背面多孔硅对SIMOX中铜杂质的吸除作用

在SIMOX材料的背面成功地制备了多孔硅层,再在正面故意注入1×1015cm-2剂量的铜杂质。经900℃退火,二次离子质谱（SIMS）测试表明钢杂质能穿过理层SiO2并在背面多孔硅处富集。用剖面投射电子显微镜（XTEM）分析了埋层SiO2和背面多孔硅层的微观结构,背面多孔硅层及其多孔硅层同硅衬底之间“树技状”的过渡区被认为是铜杂质有效的吸除中心。     

铝浆在晶体硅太阳电池上的应用讨论

主要介绍了铝浆作为晶体硅太阳电池的背电场,在烧结使用的过程中常常出现的问题,探讨了背场形成过程中铝珠、铝包的成因及解决方案,分析了背场附着力的影响因素,并对影响电池片弯曲度的因素作了说明.     

太阳能电池的电势诱导衰减及检测

晶体硅组件的电势诱导衰减是现在的晶体硅电池组件在高电压系统下广泛面临的失效模式。常规组件的测试方法需要至少96小时的测试时间。在本文中,我们试图通过实验找到一种快速的太阳能电池的抗电势诱导衰减性能的方法。采用NaCl溶液作为Na+源, PVB 作为封装材料,我们能够在1小时内完成实验。在使用了新的抗电势诱导衰减工艺的太阳能电池上也成功进行了测试。经过试验证明实验前后电池片的反向电流的变化是很重要的判断标准。通常具有抗电势诱导衰退性能的电池反向漏电试验后变化是小于2倍的。电池的结果和相对应的组件的测试结果进行了比较,结果显示两者吻合的很好。     

Epitaxial solar cells on titanium-doped silicon substrates

Single crystal substrates (0.2 Ω cm, boron doped) purposely doped at 2 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻³ with titanium were used to assess the effect of titanium on solar cell performance. Comparisons were made of all-epitaxial, diffused junction epitaxial, and all diffused junction solar cells fabricated on these substrates. In all cases lower than normal short-circuit current densities were obtained due to diminished red response. However, the short-circuit currents and efficiencies for the epitaxial cells were higher than those for the cells made by direct diffusion into the bulk titanium-doped silicon. The highest efficiency obtained for an epitaxial cell on a titanium-doped substrate was 11.7%. The research reported herein was supported by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract No. 954817 and RCA Laboratories, David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, New Jersey.     

Thermal oxidation for crystalline silicon solar cells exceeding 19% efficiency applying industrially feasible process technology

Thermal oxides are commonly used for the surface passivation of high‐efficiency silicon solar cells from mono‐ and multicrystalline silicon and have led to the highest conversion efficiencies reported so far. In order to improve the cost‐effectiveness of the oxidation process, a wet oxidation in steam ambience is applied and experimentally compared to a standard dry oxidation. The processes yield identical physical properties of the oxide. The front contact is created using a screen‐printing process of a hotmelt silver paste in combination with light‐induced silver plating. The contact formation on the front requires a short high‐temperature firing process, therefore the thermal stability of the rear surface passivation is very important. The surface recombination velocity of the fired oxide is experimentally determined to be below S ≤ 38 cm/s after annealing with a thin layer of evaporated aluminium on top. Monocrystalline solar cells are produced and 19·3% efficiency is obtained as best value on 4 cm² cell area. Simulations show the potential of the developed process to approach 20% efficiency. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

晶体硅太阳电池扩散气氛场均匀性研究

为降低晶体硅太阳电池的制造成本,从扩散气氛场角度提出实验方法,优化扩散工艺均匀性。该研究方法可改善太阳电池电性能并对产业化生产起指导作用。     

Broadband triple-layer SiOx/SiOxNy/SiNx antireflective coatings in textured crystalline silicon solar cells

