Innovative paste-type solar cell

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13720
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: General applied physics
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Kato Yoshimine 九州大学, 工学研究院, 准教授 (60380573)
• Research Collaborator: Matsumoto Hiroshige ; Tanaka Satoru ; Teii Kungen ; Ooue Satoru ; Nakano Hiroaki
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 太陽電池 / シリコン微結晶 / ペースト / 遊星ボールミル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Single crystalline-Si based solar cell is still expensive due to cost of growing Si crystal and considerable waste during sawing Si ingots. In order to reduce the cost of Si crystal growth, we propose a method of making Si pastes from Si ploly-crstalline chips.
p- and n-type Si pastes were prepared in a way by utilizing a planetary ball miller to pulverize Si source material.　pn homojunction was formed by coating Si pastes onto metal substrates, followed by annealing under Ar atmosphere. The optimal annealing temperature was found to be around 1050 °C that exhibits the lowest resistivity. A typical rectifying property of diode with small photovoltaic was observed for the device fabricated. It is anticipated that Si pastes could have potential for low cost device fabrication such as solar cells. All Cz Si ingot growth procedures could be skipped, consequently it is expected that the manufacturing cost for solar cell can be greatly reduced.

Free Research Field

自然科学、半導体デバイス・物性、超音波ガス検知

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Ｓｉペースト塗布法によるpn-接合の製作に成功し、Ｓｉ塗布型太陽電池を作成できる可能性を示すことが出来た。Ｓｉは非常に酸化しやすい物質であり、Ｓｉペースト塗布によるデバイスの製造は半導体では常識はずれであり困難なプロセスである。本研究でＳｉ粒子などの酸化防止手法を見出し、デバイスとしての応用が見出せる結果が得られた。まだ、効率の高い太陽電池は出来ていないが、今後、塗布法でＳｉなどの安価な材料でＳＣが製造できるようになれば、価格が劇的に安くなり、固定価格買取制度無しでも未来のエネルギー源としてのＳＣが世の中に普及することは間違いない。