Novel amorphous silicon solar cell using a manufacturing procedure with a temporary superstrate

We developed a novel temporary-superstrate concept for SnO2/p-i-n amorphous silicon solar cells. This concept combines roll-to-roll manufacturability, the utilization of light scattering, the conductive properties of SnO2:F, and the possibility of monolithic series connection. To this purpose, the deposition of high quality textured SnO2:F layers on aluminum foil has been developed using APCVD. Layers have been obtained with a transmission of 80% and a sheet resistance of 12 Ω/□. After definition of the entire p-i-n cell structure including the back contact, the cell is laminated with a permanent carrier foil. By removing the aluminum foil, light can enter the cell through the textured TCO layer. A wide variety of transparent encapsulants can be used to finalize the (flexible or preshaped) product. Preliminary cells made according to this scheme have an efficiency of 6%