Photoelectric conversion device, glass composition for coating silicon, and insulating coating in contact with silicon

Abstract

A photoelectric conversion device is provided, which comprises: a substrate serving as an electrode; numerous crystalline semiconductor particles containing a first conductivity-type impurity deposited on the substrate to join thereto; an insulator provided among the crystalline semiconductor particles; and a semiconductor layer containing an impurity of the opposite conductivity-type to which another electrode is connected, which semiconductor layer being provided over the crystalline semiconductor particles, wherein the crystalline semiconductor particles comprise silicon, and the insulator comprises a glass material which contains at least 1 wt % and at most 20 wt % tin oxide. By this arrangement, it is possible to form a good insulator capable of filling spaces among the crystalline semiconductor particles and preventing defects such as cracking, bubbling and abnormal deposition from occurring, and consequently to provide a photoelectric conversion device with high reliability at low cost.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.