Apparatus for fabricating large-surface area polycrystalline silicon sheets for solar cell application
US7572334B2 · kind B2 · utility
1Cited by
144References
3Claims
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Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 3, 2006 |
| Grant date | Aug 11, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 7, 2026 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10T117/1068
Abstract
A method and apparatus for forming a semiconductor sheet suitable for use as a solar cell by depositing an array of solidified drops of a feed material on a sheet support. The desired properties of the sheet fabricated with the teaching of this invention are: flatness, low residual stress, minority carrier diffusion length greater than 40 microns, and minimum grain dimension at least two times the minority carrier diffusion length. In one embodiment, the deposition chamber is adapted to form and process sheets that have a surface area of about 1,000-2,400 cm2.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.