Front Contact For Solar Cells Research Articles

High aspect ratio triangular front contacts for solar cells fabricated by string‐printing

AbstractWe are presenting a novel method to fabricate high aspect ratio, triangular cross‐section solar cell front contacts, henceforth referred to as string‐printing. We optimized string‐printing to yield contacts with an aspect ratio larger than 1 and a light redirection efficiency or effective transparency of 67%, thereby mitigating most of the optical losses inherent to flat metallic front grids. In string‐printing, a string coated with silver paste approaches a substrate until contact is made. Withdrawing the string then leaves behind silver paste on the substrate. Here, we describe the fabrication method and show initial results including current density‐voltage curves of string‐printed silicon heterojunction solar cells, as well as the effective transparencies of the contacts. String‐printing is a scalable, low‐temperature process with high potential to boost commercial solar cell efficiency and lower the module price per Watt.

Effective Utilization of Synthesized FeS2 for Improving Output Performance of Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cell

Solar cells are capable of converting light energy into electrical energy and can completely replace the utilization of fossil fuel energy resources. The current research work majorly concentrates on the development and coating of antireflection materials over the front contact of silicon solar cells. Ferrous disulphide was one of the wide band gap semiconductors employed as a catalytic electrode (in DSSCs), counter electrode (in QDSSs), and solar energy harvester. FeS2 was synthesized through the hydrothermal method. The antireflective coating was performed over solar cells through the electrospraying technique. It was found that the antireflective material was distributed evenly over the coating substrate at 2 ml/h for 30 (F1), 60 (F2), 90 (F3), and 120 (F4) min. The coated solar cells were examined under neodymium light illumination mimicking sunlight. The effect of electrosprayed FeS2 films adhered over the front contact of solar cells was evaluated using various characterization techniques. The maximum efficiency attained by coated solar cells under indirect light was 19.6%. With the aid of electrospraying, hydrothermally synthesized FeS2 assists incoming photons with energy greater than the bandgap of a procured Si solar cell to take part in the photogeneration process. The maximum Isc and Voc of 38.08 mA/cm2 and 0.655 V were achieved for the F3 solar cell under neodymium irradiation.

High‐Resistance Metal Oxide Window Layers for Optimal Front Contact Interfaces in Sb2Se3 Solar Cells

Herein, an in‐depth experimental investigation into the effect of employing different high resistance metal oxide (HRMO) layers on the quality of the front contact in solar cells with an fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO)/(HRMO)/CdS/Sb2Se3/Au device architecture is presented. The application of ZnO or TiO2 HRMO layers between FTO substrates and CdS improves the overall device performance. Short‐circuit current gains of ≈20%, orders of magnitude higher shunt resistances (≈104 Ω cm2), and greatly improved device stabilities—maintaining over 95% of their initial efficiency over 137 days are observed. A suppression of the unfavorable (120) orientation of the photoactive Sb2Se3 layer is observed in devices with HRMO interlayers. The application of HRMO layers is crucial to prevent both ohmic and non‐ohmic current leaks and maintain device stability over time. Cross‐over in the current‐voltage (JV) curves observed in the case of TiO2 indicates the presence of a high barrier for the diode current in these devices. Wavelength‐dependent JV curves coupled with capacitance measurements and simulations show that this barrier can be attributed to a high density of interfacial acceptor states. In contrast, ZnO deposition is found to reduce interface defects and enhance the quality of the front contact, while boosting performance and increasing device longevity.

Improved Nanophotonic Front Contact Design for High‐Performance Perovskite Single‐Junction and Perovskite/Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells

The front contact of solar cells greatly influences the optoelectronic performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by controlling the coherent light propagation as well as charge transport within the device. Herein, the nanophotonic front contact consisting of multilayer nanodomes and nanoholes for high‐efficiency perovskite single‐junction and perovskite/perovskite tandem solar cells (PVK/PVK TSCs) is investigated. The optical and electrical characteristics of solar cells are investigated by conducting an advanced 3D numerical approach with the combination of finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) and finite‐element method (FEM) simulations embedded with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The numerical modeling is validated by fabricating a set of efficient PSCs, optimized to a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.9%, VOC of 1.07 V, JSC of 21.8 mA cm−2 and fill factor (FF) of 77%. The nanophotonic device results in improved JSC by 10−15%, resulting from 10−15% enhanced light incoupling compared with the planar device, while also strengthening the omnidirectional capabilities at angles of illumination as high as 40°. The optimized nanophotonic front contact results in PCEs of >23% and >30% (matched JSC ≈18 mA cm−2) for single‐junction PSCs and PVK/PVK TSCs, respectively. Details of the nanophotonic front contact, device, and fabrication process are provided.

