Silicon-on-ceramic for low cost solar cells

Inexpensive ceramic substrates can be coated from the melt with a thin layer of large grain polycrystalline silicon to produce low cost solar cells. The properties are quite similar to those of EFG ribbons. A focussed light beam from a monochromator was used to evaluate cell uniformity and to measure minority carrier diffusion length within grains. Cells with active areas of 1cm²and without AR coatings currently have AM1 conversion efficiencies over 7% and inherent efficiencies over 12%.