Doping Optimization of Solar Grade (SOG) Silicon Ingots for Increasing Ingot Yield and Cell Efficiency

Abstract

In the close future, use of SoG should become prominent for photovoltaic ingot production as it requires much less energy for purification compared to Silicon grades using gas transformation and purification (usually Siemens process or equivalent also used for electronic−grade preparation). During this study, several kinds of silicon were compared with different rates of dopant content (mainly boron and phosphorus). Ingot yield and cell efficiency were optimized for each source of silicon at a production level (450 kg ingots) using boron or gallium doping. Starting from the resistivity specification given by the cell process, the doping level was adjusted in order to maximize the ingot silicon yield (weight of silicon bricks used for wafer cutting/ weight of Silicon ingot). After doping adjustment, ingot quality was checked: brick resistivity, lifetime of minority carriers and wafers were processed into solar cells. Optimizing of doping led to get comparable ingot yields and cell efficiencies using SoG and silicon purified by Siemens process or equivalent. The study was implemented at Kazakhstan Solar Silicon plant in Ust−Kamenogorsk using Kazakhstan SoG, SoG from a European manufacturer and polycrystalline Silicon purified by Siemens process. Directional solidification furnaces were manufactured by the French company ECM Technologies.