A new ribbon growth technique has been developed for the manufacture of semiconductor substrates intended for photovoltaic application. In the Edge stabilized ribbon (ESR) growth method, ribbon is grown from the melt surface with the edges stabilized by capillary attachment to wetted strings. Edge stabilized ribbon has been grown in widths of 2.5, 5.6 and 10.0 cm. The growth is extremely stable and the dimensional control is excellent with the growth of 50 - 100 micron thick ribbon a standard procedure. Solar cells fabricated on edge stabilized ribbon material demonstrate AM1 conversion efficiencies of 11% (corrected for AR coating) on 4 cm² area, with excellent consistency of performance. Infra-red laser scanner studies demonstrate that ESR performance is limited solely by high dislocation density. Future work will emphasize continuous melt replenished growth of low dislocation density material.

Date Published: 8 September 1983
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 0407, Photovoltaics for Solar Energy Applications II, (8 September 1983); doi: 10.1117/12.935693

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0407:
Photovoltaics for Solar Energy Applications II
David Adler, Editor(s)