JPH09283777A - Manufacture of solar cell - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform a process of manufacturing an amorphous silicon solar sell and a process of heat treatment in an atmosphere so as to improve a battery characteristic of the amorphous silicon solar cell after manufacturing and to shorten a charging time of a produced to be mounted with the solar cell as well as to reduce an area of the solar cell to be used small. SOLUTION: An amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cell consists of a glass substrate 11, which transmits visible rays, a transparent conductive layer 13 formed thereon, an insulating layer 15 formed thereon, a p-type layer 17 of a-Si formed thereon, an i-type layer 19 not doped with impurities of a-Si formed thereon, an n-type layer 21 of a-Si formed thereon and an electrode 23 formed thereon. Then, after a process of manufacturing the a-Si solar cell, the a-Si solar cell is put into a furnace in an atmosphere for being subjected to heat treatment for 30min followed by cooling. In junction with a heat treatment temperature, characteristics of a short circuit current density, an open-circuit voltage, a curvilinear factor and conversion efficiency are improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a solar cell, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing an amorphous silicon (hereinafter abbreviated as a-Si) solar cell capable of improving solar cell characteristics.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional solar cell manufacturing method, a solar cell characteristic is deteriorated by irradiating light for a long time without performing a heat treatment step immediately after manufacturing an a-Si solar cell. There is one in which a heat treatment step is performed on a -Si solar cell to return the characteristics of the solar cell to the initial state.

[0003]

In the conventional method for manufacturing a solar cell in which the heat treatment is not performed immediately after the production of the a-Si solar cell, no treatment is carried out after the production of the a-Si solar cell, so that a -It is not possible to improve the short-circuit current density, open circuit voltage, fill factor, and conversion efficiency of -Si solar cells.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, improve the solar cell characteristics of an a-Si solar cell after fabrication, shorten the charging time of solar cell mounted products, and reduce the solar cell area used. To do.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the method for producing a solar cell of the present invention employs the method described below.

The method of manufacturing a solar cell according to the present invention comprises a-Si
A solar cell manufacturing process for manufacturing a solar cell and a-
By performing a heat treatment step of heat-treating the Si solar cell, the short-circuit current density, the open circuit voltage, the fill factor, and the conversion efficiency are improved to improve the characteristics of the solar cell.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A method of manufacturing a solar cell according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a flow of a method for manufacturing a solar cell of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a-
It is a sectional view showing a typical solar cell using Si,
FIG. 3 is a power generation characteristic curve of an a-Si solar cell manufactured by a conventional technique, FIG. 4 is a power generation characteristic curve obtained by performing a heat treatment step at 175 ° C. or less according to the present invention, and FIG.
It is a power generation characteristic curve which heat-processed at 00 degreeC. Hereinafter, description will be made by alternately referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG.

When the a-Si layer is irradiated with light, it produces electrons and holes involved in power generation. In FIG. 2, 11 is a glass substrate that transmits visible light, 13 is a transparent conductive layer formed on the substrate of 11, 15 is an insulating layer formed on the transparent conductive layer of 1, 1
Reference numeral 7 denotes an a-Si p-type layer formed on the layer 15; 19 is an i-type layer not doped with an a-Si impurity formed on the layer 17; 21 is formed on the layer 19; A-Si
Is an n-type layer, and 23 is an electrode formed on 21 layers.

The a-Si layer is formed by glow discharge in an atmosphere containing a silicon-based material gas represented by silane and p-type and n-type doping gases, and the insulating layer is formed by a silicon-based material represented by silane. It is formed by glow discharge in an atmosphere containing gas and nitrogen gas.

FIG. 3 shows a prepared before heat treatment.
It is a characteristic curve 31 of a -Si solar cell. Table 1 below lists the solar cell characteristics before heat treatment under 500 lux.

[0011]

[Table 1]

After the step of producing the a-Si solar cell,
The a-Si solar cell is placed in a furnace in the atmosphere. Heat treatment is performed for 30 minutes in this furnace, and then cooled.

FIG. 4 shows the prepared a-Si solar cell 175.
It is a power generation characteristic curve under 500 lux at the time of heat-processing below ° C.

When the heat treatment of the power generation characteristic curve 31 of the a-Si solar cell before the heat treatment is performed at a temperature of 175 ° C. or less, the heat treatment is performed at 125 ° C.
A power generation characteristic curve 43 heat-treated at ℃ and a power generation characteristic curve 45 heat-treated at 175 ℃. It can be seen that the power generation characteristic curve becomes larger as the heat treatment temperature rises.

Further, in Table 2 below, the characteristics of the solar cells subjected to the heat treatment process at 175 ° C. or less are shown.
The characteristics under 00 lux are listed.

[0016]

[Table 2]

The characteristics of the short circuit current density, the open circuit voltage, the fill factor, and the conversion efficiency are improved with the increase of the heat treatment temperature.

FIG. 5 is a power generation characteristic curve when the manufactured solar cell is heat-treated at a temperature higher than 175 ° C.

When the heat treatment of the power generation characteristic curve 31 before the heat treatment was performed at a temperature higher than 175 ° C., the solar cell produced as the characteristic curve 51 heat-treated at 200 ° C. was destroyed.

It can be seen that the power generation characteristic curve is smaller than the characteristic curve 31 before the heat treatment.

In Table 3 below, the characteristics of a solar cell subjected to heat treatment at 200 ° C. under 500 lux are listed.

[0022]

[Table 3]

No improvement in the characteristics of open-circuit voltage, fill factor and conversion efficiency is observed.

As described above, after the conventional a-Si solar cell is manufactured, the heat treatment process of the a-Si solar cell is performed as in the present invention, whereby the characteristics of the a-Si solar cell are improved. To be

In the above description, an a-Si solar cell using a glass substrate has been described, but the present invention can also be applied to an a-Si solar cell using another substrate such as stainless steel.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, in the method for manufacturing a solar cell of the present invention, the solar cell manufacturing process for manufacturing an a-Si solar cell and the heat treatment step for heat-treating the a-Si solar cell are performed. By doing so, it is possible to improve the characteristics of the a-Si solar cell.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the steps of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a typical cross-sectional view of an a-Si solar cell.

FIG. 3 is a power generation characteristic curve of an a-Si solar cell manufactured by a conventional technique.

FIG. 4 is a power generation characteristic curve of an a-Si solar cell manufactured by the present invention and subjected to a heat treatment step at 175 ° C. or lower.

FIG. 5 is a power generation characteristic curve of an a-Si solar cell manufactured by the present invention and subjected to a heat treatment step at 200 ° C.

[Explanation of symbols]

 31 power generation characteristic curve 41 power generation characteristic curve at 125 ° C 43 power generation characteristic curve at 150 ° C 45 power generation characteristic curve at 175 ° C 51 power generation characteristic curve at 200 ° C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a solar cell, comprising a solar cell manufacturing step of manufacturing an amorphous silicon solar cell and a heat treatment step of heat-treating the amorphous silicon solar cell in the atmosphere.