Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cell With 81.6% Fill Factor, Deposited by Physical Vapour Deposition Methods Only

It is shown here that silicon (Si) based solar cells can be deposited by physical vapour deposition (PVD) methods only. These cells are called the PVD-Si cells. Their processing eliminates the deposition methods involving high temperature processing steps, and / or expensive, toxic and flammable gases used for processing conventional solar cells with Si absorbers. The PVD-Si cell design investigated has the structure of ITO | MoOx| c-Si | LiF | Al. When this cell is deposited on an untextured crystalline (c-Si) wafer, it has a fill factor value of 81.6% under the standard test conditions (STC). In order to improve the amount of short-circuit current density (Jsc) generated, this cell is also demonstrated on a textured c-Si wafer, achieving Jsc of 35.94 mA/cm2 under STC.