The purpose of this study is to reduce textured crystalline silicon (TCS) substrate surface-reflectivity over a wide spectral range (300–1100 nm), to improve the step coverage of the textured structure, and to shift the minimal value of reflection from the unabsorbed region to the absorbed region. The TCS solar-cell interface between air and silicon was added to a SiO_x/SiO_xN_y/SiN_x triple-layer anti-reflective coatings (TLARCs) structure using the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) growth method. This paper presents theoretical and practical discussions, as well as the experimental results of fabricating the films and devices. The average reflection of the SiO_x/SiO_xN_y/SiN_x TLARs reduced to 2.01% (300–1100 nm). The minimal value of reflection was shifted from 1370 nm (unabsorbed region) to 968 nm (absorbed region). The SEM images show effective step coverage. In comparison to the untreated TCS solar cells, applying the experimental SiO_x/SiO_xN_y/SiN_x TLARCs to conventional TCS solar cells improved the short-circuit current density (J_sc) by 7.78%, and solar-cell efficiency by 10.95%. This study demonstrates that the SiO_x/SiO_xN_y/SiN_x TLARCs structure provides antireflective properties over a broad range of visible and near-infrared light wavelengths. An effective step coverage and minimal value of reflection from unabsorbed region shift to the absorbed region is demonstrated.     

Simple analytical model and efficiency improvement of polysilicon solar cells with porous silicon at the backside

The present study developed a simple analytical model to simulate the performance of polysilicon solar cells with porous silicon (PS) layer at the backside. It analytically solved the complete set of equations necessary for the determination of the photocurrent generated under the effect of the reflected light. It also investigated the contribution of the light absorbed by the PS layer and explored the effect that the latter’s number of double porosities and high porosity have had on photovoltaic parameters. The findings suggest that the photovoltaic parameters increase with the number of double porosities that the layer might have in a given structure. When the PS layer is formed by three-double porosity layers 20%/80% and for a 5 μm-thick film c-Si, the backside reflector gives a total improvement of about 2.65 mA/cm² in photocurrent density and 1.4% in cell efficiency. This improvement can even be of much more important for well passivated grain boundaries and back contact of solar cells.     

Silica nanospheres as back surface reflectors for crystalline silicon thin‐film solar cells

In this paper, fabrication of a non‐continuous silicon dioxide layer from a silica nanosphere solution followed by the deposition of an aluminium film is shown to be a low‐cost, low‐thermal‐budget method of forming a high‐quality back surface reflector (BSR) on crystalline silicon (c‐Si) thin‐film solar cells. The silica nanosphere layer has randomly spaced openings which can be used for metal‐silicon contact areas. Using glass/SiN/p⁺nn⁺ c‐Si thin‐film solar cells on glass as test vehicle, the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) at long wavelengths (>900 nm) is experimentally demonstrated to more than double by the implementation of this BSR, compared to the baseline case of a full‐area Al film as BSR. The improved optical performance of the silica nanosphere/aluminium BSR is due to reduced parasitic absorption in the Al film. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emitter layer optimization in heterojunction bifacial silicon solar cells

Silicon solar cells continue to dominate the market, due to the abundance of silicon and their acceptable efficiency. The heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) structure is now the dominant technology. Increasing the efficiency of these cells could expand the development choices for HIT solar cells. We presented a detailed investigation of the emitter a-Si:H(n) layer of a p-type bifacial HIT solar cell in terms of characteristic parameters which include layer doping concentration, thickness, band gap width, electron affinity, hole mobility, and so on. Solar cell composition: (ZnO/nc-Si:H(n)/a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(p)/a-Si:H(i)/nc-Si:H(p)/ZnO). The results reveal optimal values for the investigated parameters, for which the highest computed efficiency is 26.45% when lighted from the top only and 21.21% when illuminated from the back only.     

