• Energy Research

AbstractFor the extraction of spatially resolved solar cell parameters, a variety of methods has been introduced in the past years. Nearly all methods use the fact that the local luminescence intensity can be calibrated to local junction voltage. The different methods however use different approaches for the calibration. In this work we discuss the different approaches used throughout literature. We investigate the key assumption of two approaches which assumes that there are no lateral junction voltage gradients at sufficiently low excitation conditions. Our investigation is based on circuit simulations and experimental results on an example cell. We give an explanation for the remaining contrasts in luminescence images taken at these low excitation conditions. A third approach which does not rely on the key assumption is discussed with respect to measurement time in comparison to the other approaches. Finally the role of the short circuit current is discussed and a modification to the approach as known from literature is proposed.

We present an approach for examining and understanding the impact of material and process variations on solar cell efficiencies using the example of an industrial feasible multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) process. We fabricate and characterize more than 800 mc-Si PERC cells with a broad material variation and model the experimentally achieved solar cell efficiencies based on numerical 3-D device simulations, metamodeling, and Monte Carlo runs. We subject the simulated distribution of cell efficiencies to a variance-based sensitivity analysis, extracting and ranking the process- and material-related input parameters according to their share of the total variance of cell efficiencies and highlighting the parameters that need to be tuned and controlled most accurately. We are able to explain 90% of the measured total variance which divides into 68%abs. material- and 22%abs. process-related influences. Experimental indication of fill factor (FF) losses due to laterally inhomogeneous bulk lifetimes is found. The presented methodology and its findings provide a fundamental tool for a better understanding of the dependencies in a mc-Si PERC process and lays the groundwork for optimizing the quality and the yield of production lines. Furthermore, the approach is transferrable to other solar cell concepts and production lines.

This article introduces a postmetallization “passivated edge technology” (PET) treatment for separated silicon solar cells consisting of aluminum oxide deposition with subsequent annealing. We present our work on bifacial shingle solar cells that are based on the passivated emitter and rear cell concept. To separate the shingle devices after metallization and firing, we use either a conventional laser scribing mechanical cleaving (LSMC) process or a thermal laser separation (TLS) process. Both separation processes show similar pseudo fill factor (pFF) drops of − 1.2%abs from the host wafer to the separated state. The pFF of the TLS-separated cells increases by up to +0.7%abs from the as-separated state after PET treatment due to edge passivation, while the pFF of LSMC-separated cells increases by up to +0.3%abs. On cell level, the combination of TLS and PET allows for a designated area output power density of p out = 23.5 mW/cm², taking into account an additional 10% rear side irradiance.

In this paper, we introduce a predictive, physics-based model, i.e., the so-called tilted-mirror model (tm-model), for optical modeling of rough rear surfaces on silicon solar cells. An enhanced method of using transfer matrices at the rear-side interface of solar cells is developed and combined with Monte Carlo ray tracing. As a result, a physically consistent and precise simulation of the spectral reflectance is achieved, thus leading to a predictive quality of the simulations that could previously not be reached for solar cells with a remaining irregular rear-surface roughness. This advance in optical simulation enables the researcher to directly analyze the effects of varying rear-side passivation materials and thicknesses, as well as the impact of different surface morphologies on the gained charge-carrier generation rate of a solar cell. A comparison with the Phong model shows that the tm-model is able to simulate the generated photocurrent Jph more accurately, as it is shown that the Phong model tends to overestimate this value due to imprecise calculation of charge-carrier generation. In an application of the tm-model to passivated emitter and rear cells, it is shown that a strong planarization of the rear surface leads to an improvement in photogenerated current up to 0.13 mA/cm2 compared with a weak planarization.

