High-efficiency a-Si/c-Si heterojunction solar cell

An aperture-area conversion efficiency of 20.0% (intrinsic efficiency: 21.0%) has been achieved for a 1.0 cm/sup 2/ CZ n-type single crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell, by using the "HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer)" structure on both sides of the cell. This is the world's highest value for a c-Si solar cell in which the junction is fabricated at a low temperature of below 200/spl deg/C. In this paper, the junction fabrication technologies and features of the HIT structure are reviewed. The stability under light and thermal exposure, and the temperature dependence on performance of a high-efficiency HIT solar cell are also reported.