Control of electron temperature in SiH4/H2 plasma for obtaining high photovoltaic performance in microcrystalline silicon solar cells

We have proposed two novel processes for the formation of fine n/i interface to improve the photovoltaic performance in substrate-type (n-i-p type) hydrogenated microcrystalline-silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells whose i layer is deposited at high growth rate of > 2.0 nm/sec; (1) gradual monosilane-(SiH4)-molecule-introduction method and (2) amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-layer-insertion method. When applying these two methods to the formation process of n/i interface in the solar cells, drastic improvement of the production reproducibility has been achieved in the fabrication process of high efficiency (> 9%) substrate-type μc-Si:H solar cells.