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Training:
Course : Electricity Code: 4.3-4
Module: Solar Energy
Item: Solar PV Technology Prepared by: Mr. Kajjaku W
Detail: Types of Solar cells

TYPES OF SOLAR CELLS

The present processes for manufacturing solar cells are complicated, energy- consuming and
expensive, although considerable progress has been made in the last decade to lower the cost and
energy consumed per cell. This chapter describes the current techniques for ;-

a) Single – crystal ( mono crystalline)

b) Polycrystalline
c) Amorphous

Single crystal solar cell

Silicon can be got from sand. But the convenient source of silicon is silicon dioxide which is a form of
white quartzite sand. The sand is reduced to silicon in an electric arc furnace. A carbon arc reacts with
oxygen in the silicon dioxide to form carbon dioxide and silicon. This silicon has about 1% impurities
(metallurgical –grade silicon). The silicon is further purified either by thermal decomposition of
silane or by zone refining methods hence semiconductor grade silicon (electronic grade silicon) is
produced.

Silicon

Growing single crystals

Here a seed crystal is dipped into a crucible of molten silicon and slowly withdrawn, by pulling a large
round crystal, the molten material solidifies on the bottom of the seed. Feedback controls adjust the
pulling speed and the temperature of the melt to produce a crystal of a given size. The total mass of
the crystal is determined by the size of the pulling machine and the amount of material the crucible
can hold. A small amount of dopant is usually added to the silicon during this step to produce the
desired electronic properties. The techniques of growing silicon crystals have developed to the point
that crystals six inches in diameter and six feet long are routinely grown by the czochralski process as
shown in figure below.

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INFORMATION SHEET CODE : 4.3-4

Pulling
up

In got produced by
the process.
crucible
Molten
silicon

Slicing the crystal into wafers

Because most semiconductor devices, including photovoltaic cells, must be extremely thin, the silicon
crystal has to be sliced into thin wafers. The thickness of the wafer is about 0.012 inches. Thinner wafers
would be too difficult to handle. Slicing or wafering is usually done with a single thin metal blade coated
with diamonds

Cutting Wafers

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INFORMATION SHEET CODE : 8.3-4

Polishing and etching the wafer

The surfaces of a solar cell must be specially prepared to ensure the proper electrical and optical
properties. Originally solar cells were highly polished by using fine abrasives and chemical polishing
etchants. A number of these mixtures, first developed for the microelectronics industry, leave a mirror-
like surface that forms a good junction with metals used for electrical contacts.

Forming the p-n junction

The starting material for most photovoltaic cells is a p- type silicon .during crystal growth; a small
amount of boron is incorporated into the crystal lattice. To make a p-n homojunction cell, the top few
microns of the wafer must be made n- type. This is achieved by incorporating more phosphorous atoms
into the top layer of material than boron atoms. The excess phosphorus, being an electron donor, makes
the layer n- type.

To do this, a rack of wafers is heated to a high temperature in a diffusion furnace in the presence of
phosphorus- containing gas. At a high temperature, but one that is still well below the melting point of
silicon, the individual atoms will move and vibrate wildly within the crystal lattice and foreign atoms
striking the surface will diffuse slowly into the bulk of the material. If the temperature and time of the
exposure to the gas are properly controlled, a uniform junction can be formed a known distance into the
wafer.
The surface that is to be the back of the cell must be protected to keep the junction from forming there
also. A newer method of forming the front junction is ion implantation. This method has been used to
make integrated circuits for a number of years, but has been applied to solar cells just recently. In this
method, the ion implanter machine is used to shoot individual ions at the surface of the wafer.

Applying the fingers and back contact

Once the junction is formed, you have a working solar cell to make the cell usable, however, contacts
must be placed on the wafer so that the device can be connected to an external circuit. Both the front and
back contacts must be ohmic contacts with as low resistance to electric current as possible.

Solar cell

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The antireflecting coating

Silicon is a very shiny material with a grey metallic appearance. it reflects 35% or so of the light that falls
on it. To a solar cell , this is lost light that could have generated electricity. To lessen this waste, all solar
cells are coated with an antireflection coating , the same type of coating that has been used for decades on
the lenses of good cameras, binoculars, and other high – precision optics. The coating is very thin
normally less than 100 nanometers.

