Effect of Front TCO Layer on Properties of Substrate-Type Thin-Film Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Author

Sai, Hitoshi ; Maejima, Keigo ; Matsui, Takuya ; Koida, Takashi ; Matsubara, Koji ; Kondo, Michio ; Takeuchi, Yoshiaki ; Sugiyama, Shuichiro ; Katayama, Hirotaka ; Yoshida, Isao

Author_Institution

Res. Center for Photovoltaics, Nat. Inst. of Adv. Ind. Sci. & Technol., Tsukuba, Japan

Volume

5

Issue

6

fYear

2015

Firstpage

1528

Lastpage

1533

Abstract

Power conversion efficiency of thin-film microcrystalline silicon solar cells has been remarkably improved recently: from 10.1% to 11.8%. Front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films have played an important role in this efficiency improvement. In this study, the impact of the front TCO films was investigated by comparing microcrystalline silicon solar cells with In₂O₃:Sn films grown by sputtering and ZnO:B films grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Improvement mechanisms in open-circuit voltages and fill factors in solar cells are investigated and discussed.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; MOCVD; boron; elemental semiconductors; indium compounds; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; sputter deposition; thin film devices; tin compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; ITO-Si; MOCVD; ZnO:B-Si; fill factors; front TCO layer; front transparent conductive oxide films; metal-organic chemical vapor deposition; open-circuit voltages; power conversion efficiency; sputtering; substrate-type thin-film microcrystalline silicon solar cells; Conductive films; Light trapping; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon; Thin film devices; Conductive films; light trapping; photovoltaic cells; silicon; thin-film devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2478030

Filename

7286723