SBIR Phase II: Microwave Surface-Wave Plasma Source for Large-Area, High-Throughput, High-Quality Thin-Film Manufacturing for Solar Panels and Semiconductors

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目旨在开发一种等离子体增强化学气相沉积（PECVD）系统，用于沉积硅层，用于太阳能电池吸收阳光并转化为电能。目前的PECVD工艺面临着限制硅薄膜沉积质量和速度的挑战。这意味着更高的资本成本和效率更低的光伏组件，因此成本更高。在本项目中，将开发一种用于PECVD加工步骤的新型微波表面波等离子体源。这种源有可能将沉积速率提高到目前技术水平的10倍，同时保持高能量转换效率和长寿命所需的优异薄膜质量。该项目的预期结果是提供一种高处理速度的技术，适用于制造具有高能量转换效率的先进串联和三结太阳能电池。该项目的更广泛/商业影响将是有可能使高效率薄膜硅太阳能电池的制造成本达到或超过2020年1美元/瓦安装成本的电网平价目标。薄膜硅采用地球资源丰富的可持续材料，原料供应取之不尽，无毒问题。Starfire提供的解决方案解决了一个关键的制造挑战，有可能打破薄膜硅的瓶颈，并使其得到广泛采用。该技术还可用于半导体和先进照明等领域。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to develop a Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) system for the deposition of silicon layers for a solar cell to absorb sunlight and convert to electricity. Current PECVD processes face challenges that limit the quality and speed at which the silicon thin film can be deposited. This translates into higher capital cost and less efficient photovoltaic modules, thus higher cost. In this project, a novel microwave surface-wave plasma source for the PECVD processing step will be developed. This source has the potential to increase deposition rates by 10 times over the current state of the art, while maintaining excellent film quality needed for high energy conversion efficiency and long lifetime. The expected outcome of this project is to offer a technology with high processing speed that is suitable to manufacture advanced tandem and triple-junction solar cells with high energy conversion efficiency. The broader/commercial impacts of this project will be the potential to enable the manufacturing of high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells at costs meeting or exceeding the 2020 grid-parity goal of $1/Watt installed cost. Thin-film silicon uses earth-abundant, sustainable materials with inexhaustible supply of raw materials and no toxicity concerns. The solution provided by Starfire addresses a critical manufacturing challenge that has the potential to break the thin-film silicon bottleneck and enable its wide adoption. This technology can also be used in areas such as semiconductors and advanced lighting.