Silicon monoxide, titanium dioxide and some other optical coatings can be applied to the silicon in a
vacuum coating process such as vacuum evaporation or sputtering.
Another way to form an antireflection coating is to make it out of the top layer of silicon. Silicon can react
with oxygen or nitrogen containing gases to create silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. Although it is
difficult to obtain a sufficiently thick layer of silicon dioxide by this process, silicon nitride antireflection
coatings are used on commercial solar cells.

Note
The ultrapure semiconductor –grade silicon currently used in the manufacture of single crystal solar cell is
getting more expensive and more scarce as the electronics industry competes with the cell industry for
the limited output of the few producers. Though mono crystalline solar cells have a high efficiency( about
15-16%) , the ultrapure semi conductor – grade silicon needed for their manufacture make them very
expensive.

Poly crystalline silicon solar cell.

One of the most expensive , energy- intensive steps in making a solar cell is pulling the large single
crystal that serves as the starting material. If a perfect single crystal were not needed, a great deal of cost
could be eliminated. Some researchers who have tested polycrystalline silicon believe that the loss of
efficiency caused by the grain boundaries is just too great, but several methods of casting cubes of
polycrystalline silicon with large crystal grain sizes have led to polycrystalline solar cells with efficiencies
as high as those of the commercial single crystal solar cells.

The starting material for making polycrystalline solar cell is the metallurgical grade silicon which is much
cheaper than the electronic grade. The process of producing polycrystalline solar cell is similar to that of
single crystal solar cells the difference being that the pulling process which is energy consuming is
eliminated. The cooling of molten silicon is controlled so that the impurities in the starting material are
swept to one end of the block and then discarded. The resulting crystal grains in the blocks are so large
that the cells produced behave almost like single crystal cells.

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Amorphous silicon
One of the most surprising industrial developments has been the rapid growth of the amorphous solar cell.
From a laboratory curiosity in the early 1980’s, the cell has become a standard part of pocket calculators
and watches.

The two main obstacles to immediate large – scale utilization and production of amorphous power
modules are:
1) Light induced degradation
2) Poor yield in large area cell production
Amorphous silicon is pure silicon which has no crystal properties and the atoms are randomly distributed.
Glass is a good example of this.

Monocrystalline cells have an efficiency of 11- 16% (i.e if solar radiation is striking the cells at a
perpendicular angle with an intensity of 1000W/m2,110 to 160 watts per m2 of solar cell is converted to
electricity) monocrystalline cells are chemically stable, so they last for a very long time if properly
protected. Monocrystalline cells were the first to be developed for commercial purposes.

Polycrystalline (or multicrystalline) cells have a slightly lower efficiency than monocrystalline cells( i.e 9-
13%). Like monocrystalline cells, they have a longtime, and do not degrade over time. They are sliced
from cast ingots of polycrystalline silicon-made by different process than monocrystalline cells. Whereas
monocrystalline cells have a single color tone, polycrystalline cell surfaces have multiple patterns.

Amorphous ( or thin film ) cells are the most recently developed solar electric technology. Amorphous-
type cells do not use silicon in crystalline form. Instead, material is deposited on the back of a glass or
plastic surface in very thin layers. The surface is then scored to divide it into a number of cells, and
electrical connections are added. Amorphous modules can be manufactured much more cheaply than poly
and monocrystalline cells. Solar cells used in toys, calculators and watches are usually made from
amorphous silicon, and 10-12 W amorphous modules are common on the African market.

Amorphous cells operate according to the same principles as crystalline modules, but have much lower
efficiencies between 3-6%.Because they operate at low efficiencies; amorphous modules must be three to
four times the size of mono- or poly crystalline modules to generate the same power.

Amorphous silicon degrades over time, meaning that as they get older amorphous cells produce about
20% less power than their rating; after several months they degrade down to their rated power output.
Amorphous modules are most suitable for applications of 40 watts and under.

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