Silicon thin-film solar cells on insulating intermediate layers

An interdigitated front grid structure for both the emitter and base was simulated and realized. This contact design is suitable for thin-film solar cells on insulating substrates or insulating intermediate layers. Confirmed efficiencies of up to 18.2% were achieved on a 46 mu m thick epitaxial silicon layer which was grown on a SIMOX wafer with an implanted compact SiO2 intermediate layer. Samples with and without a highly doped back surface field were prepared to study the influence of the back-side recombination velocity. L-eff values of 250 and 52 mu m, corresponding to S-back values of 800 and 10(5) cm/s, respectively, were measured, thus, underlining the importance of a low back-side recombination velocity. The optical confinement properties of the SiO2 intermediate layers were calculated depending on the angle of the incident rays. An angle from the plane normal which is larger than 23 degrees is necessary in order to achieve the condition of total internal reflection. Future work will focus on recrystallized Si layers on foreign substrates [1]. Since the surface of the silicon layer is fairly rough after the recrystallisation process, another set of masks was designed which is more tolerant to aligning accuracy. This is mainly relevant for the area where the base contacts are located between the locally diffused emitter. The technology for CVD Si-layer deposition, zone melting recrystallization (ZMR), as well as for a simplified solar cell process is under investigation.