Solar cell fabricated on welded thin flexible silicon

¹ Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern), Haberstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
² Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstr 10, Box 676, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
³ BLZ-Bavarian Laser Center, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 2-6, 91052 Erlangen, Germany
⁴ i-MEET: institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstr. 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

^a e-mail: maik.hessmann@zae-bayern.de

Received: 5 August 2015
Accepted: 6 November 2015
Published online: 11 December 2015

Abstract

We present a thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell with an AM1.5 efficiency of 11.5% fabricated on welded 50 μm thin silicon foils. The aperture area of the cell is 1.00 cm². The cell has an open-circuit voltage of 570 mV, a short-circuit current density of 29.9 mA cm^-2 and a fill factor of 67.6%. These are the first results ever presented for solar cells on welded silicon foils. The foils were welded together in order to create the first thin flexible monocrystalline band substrate. A flexible band substrate offers the possibility to overcome the area restriction of ingot-based monocrystalline silicon wafers and the feasibility of a roll-to-roll manufacturing. In combination with an epitaxial and layer transfer process a decrease in production costs can be achieved.