A Novel Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Using a Low-Temperature Quasi-Epitaxial Silicon Emitter

Author

Farrokh-Baroughi, Mahdi ; Sivoththaman, Siva

Author_Institution

Waterloo Univ., Waterloo

Volume

28

Issue

7

fYear

2007

fDate

7/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

575

Lastpage

577

Abstract

A new silicon solar cell fabricated using a low-temperature process is demonstrated with a highly conductive (n+) quasi-epitaxial (qEpi-Si) silicon emitter deposited on silicon substrates, without using transparent conductive oxides. The emitter was formed by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process on granular multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) substrates at a substrate temperature of 250 . The new qEpi-Si/(p)mc-Si junction was found to be of good quality for photovoltaic applications. Solar cells of 1- area and conversion efficiencies exceeding 10% have been fabricated in a simple fabrication process and device structure.

Keywords

epitaxial growth; photovoltaic cells; plasma CVD; silicon; solar cells; granular multicrystalline silicon substrates; low-temperature quasi-epitaxial silicon emitter; plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; silicon photovoltaic cell; silicon solar cell; transparent conductive oxides; Chemical vapor deposition; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Plasma applications; Plasma chemistry; Plasma temperature; Radio frequency; Silicon; Solar power generation; Substrates; Chemical vapor deposition (CVD); epitaxy; silicon; solar cell;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2007.897873

Filename

4252195