Throughput optimized a-Si/μc-Si tandem solar cells on sputter-etched ZnO substrates

Recently, Applied Materials has demonstrated the ability to manufacture large area a-Si/μc-Si thin film modules with total area efficiencies of 10% and above. Reducing the production costs is now the key objective for an economic success of this technology. Decreasing the absorber layer thickness or increasing the deposition rate can reduce the cost significantly because the PECVD deposition of the silicon layers is one of the main cost contributors. But this would also reduce the conversion efficiency of amorphous/microcrystalline tandem cells (a-Si/μc-Si TJ cells). Therefore, optimizing TJ cells for maximal productivity requires a careful balancing of layer thicknesses and deposition rates. In this paper we studied the impact of deposition rates and absorber layer thicknesses for top and bottom cells. The reduction of the bottom cell (BC) thickness from 2μm to less than 1μm showed only a small impact on the stabilized module efficiency while having a big impact on the productivity of a production line. The influence of the top cell (TC) deposition rate on the other hand results in a big decrease of the efficiency while having only a small impact on the line output. 10.2% stable mini-module efficiency could be achieved with 900nm BC thickness, reducing the deposition time by 50%. ► The impact of layer thickness on a-Si/μc-Si tandem cell efficiency was carefully investigated. ► Stable module efficiencies above 10% can be achieved with 0.9μm bottom cell thickness. ► Thin tandem cells made with low top cell deposition rate give the highest productivity. ► Sputter-etched ZnO is an excellent substrate for high efficiency tandem cells.