Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films and Triple-Junction Solar Cells

We report on microcrystalline silicon thin films and a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H/mu c-Si:H triple-junction p-i-n solar cells deposited on large-area glass substrate. Microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) bottom cells were deposited at a VHF-PECVD deposition system with 40.68MHz. It is necessary to develop the uniformity of mu c-Si:H thin films for large-area deposition of high-quality triple-junction solar cells. By optimizing the deposition parameters, mu c-Si:H thin films have been obtained with good thickness and very good crystalline volume fractions uniformity over the whole substrates area. The triple-junction module have been successful fabricated. The best module on 0.79 m(2) size substrates has an initial total-area efficiency of 8.35%.