• Energy Research

Abstract The passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC), with advantages of reducing rear surface recombination and improving rear surface reflectivity, is extensively applied in monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon solar cells. In this study, we investigated the rear PERC structure with various contact patterns (type I to VI) and line spacings (800–1000 µm) using 156.75 mm × 156.75 mm p-type Czochralski mono crystalline silicon wafers. The void formation on the rear-side contacts of PERC structures played an important role in affecting conversion efficiencies. A smaller laser ablated opening width may easily lead to the formation of voids under screen printing and co-firing backside aluminum. Further evidence from the electroluminescence (EL) measurements confirmed that the higher laser ablation power would result in a slightly dark region for the solar cell with a rear-side contact opening width greater than 45 µm. The type III backside contact pattern (dash 2:1) with a line spacing of 900 µm surpassed all other contact patterns owing to its excellent aluminum back surface field. As a result, by optimizing both the backside contact pattern and line spacing of PERC solar cells, the best conversion efficiency of 22.25% and 20.9% for the average PERC solar cells were achieved.

The nanocrystalline silicon-germanium (nc-SiGe) thin films were deposited by high-frequency (27.12 MHz) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (HF-PECVD). The films were used in a silicon-based thin film solar cell with graded-dead absorption layer. The characterization of the nc-SiGe films are analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy. The band gap of SiGe alloy can be adjusted between 0.8 and 1.7 eV by varying the gas ratio. For thin film solar cell application, using double graded-dead i-SiGe layers mainly leads to an increase in short-circuit current and therefore cell conversion efficiency. An initial conversion efficiency of 5.06% and the stabilized efficiency of 4.63% for an nc-SiGe solar cell were achieved.

Influences of hydrogen content in intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (i-a-Si:H) on performances of heterojunction (HJ) solar cells are investigated. The simulation result shows that in the range of 0–18% of the i-layer hydrogen content, solar cells with higher i-layer hydrogen content can have higher degree of dangling bond passivation on single crystalline silicon (c-Si) surface. In addition, the experimental result shows that HJ solar cells with a low hydrogen content have a poor a-Si:H/c-Si interface. The deteriorate interface is assumed to be attributed to (i) voids created by insufficiently passivated c-Si surface dangling bonds, (ii) voids formed by SiH2clusters, and (iii) Si particles caused by gas phase particle formation in silane plasma. The proposed assumption is well supported and explained from the plasma point of view using optical emission spectroscopy.