A study on the fabrication of solar cells using recycled silicon wafers

Recycled single crystal Si wafers have been fabricated into solar cells. This could be a solution to the high cost of materials for solar cells. The p-type [100] single crystal Si wafers with high resistivity of 10-14 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm and thickness of 650 /spl mu/m were used for the fabrication of solar cells. The optimal conditions of formation of back surface field, surface texturing and antireflection coating were studied for obtaining high efficiency. In addition, the thickness variation of solar cells was also studied for the increase of efficiency. As a result, a solar cell with efficiency of 10.1% with a curve fill factor of 0.53 was fabricated with a Si wafer with area of 4 cm/sup 2/ and thickness of 300 /spl mu/m. According to these results, the recycling possibility of wasted wafers into single crystal Si solar cells was confirmed.