Recent advances in very high frequency plasma enhanced CVD process for the fabrication of thin film silicon solar cells

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• 作者：Jatindra K. Rath ; Yanchao Liu ; Monica Brinza ; Arjan Verkerk ; Caspar van Bommel ; A. Borreman ; Ruud E.I. Schropp
• 关键词：Nanocrystalline silicon ; VHF PECVD ; Solar cell ; Tandem ; Thin film
• 刊名：Thin Solid Films
• 出版年：2009
• 出版时间：1 July 2009
• 年：2009
• 卷：517
• 期：17
• 页码：4758-4761
• 全文大小：428 K

文摘

We have deposited amorphous silicon (a-Si) and nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) materials and the total p–i–n configurations for solar cells in a high vacuum multichamber system ASTER using very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (VHF PECVD) process. The deposition process is monitored and controlled by in-situ diagnostic tools to maintain reproducibility of the material quality. In this paper we show our recent results on single junction (amorphous silicon) and tandem (a-Si/nc-Si) cells on plastic foil using the Helianthos concept. The tandem cell efficiency on Asahi U-type SnO₂:F coated glass is ~ 12 % and this is achieved by employing nc-Si deposited at high pressure (p) conditions of 5 mbar and a small inter-electrode distance (d) of 5 mm. The deposition scheme of this cell on glass was adapted for the SnO₂:F coated Al foil substrates from Helianthos b.v., especially taking into account the expansion of the foil during deposition. The inter-electrode distance d was one of the variables for this optimisation process. Depositions at four inter-electrode distances of 6 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm and 12 mm (keeping the pressure–distance product constant) revealed that the deposition rate increases at higher distances, reaching 0.6 nm/s at a d of 10 mm and pressure p of 3.0 mbar. The Raman crystalline ratio showed a monotonic increase with the combination of higher d and lower p. Tandem cells with an area of 2.5 cm² on plastic foil fabricated by the Helianthos concept and employing the above mentioned nc-Si made at 0.6 nm/s in the bottom cell and a-Si in the top cell, showed an efficiency of 8.12 % , with a short circuit current density of 10 mA/cm². The combined deposition time of the photoactive silicon layers of the top and bottom cells amounted to only 85 min.