Diffusion‐free high efficiency silicon solar cells

Traditional POCl₃ diffusion is performed in large diffusion furnaces heated to ~850 C and takes an hour long. This may be replaced by an implant and subsequent 90‐s rapid thermal annealing step (in a firing furnace) for the fabrication of p‐type passivated emitter rear contacted silicon solar cells. Implantation has long been deemed a technology too expensive for fabrication of silicon solar cells, but if coupled with innovative process flows as that which is mentioned in this paper, implantation has a fighting chance. An SiOx/SiN_y rear side passivated p‐type wafer is implanted at the front with phosphorus. The implantation creates an inactive amorphous layer and a region of silicon full of interstitials and vacancies. The front side is then passivated using a plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposited SiN_xH_y. The wafer is placed in a firing furnace to achieve dopant activation. The hydrogen‐rich silicon nitride releases hydrogen that is diffused into the Si, the defect rich amorphous front side is immediately passivated by the readily available hydrogen; all the while, the amorphous silicon recrystallizes and dopants become electrically active. It is shown in this paper that the combination of this particular process flow leads to an efficient Si solar cell. Cell results on 160‐µm thick, 148.25‐cm² Cz Si wafers with the use of the proposed traditional diffusion‐free process flow are up to 18.8% with a V_oc of 638 mV, J_sc of 38.5 mA/cm², and a fill factor of 76.6%. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High performance wire‐array silicon solar cells

Nano/micro‐wire silicon solar cells, consisting of wire‐arrays of radial p–n junction structures, are expected to offer performance enhancement at lower costs, using smaller volumes of low carrier lifetime, cheaper silicon. Using inexpensive microsphere‐lithography‐based fabrication that is scalable to large areas, we have demonstrated wire‐array solar cells that outperform the control cell. Key to the design of these cells is the impact of various parameters, such as wire diameter and junction depth, that influences the competing effects of light trapping ability of the wire‐array, quantum efficiency, and series resistance of the resulting device. Using capacitance measurements we can identify two possible types of junction structure in a wire‐array solar cell: radial and planar. We show that the former is the prerequisite for performance‐enhancing wire‐array solar cells. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐efficiency microcrystalline silicon single‐junction solar cells

This short communication highlights our latest results towards high‐efficiency microcrystalline silicon single‐junction solar cells. By combining adequate cell design with high‐quality material, a new world record efficiency was achieved for single‐junction microcrystalline silicon solar cell, with a conversion efficiency of 10.69%, independently confirmed at ISE CalLab PV Cells. Such significant conversion efficiency could be achieved with only 1.8 µm of Si. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Progress with epitaxy wrap‐through crystalline silicon thin‐film solar cells

Wafer‐Equivalents are thin‐film solar cells that use a low‐cost silicon substrate to epitaxially grow a high‐quality crystalline silicon active layer. The epitaxy wrap‐through (EpiWT) cell is a back‐contact version of the Wafer‐Equivalent that aims to increase currents and gain other benefits of back contacts. The EpiWT cell can be made in a symmetrically interdigitated configuration with 50% back emitter coverage, or using an isolation layer to lower the back emitter coverage to ∼10%, which will theoretically increase voltages. The epitaxial deposition through via holes in the substrate depends on many factors, including the sealing of the deposition chamber, and produces various thicknesses and geometrical forms of the layers in the holes. An extended process has been developed to incorporate a passivated selective emitter and the first batch has been fabricated. The best result was an efficiency of 13.2% with ∼22 µm base layer thickness. The results are limited most by the fill factors at this stage, e.g. 75% for this cell, which is due to a processing difficulty encountered with screen‐printing in via holes. A new isolation layer was tested and successfully implemented for the low back‐emitter configuration. Comparable voltages and currents were achieved but the fill factors were lower than for the 50% back emitter cells, resulting in a best efficiency of 11.2%. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Si基薄膜太阳电池绒面ZGO透明导电膜的研究

