Solar cell technologies 

• First Generation Solar cells
» Silicon wafer based solar cell technologies 
(300 to 350 μm)

• Second Generation Solar cells
» Thin film based solar cell technologies
CdTe, CuInS2 and amorphous‐Silicon (5 to 10 μm) 

• Third Generation Solar cells
» Organic and nanostructured based solar cell 
technologies
 Production of Silicon
• Most widely used semiconductor material for solar cell 
applications.

• 90% of world’s solar photovoltaic modules are produced in Si 
wafers.

• 1975 , world wide PV module production was about 2 MWp
2007,                                                 it has grown to 3000 MWp

• Earlier, it was using electronic grad silicon
Now, PV industry is looking for solar grade silicon  
Various routes for making solar cells from silicon material
Production of Metallurgical grade Silicon (MGS)
Arc furnace

98% pure Silicon
Energy consumed in the process is quite high 
It is in the range of 13 to 15 kWh/Kg
Out of this 5% only will be used for making electronic grade silicon
 Typical impurity concentrations 
in metallurgical‐grade silicon 
Element Concentration  
(particles per million)
aluminum 1000‐4350 manganese 50‐120

boron 40‐60 molybdenum < 20

calcium 245‐500 nickel 10‐105

chromium 50‐200 phosphorus 20‐50
copper 15‐45 titanium 140‐300
iron 1550‐6500 vanadium 50‐250
magnesium 10‐50 zirconium 20
 Production of Electronic grade Silicon (EGS)

(a) Production of high purity Silicon containing gases

Si(s) + 3HCl (g) ---Æ SiHCl3 (g) + H2 +Heat

at 300 C

SiHCl3 ---Æ SiH4 + SiCl4 + H2

(b) Obtaining electronic grade solid silicon

SiHCl3(g) + H2 (g) ----- Si (s) + HCl

Seimens reactor
 Typical impurity concentrations 
in electronic‐grade silicon 
Element Concentration   (particles per billion)
arsenic < 0.001 gold < 0.00001
antimony < 0.001 iron 0.1‐1.0
boron ≤ 0.1 nickel 0.1‐0.5
carbon 100‐1000 oxygen 100‐400

chromium < 0.01 phosphorus≤ 0.3

cobalt 0.001 silver 0.001

copper 0.1 zinc < 0.1
 Production of silicon wafers 

Czochralski Float-Zone
(CZ) process (FZ) process

Atomic arrangements of Si atoms in EGS is not good

Which contains large number of defects.
This can be done by Silicon ingots preparation
Called Czochralski (CZ) and Float Zone (FZ) process
 Multicrystalline Silicon Ingots
Several crystals of different orientations in an ingot

70% silicon solar cells now produced from this material

Cheaper block costing method

Directional solidification
There is a large growth of PV industry (nearly 30%)
& relatively small growth in microelectronic industry (< 10%)

During this time Microelectronic industry can not supply the
enough Electronic  grade silicon  for Silicon based solar cells 
 What is the alternate ? 
• Solar grade (SoG) Silicon
refining process from MGS

HCl, HF, Al, Fe, Cr, Mn, Ni, Ti

HNO3, H2SO4

Vapour pressure
difference

Segregation
coefficient

Impurities are high compared to EGS

Production cost of Silicon as function of impurity level
Process flow for commercial wafer-based solar cells

Alkaline NaOH

Phosphorous

Plasms enhanced chemical

Vapour deposition method
SiNx-H

Metall contacts with Al and Ag

 Modeled losses from an ideal solar cell
Incident solar radiation
100%
Other losses
18%

Useful energy
29% Third Generation
Solar cells
Will address this
Thermalization problem
32%

Sub-bandgap
losses
21%

The most noticeable loss mechanism in solar energy conversion relates to the fact
that the basic electronic excitation process in Photovoltaics
and also in photochemical processes & photobiological such as photosynthesis
Book Reference

Solar Photovoltaics:
Fundamentals, Technologies and Applications

By
Chetan Singh Solanki