Silicon Processing for Photovoltaics I (Materials Processing: Theory and Practices)

The processing of semiconductor silicon for manufacturing low cost photovoltaic products has been a field of increasing activity over the past decade. A variety of methods for reducing the manufacturing costs of raw materials, crystals, devices and end products have been under development around the world. Up until now comprehensive reviews of key technical developments in the field have not been available in any single convenient source. This volume hopes to rectify this by presenting a series of in depth reviews of major topics of interest written by experts and practitioners in the field.

The volume is confined to silicon and no papers on non silicon semiconductors are included. Topics covered include: polycrystalline silicon technology requirements for photovoltaic applications; Czochralski technology; growth of shaped crystals directly from the melt; beam processing technologies which promise low cost manufacture of solar cells, and, amorphous silicon technology.