a-Si/c-Si heterojunction solar cells on SiSiC ceramic substrates

Silicon thin-film solar cells are considered to be one of the most promising cells in the future for their potential advantages, such as low cost, high efficiency, great stability, simple processing, and none-pol-lution. In this paper, latest progress on poly-crystalline silicon solar cells on ceramic substrates achieved by our group was reported. Rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) was used to deposited poly-crystalline silicon thin films, and the grains of as-grown film were enlarged by Zone-melting Recrystallization (ZMR). As a great change in cell's structure, traditional diffused pn homojunction was replaced by a-Si/c-Si heterojunction, which lead is to distinct improvement in cell's efficiency. A conversion efficiency of 3.42% has been achieved on 1 cm2 a-Si/c-Si heterojunction solar cell (Isc = 16.93 mA, Voc = 310.9 mV, FF = 0.6493, AM = 1.5 G, 24 °C), while the cell with diffused homojunction only got an efficiency of 0.6%. It indicates that a-Si emitter formed at low temperature might be more suitable for thin film cell on ceramics.