采用孪生对靶直流磁控溅射的方法在室温下制备高质量的Ga掺杂ZnO(ZGO)透明导电薄膜,用HCl腐蚀的方法获得满足光散射特性的绒面ZGO薄膜。制备的ZGO样品为具有六角纤锌矿结构的多晶膜,具有(002)方向的择优取向。腐蚀后,绒面ZGO薄膜的晶粒度减小,电阻率基本不变。在可见光范围内,绒面ZGO的反射率比平面ZGO的反射率下降了10%左右。将绒面ZGO薄膜应用于p-i-n型非晶Si薄膜太阳电池中,有效提高了太阳电池性能,使得电池的短路电流提高到17.79 mA/cm2,电池的转换效率增加到7.23%。     

Optical properties of thin‐film silicon solar cells with grating couplers

The effect of grating couplers on the optical properties of silicon thin‐film solar cells was studied by a comparison of experimental results with numerical simulations. The thin‐film solar cells studied are based on microcrystalline silicon (μc‐Si:H) absorber layers of thickness in the micrometer range. To investigate the light propagation in these cells, especially in the red wavelength region, three‐dimensional power loss profiles are simulated. The influence of different grating parametres—such as period size, groove height, and shape of the grating—was studied to gain more insight into the light propagation within thin‐film silicon solar cells and to determine an optimized light trapping scheme. The effect of the TCO front and TCO back side layer thickness was investigated. The calculated quantum efficiencies and short‐circuit current densities are in good agreement with the experimental data. The simulations predict further optimization criteria. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An evaluation by solar simulation of radiation damage in silicon solar cells

From the viewpoint of the space power-systems designer, the most useful data for radiation-damaged solar cells is that of output power as a function of cell voltage, temperature, and radiation. This paper reviews the available results from laboratory radiation experiments where solar simulators were used. The solar cells studied were 1 and 10 ohm-cm n-on-p boron-doped cells, 5 and 10 ohm--cm aluminum-doped cells, and dendritic drift-field cells. Most of the experiments use 1 MeV electrons with some data for 0.5 to 2 MeV electrons and 0.5 to 2.7 MeV protons. Comparisons are made between types of cells on the basis of maximum power output and power at a fixed voltage. A fixed voltage is determined for each cell type using the value of cell voltage at maximum power after a 1 MeV electron fluence of 10¹⁶e/cm². There is an apparent lack of agreement among experimental results in the order of 3 or 4 percent, due to spectral variations between simulators. Another reason for the spread in data is attributed to differences that may occur from one group of cells to another, even from the same manufacturer. However, taking this into account, the average power at fixed voltage for the 1 ohm-cm cells is greater than the average for 10 ohm-cm up to a fluence of 5 × 10¹⁵e/cm², where a crossover occurs, and the 10 ohm-cm cells became superior.     

High‐efficiency solar cells on phosphorus gettered multicrystalline silicon substrates

Measurements of the dislocation density are compared with locally resolved measurements of carrier lifetime for p‐type multicrystalline silicon. A correlation between dislocation density and carrier recombination was found: high carrier lifetimes (>100 µs) were only measured in areas with low dislocation density (<10⁵ cm⁻²), in areas of high dislocation density (>10⁶ cm⁻²) relatively low lifetimes (<20 µs) were observed. In order to remove mobile impurities from the silicon, a phosphorus diffusion gettering process was applied. An increase of the carrier lifetime by about a factor of three was observed in lowly dislocated regions whereas in highly dislocated areas no gettering efficiency was observed. To test the effectiveness of the gettering in a solar cell manufacturing process, five different multicrystalline silicon materials from four manufacturers were phosphorus gettered. Base resistivity varied between 0·5 and 5 Ω cm for the boron‐ and gallium‐doped p‐type wafers which were used in this study. The high‐efficiency solar cell structure, which has led to the highest conversion efficiencies of multicrystalline silicon solar cells to date, was used to fabricate numerous solar cells with aperture areas of 1 and 4 cm². Efficiencies in the 20% range were achieved for all materials with an average value of 18%. Best efficiencies for 1 cm² (20·3%) and 4 cm² (19·8%) cells were achieved on 0·6 and 1·5 Ω cm, respectively. This proves that multicrystalline silicon of very different material specification can yield very high efficiencies if an appropriate cell process is applied. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Buried contact solar cells on textured tricrystalline CZ‐silicon wafers

