Amorphous-crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells formed by the DC saddle field PECVD system: A deposition parameter optimization

Author

Leong, Keith R. ; Gougam, Adel B. ; Bahardoust, Barzin ; Kwong, Wing Yin ; Kosteski, Tome ; Yeghikyan, Davit ; Zukotynski, Stefan ; Kherani, Nazir P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

fYear

2011

fDate

19-24 June 2011

Abstract

The DC Saddle Field PECVD system was used to deposit hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers for high efficiency amorphous-crystalline silicon heterojunction (ACSHJ) solar cells. The plasma controlling parameters; including the chamber pressure, gas phase dopant concentration for the p-type a-Si:H (a-Si:H(p⁺)) emitter, and substrate temperature were varied. The substrate temperature was found to be a critical parameter for the deposition of intrinsic a-Si:H as epitaxial formation can occur with just a temperature increase of 10°C. The processing capabilities have been developed to construct ACSHJ solar cells with 15.5% conversion efficiency for a 4.2 cm² area.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; hydrogen; plasma CVD; silicon; solar cells; DC saddle field PECVD system; Si:H; amorphous-crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells; chamber pressure; conversion efficiency; deposition parameter optimization; gas phase dopant concentration; plasma controlling parameters; substrate temperature; Anodes; Cathodes; Epitaxial growth; Metals; Photovoltaic cells; Substrates; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2011 37th IEEE

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9966-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186238

Filename

6186238