Two-dimensional numerical simulations were performed to derive design rules for low-cost, high-efficiency interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells on a low-cost substrate. The IBC solar cells were designed to be fabricated using either the conventional screen printing or photolithography metallization processes. Bulk lifetime, bulk resistivity, contact spacing (pitch), contact opening width, recombination in the gap between the p + BSF and n + emitter, and the ratio of emitter width to pitch have been used as key variables in the simulations. It is found that short circuit current density (Jsc) is not only a strong function of the bulk lifetime but also the emitter coverage of the rear surface. Fill factor (FF) decreases as the emitter coverage increases because the majority carriers need to travel a longer distance through the substrate for longer emitter width. The simulated IBC results were compared with those for conventional screen printed solar cells. It was found that the IBC solar cell outperforms the screen printed (SP) solar cell when the bulk lifetime is above 50 μs due to higher Voc and Jsc, which suggests that higher performance can be realized on low-cost substrates with the IBC structure.

Abstract-Single ventricle congenital heart defects, which are characterized by cyanotic mixing between the oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood, afflict 2 per every 1000 live births. These defects are surgically treated by connecting the superior and inferior vena cava to the pulmonary arteries. However, such a configuration (also known as the total cavopulmonary connection), results in high energy losses and therefore the optimization of this connection prior to the surgery could significantly improve post-operative performance. In this paper, a surgical planning framework is proposed. It is exemplified on a patient with pre and post surgical MRI data. A pediatric surgeon performed a "virtual surgery" on the reconstruction of the patient's anatomy prior to the actual surgery. Post-operative hemodynamics in the virtually designed post-surgical anatomy and in the actual one are computed using computational fluid dynamics and compared to each other. This framework provides the surgeon to envision numerous scenarios of possible surgical options, and accordingly predict the post operative hemodynamics.

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