Recent progress of amorphous silicon solar cell technology in Japan

The current state of the art in Japanese activities in amorphous silicon solar cell R&D is reviewed. First, a change of the organization in the Sunshine Project is introduced. Second, some novel approaches and key technologies to improve solar cell efficiency with stabilized performance with amorphous materials such as a-SiC:H, μc-SiC:H, a-SiGe:H, and their heterojunction and stacked solar cells are reviewed. Progress of the conversion efficiency in various types of amorphous silicon solar cells are surveyed and summarized. A recent feature of the industrialization of a-Si photovoltaic cells in Japan is discussed