Silicon-on-ceramic monolithically interconnected solar cell modules

Author

Sims, P.E. ; Ingram, A.E. ; DelleDonne, E.J. ; Yaskoff, J.P. ; Ford, D.H. ; Rand, J.A. ; Barnett, A.M.

Author_Institution

AstroPower Inc., Newark, DE, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2003

fDate

18-18 May 2003

Firstpage

1217

Abstract

AstroPower is developing an advanced photovoltaic module product based on thin-silicon on ceramic substrates. This paper reviews the motivations, technical approaches, and electrical results for both single element and monolithically interconnected solar cell devices. Recent results include a 9.1% efficient, 1.0 cm/sup 2/, single element device and a 5.5% efficient monolithically interconnected four segment, 5.6 cm/sup 2/, mini-module, both which have been verified by NREL. The monolithically interconnected mini-module had a calculated 7.8% aperture efficiency based on the collecting area of the emitter. Both of these devices utilized a combination of CVD silicon and a ZMR approach.

Keywords

CVD coatings; elemental semiconductors; interconnections; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; zone melting recrystallisation; AstroPower system; CVD silicon; Si; chemical vapour deposition growth; monolithically interconnected solar cell modules; photovoltaic module; single element interconnected solar cell devices; thin silicon on ceramic structures; zone melting recrystallisation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of 3rd World Conference on

Conference_Location

Osaka, Japan

Print_ISBN

4-9901816-0-3

Type

conf

Filename

1306136