Abstract
Multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cell efficiency is strongly related to the bulk material lifetime due to the low electronic quality. The minority carrier lifetime of multicrystalline silicon can vary greatly during the high temperature furnace steps involved in cell processing. Quasi-steady state photoconductance (QssPc) measurements were used to monitor the lifetime of different mc-Si substrates and process sequences. It is important to identify the beneficial or detrimental processing steps, to minimize recombination (and therefore efficiency) at the completion of processing. The benefits of phosphorus diffusions and aluminum alloys were identified, while oxidations of ungettered substrates and metallization contributed to increased recombination and decreased effective lifetimes.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages (from-to) | 123-126 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference |
| Publication status | Published - 1997 |
| Event | Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE 26th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - Anaheim, CA, USA Duration: 29 Sept 1997 → 3 Oct 1997 |