Al2O3-TiOx as full area passivating contacts for silicon surfaces utilizing oxygen scavenging titanium interlayers

Full area transparent contacts are the next step in order to enhance the efficiency of silicon based passivated emitter rear cells. Here we present a full area contact based on Al2O3 and reduced TiOx. The thin Al2O3 acts as passivating tunneling layer, whereas the TiOx is used for charge carrier transport. This work provides a way to enhance the conductivity of TiOx by forming gas annealing (FGA) and doping with tantalum. Furthermore, it addresses the native SiOx without chemical treatment. A thin titanium interlayer (Ti-IL) serves this purpose. Current-voltage measurements reveal a contact resistance of 30 Ωcm2 for 50 nm of pure TiOx. Ta-doping combined with a 6 nm thick Ti-IL reduces the contact resistance by two orders of magnitude down to 0.36 Ωcm2. The passivation by an Al2O3/TiOx layer stack leads to an excellent surface recombination velocity (SRV) of 5.6 cm/s with only 3 nm Al2O3 but results in a large contact resistance of about 100 Ωcm2. This contact resistance can be reduced by three orders of magnitude down to 0.25 Ωcm2 including a 10 nm Ti-IL while still providing a sufficient SRV of about 60 cm/s. The absorption coefficient of 6.3×105 cm−1 inhibits the usage as front contact for solar cells. However, it could be used as a backside contact, since the transmission is less important on the backside of a monofacial solar cell.

OPTIMIZATION OF POROUS SILICON CHARACTERISTICS FOR SOLAR BATTERIES

The aim is to form the anti-reflective layers of porous silicon on the solar cell surface in the presence of the current-collecting contact comb at the effective area, as well as the study of the state of front contact system of solar cells after etching on their main characteristics.The analysis of the influence of electrochemical etching on the state of the solar cell front contact system without antireflection coating was carried out on the basis of the dependences of the reflectance spectrum of porous silicon on its thickness and refractive index. In the range of wavelengths of 550-850 nm, a minimal reflection from the porous layer surface for the thickness of porous silicon from 70 to 100 nm was found, and its refractive index ranges from 1.35 to 1.9.The critical time of staying of the solar cell structure in the electrolyte, the excess of which leads to the damage of contact fingers of the front current-collecting contact comb was found. For anodization in an electrolyte C2 H5 OH:HF=1:1, the critical time was 45 s. The reduction of the anodizing time to 10 s at anodic charge density of 0.46 C/cm2 allowed to obtain porous silicon layers without significant damage to the current-collecting comb. By reducing the duration of electrochemical treatment to 3-6 s and increasing the anode current, it was possible to completely prevent the damage of the contact system.The results of study of the main solar cell parameters before and after formation of anti-reflective layer on the basis of porous silicon showed that for mono- and multicrystalline solar cells the increase in photocurrent exceeded 50%, the efficiency increased by 25% and 22% respectively for mono- and multicrystalline samples. At the same time, for all tested samples, the open-circuit voltage decreased by 2.5%, and the fill factor degraded by 10.7% and 18.8% for mono- and multicrystalline solar cells, respectively.

Mesoscale trumps nanoscale: metallic mesoscale contact morphology for improved light trapping, optical absorption and grid conductance in silicon solar cells.

