Efficient production technology for microcrystalline silicon solar cells using a Localized Plasma Confinement (LPC) CVD method

A very high deposition rate for high-quality microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) films has been achieved under very high-pressure conditions (≫ 1,000 Pa) using a Localized Plasma Confinement (LPC)-CVD method which has a special cathode. The uniformity of the μc-Si film thickness was 2.4% on a 55×65 cm² glass substrate with a deposition rate of 2.7 nm/s. We also achieved maximum conversion efficiency of 11.4% for an a-Si/μc-Si tandem solar cell (1 cm²) on a 20×20 cm² glass substrate and average conversion efficiency of 9.84% for a-Si/μc-Si tandem solar cells (1 cm²) on a 55×65 cm² glass substrate with a deposition rate (Rd) of 1.8 nm/s. These results indicate that LPC-CVD method is a good candidate as an effective production technology for large-area, high-performance μc-Si thin-film solar cells.