AMORPHOUS AND MICROCRYSTALLINE SILICON P-I-N SOLAR CELLS ON FLEXIBLE POLYMER SUBSTRATES DEPOSITED BY AN INLINE VHF-PECVD DEPOSITION SYSTEM

摘要

Amorphous and microcrystalline silicon solar cells were deposited with a VHF inline deposition system. The particularity of the process is the movement of substrates during deposition beneath linear plasma sources (500×100 mm) operated at 81.36 MHz. The method is predestinated for roll-to-roll deposition of silicon based thin film solar cells on flexible substrates. Therefore in this work a-Si:H solar cells were deposited on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) covered with a ZnSnO_x barrier layer and an ITO front contact layer. The focus was on the mechanical stability of flexible solar cells when exposed to tensile and compressive stress at different stages of the manufacturing process. Up to now initial efficiencies of 5.92% for a-Si:H p-i-n solar cells were achieved at 140°C on flexible PET-substrates. Maximum initial efficiencies of 9.47% were achieved on glass at slightly elevated temperatures.