Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process
Abstract
A potentially low-cost process for forming and passivating a selective emitter. The process uses a plasma etch of the heavily doped emitter to improve its performance. The grids of the solar cell are used to mask the plasma etch so that only the emitter in the region between the grids is etched, while the region beneath the grids remains heavily doped for low contact resistance. This process is potentially low-cost because it requires no alignment. After the emitter etch, a silicon nitride layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced, chemical vapor deposition, and the solar cell is annealed in a forming gas. 5 figs.
- Inventors:
- Issue Date:
- Research Org.:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 321276
- Patent Number(s):
- 5871591
- Application Number:
- PAN: 8-742,378
- Assignee:
- Sandia Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- Resource Type:
- Patent
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 16 Feb 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; SILICON SOLAR CELLS; FABRICATION; PASSIVATION; DOPED MATERIALS; CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION; ANNEALING
Citation Formats
Ruby, D S, Schubert, W K, and Gee, J M. Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process. United States: N. p., 1999.
Web.
Ruby, D S, Schubert, W K, & Gee, J M. Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process. United States.
Ruby, D S, Schubert, W K, and Gee, J M. Tue .
"Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process". United States.
@article{osti_321276,
title = {Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process},
author = {Ruby, D S and Schubert, W K and Gee, J M},
abstractNote = {A potentially low-cost process for forming and passivating a selective emitter. The process uses a plasma etch of the heavily doped emitter to improve its performance. The grids of the solar cell are used to mask the plasma etch so that only the emitter in the region between the grids is etched, while the region beneath the grids remains heavily doped for low contact resistance. This process is potentially low-cost because it requires no alignment. After the emitter etch, a silicon nitride layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced, chemical vapor deposition, and the solar cell is annealed in a forming gas. 5 figs.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {1999},
month = {2}
}
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Works referenced in this record:
A novel and effective PECVD SiO/sub 2//SiN antireflection coating for Si solar cells
journal, June 1993
- Chen, Z.; Sana, P.; Salami, J.
- IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 40, Issue 6