Title :
RF sputtered back contacts for CdTe/CdS thin film solar cells
Author :
Ferekides, C.S. ; Viswanathan, V. ; Morel, D.L.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
fDate :
29 Sep-3 Oct 1997
Abstract :
One of the critical issues associated with the fabrication of thin film CdTe/CdS solar cells is the formation of a stable, low-resistance back contact. This paper reports on the formation of a back contact to CdTe cells using RF sputtering of a CuxTe target. The cells used in this study are of the commonly used superstrate configuration glass/SnO2/CdS/CdTe. The back contact was formed by depositing a thin CuxTe film by RF sputtering followed by the deposition of a metal. The devices were characterized using I-V, C-V, and spectral response measurements. Fill factors in excess of 70% have been obtained using the CuxTe/metal contact. The best device measured at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory exhibited a conversion efficiency of 14.9%
Keywords :
II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; copper compounds; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor thin films; semiconductor-metal boundaries; solar cells; sputter deposition; sputtered coatings; 14.9 percent; C-V measurements; CdTe-CdS; CdTe/CdS thin-film solar cells; CuxTe/metal contact; CuTe; I-V measurements; RF sputtered back contacts; conversion efficiency; fill factors; metal deposition; spectral response measurements; superstrate configuration; Capacitance-voltage characteristics; Energy measurement; Fabrication; Glass; Laboratories; Photovoltaic cells; Radio frequency; Renewable energy resources; Sputtering; Tellurium;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997., Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Anaheim, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3767-0
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1997.654118
