Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Shunichi Ishihara

Isamu Shimizu

Masahiro Kanai

Shunri Oda

Shigeru Ohno

Masaaki Hirooka

Junichi Hanna

Katsumi Nakagawa

Nobuo Kitajima

Akira Sakai

Yasushi Fujioka

Kozo Arao

Jun-Ichi Hanna

Tsutomu Murakami

Yuji Nishigaki

Nobuko Kitahara

Keishi Saito

Kyosuke Ogawa

Nobuyoshi Tanaka

Hiroshi Sato

Yasushi Sato

Naoto Kawamura

Shoji Nishida

Michio Ito

Yuzo Kato

Hisashi Nakatsui

Masanao Kasai

Masafumi Sano

Yukiko Iwasaki

Masaaki Iwane

Yasuyoshi Takai

Yoshiyuki Osada

Yujiro Ando

Takehito Yoshino

Hisanori Tsuda

Noritaka Ukiyo

Masaki Mizutani

Takayoshi Arai

Katsunobu Ohara

Mitsuyuki Niwa

Eiji Takeuchi

Hirokazu Ootoshi

Shuji Murakawa

There is provided a process of producing a multicrystalline silicon substrate having excellent characteristics as a solar cell substrate. A multicrystalline silicon ingot made by directional solidificationis cut such that a normal line of a principal surfaceof a multicrystalline silicon substrateis substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of crystal grainsof the multicrystalline silicon ingot made by directional solidification

Process of producing multicrystalline silicon substrate and solar cell

A liquid-phase growth method for immersing a polycrystalline substrate in a melt in a crucible wherein crystal ingredients are dissolved, thereby growing poly crystals upon the substrate, comprises a first step for growing poly crystals to a predetermined thickness, and a second step for melting back a part of the poly crystals grown in the first step in the melt, wherein the relative position between the substrate and melt is changed between the first step and second step, bringing melt with different temperature into contact with the polycrystalline surface. The obtained poly crystals have properties rivaling those of poly crystals used in conventional solar cells but with little risk of trouble such as line breakage of grid electrodes in application to solar cells, and can be obtained in great quantities at low costs.

Liquid-phase growth method and liquid-phase growth apparatus

A thin film polycrystalline solar cell which includes a substrate, a first semiconductor layer provided on the substrate and including Si highly doped with a conductivity-type controlling impurity, a second semiconductor layer provided on the first semiconductor layer and including polycrystalline Si slightly doped with a conductivity-type controlling impurity of the same conductivity-type as that of the first semiconductor layer, and a third semiconductor layer provided on the second semiconductor layer and highly doped with a conductivity-type controlling impurity of a conductivity-type opposite to that of the impurities for the doping of the first and the second semiconductor layers. Crystal grains grown from crystal nuclei generated in the first semiconductor layer are continuously grown to form the first and second semiconductor layers, are horizontally grown to contact neighboring crystal grains, and are perpendicularly grown to form an interface with the third semiconductor layer.

Thin film polycrystalline solar cells and methods of forming same

The present invention provides a method for depositing polycrystal Si films, including n-type and p-type polycrystal Si films, using a material gas, a doping gas, and hydrogen gas. This method comprises a film-forming time-period having:

Deposition of polycrystal Si film

A process for forming a deposition film on a substrate comprises introducing separately a precursor or activated species formed in a decomposition space (B) and activated species formed in a decomposition space (C), into the deposition space wherein the film is formed on the substrate.

Process for forming deposition film

An apparatus for forming a deposited film which includes a film forming chamber, with a means to evacuate the inside of the chamber. A substrate holder for holding a substrate is located in the chamber. Starting material gas is supplied to the chamber to enable film formation. A light energy source is also provided to irradiate the substrate in order to heat its surface. The strength of the light energy is controlled to provide a non-uniform temperature distribution pattern on the substrate.

Apparatus for forming crystalline film

A defect-free semiconductor device having a stacked layer structure formed on a substrate made of a material different from crystalline silicon, said stacked layer structure comprising an amorphous silicon layer on said substrate as a buffer layer and a polycrystalline silicon semiconductor active layer with a multilayered structure disposed on said amorphous silicon layer, said multilayered structure having at least a first polycrystalline silicon layer in non-junction forming contact with said amorphous silicon layer and a second polycrystalline silicon layer having a conductivity type opposite the conductivity type of said first polycrystalline silicon layer.

Polycrystalline silicon semiconductor having an amorphous silicon buffer

A deposition film is formed on a substrate in a deposition space (A) by the chemical reaction between a gaseous precursor of a higher silicon halide or a higher halosilane formed in a decomposition space (B) and a separately-introduced gaseous, activated species of hydrogen, silane or a halosilane formed in a decomposition space (C).

Silicon-containing deposited film

A process for forming a silicon-containing amorphous film on a substrate which comprises (a) step of depositing a silicon-containing amorphous film on said substrate and (b) step of irradiating plasma of inert gas to said silicon-containing amorphous film on deposited on the substrate in said step (a), wherein said step (a) and said step (b) are alternately repeated.

Process for the formation of an amorphous silicon deposited film with

A method for forming a deposition film, comprising decomposing a first compound containing germanium and halogen in an activation chamber by applying an energy to form an active species; separately introducing, into a film-forming chamber for forming a deposition film on a substrate, a second compound containing silicon and hydrogen and the active species, which is capable of chemical interaction with the second compound containing silicon and hydrogen; and applying to a mixture of the second compound and the active species at least one excitation energy selected from optical, thermal and discharge energies to excite the second compound in the mixture, thereby facilitating the formation of a deposition film on the substrate.

Method for forming deposited film by separately introducing an active

An apparatus for forming a deposited film by introducing two or more kinds of gaseous starting materials for formation of a deposited film and a gaseous halogenic oxidizing agent having the property of oxidation action for said starting materials into a reaction space to effect chemical contact therebetween to thereby form a plural number of precursors including precursors under excited state, and forming a deposited film in a plurality of layers with different compositions on a substrate existing in a film forming space spatially communicated with said reaction space with the use of at least one precursor of the precursors as the feeding source for the constituent element of the deposited film, said apparatus comprising a plural number of gas introducing means of a multiple tubular structure for discharging into said reaction space said gaseous starting materials and said gaseous halogenic oxidizing agent through the discharging outlets, respectively, and permitting them to react with each other to form the precursors and means for preventing contact of precursors unnecessary for the desired film formation of the precursors with the substrate.

Apparatus for forming deposited film

A process for forming a silicon-containing polycrystalline film on a substrate by a chemical vapor deposition method, said process comprises the steps of:

Process for depositing a silicon-containing polycrystalline film on a

A process for forming a deposited film comprises introducing into a film forming space housing a substrate therein an active species (A) formed by decomposition of a compound containing silicon and a halogen and an active species (B) formed from a chemical substance for film formation which is chemically mutually reactive with said active species (A) separately from each other, then providing them with discharge energy and thereby allowing both the species to react chemically with each other to form a deposited film on the substrate.

Process for forming deposited film

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Ebina, Japan

Shunichi Ishihara