Effective interfaces in silicon heterojunction solar cells

Author

Wang, T.H. ; Iwaniczko, E. ; Page, M.R. ; Levi, D.H. ; Yan, Y. ; Yelundur, V. ; Branz, H.M. ; Rohatgi, A. ; Wang, Q.

Author_Institution

Nat. Renewable Energy Lab., USA

fYear

2005

Firstpage

955

Lastpage

958

Abstract

Thin hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers deposited by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) are investigated for use in silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells on p-type crystalline silicon wafers. A requirement for excellent emitter quality is minimization of interface recombination. Best results necessitate immediate a-Si:H deposition and an abrupt and flat interface to the c-Si substrate. We obtain a record planar HJ efficiency of 16.9% with a high V_oc of 652 mV on p-type float-zone (FZ) silicon substrates with HWCVD a-Si:H(n) emitters and screen-printed Al-BSF contacts. H pretreatment by HWCVD is beneficial when limited to a very short period prior to emitter deposition.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; chemical vapour deposition; elemental semiconductors; hydrogenation; semiconductor growth; semiconductor heterojunctions; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; 16.9 percent; 652 mV; Si; emitter deposition; hot-wire chemical vapor deposition; interface recombination; p-type crystalline silicon wafers; p-type float-zone silicon substrates; screen-printed Al-BSF contacts; silicon heterojunction solar cells; thin hydrogenated amorphous silicon; Amorphous silicon; Chemical technology; Chemical vapor deposition; Epitaxial growth; Heterojunctions; Laboratories; Passivation; Photovoltaic cells; Renewable energy resources; Spontaneous emission;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488290

Filename

1488290