• Energy Research

AbstractThis paper presents an understanding of the fundamental carrier transport mechanism in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a‐Si:H)‐based n/p junctions. These n/p junctions are, then, used as tunneling and recombination junctions (TRJ) in tandem solar cells, which were constructed by stacking the a‐Si:H‐based solar cell on the heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) cell. First, the effect of activation energy (Ea) and Urbach parameter (Eu) of n‐type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a‐Si:H(n)) on current transport in an a‐Si:H‐based n/p TRJ has been investigated. The photoluminescence spectra and temperature‐dependent current–voltage characteristics in dark condition indicates that the tunneling is the dominant carrier transport mechanism in our a‐Si:H‐based n/p‐type TRJ. The fabrication of a tandem cell structure consists of an a‐Si:H‐based top cell and an HIT‐type bottom cell with the a‐Si:H‐based n/p junction developed as a TRJ in between. The development of a‐Si:H‐based n/p junction as a TRJ leads to an improved a‐Si:H/HIT‐type tandem cell with a better open circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF), and efficiency. The improvements in the cell performance was attributed to the wider band‐tail states in the a‐Si:H(n) layer that helps to an enhanced tunneling and recombination process in the TRJ. The best photovoltage parameters of the tandem cell were found to beVoc = 1430 mV, short circuit current density = 10.51 mA/cm2,FF = 0.65, and efficiency = 9.75%. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Abstract This study is devoted to the formation of high–low-level-doped selective emitter for crystalline silicon solar cells for photovoltaic application. We report here the formation of porous silicon under chemical reaction condition. The chemical mixture containing hydrofluoric and nitric acid, with de-ionized water, was used to make porous on the half of the silicon surface of size 125×125 cm. Porous and non-porous areas each share half of the whole silicon surface. H 3 PO 4 :methanol gives the best deposited layer with acceptable adherence and uniformity on the non-porous and porous areas of the silicon surface to get high- and low-level-doped regions. The volume concentration of H 3 PO 4 does not exceed 10% of the total volume emulsion. Phosphoric acid was used as an n-type doping source to make emitter for silicon solar cells. The measured emitter sheet resistances at the high- and low-level-doped regions were 30–35 and 97–474 Ω/□ respectively. A simple process for low- and high-level doping has been achieved by forming porous and porous-free silicon surface, in this study, which could be applied for solar cells selective emitter doping.

In this paper, we present a detailed study on the local back contact (LBC) formation of rear-surface-passivated silicon solar cells, where both the LBC opening and metallization are realized by one-step alloying of a dot of fine pattern screen-printed aluminum paste with the silicon substrate. Based on energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterizations, we suggest that the aluminum distribution and the silicon concentration determine the local-back-surface-field (Al-p+) layer thickness, resistivity of the Al-p+ and hence the quality of the Al-p+ formation. The highest penetration of silicon concentration of 78.17% in aluminum resulted in the formation of a 5 microm-deep Al-p+ layer, and the minimum LBC resistivity of 0.92 x 10-6 omega cm2. The degradation of the rear-surface passivation due to high temperature of the LBC formation process can be fully recovered by forming gas annealing (FGA) at temperature and hydrogen content of 450 degrees C and 15%, respectively. The application of the optimized LBC of rear-surface-passivated by a dot of fine pattern screen(-) printed aluminum paste resulted in efficiency of up to 19.98% for the p-type czochralski (CZ) silicon wafers with 10.24 cm2 cell size at 649 mV open circuit voltage. By FGA for rear-surface passivation recovery, efficiencies up to 20.35% with a V(OC) of 662 mV, FF of 82%, and J(SC) of 37.5 mA/cm2 were demonstrated.

