Rapid Thermal Processing as a Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology for the 21~(st) Century

摘要

Rapid thermal processing (RTP) based on incoherent radiation as the source of energy is already playing a major role in the manufacturing of integrated circuits. The fundamental interaction of photons and matter results into quantum and thermal effects. By properly designing processing equipment (exploiting quantum effects in RTP) and using optimum heating and cooling rates, bulk and thin-film, high-efficiency solar cells can be fabricated with high throughput, and lower manufacturing cost. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have fabricated the highest efficiency bulk silicon solar cells(>19percent) by RTP. In this paper, we have provided experimental results showing the following advantages of RTP over any other thermal processing technique: (i) lower processing temperature, (ii) lower processing time, and (iii) lower microscopic defects. These results show that RTP has the potential of meeting future manufacturing requirements for bulk and thin-film solar cells.