We report on a computational study exploring the design of mesoscale metallic front contacts for solar cells. We investigated silver contact structures with circle, triangle and square cross-sections for various length scales and surface coverages. We found that for 'nanoscale' contacts with widths between 10 nm and 1000 nm, resonant coupling actually impairs light absorption in the semiconductor. Conversely, for 'mesoscale' contact widths > 1000 nm, the light interaction is determined by the geometric shadowing. We find that mesoscale silver contacts with triangular cross-section outperform other nanostructure morphologies in reducing shadow losses and yield contact transparency of >99% percent with sheet resistance <0.2 Ω/sq. Surprisingly, very densely spaced mesoscale silver triangular cross-section contacts can enhance the absorption of thin silicon/silver structures by up to 15% at a front contact coverage of 83%, due to light trapping by the front contact. Such structures can also maintain up to 100% absorption within the silicon, at a front contact coverage of 50%, relative to the same structure without metal.

(Invited) Electrodeposition for Large Scale Photovoltaic Deployment : A Prospective Trial

Photovoltaics is entering a new age. With more than 300 GW of cumulative capacity by the end of 2016, while it was almost zero ten years ago, which represents about 1.5% of the world electricity production, photovoltaics is becoming a key component in the energy transition. The situation is even more evident when considering the contribution of photovoltaics country by country, reaching about 8% in Germany, Italy, Greece. it is also emerging very rapidly in USA, China, India, Chile for instance. It is anticipated that the level of 500 GW will be reached by 2020 and the symbolic one of one TW in the next decade. The reason is that photovoltaics is becoming economically competitive with the traditional energy sector with negociated prices as low as 3 cents per kWh in some regions. However to go futher in this direction will need an disruptive evolution of all the production chain to lower the costs, increase the efficiency and increase the throughput. Up to now the photovoltaic industrial sector is mostly based on wafer based silicon technology and on vaccuum based thin film solar cells of cadmium telluride or copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS). Electrodeposition is almost absent in this industrial lanscape, excepted for the emerging copper plating technology for the contact in silicon solar cells, and the other experiences for implementing the electrodeposition in thin film technologies failed. Our vision is that in the new context there will be a unique opportunity to demonstrate that electrodeposition can be implemented as a disruptive technology for larger scale PV depoyment. We will recall the results obtained for the electrodeposition of CIGS solar cells from the laboratory to the industrial pilot line in Nexcis ( a spin off of our laboratory). Using a two stage approach from the electrodeposition of metallic precursors followed by thermal selenization, a record cell efficiency of 17.3 % was reached, and modules with full size (120 x60 cm2) at 14% efficiency in 2015, which was equivalent to the state of the art for CIGS modules prepared by vaccuum methods. Unfortunately for economic reasons, as many CIGS companies at that time, the company was stopped in 2015. However the unique features of the CIGS electrodeposition technology for large area and high throughput and robustness was successfully demonstrated. This research line has been maintained in our laboratory and is presently reactivated taking the lessons of the Nexcis experience. We will discuss a new process for the electrodeposition of CIGS absorbers, via an intermediate step consisting in single bath electrodeposition of mixed oxide hydroxyde copper indium gallium layers followed by thermal hydrogen reduction to form the metallic layer before selenization. The deposition of transparent conductive oxide layers by photoelectrodeposition has been successfully developped too and may become a new standard to replace more costly sputtering methods [2-4. We will also present applications and devices which specifically take benefit from a unique advantage electrodeposition approach, that is localized deposition on structured substrates. Two examples will be given: one for the electrodeposition for photovoltaic semitransparent windows and the second one for the deposition of microcells and microlines for a new concept of PV modules working under concentration. In that case we will also discuss of the mechanisms of electrodeposition of multicomponent CIGS films in conditions of microelectrode array configurations, and the challenges for upscaling. We will conclude with some prospective views at longer term as for instance for using electrodeposition in the next generation of PV modules with higher efficiencies (>30%) based on tandem devives, in that case electrodeposition of thin film solar cells could be combined with classical silicon bottom cells. References F. Tsin, et al. Electrodeposition of ZnO window layer for an all-atmospheric fabrication process of chalcogenide solar cell, Scientific Reports 5(2015)8961A. Duchatelet, G. Savidand, N. Loones, E. Chassaing, D. Lincot, Mechanism of Electrochemical Deposition of Cu-In-Ga Mixed Oxide/Hydroxide Thin Films for Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 Solar Cells, J. Electrochem. Soc. 161(2014)D3120 F. Tsin, D. Hariskos, D. Lincot, J. Rousset, Photo-assisted electrodeposition of a ZnO front contact on a p/n junction, Electrochimica Acta 220(2016)176 A. Duchatelet, K. Nguyen, PP Grand, D. Lincot, M. Paire, Self-aligned growth of thin film Cu(In, Ga)Se-2 solar cells on various micropatterns, Applied Physics Letters, 109 (2016) 253901J. Rousset, F. Tsin, M. Guc, J. Vidal, A. Lebris, A. Thomere, V. Izquerdo Roca, D. Lincot, Perchlorate-Induced Doping of Electrodeposited ZnO Films for Optoelectronic Applications J. Physical Chem. C 120(2016)18953 F. Tsin, J. Rousset, A. Lebris, D. Lincot, Electrodeposited zinc grid as low-cost solar cell front contact, Progress in Photovoltaics 24(2016)1123

