The “micromorph” solar cell: extending a-Si:H technology towards thin film crystalline silicon

Author

Fischer, D. ; Dubail, S. ; Selvan, J. A Anna ; Vaucher, N. Pellaton ; Platz, R. ; Hof, Ch. ; Kroll, U. ; Meier, J. ; Torres, P. ; Keppner, H. ; Wyrsch, N. ; Goetz, M. ; Shah, A. ; Ufert, K.-D.

Author_Institution

Institut de Microtechnique, Neuchatel Univ., Switzerland

fYear

1996

fDate

13-17 May 1996

Firstpage

1053

Lastpage

1056

Abstract

Progress of solar cells based on plasma deposited hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H), as well as on combined a-Si:H/μc-Si:H stacked “micromorph” solar cells is reported. μc-Si:H p-i-n cells with a thickness of 3.6 μm, deposited with the use of a gas-purifier, are shown to have a short-circuit current of over 25 mA/cm², and a stable efficiency of 7.7%. a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem cells with 13% initial, and with 10% degraded state efficiency are also demonstrated. In addition, methods to further increase the efficiency of combined a-Si:H/μc-Si:H solar cells are discussed. This includes the introduction of a ZnO reflector layer between a-Si:H and μc-Si:H component cells, a new concept of which first experimental results are given

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; plasma CVD coatings; short-circuit currents; silicon; solar cells; μc-Si:H; μc-Si:H p-i-n cells; 10 percent; 13 percent; 3.6 mum; 7.7 percent; Si:H; Si:H-Si:H; ZnO; ZnO reflector layer; a-Si:H technology; a-Si:H/μc-Si:H stacked solar cells; a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem cells; degraded state efficiency; gas-purifier; micromorph solar cell; plasma deposited hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon; short-circuit current; stable efficiency; thin film crystalline silicon; Absorption; Crystallization; Frequency; PIN photodiodes; Photovoltaic cells; Plasma materials processing; Plasma temperature; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Substrates;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996., Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3166-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1996.564311

Filename

564311