Making Solar Cells

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Making Solar Cells

We will look at some the differences that stand between solar cells that are research and commercial in particular the following features - materials that are used (semiconductor, quality of semiconductor) - processing used (complexity, number of steps) - designs

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Research
Generally have more freedom in design since cost effectiveness is not main concern However, the idea is to develop a high efficiency design and then try to implement as a commercially viable process sometimes Because of the lack of restrictions in materials and processes the efficiencies reported for research devices are generally significantly higher than for commercial solar cells Sizes tend to be small also, not always striaght forward to scale up

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Commercial
Want material that is generally inexpensive though can be mitigated by high efficiency Processing has to be relatively straightforward (in general people with PhDs will not be doing this) Want as few processing steps as possible (more steps = more expensive and more chance for something to go wrong) Processes must be robust i.e. it works all the time if you have set up correctly Must be easily scaleable Ideally the disruption to current production is minimal we dont want to have to build a new factory

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Materials
Materials for solar cells are usually one or more of the following: Group IV (Si and Ge) III-V (GaAs, InP and variants) II-VI
CuInSe2 (CIS) CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) CdTe

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Silicon
First need to decide on type of silicon to be used
Float Zone: gives best diffusion lengths etc.. As impurities are reduced particularly oxygen. Popular for high efficiency devices in research Czochralski: good quality material with low impurities. Mainstay for single crystalline devices both research and commercial. Not as expensive as Float Zone Multi(Poly)crystalline: not as good as CZ or FZ, but much cheaper, efficiency will be highly variable from cell due to grain boundaries etc.. Very popular commercially. Amorphous: very cheap, not crystalline so low efficiencies. Easy to deposit with relatively high quality. Some research done but mostly used in disposable consumer applications

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Refining Silicon
Start with silica or sand (want low impurity concentrations) Fire with carbon to get metallurgical grade silicon SiO2 + C Si + CO2 To get semiconductor grade need to purify react with anhydrous HCl at 300 C Si + 3HCl SiHCl3 + H2 resulting solution distilled to reduce impurities Reacted with Hydrogen (1100 C for 200-300 hours!) to give pure silicon SiHCl3 + H2 Si + 3HCl End up with polysilicon rods broken up for feedstock

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Silicon - Multicrystalline

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Silicon - Czochralski

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Silicon Float Zone

Molten region contains the impurities move high temperature rf coil over ingot End up with high impurity stub throw away (actually recycle)

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Silicon - Amorphous
Low temperature deposition typically using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition
Can deposit on glass thin film solar cells

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Ribbon Silicon

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

High Silicon - PERL

Passivated Emitter Rear Locally diffused (PERL(d)) Current champion 25% efficiency Photolithography used for inverted pyramids on front surface Emitter and base passivated with high quality oxide Local diffusion to minimize metal-sc contact area Metal-sc contact area is also minimized at front Float zone Purely research

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

PERL contd
Inverted pyramids

Metal-semiconductor contact area minimized

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Back Contact
Completely avoid shading losses since no contact on the front Also interconnection is easier good for concentration Processing is necessarily more complicated

Problems with the increased area of the pn junction

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Buried Contact
Reduce shadowing losses whilst also minimizing resistance losses Some commercial uptake, still heavily researched

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Screen Printed
Texturing using pyramids - easy to do Contact is screen printed no buried contact feature Processing is straightforward Reasonable efficiencies ~ 16% Processes can be easily transferred Easily scaleable

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Emitter formation
Semiconductor material (wafer) comes doped (typically p type for silicon solar cells) Need to form a highly n type doped emitter layer for our solar cell Can grow with dopant incorporated methods such as MBE, MOCVD this is trivial To keep costs down, however, better to diffuse the n type dopant into the substrate For silicon, this means diffusing Phosphorus Since diffusing the dopant in, the doping density will vary with depth and junction is not sharp

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Emitter Diffusion
Must drive Phosphorus into the substrate so that N D >> N A High temperature process is required take too long E otherwise a D = Ae kT We already know that a diffusion flux is determined by the concentration gradient and its diffusivity, this is actually known as Ficks First Law J = D x However, this applies when we have a steady state i.e. the concentration distribution isnt changing with time
ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Emitter Diffusion
When concentration is changing we need to use Ficks second law 2 =D 2 x t Analogous to the heat equation If we have a concentration n(0) at the surface (we assume we have an unending supply) then a solution to this equation is x n( x, t ) = n(0)erfc 4 Dt Junction is formed where n(x,t) > NA

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Emitter Diffusion
When have a limited source, solution is a little different
x2 S n ( x, t ) = exp 4 Dt Dt

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Emitter Diffusion
Typically the diffusion is two stage First, a shallow pre-deposition using a semi-infinite source Second, a higher temperature drive-in diffusion using the pre-deposition as the source Remember dopant concentration mustnt be too high end up with solubility problem leading to a dead layer Since dopant concentration isnt constant the sheet resistivity is not so simple 1 = t ( x) N D ( x)dx
0
ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Emitter Diffusion
Solid source Phosphorus source can be used with diffusion furnace Spin on dopants also used

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Ion Implantation
Accelerate ions and fire them at semiconductor Best for shallow junction Good control of dose Creates damage to the crystal lattice Can also create some amorphization - it can melt!

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

Screen printed is dominant technology Start with 10 cm x 10 cm ~ 0.5 mm thick wafer of Silicon Saw damage means surfaces are rough give a chemical polish using a strong alkaline solution
Cleans wafer of any crud Removes damaged Silicon

Now ready to begin making solar cell

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

First create junction by n type diffusion

Wafer is heated to 800-1000 C in a phosphorus atmosphere giving thin layer of n type The n type layer at the edges means the top and bottom are connected
Need to remove to make our solar cell

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

Stack together so only edges are exposed Etch the edges away using a highly reactive plasma to remove the junction

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

Screen Print the rear contact Process the same as screen printing for a tee shirt

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

First heated gently to remove organic binders in the paste Second firing at much higher temperature to fire the metal into the Silicon

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

Finish up with screen printing of front contact grid Heated to fire the metal into the Silicon

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Solar Cell Production

Get something that looks like this What about AR coatings?

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Other Bits
Back contact firing will give a BSF improving performance but Al is relatively expensive and when fired require second metal layer to contact Dead layer effect reduced by shallower emitters, important since we need high doping under contacts AR coatings and/or surface texturing incorporated into process
Texturing often done at the start, difficult to manage with multicrystalline AR coating typically applied at the end, popular materials are TiO2 and Si1-xNx

Remember, decisions are based on economics not just what gives best performance

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Testing
Not all solar cells are created equal, especially when multicrystalline Testing of finished solar cell done by I-V, end up with bins of similar performance solar cells or grades Also want to test during the process
Dont want to continue processing if there is no chance of a good solar cell Identify any problems in the process flow easily and quickly

Movement towards techniques such as photoluminescence to check quality of feedstock

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Imaging
Inline

BT Imaging, Sydney Australia

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Imaging
Find Shunts
Thermography

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner

Imaging
Find cracks
Series resistance

ELEG620: Solar Electric Systems University of Delaware, ECE Spring 2009 S. Bremner