Abstract In heterojunction silicon with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells, the excellent opto-electrical properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) front contact play a critical role in attaining high efficiency. Therefore, in this study, we present and demonstrate an effective statistic approach based on combining Taguchi method and Grey relational analysis for the optimization of ITO films. A reduction in the number of experiments by approximately 90% is obtained by the Taguchi method through an orthogonal array. The reproduction of the effect of process parameters on single performance characteristic, however, is still ensured. In addition, an excellent trade-off between electrical and optical properties of ITO films was attained within the selected range of parameters by Grey relational analysis at power density of 0.685 W/cm 2 , working pressure of 0.4 Pa, substrate temperature of 200 °C, and post-annealing temperature of 200 °C in 30 min. Under optimal condition, the ITO films showed lowest electrical resistivity of 1.978 × 10 −4 Ω cm, and highest transmittance of 90.322%. The HIT solar cells using these ITO films as a front contact show highest efficiency of 16.616%, yielding a 1.750% absolute increase in efficiency compared to using ITO films with the initial condition. Furthermore, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) is determined to define the process parameters which have a dominant effect on the electrical and optical properties of ITO films. Based on ANOVA, we found that the substrate temperature was a key parameter which critically affects the opto-electrical properties of ITO films.

Abstract The influence of various parameters such as buffer intrinsic layers, back-surface fields, densities of interface defects (Dit), the resistivity of p-type silicon substrates (ρ) and then work function of transparent conductive oxide ( ϕ TCO ) on heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer (HIT) solar cell performance was investigated using software simulation. Automat for the simulation of heterostructures (AFORS-HET) software was used for that purpose. Our results indicate that band bending, which is determined by the band offsets at the buffer intrinsic/c-Si and/or the c-Si/back-surface field heterointerface, could be critical to solar cell performance. The effect of band bending on solar cell performance and the dependence of cell performance on ρ and ϕ TCO were investigated in detail. Eventually, suggestive design parameters for HIT solar cell fabrication are proposed.

Finding the optimal condition from a wide range of cell fabrication conditions and design parameters is typically a time-consuming and cumbersome task. In this study, the combination of the Taguchi approach and Grey relational analysis was employed for optimization of the conversion efficiency of hydrogenated amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunction (a-Si:H/c-Si HJ) solar cells. With the help of the Taguchi method via an orthogonal array, the reconstruction of the impact of input parameters on single performance characteristics is still ensured while reducing the number of simulations by 99.8%. The simulated results suggested that the density of interfacial defects (Dit) plays a key role in obtaining a high open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF), respectively. Meanwhile, the emitter thickness is the dominant factor in achieving a high short-circuit current density (Jsc). As a result, these two factors dominate the conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the overall optimal condition is also obtained by the Grey relational analysis. The simplified HJ cell configuration using this optimal condition displayed the highest conversion efficiency of 25.86%, yielding a 2.25% absolute increase in efficiency compared to the initial condition. The results highlight the effectiveness of our proposed approach in reducing the number of experiments needed for cell optimization.

It is difficult to deposit extremely thin a-Si:H layer in heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cell due to thermal damage and tough process control. This study aims to understand oxide passivation mechanism of silicon surface using rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) process by examining surface effective lifetime and surface recombination velocity. The presence of thin insulating a-Si:H layer is the key to get highVocby lowering the leakage current (I0) which improves the efficiency of HIT solar cell. The ultrathin thermal passivation silicon oxide (SiO2) layer was deposited by RTO system in the temperature range 500–950°C for 2 to 6 minutes. The thickness of the silicon oxide layer was affected by RTO annealing temperature and treatment time. The best value of surface recombination velocity was recorded for the sample treated at a temperature of 850°C for 6 minutes at O2flow rate of 3 Lpm. A surface recombination velocity below 25 cm/s was obtained for the silicon oxide layer of 4 nm thickness. This ultrathin SiO2layer was employed for the fabrication of HIT solar cell structure instead of a-Si:H, (i) layer and the passivation and tunneling effects of the silicon oxide layer were exploited. The photocurrent was decreased with the increase of illumination intensity and SiO2thickness.

Abstract This study evaluates the interface passivation quality of the amorphous/crystalline heterointerface and the performance of the heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer solar cells via values of a plasma parameter characterized by the deposition pressure ( p )×electrode distance ( d ). Increasing the product of p × d leads to a lower crystalline fraction and higher hydrogen content, and enhances the c-Si surface passivation. This p × d evaluation factor is also compared with other evaluation factors, such as the silane depletion fraction and film-crystallinity. The tendencies of minority carrier lifetimes with respect to these evaluation factors were similar. Using the highest p × d value of 48, the photovoltaic parameter of the device yielded an open-circuit voltage of up to 710 mV, in turned giving an efficiency of 19.12%.