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ECN publication
Title:
Multicrystalline silicon solar cells
 
Author(s):
 
Published by: Publication date:
ECN 1998
 
ECN report number: Document type:
ECN-RX--98-012 Article (scientific)
 
Number of pages:
14  

Published in: Paper presented at the 9th CIMTEC, World ceramics congress and forum on new materials, June 14-19, 1998, Florence, Italy (), , , Vol., p.-.

Abstract:
Multicrystalline silicon is an important material for the fabrication ofcommercial wafer-type solar cells. This coarse-grained crystalline silicon is presently produced using hot crucible casting followed by sawing, but various alternative techniques such as electromagnetic ('cold crucible') casting and direct casting are under development. The electrical quality of multicrystalline silicon is generally lower than that of single-crystal silicon due to the presence of higher concentrations of impurities, and of crystal defects and grain boundaries. Nevertheless, the producers of multicrystalline silicon have been able to reduce the effective difference between multicrystalline silicon and single-crystal silicon dramatically over the past 10-15 years. Using dedicated processing techniques (including passivation and gettering) it is possible to make multicrystalline silicon cells with efficiencies only 1-2% lower than those of comparable single-crystal cells. Typical efficiency numbers are 12-14% (for cells encapsulated in a module). 19 refs.


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