Metal-induced growth of poly-Si on foreign substrates for solar cell applications
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Guliants, E.A.; Anderson, W.A.
- Source
- Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2000 (Cat. No.00CH37036) Photovoltaic specialist conference Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE. :154-157 2000
- Subject
- Photonics and Electrooptics
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Photovoltaic cells
Substrates
Silicon
Semiconductor films
Semiconductor thin films
Costs
Atomic force microscopy
Scanning electron microscopy
Photovoltaic systems
Solar power generation
- Language
- ISSN
- 0160-8371
A new technological method of producing 0.5-6 /spl mu/m thick device-quality poly-Si films at temperatures below 600/spl deg/C has been developed. The technique relies on the epitaxial columnar growth of the Si crystals on the lattice-matching NiSi/sub 2/ formed as a result of the Si deposition on a Ni prelayer, whose thickness is shown to influence the Si structure. The Si was sputtered onto the heated substrate which was previously coated with 25 nm of Ni. Such metal-induced growth (MIG) of polysilicon is proven to be applicable to a variety of inexpensive, lightweight foreign substrates, with Ni disilicide providing a good back ohmic contact to the Si film. The MIG-diode performance is promising for solar cell applications.