A new approach to model edge recombination in silicon solar cells is presented. The model accounts for recombination both at the edge of the quasi-neutral bulk as well as at an exposed space-charge-region (SCR), the latter via an edge-length-specific diode property with an ideality factor of 2: a localized J02, edge. The model is implemented in Quokka3, where the $J_{02,edge}$ is applied locally to the edges of the three-dimensional geometry, imposing less simplifying assumptions compared with the common way of applying it as an external diode. A “worst-case” value for $J_{02,{\rm{edge}}}$ , assuming very high surface recombination, is determined by fitting to full detailed device simulations which resolve the SCR recombination. A value of $\sim \text{19 nA/cm}$ is found, which is shown to be largely independent of device properties. The new approach is applied to model the impact of edge recombination on full cell performance for a substantial variety of device properties. It is found that recombination at the quasi-neutral bulk edge does not increase the $J_{02}$ of the dark J–V curve, but still shows a nonideal impact on the light J–V curve similar to the SCR recombination. This needs to be considered in the experimental evaluation of edge losses, which is commonly performed via fitting $J_{02}$ to dark J–V curves.

AbstractSolar cells featuring a dielectrically coated rear side combine excellent electrical passivation, yielding high open circuit voltages, with high light trapping capabilities, yielding high short circuit currents. The roughness of the rear side is a crucial parameter for the optical properties of these devices. We therefore analyze the influence of the rear surface roughness on the charge carrier generation and the spectral reflection of the devices using predictive, three dimensional modeling of the rear surface based on the transfer-matrix formalism. After the verification of this so-called tilted-mirrors-model, we compare it to the widely used Phong model. When fitting the spectral reflectance of the Phong model using its two empirical parameters to the spectral reflectance obtained with the predictive model, we calculate 0.2 - 0.4mA/cm2 lower photogenerated current densities. We further use the predictive model to demonstrate the optical impact of variations of the thickness of the passivation layers.

Abstract To investigate the rear side of bifacial p-type Czochraslki-grown silicon PERC solar cells, the present work combines Sentaurus Device simulation – calibrated with extensively characterized samples – and the subsequent fabrication of solar cells according to the simulation findings. The authors investigate the physical alteration of rear-side characteristics in the context of an additional rear-side illumination. The additional injection represents an further factor for the balance of carrier generation, recombination and series resistances which in turn influences the design rules for the rear side layout. Our detailed bifacial simulations include these physical aspects and we derive design solutions for different bifacial illumination scenarios for a bifacial p-doped PERC solar cell. Using an industrial PERC process, solar cells with laser contact openings (LCO) and a rear aluminum grid were produced according to the simulation results with a wide variation in rear side layout parameters. The PERC batches showed a rather constant medium (front side) efficiency of η = 20.8±0.2% and a bifaciality of 66 to 77% depending on the rear layout, allowing us to investigate the rear-side characteristics in detail and to compare them with the effects predicted by the simulations. We processed an aluminum rear contact grid with finger widths as small as 100 µm and successfully aligned it onto the LCO with 30 µm contact openings on full-area 156x156 mm 2 wafers. We reached good accordance between the monofacial measurements from front and rear side and our simulation model and could thus predict bifacial illumination results by modeling for two issues: 1. Planar rear sides have an advantage over pyramid textured rear sides for 1000 W/m² front illumination unless additional rear illumination exceeds 250 W/m². 2. As soon as any rear illumination is added to the front-illuminated PERC solar cell, 100 µm thin fingers at the rear side have an output power advantage compared to 150 µm and 200 µm wide fingers.

This work introduces a novel industrial feasible back-contact back-junction crystalline silicon solar cell technology with exclusively highly doped surfaces. The near-surface phosphorus doping is realized in one single tube furnace diffusion step, while the alloying of screen-printed aluminum forms the p+-doping. A first experimental verification leads to a conversion efficiency of 20.1%. Further possible improvements are proposed and verified with numerical simulation. We perform comprehensive step-by-step optimization led by insights from free energy loss analysis, resulting in a conversion efficiency potential of 22.4% under realistic assumptions for design optimization.