Small-scale production of 4-cm/sup 2/ ITO/InP photovoltaic solar cells

The procedures and results of a project that produced large-area (4-cm/sup 2/) cells using the sputtering process used to form small-area indium tin oxide (ITO)/InP solar cells are described. Although only a small number of the 4-cm/sup 2/ ITO/InP cells (approximately 10 cells total) were fabricated, the efficiency of the best cell compares favorably with the best result reported from a larger production of approximately 1300 2-cm/sup 2/ cells in which the junction was fabricated through a closed-ampoule diffusion process. The average cell efficiency is determined to be 15.5%, with a standard deviation of 0.35%. The highest cell performance obtained is 16.1% AM0 (SERI measurement). Preliminary dark I-V data analysis indicates that the cells demonstrate near-ideal characteristics, with a diode-ideality factor and reverse-saturation current density of 1.02 and 1.1 *10/sup -12/ mAcm/sup -2/, respectively.< >