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Thin Epitaxial Silicon Foils Using Porous-Silicon-Based Lift-Off for Photovoltaic Application

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

Twan Bearda ,
Ivan Gordon ,
Hariharsudan Sivaramakrishnan Radhakrishnan ,
Valérie Depauw ,
Kris Van Nieuwenhuysen ,
Menglei Xu ,
Loic Tous ,
Miha Filipič ,
Shashi Kiran Jonnak  and
Alireza Hajijafarassar
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Twan Bearda*
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Ivan Gordon
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Hariharsudan Sivaramakrishnan Radhakrishnan
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Valérie Depauw
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Kris Van Nieuwenhuysen
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Menglei Xu
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Loic Tous
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Miha Filipič
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Shashi Kiran Jonnak
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium University of Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Straße 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
Alireza Hajijafarassar
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Politecnico di Milano, Dip. Chimica, Materiali e Ing. Chimica Giulio Natta, 20133 Milan, Italy
Xingyu Liu
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Technical University of Dresden, Helmholtzstraße 10, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Maarten Debucquoy
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Yaser Abdulraheem
Affiliation:
Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering & Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, 13060 Safat, Kuwait
Jozef Szlufcik
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Jef Poortmans
Affiliation:
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium Institute for Material Research (IMO), Hasselt University, Wetenschapspark 1, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
*
*(Email: twan.bearda@imec.be)
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Abstract

In order to reduce the material cost for silicon solar cells, several research groups are investigating methods to minimize the silicon consumption for making monocrystalline silicon wafers. One promising approach is deposition of an epitaxial layer on porous silicon, followed by detachment of the layer. This contribution discusses improvements in the epitaxial wafer fabrication by optimization of the porosification process. The introduction of a layered porous silicon structure allows to independently improve both epitaxial layer quality and detachment yield. In this way, we have managed to obtain 100µm thick silicon wafers with effective lifetimes up to 1.3ms, and 40µm thick wafers with effective lifetimes up to 700µs. We will also review the current status of the process development for solar cells made on thin wafers. Two approaches are presented. In the first approach, heterojunction solar cells are fabricated on freestanding epitaxial wafers of 40µm thickness. In the second approach, high efficiency (21%) heterojunction back-contacted cells are fabricated on wafers that are bonded to a glass superstrate. Challenges for device processing and limitations in cell performance are discussed.

Keywords

crystal growthphotovoltaicSi
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Advances , Volume 1 , Issue 48: Electronics and Photonics , 2016 , pp. 3235 - 3246
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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References

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