Keynote Presentation
2008 51st SVC Annual Technical Conference
April 19-24, 2008
Hyatt Regency Chicago on the River Walk, Chicago IL
Technical Program
April 19–24, 2008
April 21 at 8:30 a.m.
Manufacturing of Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells
Presented by Subhendu Guha
The global market for solar panels is growing at an annual rate between 20-30%. The workhorse of the industry is the mature single crystal and polycrystal silicon technology. The low material cost of thin film silicon and its manufacturability make it a promising candidate for low-cost production of solar cells. Significant progress has been made in the last several years, and several industries have started expanding their production capacity. At United Solar Ovonic, we use a continuous plasma-CVD process to deposit amorphous silicon multi-junction solar cells on 1.5 mile long rolls of stainless steel. We shall discuss the science and technology for the manufacture of the multi-junction solar cells, and the characteristics of the products.
Subhendu Guha is the Chairman of United Solar Ovonic, world’s largest manufacturer of flexible solar laminates. Dr. Guha is an international authority in the science and technology of amorphous silicon alloy solar cells, and has more than 200 publications and over 30 US patents to his credit. His work has received recognition from US Department of Energy (Bright Light Award), Popular Science Magazine (Best of what’s new), and Discover Magazine (Best invention in the Environment Category). He was also the recipient of World Technology Award in the Energy category in 2005.