In-line Cu(In, Ga)Se-2 co-evaporation on 30 x 30 cm(2) substrates

Recently, Cu(In, Ga)Se-2 (CIGS) technology made a big step from research an d development to fabrication. Mass production of high performance and high quality photovoltaic modules requires the scale up of in-line CIGS co-depos ition processes to large areas. An important step towards larger areas was the installation of an in-line deposition system for 30 x 30 cm(2) modules at ZSW. To support the design of the process, we developed software based o n the finite element method (FEM) to model and optimise the elemental flux distributions of evaporation sources. This method is presented and applied to the ZSW large area deposition. Excellent agreement of simulation and exp erimental data is found. We simulate CIGS growth conditions and discuss dev ice results. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.