Improvement of Photovoltaic Cells Efficiency by Reducing Contamination in Single Chamber PECVD System by Passivation with a-Si:H and μc-Si:H Thin Films

Abstract

High performance solar cells, deposited in a single chamber, can be obtained when low levels of contamination exists for the p-,i-,n- layers. This is a recurrent problem not only in the laboratories, but also in the industrial single chamber plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) systems. In this paper an effective method of reducing the impurities, through the passivation with amorphous and nano/microcrystalline silicon thin film of the PECVD chamber walls, before and during the deposition of the solar cell layers is described.

Keywords

• a-Si:H
• μc-Si:H
• PECVD
• contamination
• solar cell