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Thin-Film Polycrystalline-Silicon Solar Cells on Ceramic Substrates Made by Aluminum-Induced Crystallization and Thermal CVD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Ivan Gordon ,
Dries Van Gestel ,
Lode Carnel ,
Kris Van Nieuwenhuysen ,
Guy Beaucarne  and
Jef Poortmans
Ivan Gordon
Affiliation:
gordoni@imec.be, IMEC VZW, Silicon Solar Cells, Kapeldreef 75, Leuven, N/A, N/A, Belgium, +32 16 28 82 49
Dries Van Gestel
Affiliation:
dries.vangestel@imec.be, IMEC VZW, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, N/A, N/A, Belgium
Lode Carnel
Affiliation:
lode.carnel@imec.be, IMEC VZW, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, N/A, N/A, Belgium
Kris Van Nieuwenhuysen
Affiliation:
Kris.vannieuwenhuysen@imec.be, IMEC VZW, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, N/A, N/A, Belgium
Guy Beaucarne
Affiliation:
guy.beaucarne@imec.be, IMEC VZW, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, N/A, N/A, Belgium
Jef Poortmans
Affiliation:
Jef.Poortmans@imec.be, IMEC VZW, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, N/A, N/A, Belgium
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Abstract

A considerable cost reduction could be achieved in photovoltaics if efficient solar cells could be made from thin polycrystalline-silicon (pc-Si) layers. Aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon followed by epitaxial thickening is an effective way to obtain large-grained pc-Si layers with excellent properties for solar cells. To obtain efficient solar cells, the electronic quality of the pc-Si material obtained by AIC has to be optimized and the cell design has to be adapted to the material. In this paper, we report on pc-Si solar cells made by AIC in combination with thermal CVD on ceramic alumina substrates. We made pc-Si solar cells on alumina substrates that showed Voc values up to 533 mV and efficiencies up to 5.9%. This is the highest efficiency ever achieved with pc-Si solar cells on ceramic substrates where no (re)melting of silicon was used. We demonstrate that the quality of the pc-Si material can be improved drastically by reducing the substrate roughness using spin-on oxides. We further show that a-Si/c-Si heterojunctions lead to much higher Voc values than diffused homojunctions. A cell concept that incorporates spin-on oxides and heterojunction emitters is therefore best suited to obtain efficient pc-Si solar cells on alumina substrates.

Keywords

photovoltaicfilmgrain size
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 910: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology – 2006 , 2006 , 0910-A23-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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References

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