Sixtron Advanced Materials, a provider of silane-free coating solutions, has introduced the patent-pending Silexium technology, an antireflective passivation coating designed to nearly eliminate light-induced degradation (LID) in solar cells.
LID reduces the efficiency of modules in the field by up to 5% in the first few hours of exposure to the sun, thus significantly reducing the net energy harvest. Sixtron says it has demonstrated that solar cells with a Silexium antireflective passivation coating exhibit at least 88% less LID than solar cells with traditional silane-based SiNx coatings.
The precursor for Silexium films is delivered to industry-standard plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition equipment by Sixtron's SunBox silane-free gas generation system.
To minimize the effects of LID, manufacturers of high-efficiency monocrystalline cells have, until now, been forced to specify expensive high-grade boron-doped p-type Czochralski wafers or use alternatives to the traditional wafer manufacturing process. The Silexium process technology now provides manufacturers with a drop-in solution to LID that enables maximum flexibility within their silicon wafer supply chain, the company says.
Sixtron: (514) 421-0202
SOURCE: Sixtron
