N-I-P Micromorph Solar Cells on Aluminium Substrates

Abstract

AbstractThe first successful deposition of ‘micromorph’ silicon tandem solar cells of the n-i-p-n-i-p configuration is reported. In order to implement the ‘micromorph’ solar cell concept, four key elements had to be prepared: First, the deposition of mid-gap, intrinsic microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) by the 'gas purifier method', second, the amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) n-i-p single junction solar cell, third, the microcrystalline silicon n-i-p single junction solar cell and fourth, the ability of depositing on aluminium sheet substrates.All the solar cells presented have been deposited on flat aluminium sheets, using a single layer antireflection coating to couple the light into the cell. It is shown, that this antireflection concept- together with a flat substrate- holds for amorphous single junction solar cells, but it reaches its limit with the extended range of spectral response of the ‘micromorph’ cell.The best initial efficiencies for each category of n-i-p cells on flat substrates were: 8.7% for the amorphous silicon single junction cell, 4.9% for the microcrystalline silicon single junction cell and 9.25% for the ‘micromorph’ tandem cell.