Amorphous Semiconductors

And
Solar Cells

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Amorphous Semiconductors are used in
many applications, including:

Solar Cells

Thin Film Displays

Electrophotography

Switching devices

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 Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) LCD Displays

Liquid Crystal Displays Developed by RCA Laboratories in 1968

Work by acting as a light valve either blocking light or allowing it to pass

An electric field is applied to alter the properties of each Liquid Crystal Cell
(LCC) to change each pixels light absorption properties

Colors are added through filtering process

Modern Laptops produce virtually unlimited colors at very high resolution

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 Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) LCD Displays
Path of light through a TFT LCD
In an TFT display, each LCC is stimulated
by a dedicated thin-film transistor matrix,
with one transistor at each pixel.
Light comes from behind either LED or
fluorescent source
Beam of light is polarized, then goes through
TFT matrix, which decides which pixels should
be on or off
If on, molecules in LCC will align in a single
direction, allowing light to pass
Color filters block all wavelengths of light
except those within the range of the pixel.
Areas between pixels are printed black to
increase contrast.
Exiting light passes through another polarizer
to sharpen image and eliminate glare
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 LCD Addressing Modes
Three types of addressing have emerged
since LCD became the display medium in
1971:
Direct
Multiplex
Active Matrix
In Direct, one signal Wires in Multiplex Active matrix allows
controls many are shared through charge storage,
segments. Useful a matrix wiring enabling pixels to
for numeric displays, scheme, allowing refresh enabling
e.g., watches and separate signals to real-time video on
calculators be delivered to each large screens
pixel

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 Manufacturing and Display
Configurations
Photolithography used to lay insulators, transistors and
conductors down on a glass substrate the lower glass
in an LCD
TFT displays require a transistor and capacitor for each
pixel
For highest fidelity, RGB is replaced by GRGB and RGB
Delta Displays

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 Three switch technologies: Amorphous
Silicon (a-Si), Polycrystalline Silicon )p-
Si) and Single Crystal Silicon (x-Si)
Amorphous Silicon is the standard for Mobility
TFT Process
TFT LCDs because they have: (cm^2/V sec)

Good Color
A-Si 0.3-0.7
Good Grayscale Reproduction
Fast Response conventional
6
p-Si
Advantages: An a-Si TFT
production process requires only 4 eximer p-Si 329
basic lithography steps, and
produces good quality large singe crystal
screens low cost 600
Si (x-Si)

Disadvantage: Because a-Si has

low mobility, a capacitor must be
added to each pixel
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 Polycrystalline Silicon
Advantage:
Adding only two process steps, NMOS
and PMOS transistors can be formed
Meet requirements for HDTV displays
Disadvantage:
Requires higher process temperatures
than a-Si 600oC softens most types of
glass
a-Si junction

p-Si junction MSE-630

 Breakthrough Technology

The eximer laser annealing process is capable of recrystallizing p-Si

film, increasing its mobility 660 times. This is possible because
polycrystalline Si absorbs UV light. The absorbed energy raises the
temperature of the p-Si film, thus annealing it.

The eximer laser process allows a cheaper and more conventional

glass to be used as a substrate, reducing production costs for the
mass production of p-Si TFTs.

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 Photovoltaics

Photoelectric effect discovered by

Edmund Bequerel in 1830

Albert Einstein received the Nobel

Prize for describing the nature of light
and the photoelectric effect in 1905

Bell Laboratories made the first

photovoltaic module in 1954. The
space industry in the 1960s and the
energy crisis in the 1970s spurred
further photovoltaic development

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 Photovoltaics Operating
Principles
Photovoltaics, also known as Solar
Cells are semiconductors, typically
Silicon
A solar cell uses junctions of an n-type
semiconductor (freely moving
electrons) with a p-type semiconductor
(freely moving holes) which creates a
type of diode that is in electric
equilibrium in the dark
Photons (electromagnetic
radiation) from the sun free
electrons and holes, causing a
DC current to flow from the n- to
the p-type material Several cells are placed in series in
modules to achieve higher voltages
and power
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 Two Photovoltaic Cell Types
Single crystal or polycrystalline cells use doped crystals for
making the cells, much like computer chips
This is the most common technology
Crystalline cells are expensive but last many years with little
degradation
Silicon is the most common material, although others are under
development, such as Gallium Arsenide and Indium Selenide

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 Improving Solar Cell Efficiency

