Low-temperature epitaxial thickening of sub-micron poly-Si seeding layers on glass made by aluminium-induced crystallisation

Author

Harder, N.-P. ; Xia, J.A. ; Oelting, S. ; Nast, O. ; Widenborg, P. ; Aberle, A.G.

Author_Institution

Photovoltaics Special Res. Centre, New South Wales Univ., Sydney, NSW, Australia

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

351

Lastpage

354

Abstract

The formation of device-grade polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films on standard glass at low temperature (i.e., below the softening point of the glass) using simple and fast processes is one of the major challenges for low-cost thin-film solar cells. In this paper, we report what is believed to be the first successful realisation of thick (~5 μm), large-grained (~5 μm), continuous poly-Si films on glass at T<650°C. This technological breakthrough has been achieved by using ion-assisted deposition at 630°C for epitaxially thickening a thin (~0.4 μm) seeding layer made on glass by aluminium-induced crystallisation

Keywords

aluminium; crystallisation; elemental semiconductors; glass; ion beam assisted deposition; semiconductor epitaxial layers; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; substrates; 0.4 mum; 5 mum; 630 C; Al; Si; aluminium-induced crystallisation; device-grade polycrystalline silicon; glass; ion-assisted deposition; large-grained continuous poly-Si films; low-cost thin-film solar cells; low-temperature epitaxial thickening; poly-Si films; softening point; sub-micron poly-Si seeding layers; thin seeding layer; Aluminum; Crystallization; Glass; Photovoltaic cells; Semiconductor films; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Softening; Temperature; Thin film transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE

Conference_Location

Anchorage, AK

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5772-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2000.915836

Filename

915836