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 The photovoltaic industry uses more silicon wafers than the microelectronics industry. Early crystalline silicon wafer cell production processes were not sensitive to gas impurities, but advancing technology has required better gas purity to provide the highest conversion efficiencies in solar cells. Multi-junction solar cells using II-V materials and thin film solar cells are two technologies dependent on high-purity hydrogen to produce the highest-quality solar cells. Thin film solar cells, the fastest-growing technology, use amorphous silicon or polycrystalline materials that are more sensitive to gaseous impurities. Thin film solar cell processes typically use CIGS, CIS or CdTe materials. These processes are often carried out in PECVD tools from Applied Materials, Oerlikon or ULVAC or MOCVD reactors from Veeco or Aixtron. The MOCVD platform, similar to LED and optics processes, has been developed with palladium hydrogen purifier technology, so its' use is considered the standard method to improve compressed gas source purity.
Equipment manufacturers have reported that nitrogen impurities can be an impurity PEVCD processes, so palladium technology is the preferred solution since catalytic purifiers do not remove nitrogen. Hydrogen gas purifiers help to eliminate oxygen, carbon and nitrogen impurities and provide consistent and repeatable process performance.
For crystalline silicon processes where parts-per-billion hydrogen purity is not required, Johnson Matthey purifiers are often still required to assure stable gas purity at locations where 99.9999% purity is not reliable.
Typical Gases: Hydrogen, Nitrogen
Flow Rates: Hydrogen: 50-250 slpm Nitrogen: 20-60 slpm
Suggested Purifiers:
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