Low-cost epitaxial techniques for solar-cell fabrication. Final report, 25 September 1979-24 September 1980

Technical Report · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6466531· OSTI ID:6466531

D'Aiello, R. V.; Robinson, P. H.

This research and development effort was designed to investigate epitaxial growth processes which will allow the use of low-cost forms of silicon for fabricating high-efficiency, cost-effective solar cells. This report covers the results of a 1-y effort which involved characterization of potentially low-cost silicon substrates, epitaxial growth studies, and the fabrication and evaluation of solar cells made in the epitaxial layers. Silicon substrates prepared from metallurgical grade silicon by potentially low-cost purification and growth techniques form satisfactory substrates for epitaxial growth and the fabrication of 10 to 12% efficient solar cells. The allowable range of variation in the key parameters of the epitaxial process and cell structures was determined and it was found that a greater variation in these parameters is possible for solar cells compared with those required for epitaxial devices now produced in the semiconductor industry. Thin-film epitaxially grown solar cells were reproducibly demonstrated with efficiencies of over 10%. A scale-up to practical sized cells was shown to be feasible by fabricating cells of 10-cm/sup 2/ area with almost 10% efficiency.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA); RCA Labs., Princeton, NJ (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 6466531
• Report Number(s): SERI/TR-8274-1-T1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
CURRENT DENSITY
CURRENTS
DATA
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
EPITAXY
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
FILL FACTORS
IMPURITIES
INFORMATION
MICROSTRUCTURE
NUMERICAL DATA
PASSIVATION
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE TREATMENTS