Effect of dissociation of iron–boron pairs in crystalline silicon on solar cell properties

The effect of dissociation of interstitial iron‐substitutional boron (Fe_iB_s) pairs, as it occurs under illumination in iron‐contaminated silicon solar cells, on the solar cell properties has been studied on the basis of numerical device simulations using reported recombination parameters for Fe_i and Fe_iB_s. Most cell parameters are found to degrade during Fe_iB_s dissociation. However, the open‐circuit voltage can also increase within certain ranges of the iron concentration. Critical iron concentrations are determined, giving the threshold contamination level above which a significant degradation in the corresponding cell parameter can be observed. The threshold iron contamination level of the open‐circuit voltage degradation is found to be up to two orders of magnitude larger than the threshold iron level of the short‐circuit current degradation. As the behaviour of the cell parameters under illumination is specific to the dissociation of Fe_iB_s pairs, the characteristic changes in the cell parameters due to illumination may be used as a simple way of identifying iron contamination problems in silicon solar cells. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SHORT COMMUNICATION: ACCELERATED PUBLICATION: Multicrystalline silicon solar cells exceeding 20% efficiency

This paper presents the first conversion efficiency above 20% for a multicrystalline silicon solar cell. The application of wet oxidation for rear surface passivation significantly reduces the process temperature and therefore prevents the degradation of minority‐carrier lifetime. The excellent optical properties of the dielectrically passivated rear surface in combination with a plasma textured front surface result in a superior light trapping and allow the use of substrates below 100 μm thickness. A simplified process scheme with laser‐fired rear contacts leads to conversion efficiencies of 20·3% for multicrystalline and 21·2% for monocrystalline silicon solar cells on small device areas (1 cm²). Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

硅基纳米结构的减反特性及其在太阳能电池中的应用

本文利用湿法化学腐蚀方法在硅基抛光衬底以及金字塔制绒的衬底上成功制备了纳米线阵列结构。在300~1000纳米波段,硅纳米线结构以及纳米线-金字塔混合结构都表现出了很好的减反特性,其平均反射率分别为2.53%、8%。利用传统工艺,我们在125mm125mm²的硅衬底上成功制备了短路电流密度为34.82mA/cm,开路电压为 594mv,效率为12.45%的纳米线太阳能电池。我们发现钝化对纳米结构的太阳能电池很重要,沉积钝化层之后可以将开路电压由420mv提高到560mv。我们通过分析所制备的太阳能电池的基本参数以及外量子效率,系统研究了硅基纳米结构太阳能电池的效率损失机制。实验证实钝化层以及电极的接触特性对提高纳米线太阳能电池的效率具有重要作用,并发现在已含PN结的硅衬底上制备纳米结构有助于提高太阳能电池的性能。     

Antireflection properties and solar cell application of silicon nanoscructures

Silicon nanowire arrays（SiNWAs） are fabricated on polished pyramids of textured Si using an aqueous chemical etching method.The silicon nanowires themselves or hybrid structures of nanowires and pyramids both show strong anti-reflectance abilities in the wavelength region of 300-1000 nm,and reflectances of 2.52%and less than 8%are achieved,respectively.A 12.45%SiNWAs-textured solar cell（SC） with a short circuit current of 34.82 mA/cm² and open circuit voltage(K_oc) of 594 mV was fabricated on 125×125 mm² Si using a conventional process including metal grid printing.It is revealed that passivation is essential for hybrid structure textured SCs,and K_oc can be enlarged by 28.6%from 420 V to 560 mV after the passivation layer is deposited.The loss mechanism of SiNWA SC was investigated in detail by systematic comparison of the basic parameters and external quantum efficiency（EQE） of samples with different fabrication processes.It is proved that surface passivation and fabrication of a metal grid are critical for high efficiency SiNWA SC,and the performance of SiNWA SC could be improved when fabricated on a substrate with an initial PN junction.     

