Simon Kirner

p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide emitter for silicon heterojunction solar cells allowing current densities above 40 mA/cm2

We have developed a microcrystalline silicon oxide (μc-SiOx:H) p-type emitter layer that significantly improves the light incoupling at the front side of silicon heterojunction solar cells by minimizing reflection losses. The μc-SiOx:H p-layer with a refractive index of 2.87 at 632 nm wavelength and the transparent conducting oxide form a stack with refractive indexes which consecutively decrease from silicon to the ambient air and thus significantly reduce the reflection. Optical simulations performed for flat wafers reveal that the antireflective effect of the emitter overcompensates the parasitic absorption and suggest an ideal thickness of about 40 nm. On textured wafers, the increase in current density is still more than 1 mA/cm2 for a typical emitter thickness of 10 nm. Thus, we are able to fabricate heterojunction solar cells with current densities significantly over 40 mA/cm2 and power conversion efficiency above 20%, which is yet mainly limited by the cells fill factor.

Quadruple-junction solar cells and modules based on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon with high stable efficiencies

Quadruple junction solar cells and modules are presented, which consist of hydrogenated amorphous (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) in the a-Si:H/a-Si:H/µc-Si:H/µc-Si:H configuration. The highest measured conversion efficiency of a mini-module with an aperture area of 61.44 cm2 was 13.4% before and 12.0% after more than 1000 h of light soaking, respectively. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of the quadruple junction design over the common tandem design, which is ascribed mainly to the fact that the total absorber thickness can be increased while electronic properties and stability are maintained or even improved. The role of the µc-SiOx:H intermediate reflector is highlighted and an optimization of the doping concentration in this layer is presented. Furthermore, the advantage of the high maximum power voltage for the monolithic cell interconnection laser design of modules is shown.

PECVD Intermediate and Absorber Layers Applied in Liquid-Phase Crystallized Silicon Solar Cells on Glass Substrates

Liquid-phase crystallized silicon absorber layers have been applied in heterojunction solar cells on glass substrates with 10.8% conversion efficiency and an open-circuit voltage of 600 mV. Intermediate layers of SiOx, SiNx, and SiOxNy, as well as the a-Si:H precursor layer, were deposited on 30 cm × 30 cm glass substrates using industrial-type plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition equipment. After crystallization on 3cm × 5cm area using a continuous-wave infrared laser line, the resulting polysilicon material showed high material quality with large grain sizes.

The growth of microcrystalline silicon oxide thin films studied by in situ plasma diagnostics

The crystallinity and refractive index of microcrystalline silicon oxide (μc-SiOx:H) n-layers and their dependence on the pressure and radio frequency power during the deposition process is correlated with plasma properties derived from in situ diagnostics. From process gas depletion measurements, the oxygen content of the layers was calculated. High crystallinities were observed for increased pressures and decreased powers, indicating clear differences to trends previously shown for microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) material, which are explained by the varying oxygen incorporation. Amorphous/microcrystalline silicon (a-Si:H/μc-Si:H) tandem solar cells with μc-SiOx:H intermediate reflector layers deposited at optimized pressures showed greatly improved series resistances.

Implications of TCO Topography on Intermediate Reflector Design for a-Si/μc-Si Tandem Solar Cells—Experiments and Rigorous Optical Simulations

The influence of the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) topography was studied on the performance of a silicon oxide intermediate reflector layer (IRL) in a-Si/μc-Si tandem cells, both experimentally and by 3-D optical simulations. Therefore, cells with varying IRL thickness were deposited on three different types of TCOs. Clear differences were observed regarding the performance of the IRL as well as its ideal thickness, both experimentally and in the simulations. Optical modeling suggests that a small autocorrelation length is essential for a good performance. Design rules for both the TCO topography and the IRL thickness can be derived from this interplay.

Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Nanocrystalline Silicon Oxide Emitter: Insights Into Charge Carrier Transport

We recently demonstrated how the short-circuit current density of an a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cell can be significantly improved to above 40 mA/cm2 by replacing the standard a-Si:H(p) emitter by a silicon oxide emitter containing p-doped silicon nanocrystallites. While we could obtain a conversion efficiency of 20.3%, the cell suffered from a lower fill factor of 72.9%, compared with 77.0% for our standard process. In this paper, we address this issue both theoretically and experimentally. We found that a thin (~3 nm) highly doped nanocrystalline silicon layer on top of the emitter can greatly improve the fill factor. Using 1-D device simulation, we explain the prevalent loss mechanism, which originates mostly from poor tunnel recombination at the transparent conducting oxide/emitter interface rather than in the bulk of the emitter. We suspect that have their origin in the lower effective dopant concentration of the nanocrystalline silicon oxide emitter. From the model, implications for further developments can be derived.

Emitter Patterning for Back-Contacted Si Heterojunction Solar Cells Using Laser Written Mask Layers for Etching and Self-Aligned Passivation (LEAP)

A novel emitter patterning method for back-contacted Si heterojunction solar cells is presented, which combines laser processing and wet etching of a mask layer stack with self-aligned repassivation, thus reducing the process complexity, as compared with the commonly used emitter patterning methods. Lifetime samples demonstrate that with a suitable mask stack, laser scribing can be performed without inducing laser damage to the passivation. Despite nonoptimal wet etch and repassivation processes which currently limit the obtained lifetime, proof-of-concept cells on p-type wafers fabricated using this novel emitter patterning process and lithographically patterned metallization exhibit an open-circuit voltage of 694 mV and pseudo-fill-factors of 83%. With the laser written mask layers for etching and self-aligned passivation process, we have thus developed the proof-of-concept for a simple, lithography free, and contactless emitter patterning method for industrial applications.

FEM-based optical modeling of silicon thin-film tandem solar cells with randomly textured interfaces in 3D

Light trapping techniques are one of the key research areas in thin film silicon photovoltaics. Since the 1980s randomly rough textured front transparent oxides (TCOs) have been the methods of choice as light trapping strategies for thin-film devices. Light-trapping efficiency can be optimized by means of optical simulations of nano-structured solar cells. We present a FEM based simulator for 3D rigorous optical modeling of amorphous silicon / microcrystalline silicon tandem thin-film solar cells with randomly textured layer interfaces. We focus strongly on an error analysis study for the presented simulator to demonstrate the numerical convergence of the method and investigate grid and finite element degree refinement strategies in order to obtain reliable simulation results.

3D optical modeling of thin-film a-Si/μc-Si tandem solar cells with random textured interfaces using FEM

We present a FEM based simulator for 3D rigorous optical modeling of a-Si/μc-Si tandem thin-film solar cells with randomly textured layer interfaces. Our focus lies on a detailed analysis of the numerical error.

Backside contacted solar cells with heterojunction emitters and laser fired absorber contacts for crystalline silicon on glass

Backside contacted cells were fabricated on p- and n-type, liquid phase crystallized silicon on glass. The heterojunction emitter and transparent contacting layer were opened locally using an inkjet printer and the absorber was contacted with laser fired point contacts. An analytical resistance model was derived to determine the resistance losses for the point contact geometry. Using test structures and the model it was found that for p-type cells the main contribution to the cell resistance came from the absorber contact and the absorber. Both were strongly reduced by increasing the absorber doping. For n-type cells the main contributions originated from the emitter and emitter-TCO contact, which was improved by changing the emitter type, resulting in an 11.6 % solar cell.