Thin film polycrystalline silicon solar cells: first technical progress report, April 15, 1980-July 15, 1980

Abstract

The objectives of this contract are to fabricate large area thin film silicon solar cells with AM1 efficiency of 10% or greater with good reproducibility and good yield and to assess the feasibility of implementing this process for manufacturing solar cells at a cost of $300/kWe. Efforts during the past quarter have been directed to the purification of metallurgical silicon, the preparation of substrates, and the fabrication and characterization of solar cells. The partial purification of metallurgical silicon by extraction with aqua regia has been investigated in detail, and the resulting silicon was analyzed by the atomic absorption technique. The unidirectional solidification of aqua regia-extracted metallurgical silicon on graphite was used for the preparation of substrates, and the impurity distribution in the substrate was also determined. Large area (> 30 cm/sup 2/) solar cells have been prepared from aqua regia-extracted metallurgical silicon substrates by the thermal reduction of trichlorosilane containing appropriate dopants. Chemically deposited tin-dioxide films were used as antireflection coatings. Solar cells with AM1 efficiencies of about 8.5% have been obtained. Their spectral response, minority carrier diffusion length, and I/sub sc/-V/sub oc/ relation have been measured.