Low-temperature fabrication of microcrystalline silicon and its application to solar cells

Low-temperature fabrication process for microcrystalline silicon solar cells has been developed using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. The advantage of the low-temperature process is: (i) better crystallinity of B-doped films for the p-layer and (ii) intrinsic nature of undoped films for the i-layer. These phenomena are explained in terms of the beneficial role of hydrogen. This low-temperature process was used to fabricate the microcrystalline silicon solar cells on a glass/ZnO substrate at 140 °C and on a plastic substrates at 100 °C. Their efficiencies were 9.4% and 5.9%, respectively.