Large area deposition of intrinsic microcrystalline silicon for thin film solar cells

Abstract

This paper addresses the development of intrinsic /spl mu/c-Si:H films on 30/spl times/30 cm/sup 2/ substrate size as an intermediate step towards industry-size substrates (typically -1 m/sup 2/) by PECVD using 13.56 MHz excitation frequency. The authors succeeded in preparing high quality /spl mu/c-Si:H i-layers with good homogeneity over 27/spl times/27 cm/sup 2/. The corresponding deposition rates were 4-11 /spl Aring//s. The excellent material quality of these intrinsic /spl mu/c-Si:H films was proven by small area (1 cm/sup 2/) p-i-n solar cells with 8.1 and 6.6% efficiency at deposition rates of 5 and 10 /spl Aring//s, respectively. The doped layers of these cells were prepared in a small area PECVD reactor.