Progress of Thin-Film Silicon Photovoltaic Technologies in SANYO

Methods to achieve a good balance among a high conversion efficiency, a large panel size and a high deposition rate of mu c-Si:H for mass production are shown here. For this purpose, an original technology called the Localized Plasma Confinement CVD (LPC-CVD) method is investigated. Using know-how from this method, an amorphous silicon/microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) solar panel, whose size is Gen. 5.5 (1100?mm?x?1400?mm) and whose mu c-Si:H deposition rate is 2.4?nm/s, with a conversion efficiency of 11.1% (Voc?=?161.7?V, Isc?=?1.46?A, FF?=?72.4%, Pmax?=?171?W) is obtained. It is also experimentally confirmed that the value is equivalent to 10.0% of stabilized efficiency. Various reliability tests that conform to IEC standards have been performed for solar modules. It has been shown that the solar modules adapt to the major categories of IEC standards. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.