Buried contact solar cells (BCSC) have been fabricated on boron‐doped p‐type tricrystalline Czochralski silicon wafers (Tri‐Si) and the output characteristics were compared with those of multi‐crystalline silicon wafers and single crystalline Czochralski wafers. Optical properties and microstructures after texturing Tri‐Si with [110] growth axis in KOH solution have been studied. The textured surface of Tri‐Si has the shape of a V‐groove, with an angle of 110° between two (111) planes. Computer simulations show that a V‐groove composed of (111) planes after texturing decreases reflectance significantly when cells are encapsulated with ethylenevinylacetate (EVA). The efficiency of BCSC fabricated on Tri‐Si was measured as 15.05% before encapsulation. An increase of 2.7 mA/cm² in short‐circuit current density is expected, due to internal reflection of light at the air/glass interface when the textured Tri‐Si cells are encapsulated. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional simulation of thin‐film silicon solar cells with innovative device structures

We investigate the optical and electrical properties of thin‐film silicon solar cells by means of numerical simulations. The optical design under investigation is the encapsulated‐V texture, which is capable of absorbing sunlight corresponding to a maximum short‐circuit current density of 35 mA cm⁻². Because the layer thickness can be restricted to only 4 μm, the encapsulated‐V structure also provides a good collection efficiency for photogenerated charge carriers. The results for our simulations suggest that practical efficiencies above 12% can be expected for Si material with a minority carrier lifetime as low as 10 ns. Increased lifetimes of 100 ns allow for about 14% efficiency. The benefit of multiplejunctions within the device structure strongly depends on surface recombination. The efficiency of a single‐junction cell can be improved by more the 3% absolute with a multi‐junction device if the surface combination velocity is as high as 10⁵ cm s⁻¹. For moderate surface recombination, the gain is only 1%. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One‐dimensional photogeneration profiles in silicon solar cells with pyramidal texture

The key metric of surface texturing is the short‐circuit current J_sc. It depends on front surface transmittance, light trapping and the spatial profiles of photogeneration G and collection efficiency η_c. To take advantage of a one‐dimensional profile of η_c(ζ), where ζ is the shortest distance to the p–n junction, we determine G(ζ) via ray tracing. This permits rigorous optical assessment of common pyramidal textures for various cell designs. When ζ is small, G(ζ) is largest beneath regular inverted pyramids, upright pyramids (regular or random) and planar surfaces, respectively. This higher G(ζ) results in superior collection of generated carriers in front‐junction cells. In simulations of a conventional screen‐print cell, 92.0% of generated carriers are collected for inverted pyramids, compared to 91.4% for upright pyramids, and 90.0% for a planar surface. Higher efficiency and rear junction devices are analysed in the paper. Despite differences in G(ζ) beneath textures, inverted pyramids achieve the highest J_sc for all cell designs examined (marginally so for high‐efficiency rear‐contact cells) due to superior front surface transmittance and light trapping. We assess a common one‐dimensional model for photogeneration beneath textured surfaces. This model underestimates G(ζ) when ζ is small, and overestimates G(ζ) when ζ is large. As a result, the generation current determined is inaccurate for thin substrates. It can be computed to within 3% error for 250 µm thick substrates. However, errors in G(ζ) can lead to 7.5% inaccuracy in calculations of J_sc. Errors are largest for lower efficiency designs, in which collection efficiency varies through the substrate. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional modeling of front contact silicon solar cells

The modeling of a new type of silicon solar cell intended for operation at very high concentration, with all the contacts at its front face, is presented. The two‐dimensional model developed makes use of the theory of the complex variable, and is able to explain the main features of the operation of these cells. It is shown that if all the parameters reach good state‐of‐the‐art values, and with the appropriate layout, this structure can reach 25% efficiency for a range of concentrations wider than any other known silicon cell. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sn‐catalyzed silicon nanowire solar cells with 4.9% efficiency grown on glass

We present a single pump‐down process to texture hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells. Mats of p‐type crystalline silicon nanowires were grown to lengths of 1 µm on glass covered with flat ZnO using a plasma‐assisted Sn‐catalyzed vapor‐liquid‐solid process. The nanowires were covered with conformal layers of intrinsic and n‐type hydrogenated amorphous silicon and a sputtered layer of indium tin oxide. Each cell connects in excess of 10⁷ radial junctions over areas of 0.126 cm². Devices reach open‐circuit voltages of 0.8 V and short‐circuit current densities of 12.4 mA cm⁻², matching those of hydrogenated amorphous silicon cells deposited on textured substrates. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

