High-flux solar furnace processing of crystalline silicon solar cells

Abstract

We studied the processing of crystalline-silicon solar cells using a 10-kW, high-flux solar furnace (HFSF). Major findings of this study include: (1) hydrogenated amorphous silicon films deposited on glass substrates can be converted to microcrystalline silicon by solid-phase crystallization in 5 seconds or less in the HFSF; (2) the presence of concentrated sunlight enhances the diffusion of phosphorus into silicon from a spin-on dopant source; (3) the combination of a porous-silicon surface layer and photo-enhanced impurity diffusion is very effective in gettering impurities from a metallurgical-grade silicon wafer or thin-layer silicon deposited using liquid-phase epitaxy; (4) a 14.1%-efficient crystalline-silicon solar cell with an area of 4.6 cm2 was fabricated using the HFSF for simultaneous diffusion of front n+-p and back p-p+ junctions; and (5) we have shown that the HFSF can be used to texture crystalline-silicon surfaces and to anneal metal contacts printed on a silicon solar cell.