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.

doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2013.10.033

Authors

Zhengfei Wei

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
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