掺铈的YAG荧光粉的光谱下转换效应对单晶硅太阳能电池的影响

将掺有稀土元素铈（Ce）的钇铝石榴石（YAG:Ce）荧光粉应用于单晶硅太阳能电池,通过YAG:Ce荧光粉的下转换效应提高电池的转换效率。为了更准确地认识光谱下转换效应所起的作用,我们将掺有Ce的YAG:Ce荧光粉和不含Ce的YAG粉分别与单晶硅太阳能电池片进行封装,在反射率、外量子效率和转换效率方面进行测试比较,并对裸电池片和封装电池的性能进行了讨论分析。实验结果表明,纯粹由光谱下转换效应带来的作用能使单晶硅太阳能电池的转换效率提高0.35%,体现了YAG:Ce荧光粉对提高单晶硅太阳能电池转换效率带来的积极作用。     

Bulk resistivity optimization for low‐bulk‐lifetime silicon solar cells

Guidelines are presented which are designed to achieve planar solar cell efficiencies as high as 17.5% using existing fabrication technologies and silicon substrates with lifetimes as low as 20 μs. Device simulations are performed to elucidate the need and impact of base doping optimization for different back‐surface passivation schemes, cell thicknesses, emitter profiles, and degrees of dopant–defect interaction. Results indicate that optimal resistivity is a function of back‐surface passivation, with the aluminum back‐surface field (BSF) requiring the highest resistivity, the oxide/nitride stack passivation excelling at an intermediate resistivity, and the ohmic contact needing the lowest resistivity. A comparison of simulated 300 and 100 μm cells shows that thinner cells magnify the differences in optimal resistivity for the three back‐surface passivation schemes. A lifetime model is used to account for dopant–defect interaction that can lower bulk lifetime at higher doping levels. It is demonstrated that cell efficiency decreases and optimal resistivity increases at higher levels of dopant–defect interaction. Simulated devices with an optimized base doping showed an efficiency improvement of as much as 2% (absolute) compared with identical devices with a typical base doping level (1.6 or 1.8 Ω cm) and bulk lifetime of 20 μs. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large‐area epitaxial silicon solar cells based on industrial screen‐printing processes

Thin‐film epitaxial silicon solar cells are an attractive future alternative for bulk silicon solar cells incorporating many of the process advantages of the latter, but on a potentially cheap substrate. Several challenges have to be tackled before this potential can be successfully exploited on a large scale. This paper describes the points of interest and how IMEC aims to solve them. It presents a new step forward towards our final objective: the development of an industrial cell process based on screen‐printing for > 15% efficient epitaxial silicon solar cells on a low‐cost substrate. Included in the discussion are the substrates onto which the epitaxial deposition is done and how work is progressing in several research institutes and universities on the topic of a high‐throughput epitaxial reactor. The industrial screen‐printing process sequence developed at IMEC for these epitaxial silicon solar cells is presented, with emphasis on plasma texturing and improvement of the quality of the epitaxial layer. Efficiencies between 12 and 13% are presented for large‐area (98 cm²) epitaxial layers on highly doped UMG‐Si, off‐spec and reclaim material. Finally, the need for an internal reflection scheme is explained. A realistically achievable internal reflection at the epi/substrate interface of 70% will result in a calculated increase of 3 mA/cm² in short‐circuit current. An interfacial stack of porous silicon layers (Bragg reflectors) is chosen as a promising candidate and the challenges facing its incorporation between the epitaxial layer and the substrate are presented. Experimental work on this topic is reported and concentrates on the extraction of the internal reflection at the epi/substrate interface from reflectance measurements. Initial results show an internal reflectance between 30 and 60% with a four‐layer porous silicon stack. Resistance measurements for majority carrier flow through these porous silicon stacks are also included and show that no resistance increase is measurable for stacks up to four layers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nanoparticle‐enhanced light trapping in thin‐film silicon solar cells