扩散温度和时间对晶体硅太阳电池性能的影响

研究了薄层方块电阻对单晶硅太阳电池的开路电压(Voc)、短路电流(Isc)、填充因子(FF)和转换效率(η)的影响。通过控制扩散温度和时间制备了具有不同薄层方块电阻的单晶硅太阳电池。结果表明:当扩散温度和时间分别为863℃和1 050 s时,电池性能得到了有效的改善,其平均开路电压、短路电流、填充因子和转换效率分别为0.64 V,5.58 A,0.755和17.3%。     

Light trapping in pyramidally textured crystalline silicon solar cells using back‐side diffractive gratings

Back‐side diffractive gratings enhance a solar cell's efficiency by trapping light inside the cell and increasing the probability of absorption. We introduce a three‐dimensional, polarization‐sensitive optical model combining ray tracing and rigorous coupled‐wave analysis to investigate silicon solar cells with pyramidal front‐side texturing and back‐side gratings. Parameter optimization is performed to increase the short‐circuit current density for a linear binary grating with grating period p and height h. For the investigated 180‐µm‐thick pyramidally textured silicon solar cells, the simulation yields a maximum enhancement of the short‐circuit current density by ΔJ_SC = 1.79 mA/cm² corresponding to an absolute efficiency increase of Δη = 0.90%. Furthermore, we report on fabrication and reflectance measurements of solar cells with gratings and key challenges in achieving efficiency gains using back‐side diffractive gratings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Silicon nitride processing for control of optical and electronic properties of silicon solar cells

Thin films of SiN are well suited as antireflection (AR) coatings for Si solar cells because their optical properties, such as refractive index and absorption coefficient, can be tailored during deposition to match those of Si solar cells. The SiN layers, particularly those deposited by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, can serve other functions in Si solar-cell fabrication. They can be excellent buffer layers through which the front metal contact can be fired. The PECVD nitridation also introduces H into the Si surface, which diffuses deep into the solar cell and passivates residual impurities and defects during metal-contact firing. The optimization of SiN properties and processing conditions may have conflicting demands based on its multifunctional role. To fully exploit these multiple functions, the SiN processing sequence must be optimized based on the properties of the nitride, the diffusion behavior of H, and the interactions of metal with the SiN/Si composite substrate.     

High‐quality multi‐crystalline silicon growth for solar cells by grain‐controlled directional solidification

We report simple ideas for grain control by using active cooling and crucible insulation for high‐quality multi‐crystalline silicon (mc‐Si) growth for solar cells. The method employed an active cooling spot to induce initial dendrite growth, and the solidification front was controlled to be slightly convex through crucible insulation. It was found that the percentage of grains having twins was significantly increased by the present approach. The dislocation density for those grains was also significantly lower. More importantly, the successful improvement showed that the grain size and the minority carrier lifetime increased along the growth direction. And the laser beam induced current (LBIC) measurement also showed much higher quantum efficiency for the twin area. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The path to 25% silicon solar cell efficiency: History of silicon cell evolution

The first silicon solar cell was reported in 1941 and had less than 1% energy conversion efficiency compared to the 25% efficiency milestone reported in this paper. Standardisation of past measurements shows there has been a 57% improvement between confirmed results in 1983 and the present result. The features of the cell structure responsible for the most recent performance increase are described and the history of crystalline and multicrystalline silicon cell efficiency evolution is documented. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimization of anti‐reflection moth‐eye structures for use in crystalline silicon solar cells

An anti‐reflection (AR) moth‐eye structure made of acrylic resin and deposited on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate was optimized in the wavelength range from 400 to 1170 nm; crystalline silicon (c‐Si) solar cells function efficiently in this wavelength range. The rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) method was used for optical simulation, and the Taguchi method was used for efficient optimization. The simulation results showed that the reflectance of the optimized structure over the above‐mentioned wavelength range was less than 0.87% and that a minimal reflectance of 0.1% was observed at 400 nm. Experimental results showed that the reflectance of a fabricated moth‐eye structure was less than 1.0% in the wavelength range and that a minimal reflectance of 0.55% was observed at 700 nm. A c‐Si solar cell, which was enclosed in a polyvinyl butyral (PVB) layer of uniform thickness, was coated with the fabricated moth‐eye film, and it was observed that the moth‐eye film increased electric generation (EG) up to 15%, depending on the incident angle. Further, a daily increase in EG of up to 8.7% was estimated on a clear summer day in Japan when the moth‐eye film was used. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.