Zhengfei Wei
Design and optimisation of process parameters in an in-line CIGS evaporation pilot system
Wei, Zhengfei; Bobbili, Prabhakara Rao; Senthilarasu, S.; Shimell, Terry; Upadhyaya, Hari M.
Authors
Prabhakara Rao Bobbili
Dr Senthilarasu Sundaram S.Sundaram@napier.ac.uk
Associate Professor
Terry Shimell
Hari M. Upadhyaya
Abstract
Substantial efforts have been made globally towards improving Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cell efficiencies with several organisations successfully exceeding the 20% barrier on a research level using the three-stage CIGS process, but commercial mass production of the three-stage process has been limited due to the technological difficulties of scaling-up. An attempt has been made to identify these issues by designing and manufacturing an in-line pilot production deposition system for the three-stage CIGS process which is capable of processing 30 cm × 30 cm modules. The optimisation of the process parameters such as source and substrate temperature, deposition uniformity, flux of copper, indium, gallium and selenium and thickness control has been presented in this investigation. A simplistic thickness distribution model of the evaporated films was developed to predict and validate the designed deposition process, which delivers a comparable simulation compared with the experimental data. These experiments also focused on the optimisation of the temperature uniformity across 30 cm × 30 cm area using a specially designed graphite heating system, which is crucial to form the correct α-phase CIGS in the desired time period. A three-dimensional heat transfer model using COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2a software has been developed and validated with the help of experimental data.
Citation
Wei, Z., Bobbili, P. R., Senthilarasu, S., Shimell, T., & Upadhyaya, H. M. (2014). Design and optimisation of process parameters in an in-line CIGS evaporation pilot system. Surface and Coatings Technology, 241, 159-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2013.10.033
Journal Article Type | Article |
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Online Publication Date | Oct 28, 2013 |
Publication Date | Feb 25, 2014 |
Deposit Date | Mar 13, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 15, 2023 |
Print ISSN | 0257-8972 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 241 |
Pages | 159-167 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2013.10.033 |
Keywords | CIGS solar cells, Up-scaling, Uniformity, Evaporation, Thickness, Heat transfer |
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Design and optimisation of process parameters in an in-line CIGS evaporation pilot system
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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