Improvement of small-area, amorphous-silicon thin-film photovoltaics on polymer substrate

Technical Report · Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7202806· OSTI ID:7202806

Weber, M F ^[1]

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1. Minnesota Mining and Mfg. Co., St. Paul, MN (USA). Applied Technologies Lab.

This report describes a contract to produce, using roll-to-roll deposition on polyamide substrate, a small-area amorphous-silicon p-i-n photovoltaic (PV) cell with an energy conversion efficiency of 10% under air mass 1.5 insolation. Three improvements were attempted to achieve this goal: (1) zinc oxide, a transparent conducting oxide, was used as a top contact; the zinc oxide conductivity was improved to 8--9 ohms/square sheet resistance with less than 8% average optical absorption. (2) The red light response was improved with dielectric enhanced metal reflecting electrodes, which increased the short-circuit current density by more than 1 mA/Cm{sup 2}; a three-layer dielectric mirror coating was also designed that can increase the current density by another 1 mA/cm{sup 2}. (3) Improving the fill factor of the n-i-p (reverse structured) devices was also achieved in a multichamber deposition system. The overall energy conversion efficiency of the PV cell was 8.36%. Major obstacles to higher efficiencies are (1) controlling the thin-film defects that cause electrical shunts in devices fabricated on enhanced reflection electrodes, and (2) controlling impurities and introducing dopant profiles near the p/i interface in a continuous web deposition system.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst. (SERI), Golden, CO (United States); Minnesota Mining and Mfg. Co., St. Paul, MN (USA). Applied Technologies Lab.
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/CE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-83CH10093
• OSTI ID: 7202806
• Report Number(s): SERI/TP-211-3656; ON: DE90000314
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
FABRICATION
AMORPHOUS STATE
DEPOSITION
POLYMERS
PROGRESS REPORT
SILICON
SUBSTRATES
THIN FILMS
ZINC OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
FILMS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
SEMIMETALS
ZINC COMPOUNDS
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion
360601 - Other Materials- Preparation & Manufacture