The energy of a photon is E = h

Electrons are elevated to the conduction

band if the frequency of the light equals or
exceeds the band gap energy

This means that light at a lower frequencies

do no work

To get around this, cells with different band

gap energies are assembled into
multijunction cells

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 Multi-junction Solar Cells
The stack at right is a multijunction
with descending order of band gap
energy, Eg.
Junction materials can be mixed
(e.g., GaAs and Si) provided they
are dimensionally compatible to
tailor bandgap energy
Multijunction solar cells have
reached efficiencies of up to 35%
Cell materials of interest include:
Amorphous Silicon
Copper Indium Diselenide
Gallium Aresnide and
Gallium Indium Phosphide

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 Amorphous Silicon

Amorphous materials have no long-range

crystalline order

In 1974, researchers found that

photovoltaic devices could be made using
amorphous silicon by properly controlling
deposition and composition

Amorphous silicon absorbs solar radiation

40 times more efficiently than single-
crystal silicon a film 1-micron thick can
absorb 90% of the usable solar energy

Amorphous silicon can be processed at

relatively low temperatures on low-cost
substrates making it very economical

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 Amorphous Silicon
The lack of crystalline regularity in amorphous silicon results in dangling
bonds. Here, electrons recombine with holes. When amorphous silicon is
doped with small amounts of hydrogen (hydrogenation), the hydrogen
atoms combine chemically with the dangling bonds, permitting electrons to
move through the amorphous silicon
Cells are designed to have ultra-thin (0.008-
micron) p-type top layer, a thicker (0.5 to 1-
micron) intrinsic (middle) layer, a very thin
(0.02-micron) n-type bottom layer. The top
layer is so thin and transparent that most light
passes right through. The p- and n- layers
create an electric field across the entire
intrinsic region

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Solar Cell Processing Steps

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 Solar Cell Efficiency
Power is the product of voltage and current: Vmax X Imax = Pmax

A solar cells energy conversion efficiency, ( or eta) is the

percentage of power converted (from absorbed light to electrical
energy) and collected, when a solar cell is connected to an
electrical circuit. It is calculated using the ratio of Pmax divided by
the input light irradiance under standard test conditions (E, in
W/m2) and the surface area of the solar cell (Ac in m2)

Pmax

E Ac
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Economics of Solar Power

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 Crystalline PV Cell Economics
Total cost of conventional crystalline PV cells is about $500/m2
($50/sq.ft) of collector area

The output of 1-m2 is 125 Watts, so, at a cost of $500/m2, this

corresponds to $4/Watt of electricity, not counting necessary
auxiliary components

The lowest reported cost are $3/Watt for photovoltaic cells in

2002 (IEA). Crystalline silicon cells accounted for 80% of the total
worldwide in 2002.

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 Photovoltaics - Economics
Efficiencies
Efficiencies vary from 6%
for amorphous Si cells to up
to 35% for exotic GaAs or
InSe cells
Efficiency is 14-16% in
commercially available mc-Si
cells
Power distribution systems
include inverters to connect
to the grid system
efficiencies are between 5-
19%
Costs
A GaAs or InSe cell delivers
4 times the electrical power
at over 100 times the
cost!
In 2005, photovoltaic
electricity cost $0.30 -
$0.60/kWh in the US.
Compare this to the
~$0.10/kWh from other
sources
The payback period for
solar cell implementation can
be from 1 to 20 years. A
typical value is 5 years
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Alternative energy sources

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Solar Steam Plant Four Corners, CA

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 Optical Memory and Data Storage
Use amorphous Chalcogen
(group VI elements, e.g. Se, S or
Te)
Photo-induced phase transitions
between crystalline and
amorphous phases
Photo-induced phase
transitions between crystalline
and amorphous phases or
reversible photostructural
changes in the amorphous
phase
Light induces cross-linking of
neighboring chains in Se. When a
photon is absorbed, an electron from
one of the non-bonding (lone-pair)
orbitals that form the top of the valence
band is transferred into the conduction
band, leaving the other electron
unpaired. This unpaired electron can,
through interaction with lone-pair
electrons of a neighboring chain, form
an additional bond cross-linking the two
chains. Inter-chain bonds strain glass,
rupturing bonds, resulting in defect
pairs to form with a dangling bond. The
dangling bonds recombine to form a
structure different from the original.
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 An originally amorphous layer can be
locally crystallized when exposed to a laser
pulse. The difference in optical properties
between glass and crystal is the basis for
optical recording

Crystallization of a GST film by a long lower-

intensity pulse and its amorphization by a short
higher-intensity pulse

Because there is
little volume change
in GST between
glass and
crystalline phases,
Structure of a crystallized GST. The larger
white circles represent Te sites, smaller little atomic The GST layer is
black/white circles represent Sb/Ge sites, and
dashed circles represent Sb/Ge vacancies
movement is sandwiched between
required, and it can two protection layers.
GST: Ge-Sb-Te chalcogenide glasses
change shape very Each layer is ~20-100
quickly nm thick
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