Epitaxial Wafer Equivalent Solar Cells with Overgrown SiO2 Reflector

Drießen, M.; Janz, S.; Reber, S.

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2012.07.026

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Further studies are necessary to optimize quality of magnetron sputtered Si layers and to enhance sputtering rates to be able to consider magnetron sputtering as an alternative to high‐temperature CVD and e‐beam deposition processes, which exhibit depositions rates in the range of few micrometer per minute and can provide fabrication of thin Si based solar cells with the reasonable efficiencies .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High rate amorphous and crystalline silicon formation by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition for photovoltaics

Bailey

Proudfoot

Mackenzie

et al. 2014

Phys. Status Solidi A

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Two methods of pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition have been used to form high rate, hydrogen‐free crystalline silicon layers. The first method is in situ crystalline silicon deposition. The second method is high rate amorphous silicon deposition followed by an anneal to induce crystallization. Over 20 μm thick crystalline silicon can be formed on wafers up to 200 mm round or 156 mm square. Two vacuum deposition systems were used for substrate cleaning and deposition. The crystallinity of silicon layers was analyzed by ellipsometry and Raman spectroscopy. Almost fully crystalline silicon is deposited in situ at table temperatures greater and equal to 650 °C. In situ crystalline silicon has been deposited at 40 nm/min and amorphous silicon can be deposited at over 400 nm/min subject to power density limitations for the silicon target. Up to 20 μm thick amorphous silicon deposited at room temperature is fully crystallized by annealing in vacuum on a 1000 °C table for 2 h. This work demonstrates that sputtering offers significant potential for depositing the absorber layer in silicon based photovoltaics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High rate amorphous and crystalline silicon formation by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition for photovoltaics

Bailey

Proudfoot

Mackenzie

et al. 2014

Phys. Status Solidi A

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“…The optical influence of an embedded SiO 2 layer in combination with a planar surface is based on interference phenomena leading to an optimal thickness of the SiO 2 layer of around 160 nm. The experimentally verified optical benefit of this structure was already reported in [3]. However, solar cells were limited by a reduced crystal quality of the ELO layers [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Epitaxial wafer equivalent solar cells with overgrown SiO₂ layer and varying doping profile to reduce the influence of defects

Driesen

Reber

2013

2013 IEEE 39th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

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Epitaxial wafer equivalent solar cells require a reflecting rear side to reach similar efficiencies as wafer based cells. This can be achieved by implementing a SiO 2 layer using the epitaxial lateral overgrowth technique. In this work defect structure and density within the silicon layers are discussed. As defect densities rise towards the SiO 2 layers, solar cells are fabricated with increasing sizes of moderately doped back surface fields to reduce their influence. Thereby, a benefit of 3 % absolute in efficiency is obtained. However, the best cell with an efficiency of 14.1 % is still limited by the reduced crystal quality.Index Terms -crystalline silicon thin film, epitaxial wafer equivalent, epitaxial lateral overgrowth, defect density.

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“…It has been established that Si powder based wafers fabricated using mixed Si and boron powders have a resistivity ∼0.001 Ω cm. Thus, such wafers can be used as highly conductive supporting substrates in frame of Si wafer equivalent approach .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The silicon debris from the kerf loss during the sawing step may also be recovered and used again when appropriate recycling procedure has been developed. Nevertheless, due to a low‐cost Si feedstock used, the overall cost of Si wafers, processed using the proposed route is much lower than that for conventional c‐Si highly conductive wafers, which are widely used currently for solar cell processing in frame of a WE approach . Detailed costs estimations are rather sophisticated at this stage and are out of scope of this work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of crystalline thin‐film Si based solar cells fabricated on low‐cost substrates has been widely discussed in literature for more than one decade and still is under consideration as a promising approach for low‐cost Si based PV . One of the promising options is based on a crystalline silicon (c‐Si) thin‐film solar cells fabricated on top of low‐cost c‐Si supporting substrates and is related to the epitaxial wafer‐equivalent (EpiWE) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microstructural characterization of Si wafers processed by multi-wire sawing of hot pressed silicon powder based ingots

Buchwald

Würzner

Möller

et al. 2014

Phys. Status Solidi A

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The purpose of this work is to verify the possibility to process highly doped Si supporting substrates using a 2-step process: (i) sintering of a low-cost Si powder based ingot using hot pressing and a ELKEM Silgrain material as a feedstock; and (ii) wafering of such ingots using multi-wire sawing technique similar to that, which is used for cast multi-Si or Cz-Si grown ingots. Moreover, the possibility to dope Si powder ingot at sintering temperatures below melting point of Si, using a mixture of Si and boron powders to fabricate highly conductive Si wafers is verified as well. The slurry technique has been chosen for multi-wire sawing of sintered Si powder based ingots. Surface properties of Si powder based substrates as well as their chemical composition have been studied by optical microscopy imaging and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Although the overall concentrations of oxygen, carbon and possibly also metal impurities, which are initially present in a low-cost Si feedstock, are too high to achieve acceptable semiconducting properties, it is concluded, that sintered Si powder based wafers have high enough conductivity (resistivity similar to 0.001 Omega cm) to serve as supporting substrates for low cost Si wafer equivalent structures

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Epitaxial Wafer Equivalent Solar Cells with Overgrown SiO2 Reflector

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

High rate amorphous and crystalline silicon formation by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition for photovoltaics

High rate amorphous and crystalline silicon formation by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition for photovoltaics

Epitaxial wafer equivalent solar cells with overgrown SiO₂ layer and varying doping profile to reduce the influence of defects

Microstructural characterization of Si wafers processed by multi-wire sawing of hot pressed silicon powder based ingots

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Epitaxial Wafer Equivalent Solar Cells with Overgrown SiO2 Reflector

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

High rate amorphous and crystalline silicon formation by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition for photovoltaics

High rate amorphous and crystalline silicon formation by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition for photovoltaics

Epitaxial wafer equivalent solar cells with overgrown SiO2 layer and varying doping profile to reduce the influence of defects

Microstructural characterization of Si wafers processed by multi-wire sawing of hot pressed silicon powder based ingots

Contact Info

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Epitaxial wafer equivalent solar cells with overgrown SiO₂ layer and varying doping profile to reduce the influence of defects