High-quality a-Si and its application to solar cells

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Since the discovery of valency control of amorphous silicon (a-Si) by Spear and Le Comber, remarkable improvements have been made in the fields of both fundamental research of a-Si and device applications, such as solar cells. Concerning a-Si solar cells, a total-area efficiency of 10–2% has been achieved for a 10 cm × 10 cm integrated-type single-junction a-Si solar cell submodule. This is the highest conversion efficiency ever reported for an a-Si solar cell with an area of 100 cm2, including multijunction cells. The high efficiency is obtained by improving the quality of the player and p/i buffer layer using the super-chamber method and by improving the quality of the player by using a new p-type dopant B(CH3)3. With regard to applications of a-Si solar cells, various kinds of system have been developed, for example a-Si solar cell roofing tiles. As a future prospect, a global photovoltaic power system, called GENESIS, is proposed.