SBIR PHASE II: Novel Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cell Devices Prepared Using a Unique Microwave Gas Jet Deposition Technique

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段将进一步开发一种新的微波气体喷射技术，用于以高沉积速率生产高效微晶硅太阳能电池。在第一阶段，证明了用A/S沉积技术可以制备用于单结NiP太阳电池的微晶硅I层，比用标准工艺制备的速度高3-5倍。这些速率使得大规模生产微晶电池在经济上是可行的。微晶电池作为高效非晶硅多结太阳电池器件中的红光吸收结构，由于其效率不会随着长时间的光暴露而降低，因此是非晶硅锗电池的一种有吸引力的替代方案。因此，微晶材料的使用将为多结电池带来更高的稳定效率。在第二阶段，这些微晶电池的太阳能电池效率将通过优化沉积条件进一步提高，包括使用碳基和氟基气体，以及使用新的负载锁定硬件来制备掺杂层，而不需要暴露在层界面上。此外，还将测试用于气体喷射技术大规模使用的硬件设计。一项成功的计划将导致ECD合资太阳能组件生产线中的标准射频辉光放电沉积技术被气体喷射技术取代，并在ECD的三结太阳能电池设计中用更稳定的微晶层取代或红光吸收非晶硅锗层。因此，我们将以更低的成本制造具有更高稳定效率的模块。这将导致光伏(PV)产品的更广泛使用，从而减少对化石燃料能源的依赖。开发高沉积速率技术以制备高质量的微晶硅也可以用于其他应用，如薄膜晶体管、光电探测器和光传感器。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II will further develop a novel microwave Gas Jet technique for its use the production of high efficiency microciystalline silicon solar cells at high deposition rates. In Phase I, it was demonstrated technique can he used to prepare microcrystalline silicon i-layers for single-junction nip solar cells at deposition A/s, rate 3-5 times high than those obtained using standard techniques. These rates make the large-scale production microcrystalline cells economically feasible. Microcrystalline cells are an attractive alternative to amorphous silicon germanium cells as red light absorbing structures in high efficiency amorphous silicon based multi-junction solar cell devices because their efficiencies do not degrade with long-term light exposure. Thus use of the microcyrstalline materials will lead to higher stable efficiencies for the multi-junction cells. In Phase II, the solar cell efficiencies for these microcrystalline cells will be further improved through optimization of the deposition conditions which include the use of carbon and fluorine based gases, and use of new load-locked hardware for the preparation of doped layers without air exposure of layer interfaces. Also, hardware designs for large-scale usage of the Gas Jet technique will be tested. A successful program will lead to the replacement of the standard rf glow discharge deposition technique in ECD's joint venture solar module production lines with the Gas Jet technique as well as the replacement or red-light absorbing amorphous silicongermanium layers in ECD's triple-junction solar cell design with more stable microcrystalline layers. As a result, we will fabricate modules with higher stable efficiencies at reduced costs. This will lead to a wider use of Photovoltaic (PV) products thereby reducing the dependency on fossil fuel energy sources. Development of a high deposition rate technique to prepare high quality microcrystallitic silicon could also be used in other applications such as in thin film transistors, photodetectors, and photosensors.