Electrodeposited zinc grid as low-cost solar cell front contact

This paper presents an innovative low-cost electrodeposition process to grow metallic zinc grids as a front contact for Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 (CIGS) and silicon heterojunction solar cells as an alternative to complex and expensive monolithic integration and silver screen printing techniques respectively. Morphological and electrical properties of the grid have been investigated and compared with a reference evaporated one. High quality and conformal zinc grids have been deposited showing very high growth rates up to 3.3 µm min−1. Zinc grid is successfully deposited as front electrode for CIGS solar cells that are fabricated by a variety of deposition processes. Efficiency (16.3%) is achieved without antireflection coating on a 0.5 cm2 co-evaporated absorber and 14.8% on an electrodeposited one. Using electrodeposition for the growth of the doped ZnO film as well, a 14.1% efficiency is demonstrated on an all-wet solar cell only composed of layers deposited by atmospheric methods—from absorber to metallic grid. The process is then applied to a 4.2 cm2 cell as a first step toward large-scale application. Finally, a zinc grid is deposited on a 0.5 cm2 silicon heterojunction showing a promising 17% efficiency. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Electrodeposition of ZnO window layer for an all-atmospheric fabrication process of chalcogenide solar cell.

This paper presents the low cost electrodeposition of a transparent and conductive chlorine doped ZnO layer with performances comparable to that produced by standard vacuum processes. First, an in-depth study of the defect physics by ab-initio calculation shows that chlorine is one of the best candidates to dope the ZnO. This result is experimentally confirmed by a complete optical analysis of the ZnO layer deposited in a chloride rich solution. We demonstrate that high doping levels (>1020 cm−3) and mobilities (up to 20 cm2 V−1 s−1) can be reached by insertion of chlorine in the lattice. The process developed in this study has been applied on a CdS/Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 p-n junction produced in a pilot line by a non vacuum process, to be tested as solar cell front contact deposition method. As a result efficiency of 14.3% has been reached opening the way of atmospheric production of Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 solar cell.

Novel Sol-gel Route to Synthesize Transparent Conductive Oxides for Front Contact of Solar Cells

The thin films of transparent conductive zinc oxide (ZnO) are synthesized by novel sol gel spin coating method. We deposit thin films as primary application of front contact of the thin film solar cells such as Cu2 (Zn,Sn)S4(CZTS). The thin films are deposited by varying the molar concentration of the zinc oxide solution with different molar concentrations. The effect of molar concentration and annealing are temperature dependent. The main orientation of the deposited ZnO are observed at (101) peak by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) micrographs. We observed the optical transmittance of our samples by optical spectroscopy and one of them showed the transmittance more than 90%. The deposited thin films show high transparency and are the potential candidate to be used as window layer in thin film based solar cells.

The variation of the features of SnO2 and SnO2:F thin films as a function of V dopant

V doped SnO2 and SnO2:F thin films were successfully deposited on glass substrates at 500 °C with spray pyrolysis. It was observed that all films had SnO2 tetragonal rutile structure and the preferential orientation depended on spray solution chemistry (doping element and solvent type) by X-ray diffraction measurements. The lowest sheet resistance and the highest optical band gap, figure of merit, infrared (IR) reflectivity values of V doped SnO2 for ethanol and propane-2-ol solvents and V doped SnO2:F films were found to be 88.62 Ω–3.947 eV–1.02 × 10−4 Ω−1–65.49 %, 65.35 Ω–3.955 eV–8.54 × 10−4 Ω−1–72.58 %, 5.15 Ω–4.076 eV–6.15 × 10−2 Ω−1–97.32 %, respectively, with the electrical and optical measurements. Morphological properties of the films were investigated by atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope measurements. From these analysis, the films consisted of nanoparticles and the film morphology depended on doping ratio/type and solvent type. It was observed pyramidal, polyhedron, needle-shaped and spherical grains on the films’ surfaces. The films obtained in present study with these properties can be used as front contact for solar cells and it can be also one of appealing materials for other optoelectronic and IR coating applications.

