TY - GEN
T1 - Development of substrate structure CdTe photovoltaic devices with performance exceeding 10%
AU - Dhere, Ramesh G.
AU - Duenow, Joel N.
AU - Dehart, Clay M.
AU - Li, Jian V.
AU - Kuciauskas, Darius
AU - Gessert, Timothy A.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Most work on CdTe-based solar cells has focused on devices with a superstrate structure. This focus is due to the early success of the superstrate structure in producing high-efficiency cells, problems of suitable ohmic contacts for lightly doped CdTe, and the simplicity of the structure for manufacturing. The development of the CdCl2 heat treatment boosted CdTe technology and perpetuated the use of the superstrate structure. However, despite the beneficial attributes of the superstrate structure, devices with a substrate structure are attractive both commercially and scientifically. The substrate structure eliminates the need for transparent superstrates and thus allows the use of flexible metal and possibly plastic substrates. From a scientific perspective, it allows better control in forming the junction and direct access to the junction for detailed analysis. Research on such devices has been limited. The efficiency of these devices has been limited to around 8% due to low open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor. In this paper, we present our recent device development efforts at NREL on substrate-structure CdTe devices. We have found that processing parameters required to fabricate high-efficiency substrate CdTe PV devices differ from those necessary for traditional superstrate CdTe devices. We have worked on a variety of contact materials including Cu-doped ZnTe and CuxTe. We will present a comparative analysis of the performance of these contacts. In addition, we have studied the influence of fabrication parameters on junction properties. We will present an overview of our development work, which has led to CdTe devices with Voc values of more than 860 mV and NREL-confirmed efficiencies approaching 11%.
AB - Most work on CdTe-based solar cells has focused on devices with a superstrate structure. This focus is due to the early success of the superstrate structure in producing high-efficiency cells, problems of suitable ohmic contacts for lightly doped CdTe, and the simplicity of the structure for manufacturing. The development of the CdCl2 heat treatment boosted CdTe technology and perpetuated the use of the superstrate structure. However, despite the beneficial attributes of the superstrate structure, devices with a substrate structure are attractive both commercially and scientifically. The substrate structure eliminates the need for transparent superstrates and thus allows the use of flexible metal and possibly plastic substrates. From a scientific perspective, it allows better control in forming the junction and direct access to the junction for detailed analysis. Research on such devices has been limited. The efficiency of these devices has been limited to around 8% due to low open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor. In this paper, we present our recent device development efforts at NREL on substrate-structure CdTe devices. We have found that processing parameters required to fabricate high-efficiency substrate CdTe PV devices differ from those necessary for traditional superstrate CdTe devices. We have worked on a variety of contact materials including Cu-doped ZnTe and CuxTe. We will present a comparative analysis of the performance of these contacts. In addition, we have studied the influence of fabrication parameters on junction properties. We will present an overview of our development work, which has led to CdTe devices with Voc values of more than 860 mV and NREL-confirmed efficiencies approaching 11%.
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U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2012.6318260
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2012.6318260
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84869480580
SN - 9781467300643
T3 - Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
SP - 3208
EP - 3211
BT - Program - 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2012
T2 - 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2012
Y2 - 3 June 2012 through 8 June 2012
ER -