Fabrication of very large 2,6m x 2,2m amorphous silicon solar modules on glass

The fabrication of very large photovoltaic thin film modules based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) technology on float glass is presented. The different production steps are explained. These are plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a-Si: H films in a 2.6 m x 2.2 m capacitive plasma reactor, transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and metal deposition in an 2.6 m wide in-line sputter tool and high power laser scribing to structure all the thin films. Electrical peak efficiency of 7,5% for a 5,72 m² module and 7,7% for a 1,43 m² module has been achieved. Light induced degradation of these 1^st generation modules is found to be approx. 20% after long time illumination. A new deposition process was developed for the intrinsic a-Si: H film resulting in a reduction of the silane consumption to 25% reducing considerably production cost of 2^nd generation modules.