Process research on polycrystalline silicon material (PROPSM). Final technical report

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6031521· OSTI ID:6031521

Culik, J. S.; Wrigley, C. Y.

Recent reported results of hydrogen-passivated polycrystalline silicon solar cells are summarized. Most of the studies have been performed on very small grain or short minority-carrier diffusion length silicon. Hydrogenated solar cells fabricated from this material appear to have effective minority-carrier diffusion lengths that are still not very long, as shown by the open-circuit voltages of passivated cells that are still significantly less than those of single-crystal solar cells. The short-circuit current of solar cells fabricated from large-grain cast polycrystalline silicon is nearly equivalent to that of single-crystal cells, which indicates long bulk minority-carrier diffusion length. However, the open-circuit voltage, which is sensitive to grain boundary recombination, is sometimes 20 to 40 mV less. The goal of this program was to minimize variations in open-circuit voltage and fill-factor caused by defects by passivating these defects using a hydrogenation process. Treatments with molecular hydrogen showed no effect on large-grain cast polycrystalline silicon solar cells. The program was terminated prior to the planned plasma hydrogenation (atomic hydrogen) phase due to a reduction in personnel available for the contract effort.

• Research Organization: Solarex Corp., Rockville, MD (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: NAS-7-100-956698
• OSTI ID: 6031521
• Report Number(s): DOE/JPL/956698-84/4; ON: DE85006570
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
CRYSTALS
CURRENTS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
HYDROGEN
NONMETALS
PASSIVATION
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
POLYCRYSTALS
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT