Selective contacts for photovoltaic cells fabricated by High Pressure Sputtering
We have a broad experience in the deposition of materials for microelectronics by an unconventional technique, high pressure sputtering. This technique is very adequate for low damage deposition of films in the nanometer thickness range, owing to the reduced thermalization distance of the energetic sputtered species present in the plasma. In the past we used this technique to grow high-permittivity dielectrics for gate applications of transistors and memories, such as HfO2, TiO2 or GdxSc1-xO3.
At present we are applying high pressure sputtering to the photovoltaics field. We have grown transparent conductors such as ITO and AZO, and we are focusing on the deposition of MoOx for hole-selective contact and TiOx for electron-selective contact. Our goal is the fabrication of a complete c-Si photovoltaic cell by high pressure sputtering, without the need of substrate doping steps.