Effects of B2O3 content variation on the Bi ions in Bi2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glass structure

The Bi-based lead-free frit for silicon solar cell front contact has a shortage of conversion efficiency compared with traditional products that contain Pb. One feasible method to increase conversion efficiency is by improving the current flow at the interface. The current flow establishment is controlled by the reaction of Bi ions to Ag, SiNx, and the Si wafer. However, the microstructure of Bi ions in the glasses remains unclear. In this work, two groups of Bi2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glasses were studied through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared, and Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The results suggest that the Bi3+ to Bi5+ transformation is induced by the increase in B2O3 content in both the 30mol% and 60mol% Bi glasses. The coexistence of [BiO3] and [BiO6] is confirmed in all ternary samples. The [BO4] units exhibit in all borosilicate glass. The [BO3] structure only emerges in a high boron concentration. The glass transition temperature (Tg) is strongly affected by the ratio of Non-Bridging Oxygen. The Oxygen packing density also has influence on Tg but not obvious.

Effect of Light on Electroless Nickel Deposition for Solar Cell Applications

In c-Si solar cell front contact metallization, nickel-copper electroplating scheme is found to be economical compared to other available techniques. In this metallization process, nickel seed layer deposition is looking simple but very important step in terms of its grain size, minimum thickness reaching the continuity of the film and its uniformity. Thin, uniform and continuous nickel seed layer helps in reducing the metal-semiconductor contact resistance as well as prevent junction shunting during silicide formation at the metal-semiconductor interface. Although, there are different process parameters affecting the morphology of the nickel film in electroless chemical bath deposition, but due to the photovoltaic effect of the p-n junction of the solar cell, the ambient light affects the nickel deposition process. The effect of light on electroless nickel (EN) deposition has been studied in this work. For this purpose the experiments have been performed in different lighting conditions like: dark, ambient, varying intensity UV-VIS light. Also, the nickel depositions have been done for different periods of time from very small period like 30s to longer periods like: 1min, 2min, 3min and 4min to see the effect at the initial stage of depositions as well as for prolonged deposition. Alkaline bath (pH ∼7.5) was selected for EN-deposition and other experimental conditions were kept same for all the experiments. EN- deposition under dark is found to be the most suitable for nickel-copper metallization process and it is having some built-in benefits which have been mentioned in this work.

Interface modeling between the printed thick-film silver paste and emitter for crystalline silicon solar cells

According to the potential barriers generated by the silver, glass layer, and N+ emitter, an analytical model is developed to explain interface contact performance between the printed thick-film silver paste and emitter for crystalline silicon solar cells. According to the model, the front contact resistance between the sintered silver and N+ emitter is simulated at different doping concentrations, temperatures, and density of state. The quantitative expression of interface contact resistance between the printed thick-film silver paste and N+ emitter is derived for the first time. The results in this study unify different viewpoints about the current transport mechanisms at the sintered silver-silicon interface. If the glass frit chemistry and silver particle size are carefully tailored, the silver consumption per watt can be reduced, and the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells can be further improved. The results lay the foundation for studying the screen-printed crystalline silicon solar cell front contact metallization system. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Improvement of short circuit current of mono crystalline silicon solar cells

In this report we present series of experiments during which the short circuit current of mono crystalline silicon solar cell was improved step by step so as a consequence the efficiency was increased. At first, the front contact of solar cell was optimized to reduce the shadow loss and the series resistance. Then surface treatments were prepared by TMAH solution to reduce the total light reflectance and to improve the light trapping effect. Finally, antireflection coatings were deposited to passivate the front surface either by silicon nitride thin layer or to increase the collection probability by indium tin oxide layer, and to reduce the reflectance of light. As a result, solar cells of about 13% have been obtained, with the average open circuit voltage Voc about 527mV, with the fill factor about 68% and the short circuit current about 7.92 mA/cm2 under the irradiation density of 21 mW/cm2.

