Improvement of Solar Cell Performance After Oxygen Removal by Electron Beam Melting

Two 450 kg multicrystalline silicon ingots were obtained by mixing and melting high purity silicon and silicon from the edges and the bottom of the casted ingots together in a casting furnace. For one of the ingot, the silicon from casted ingots was refined in an electron beam melting furnace to remove oxygen. The oxygen content was reduced from 10 to less than 0.0517 ppmw when silicon was refined at 500 kW with removal efficiency up to 99.429% in the most areas. The life time of the ingot after oxygen removal was measured to be far better than another one, whereas in the central parts the value was almost 6.7 µs. The efficiencies of both solar cells were initially 17.55% but after 4 h decreased to 17.05% and 15.55%, respectively. The solar cell after oxygen removal shows a better performance in degradation.