Thin film solar cells using impure polycrystalline silicon

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Abstract
Epitaxial solar cells have been studied with the view of using rather impure upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG)-Si as a substrate material. It is confirmed that transition elements have segregated during ingot growth and that impurities such as B, P, Al do not diffuse from substrate to epilayers, so that the latter have resistivity and electron diffusion length adequate to produce good solar cells. 10.3 % efficiency cells have been obtained. By spectral response measurements, interpreted through a simple model, it is shown that this efficiency is limited by both absorption and collection losses in the thin active epilayer. With the help of a brief economic analysis, this technique is compared to the other ones able to make use of cheap UMG-Si

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