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