Selective electrodeposition of thin crystalline silicon solar cells

50 μm-thick layers of crystalline silicon have been deposited electrolytically using an unsubmerged liquid jet onto selected metallized substrates. The nonaqueous system used an organic solvent with organic fluorides as the supporting electrolyte. The silicon anode was protected from the passivation by sparging the solution with dry nitrogen. After depositing both the p- and n-type layers of silicon, an AR coating of titania was applied using APCVD. The front metallization and monolithic circuit interconnections were made by screen printing. Small-area cells have demonstrated 8% conversion efficiency