--- title: Making Photovoltaic Solar Cells With A Microwave | daily.dev description: A DIY video shows how to make a simple photovoltaic solar cell at home using a bare silicon wafer, a phosphorus-doping solution (TEOS, phosphoric acid,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf copyright: © 2026 Daily Dev Ltd. terms: https://daily.dev/tos/ twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Making Photovoltaic Solar Cells With A Microwave | daily.dev og:description: A DIY video shows how to make a simple photovoltaic solar cell at home using a bare silicon wafer, a phosphorus-doping solution (TEOS, phosphoric acid,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ghxCT8vaf.png og:image:alt: Making Photovoltaic Solar Cells With A Microwave og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Making Photovoltaic Solar Cells With A Microwave **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A DIY video shows how to make a simple photovoltaic solar cell at home using a bare silicon wafer, a phosphorus-doping solution (TEOS, phosphoric acid, ethanol, water), and a microwave kiln to bake the coating at low power for about 30 minutes. After sanding off the resulting glass layer, gallium-indium and indium contacts are applied to form the cell's electrodes. The resulting cell reaches roughly 5% efficiency, with potential improvements through clean-room fabrication, anti-reflection coatings, and better contacts. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do you dope a silicon wafer with phosphorus at home to make a solar cell? Mix 1 mL tetraethyl orthosilicate, 0.3 mL of 85 wt% phosphoric acid, 5 mL ethanol, and 0.25 mL distilled water, then boil the mixture on low heat for 30 minutes. Spincoat the solution onto a bare, unetched silicon wafer using a spinning platform like a PC fan, then bake it in a microwave kiln at under 50% power for about 30 minutes to diffuse the phosphorus layer. _Makers chasing reproducible DIY fabrication results can track hands-on hardware experiments like this via daily.dev._ ### What efficiency can a homemade DIY silicon solar cell achieve? A silicon photovoltaic cell made at home with a microwave kiln and phosphorus doping reached about 5% efficiency. This could be improved with a clean-room environment, an anti-reflection coating, and better electrical contacts, compared to the gallium-indium and indium contacts used in the basic DIY process. _Anyone benchmarking scrappy hardware builds against commercial specs can follow similar projects on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [DIY Nuclear Battery With PV Cells And Tritium](https://daily.dev/posts/diy-nuclear-battery-with-pv-cells-and-tritium-vsjp2o4cb) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Underwater Solar Cells Capture Energy 10 Meters Below the Surface](https://daily.dev/posts/underwater-solar-cells-capture-energy-10-meters-below-the-surface-yulyeatva) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [2026 Green Powered Challenge: Cook With The Sun\!](https://daily.dev/posts/2026-green-powered-challenge-cook-with-the-sun--8rg2y5zbm) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#science](https://daily.dev/tags/science) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Making Photovoltaic Solar Cells With A Microwave","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf"},"datePublished":"2026-10-20T02:29:18.375Z","dateModified":"2026-10-20T02:29:42.237Z","description":"A DIY video shows how to make a simple photovoltaic solar cell at home using a bare silicon wafer, a phosphorus-doping solution (TEOS, phosphoric acid,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2bc3cdcee99e04c13e5a8babb4123ace?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2bc3cdcee99e04c13e5a8babb4123ace?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,science","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Making Photovoltaic Solar Cells With A Microwave"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/making-photovoltaic-solar-cells-with-a-microwave-ghxct8vaf#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you dope a silicon wafer with phosphorus at home to make a solar cell?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Mix 1 mL tetraethyl orthosilicate, 0.3 mL of 85 wt% phosphoric acid, 5 mL ethanol, and 0.25 mL distilled water, then boil the mixture on low heat for 30 minutes. Spincoat the solution onto a bare, unetched silicon wafer using a spinning platform like a PC fan, then bake it in a microwave kiln at under 50% power for about 30 minutes to diffuse the phosphorus layer. Makers chasing reproducible DIY fabrication results can track hands-on hardware experiments like this via daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What efficiency can a homemade DIY silicon solar cell achieve?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A silicon photovoltaic cell made at home with a microwave kiln and phosphorus doping reached about 5% efficiency. This could be improved with a clean-room environment, an anti-reflection coating, and better electrical contacts, compared to the gallium-indium and indium contacts used in the basic DIY process. Anyone benchmarking scrappy hardware builds against commercial specs can follow similar projects on daily.dev."}}]} ```