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Growth of Crystalline Silicon for Solar Cells: Noncontact Crucible Method

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Handbook of Photovoltaic Silicon

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Abstract

The noncontact crucible (NOC) method will have a potential to be as an advanced cast method. It is effective to obtain Si single ingots with the large diameter and volume using the cast furnace and solar cells with high yield of high conversion efficiency. Several novel characteristics of this method are explained on the view point of the existence of a large low-temperature region in a Si melt which is the key point to realize its enclosing potential as follows. The largest diameter ratio of 0.9 was obtained by expanding the low-temperature region in the Si melt. For p-type solar cells, the highest of 19.14% and the average conversion efficiencies of 19.0% were obtained for the NOC wafers, using the same solar cell structure and process to obtain the conversion efficiency of 19.1% for a p-type Czochralski (CZ) wafers. The present method realized solar cells with the conversion efficiency and yield as high as those of the CZ solar cells using the cast furnace for the first time. The latest information about the growth of Si ingots using the NOC method is explanatorily shown.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8577, Japan

    Kazuo Nakajima

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  1. Kazuo Nakajima
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Correspondence to Kazuo Nakajima .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Deren Yang

Section Editor information

  1. Tohoku University, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University; FUTURE-PV Innovation, Machiikedai 2-2-9, Koriyama, Fukushima, Japan

    Kazuo Nakajima

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Nakajima, K. (2017). Growth of Crystalline Silicon for Solar Cells: Noncontact Crucible Method. In: Yang, D. (eds) Handbook of Photovoltaic Silicon. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-52735-1_14-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-52735-1_14-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-52735-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-52735-1

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