Optimal surface and bulk passivation of high efficiency multicrystalline silicon solar cells

Book · Sat Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:191019

Elgamel, H E; Nijs, J; Mertens, R ^[1]; Rohatgi, A; Chen, Z ^[2]; Vinckier, C ^[3]

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1. IMEC, Leuven (Belgium)
2. Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta, GA (United States)
3. K.U. Leuven (Belgium). Dept. of Chemistry

Conventional (CC) and electromagnetically casted (EMC) multicrystalline silicon solar cells are fabricated following different passivation schemes. Thin layers ({approximately}100 {angstrom}) of thermal dry and PECVD SiO{sub 2} are implemented for providing oxide surface passivation for multicrystalline silicon solar cells. It is found that growing thin layers of thermal dry oxide results in efficient surface passivation. However, for thin PECVD SiO{sub 2} layers it is necessary to perform, post deposition, low temperature ({approximately}350 C) forming gas anneal in order to observe the surface passivation effect. In addition, hydrogen plasma passivation has been optimized for achieving very deep penetration of atomic hydrogen in the material (> 30 {micro}m) and as a consequence very effective bulk passivation of multicrystalline silicon solar cells. By combining the thermal dry surface oxide passivation with the hydrogen plasma treatment from the front and the back sides, efficiency of 17% on 4 cm{sup 2} (independently confirmed by NREL as 16.93%) is realized without any Al gettering. On the other hand, the solar cell efficiencies obtained using thin layers of PECVD SiO{sub 2} are found to be very comparable to the efficiency of the cells fabricated with thermal dry SiO{sub 2} layers.

• OSTI ID: 191019
• Report Number(s): CONF-941203-; ISBN 0-7803-1459-X; TRN: IM9610%%20
• Resource Relation: Conference: 1. world conference on photovoltaic energy conversion, Waikoloa, HI (United States), 5-9 Dec 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of 1994 IEEE first world conference on photovoltaic energy conversion: Conference record of the twenty-fourth IEEE photovoltaic specialists conference -- 1994. Volume 2; PB: 1268 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
FABRICATION
PERFORMANCE
SILICON OXIDES
ZINC SULFIDES
MAGNESIUM FLUORIDES
METALS
SURFACE COATING
PASSIVATION
HYDROGEN
RF SYSTEMS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
ION MICROPROBE ANALYSIS
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
CURRENT DENSITY
FILL FACTORS
EFFICIENCY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA