Jun 23 2010
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in association with RASIRC, one of the leading steam purification companies, will present their research findings on utilizing purified steam in the fabrication process of solar cells at the IEEE photovoltaic conference, which will be held during June 20-25, 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The research paper titled “Purified Steam for Thermal Oxidation Processes” will provide a comparison between purified steam and pyrolytic steam meant for fabrication of silicon solar cells. This paper will be presented during the “Posters, Crystalline Silicon: Device Fabrication and Manufacturing” conference session held on June 24.
The paper draws a comparison between the two steam production techniques, analyzes the physical characteristics of steam-grown, purified thermal oxides, as well as implements a direct oxidation process that is based on steam into an industrial production sequence meant for rear-surface passivated solar cells. It is found that by utilizing industrial equipment for thermal oxidation and wet chemical cleaning, high effective carrier lifetimes can be achieved.
Jeffrey Spiegelman, president and founder of RASIRC, said that the company’s research activity with Fraunhofer on the subject of the usage of purified steam in the fabrication process of solar cells has produced numerous positive as well as cost-effective results. He also added that this result signifies that purified steam facilitates the growth of thermal oxides meant for the industrial production of silicon solar cells that are thermal oxide-passivated.