presented for forming low resistance contacts to the CdTe surface of CdTe/CdS thin-film solar cells. After CdCl₂ processing, the CdTe surface is coated with a thin layer of copper which is heated and then reacted. The heat treatment diffuses Cu into CdTe, doping it p-type while the reaction removes elemental Cu and produces a conductive surface which is easily contacted using different materials. This process allows great flexibility in selection of a back contact material. High efficiency devices having fill factors up to 77% were fabricated. The process is applicable to CdTe/CdS devices having CdTe deposited by different techniques and is compatible with module fabrication technologies

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; electrical contacts; heat treatment; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor doping; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; vapour deposited coatings; vapour deposition; CdCl₂; CdTe-CdS; CdTe/CdS thin-film solar cells; Cu; PVD films; back contact material; conductive surface; deposition; fill factors; heat treatment; low resistance contacts; module fabrication technologies; p-type doping; semiconductor; Conducting materials; Conductive films; Conductors; Contact resistance; Copper; Doping; Heat treatment; Photovoltaic cells; Surface resistance; Surface treatment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1460-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.1994.519819

Filename

519819