A systematic investigation of the nanoparticle‐enhanced light trapping in thin‐film silicon solar cells is reported. The nanoparticles are fabricated by annealing a thin Ag film on the cell surface. An optimisation roadmap for the plasmon‐enhanced light‐trapping scheme for self‐assembled Ag metal nanoparticles is presented, including a comparison of rear‐located and front‐located nanoparticles, an optimisation of the precursor Ag film thickness, an investigation on different conditions of the nanoparticle dielectric environment and a combination of nanoparticles with other supplementary back‐surface reflectors. Significant photocurrent enhancements have been achieved because of high scattering and coupling efficiency of the Ag nanoparticles into the silicon device. For the optimum light‐trapping scheme, a short‐circuit current enhancement of 27% due to Ag nanoparticles is achieved, increasing to 44% for a “nanoparticle/magnesium fluoride/diffuse paint” back‐surface reflector structure. This is 6% higher compared with our previously reported plasmonic short‐circuit current enhancement of 38%. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of back‐junction back‐contact silicon solar cells based on industrial processes

We have presented simplified industrial processes to fabricate high performance back‐junction back‐contact (BJBC) silicon solar cells. Good optical surface structures (solar averaged reflectance 2.5%) and high implied open‐circuit voltage (0.695 V) have been realized in the BJBC cell precursors through wet chemical processing, co‐diffusion, P ion implantation and annealing oxidation, as well as laser patterning and plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition passivation processes. We have achieved a certified high efficiency of close to 22% on BJBC silicon solar cells with the size of 4.04 cm² by using screen printing and co‐firing technologies. The manufacturing process flow further successfully yields efficiency of around 21% BJBC silicon solar cells with enlarged sizes of 6 × 6 cm². The present work has demonstrated that the commercialization of low‐cost and high‐efficiency BJBC solar cells is possible because we have used processes compatible with existing production lines. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Laser‐fired rear contacts for crystalline silicon solar cells

From today's viewpoint future solar cells will be thinner, of higher efficiency and produced in greater numbers. A solar cell concept able to fit these developments could be the passivated emitter and rear cell. With a new laser‐based process (laser‐fired contacts), the rear point contact pattern of this concept can be implemented industrially. After the deposition of a dielectric passivation layer and a metal layer on top, a Nd‐YAG laser is used to alloy the contact points through the dielectric layer. Excellent efficiencies have been achieved which approach closely those of reference cells processed by photolithography. This demonstrates the high potential of the new laser‐based technique. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bifacial potential of single‐ and double‐sided collecting silicon solar cells

Bifacial applications are a promising way to increase the performance of photovoltaic systems. Two silicon solar cell concepts suitable for bifacial operation are the passivated emitter, rear totally diffused (PERT) and the both sides collecting and contacted (BOSCO) cell concepts. This work investigates the bifacial potential of these concepts by means of in‐depth numerical device simulation and experiment with a focus on the impact of varying material quality. It is shown that the PERT cell concept (representing a structure with front‐side emitter only) requires high‐minority‐carrier‐diffusion‐length substrates with L_bulk > 3 × W (with cell thickness W) to exploit its bifacial potential, while the BOSCO cell (representing a structure with double‐sided emitter) can already utilise its bifacial potential on substrates with significantly lower diffusion lengths down to L_bulk ≈ 0.5 × W. Experimentally, BOSCO cells with and without activated rear‐side emitter are compared. For rear‐side illumination, the activated rear‐side emitter is measured to increase internal quantum efficiency at wavelengths λ < 850 nm by up to 45%_abs (factor of 9) and 30%_abs (factor of 2) for cells processed on p‐type multicrystalline silicon substrates with L_bulk ≈ 0.3 × W and L_bulk ≈ 2.6 × W, respectively. For PERT cells processed on n‐type Czochralski‐grown silicon substrates, an according increase in internal quantum efficiency for rear‐side illumination of more than 20%_abs (factor of 1.3) is measured when changing from a substrate with L_bulk ≈ 3.0 to 10.0 × W. The performed simulations and experiments demonstrate that the BOSCO cell concept is a promising candidate to successfully exploit bifacial gain also on low‐ to medium‐diffusion‐length substrates such as p‐type multicrystalline silicon, while PERT cells require a high‐diffusion‐length substrate to utilise their bifacial potential. Furthermore, the BOSCO cell concept is shown to be a promising option to achieve highest output power densities, even when using lower quality and therefore possibly more cost‐effective silicon substrates. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.