Title :
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
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;
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
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.519819
