Backside damage-gettering in cast polycrystalline silicon

Conference · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984 · Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6076217

Culik, J; Alexander, P; Roncin, S

The technique of backside-damage gettering improves the performance of short minority-carrier diffusion length, large-grain (grain diameter greater than 1 to 2 mm), cast polycrystalline silicon. On average, increases of nearly 20% in short-circuit current, 10 mV in open-circuit voltage, and 15% in peak-power were obtained by heat-treating 300 micron thick polycrystalline wafers at 1000/sup 0/C in flowing nitrogen for 5 hours. Additional measurements of the bulk and space-charge recombination current components indicate that this improvement results from a significant increase in the minority-carrier diffusion length due to gettering of impurities from the bulk.

• Research Organization: Solarex Corporation, Rockville, Maryland
• OSTI ID: 6076217
• Report Number(s): CONF-840561-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf.; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
CASTING
CHARGE CARRIERS
CRYSTALS
CURRENTS
DIFFUSION LENGTH
DIMENSIONS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
GETTERING
HEAT TREATMENTS
IMPURITIES
LENGTH
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
PEAK LOAD
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
POLYCRYSTALS
RECOMBINATION
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT