Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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VA: Fachverband Vakuumphysik und Vakuumtechnik

VA 3: Challenging vacuum applications

VA 3.1: Invited Talk

Monday, March 23, 2009, 14:00–14:45, HSZ 101

Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells and Modules: From R&D Lab Developments to Large-area Production Tools — •Ulrich Kroll et al. — Oerlikon Solar-Lab SA, Rue du Puits-Godet 12a, CH-2000 Neuchâtel

Up-scaling of thin film silicon solar cells to industrial commercial products of 1 m2 module area is a highly challenging task. Hereby, the transfer of high efficiency device results obtained in small area research-type equipments to large area high performance R&D and high productivity mass fabrication equipment are important issues needed to be solved. Especially the PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) equipment in the thin film production line is one of the most important key elements to bring the module efficiency up and to reduce manufacturing costs.

In a first step, deposition processes are developed and optimized in smaller R&D KAI systems. These process parameters are then transferred to industrial size reactors of 1.4 m2. Following this strategy we achieved recently amorphous silicon p-i-n single-junction and Micromorph (amorphous/ microcrystalline silicon) tandem junction 1.4 m2 R&D solar modules with initial aperture module efficiencies of 9.63% respectively of 9.6 %. These remarkable efficiencies clearly demonstrate the high potential of our PECVD systems.

Based on these results, Oerlikon Solar as an equipment manufacturer is installing production facilities for amorphous silicon and Micromorph PV modules in the range well above several 100 MW capacities for all its customers worldwide.