Investigation of contact resistance between silicon and silver paste made by screen-printing

In this paper, the front contact resistance of screen-printing crystalline silicon solar cells was investigated. By establishing a fine model for silicon and silver paste contact made by screen-printing and fire-through, the three kinds of conduction mechanism were analyzed quantitatively. According to the model, the comprehensive calculation of the contact resistance between silicon and silver paste sintering was made for the first time. The results calculated in this study suggest that the contact resistance of silicon and silver paste is about 1.20 mΩ for 125 mm × 125 mm single crystalline silicon solar cells, this approximately agrees with the measured values. By optimizing composition of silver paste according to our results, the silver consumption per watt can be reduced, and the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells can be further improved. The results laid the foundation for studying the screen-printed crystalline silicon solar cell front contact metallization system.

Analysis of single junction a-Si:H solar cells grown on different TCO’s

In consequence of previous investigation of individual transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and absorber layers a study was carried out on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells with diluted intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers deposited on glass substrates covered with different TCO films. The TCO film forms the front contact of the super-strata solar cell and has to exhibit good electrical (high conductivity) and optical (high transmittance) properties. In this paper we focused our attention on the influence of using different TCO’s as a front contact in solar cells with structure as follows: Corning glass substrate/TCO (800, 950 nm)/p-type μc-Si:H (∼5 nm)/p-type a-Si:H (10 nm)/a-SiC:H buffer layer (∼5 nm)/intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layer with dilution R = [H2]/[SiH4] = 20 (300 nm)/n-type a-Si:H layer (20 nm)/Ag + Al back contact (100 + 200 nm). Diode sputtered ZnO:Ga, textured and non-textured ZnO:Al [3] and commercially fabricated ASAHI (SnO2:F) U-type TCO’s have been used. The morphology and structure of ZnO films were altered by reactive ion etching (RIE) and post-deposition annealing.It can be concluded that the single junction a-Si:H solar cells with ZnO:Al films achieved comparable parameters as those prepared with commercially fabricated ASAHI U-type TCO’s.

High rate reactive magnetron sputtering of ZnO:Al films from rotating metallic targets

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) films were reactively sputtered at a high discharge power from dual rotating metallic targets (Zn:Al = 99.5:0.5 wt.%). Deposition conditions like substrate temperature and working points were varied in order to prepare high quality ZnO:Al films. The influences on electrical and optical ZnO:Al thin film properties and surface texture before and after chemical etching in diluted HCl were studied in order to achieve light scattering films as front contact for solar cells. High dynamic deposition rate close to 90 nm m/min and high Hall mobility of up to 47 cm 2/Vs were obtained. Transmission of more than 85% in the visible spectral range is obtained for all ZnO:Al films in this study. In addition, the absorption in near infrared region is low due to low doping. Surface texture after etching is usually much rougher than before. However, some films reveal after etching small surface features that are similar to initial surface features. We propose a relationship between initial and post-etched surface textures.

Synthesis and characterization of highly transparent and conductive SnO2:F and In2O3:Sn thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis

Highly transparent and conductive thin films of SnO2:F and In2O3:Sn (ITO) have been prepared on glass substrates using the simple pyrolitic (spray) method. Through an exhaustive parameter study and using as diagnostic method for the film quality a figure of merit defined as a function of both, the transmittance and the electric resistivity, the conditions to prepare the SnO2:F and ITO films, with adequate properties to be used as transparent front contact for solar cells, were achieved. A relevant contribution of this work is related with the deposition of SnO2:F and ITO films with the mentioned characteristics, using a solution synthesized in our laboratory by dissolving the precursor metals in HCl. Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin films were obtained, with transmittances greater than 80% and resistivities smaller than 7x10- 4 omega·cm, results which are comparable with those obtained using commercial reactants. Results concerning the influence of the synthesis parameters on the optical, electrical and structural properties of the TCO films are reported.