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Recent Progress in Up-Scaling of Amorphous and Micromorph Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells to 1.4 m2 Modules

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Johannes Meier ,
Ulrich Kroll ,
Stefano Benagli ,
Tobias Roschek ,
Andreas Huegli ,
Joel Spitznagel ,
Oliver Kluth ,
Daniel Borello ,
Michael Mohr  and
Dmitri Zimin
...Show all authors
Johannes Meier
Affiliation:
johannes.meier@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland, +41 32 732 5593, +41 32 732 5580
Ulrich Kroll
Affiliation:
ulrich.kroll@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland
Stefano Benagli
Affiliation:
stephano.benagli@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland
Tobias Roschek
Affiliation:
tobias.roschek@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Andreas Huegli
Affiliation:
andreas.huegli@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Joel Spitznagel
Affiliation:
joel.spitznagel@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland
Oliver Kluth
Affiliation:
oliver.kluth@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Daniel Borello
Affiliation:
daniel.borello@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland
Michael Mohr
Affiliation:
michael.mohr@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Dmitri Zimin
Affiliation:
dmitri.zimin@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Giovanni Monteduro
Affiliation:
giovanni.monteduro@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland
Jiri Springer
Affiliation:
Jiri.springer@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Christoph Ellert
Affiliation:
christoph.ellert@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Girogios Androutsopoulos
Affiliation:
girogios.androutsopoulos@oerlikon.com, Oerlikon Solar-Lab S.A., Puits-Godet 6a, Neuchâtel, CH-2000, Switzerland
Gerold Buechel
Affiliation:
gerold.buechel@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Arno Zindel
Affiliation:
arno.zindel@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
Franz Baumgartner
Affiliation:
franz.baumgartner@ntb.ch, University of Applied Science Buchs, Werdenbergstrasse 4, Buchs, CH-9471, Switzerland
Detlev Koch-Ospelt
Affiliation:
detlev.koch-ospelt@oerlikon.com, OC Oerlikon Balzers A.G., Balzers, LI-9496, Liechtenstein
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Abstract

In this paper an overview of our developments towards industrialization of thin film silicon PV modules is presented.Amorphous silicon p-i-n solar cells have been developed in medium size single-chamber R&D KAI-M PECVD reactors. High initial efficiencies of 10.6 % and stabilized of 8.6 % could be achieved for a 1 cm2 a-Si:H p-i-nsolar cell of 0.20 m thick i-layer deposited on TCO from Asahi U type (SnO2). On our in-house developed LPCVD ZnO we could further improve the stabilized a-Si:H p-i-n efficiency to a similar level of 8.5 %. Incorporating such cells in commercial available front TCO of lower quality still leads to high initial mini-module aperture efficiencies (10 × 10 cm2) of 9.1% and stabilized ones of 7.46% (independently measured by ESTI JRC-Ispra).

Transferring the processes from the KAI-M to the industrial size 1.1×1.25 m2 KAI-1200 R&D reactors resulted in a-Si:H modules of 110.6 W using commercial TCO, respectively 112.4 W when applying in-house developed LPCVD front ZnO. Both initial module performances have been independently measured by ESTI laboratories of JRC Ispra. A typical temperature coefficient for the module power of -0.22 %/°C (relative loss) has been deduced from temperature dependent I-V characteristics at ESTI laboratories of JRC Ispra. Finally, micromorph mini-modules of 10 % initial aperture efficiency have been fabricated.

Keywords

photovoltaicoptoelectronicplasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) (deposition)

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