Title :
Development of back contacts for CdTe thin film solar cells deposited on flexible foil substrates
Author :
Hodges, D. ; Palekis, V. ; Shen, D. ; Singh, K. ; Bhandaru, S. ; Stefanakos, E.K. ; Morel, D.L. ; Ferekides, C.S.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
Abstract :
The formation of low resistance ohmic contacts on p-type CdTe is a major challenge for the superstrate solar cell the dominant device configuration for this technology. It is even a greater challenge for the substrate configuration, since the back contact material is deposited first and is therefore influenced by subsequent high temperature fabrication processing. In this paper, the structural and electrical properties of ZnTe and Sb2Te3 films deposited by the close-spaced sublimation and evaporation respectively are presented. Thin film CdTe solar cells of the substrate configuration have been fabricated on flexible foil substrates using ZnTe and Sb2Te3 as back contacts, and their performance has been evaluated.
Keywords :
II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; ohmic contacts; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; sublimation; vacuum deposition; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; CdS-CdTe-Sb2Te3; CdS-CdTe-ZnTe; back contacts; close-spaced evaporation; close-spaced sublimation; electrical properties; flexible foil substrates; low resistance ohmic contacts; p-type CdTe; structural properties; substrate configuration; superstrate solar cell; thin film solar cells; Contact resistance; Fabrication; Ohmic contacts; Photovoltaic cells; Sputtering; Substrates; Tellurium; Temperature; Transistors; Zinc compounds;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2009 34th IEEE
Conference_Location :
Philadelphia, PA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2949-3
Electronic_ISBN :
0160-8371
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411404
