RTP emitter diffusion in an industrial process

Author

Steeman, Rob A. ; Lefrancois, M.

Author_Institution

Shell Solar Energy BV, Helmond, Netherlands

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

288

Lastpage

290

Abstract

Solar cells of 12.5×12.5 cm² have been fabricated combining industrial processing with rapid thermal emitter diffusion (RTP) in a Vortek arc lamp furnace. Best cells had an efficiency of 11% at a cycle time for the diffusion process of 2.5 minutes, which is less than 1/5th of the conventional diffusion time. Compared to a reference group, in which the emitter was diffused in a classical belt furnace, this was a reduction in efficiency of only 1% absolute. Internal quantum efficiency measurements showed an increased blue response for cells with an RTP emitter, which can be attributed to a reduced emitter thickness. However, the effective diffusion length of the RTP cells was considerably lower than that of the conventional cells

Keywords

diffusion; elemental semiconductors; rapid thermal processing; silicon; solar cells; RTP emitter diffusion; Si; Vortek arc lamp furnace; blue response; classical belt furnace; cycle time; diffusion process; effective diffusion length; efficiency; industrial process; internal quantum efficiency measurements; rapid thermal emitter diffusion; reduced emitter thickness; solar cells; Argon; Belts; Diffusion processes; Furnaces; Lamps; Photovoltaic cells; Production; Rapid thermal processing; Temperature measurement; Textile industry;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE

Conference_Location

Anchorage, AK

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5772-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2000.915815

Filename

915815