2010•EU PVSECOpen access
Advanced Large Area TCO Production Line for Economic Manufacturing of High Efficiency a-Si/μc-Si Based Thin Film Modules
Daube, C., Schmidt, U.I., D. Severin, Kurthen, Ch., C. Goergens, K. Ahmed, I.E. Vermeir, Kuhr, N., Klein, S., Axel Straub, S. Wieder, Daniel F. Förster, Zilbauer, Th., A. Rembeck, Rudolf Schubert, Martin P. Rohde, Stoemmer, C., T. Deppisch
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Abstract
For a-Si/μc-Si based solar cells, effective light trapping, specifically in the long wavelength range, is of decisive importance towards demonstrating stabilized module efficiencies of 10% and beyond. Since commercially available F-doped SnO2 coatings on glass are reaching their limits here, Applied Materials has developed a large area sputtering based front transparent conductor solution meeting the challenging targets of the industry on module performance, cost effectiveness and flexibility in terms of tunability for best performance on different absorber layer stacks. To date, we repeatably achieved stabilized module efficiencies of 10.2% stable on Gen5 (1.4 m²) a-Si/μc-Si based modules with this technology. This would result in 10.5% projected efficiency on Gen8.5 (5.7 m²). Gen8.5 modules with 596 W initial powers were recently demonstrated as a first step in the process transfer from Gen5 to Gen8.5.