Sinterless contacts to shallow junction InP solar cells

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7117375

Weizer, V G; Fatemi, N S; Korenyi-both, A L

In the past, the achievement of good electrical contact to InP has inevitably been accompanied by mechanical degradation of the InP itself. Most contact systems require heat treatment after metal deposition that results in the dissolution of substantial amounts of InP into the metallization. Devices such as the solar cell, where shallow junctions are the rule, can be severely degraded if the damage to the semiconductor substrate is not precisely controlled. Two contact systems are described that provide low contact resistance to InP solar cells that do not require subjecting the current carrying metallization to a post deposition sintering process. It is shown that these two systems, one nickel based and the other silver based, provide contact resistivity values in the low 10(exp -6) ohm sq cm range, as fabricated, without the need for sintering.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (United States). Lewis Research Center
• OSTI ID: 7117375
• Report Number(s): N-92-24802; NASA-TM--105670; E--7036; NAS--1.15:105670; CONF-9204168--; CNN: NAS3-25266; NAS3-30759; RTOP 506-41-11
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
DAMAGE
DEPOSITION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
INDIUM PHOSPHIDE SOLAR CELLS
METALS
NICKEL
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SILVER
SINTERING
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SUBSTRATES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS