Silicon on Ceramic Process. Silicon Sheet Growth Development for the Large-Area Silicon Sheet Task of the Low-Cost Silicon Solar Array Project. Annual Report No. 2, September 17, 1976--September 19, 1977

摘要

The objective of this research program is to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of producing solar-cell-quality sheet silicon by coating one surface of carbonized ceramic substrates with a thin layer of large-grain polycrystalline silicon from the melt. In the past year significant progress was made in all areas of the program. The physical and chemical properties of the standard mullite refractory used for the majority of the coating runs (McDanel MV20 and Coors S1SI) have been characterized. A number of experimental compositions have been identified and procured from Coors. Characterization of the standard compositions revealed that the thermal expansion of mullite depends on both relative amounts of glass phase and on the impurity level in the glass. Since the thermal expansion in mullite exceeds that of silicon, the silicon coating should be in a state of compression. This was confirmed by x-ray measurements. After modifying and cleaning the dip-coating facility, silicon on ceramic (SOC) solar cells were fabricated which demonstrate that the SOC process can produce silicon of solar cell quality. SOC cells having 1 cm exp 2 active areas demonstrated measured conversion efficiencies as high as 7.2 percent. Typical open-ciruit voltages (V/sub oc/) and short-circuit current densities (J/sub sc/) were 0.51 volt and 20 mA/cm exp 2 , respectively. Since the active surface of these solar cells is a highly reflective ''as-grown'' surface, one can expect improvement in J/sub sc/ after an anti-reflection (AR) coating is applied. Results of an economic analysis of the SOC process are presented. (ERA citation 03:021273)