Progress of SANYO's R&D on thin film silicon solar module

We have been developing original technologies for Localized Plasma Confinement (LPC) CVD method. LPC-CVD method achieves both a high deposition rate and a high conversion efficiency. From the results of IR analysis and Raman spectroscopy for µc-Si i-layer thin films, it was suggested that the combination of high stretching mode fractions in IR spectra and Raman crystallinity may have a correlation with the conversion efficiency of a-Si/µc-Si tandem cells. An R&D line for processing a-Si/µc-Si solar modules on G5.5 size glass substrates (1100 × 1400 mm 2 ) has been constructed. Module efficiency of 11.1% (Initial) and 10.0% (Stable) has been achieved with a film deposition rate for the µc-Si i-layer of 2.4 nm/s on a G5.5 size substrate.