A Comprehensive Methodology to Evaluate Losses and Process Variations in Silicon Solar Cell Manufacturing

Hossain, Mohammad Jobayer; Gregory, Geoffrey; Schneller, Eric; Gabor, Andrew M.; Blum, Adrienne L.; Yang, Zhihao; Sulas, Dana; Johnston, Steve; Davis, Kristopher O.

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2019.2926628

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…(1) SunSolve used to perform ray tracing of the optics of the solar cell and all of the thin films present within the device thus quantify JG, front and escape reflectance loss and parasitic optical absorption. (2) Lumerical is used to perform finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations to evaluate potential improvements in light trapping if nanostructures dielectric layers are used. This tool accounts for reflectance, scattering (if any), absorption, and transmission within the substrate itself, and the results of Lumerical are fed back into SunSolve to calculate the potential gains in JG.…”

Section: Modeling Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the levelized cost of electricity of PV systems has dropped to incredibly low levels in recent years, there is still room for further improvements in terms of the efficiency, manufacturing cost, and durability of PV cells and modules. To maximize cell efficiency, the optical losses, recombination losses, and resistive losses [1], [2] of solar cells must be minimized.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Photon Management for Silicon Solar Cells featuring Hole-Selective Molybdenum Oxide Rear Contacts: An Optical Simulation Study

Hossain

Davis

2019

2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Passivated, hole-selective contacts play important role in reducing surface recombination by lowering the concentration of electrons in the rear side of a solar cell. However, parasitic optical losses in these contacts can still limit the performance of the cell. In this work, the long wavelength optical losses of silicon solar cells featuring hole-selective molybdenum oxide (MoOx) rear contacts are investigated using optical simulations. The potential of these selective contacts for possible enhancement of photogenerated current density was also investigated for their use with nanostructured dielectric layers.

show abstract

Section: Modeling Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon Management for Silicon Solar Cells featuring Hole-Selective Molybdenum Oxide Rear Contacts: An Optical Simulation Study

Hossain

Davis

2019

2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Figure 6a also shows the distribution of the individual current losses, broken down into loss due to front reflectance (J R − f ), front parasitic absorption (J loss − f ), rear parasitic absorption (J loss − r ), and escape reflectance (J R − esc ). [62][63][64] There is an incremental improvement in the J G for each structure due to an improved blue response in the quantum efficiency (QE) curve (380-500 nm range). Where the standard a-Si:H-based SHJ cell has an expected J G of 39.4 mA cm −2 , the use of MoO x results in an increase of 0.6-0.7 mA cm −2 .…”

Section: Opportunities For Sald Moo X In Silicon Photovoltaicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition of Molybdenum Oxide for Industrial Solar Cells

Gregory

Luderer

Ali

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Inter

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

alignment for charge transport. [11] TMOs have work functions ranging from 3 (ZrO 2) to 7 eV (V 2 O 5), making them suitable candidates for energy-level alignment in a variety of devices. [12] In crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells, TMOs are being used as transparent, dopant-free heterocontacts to the silicon absorber. [13] These have the potential to replace the heavily doped contacts found in current state-of-the-art heterojunction solar cells, [14,15] which can suffer from parasitic optical absorption and increased Auger recombination at the silicon surface. [16,17] TMOs are commonly deposited using different physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques such as thermal evaporation and sputtering. [18,19] Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has emerged as an alternative for TMO deposition. [20] ALD offers greater thickness control and uniformity than PVD due to its reaction-limited growth process, making it ideal for applications requiring ultra-thin, conformal oxides on textured silicon surfaces. [21-24] While this technique has many advantages over PVD, depending on molecular precursor choice, it may require "energy enhancement" of the oxidant pulse, most commonly in the form of plasma or ozone, to achieve efficient growth. [25] Additionally, the growth rate of ALD is typically on the order of angstroms per Molybdenum oxide thin films are successfully deposited using spatial atomic layer deposition (SALD), a tool designed for high-throughput industrial film growth. The structural and optical properties of the film are evaluated using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and spectroscopic ellipsometry. To demonstrate the applicability of molybdenum oxide in industrial settings the films are applied as holeselective silicon heterojunction contacts for solar cells. When paired with intrinsic amorphous silicon passivation layers, implied open-circuit voltages of 699 mV are achieved. The carrier transport is unaffected by low-temperature contact anneals up to 300 °C with contact resistivities of ≈ 10 mΩ cm 2. Finally, the optical performance of silicon solar cells featuring different front hole-selective heterojunction structures are simulated. It is shown that the generation current density of heterojunction solar cells can be significantly increased with the addition of SALD molybdenum oxide contacts.

show abstract

“…This was determined by using a photon flux that allows a reference cell to match the short-circuit current density ( J sc ) derived from known external quantum efficiency data. [22,23] The contact recombination ( J 0c ) values were extracted using a finite element simulator called Griddler Pro 2.5. The PL images were analyzed to extract the J 0c using an autofitting routine built into the Griddler AI.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It uses unique modulation frequencies for the LEDs to perform full spectrum measurements which takes about 1 s. An integrating sphere measures reflectance at each location. [22,23] In our case, we compared the light reflectance of the ITO-based test samples with transferred foil and evaporated metal as back contact.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recombination and Resistive Losses of Transferred Foil Contacts for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Iqbal

Gregory

et al. 2020

Physica Rapid Research Ltrs

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells have been studied extensively due to their potential to reach high energy conversion efficiencies. However, one of the limiting factors for this technology is the metallization, which uses low‐curing‐temperature silver pastes that result in fingers with higher bulk resistivity. Herein, a simple approach to fabricate the SHJ solar cell contacts is demonstrated with commercially available low‐cost silver (Ag) electrically conductive adhesive (ECA) pastes and aluminium (Al) foils. This technique can result in a transparent conductive oxide (TCO)‐free cell structure and has the potential to combine cell metallization and interconnection. Recombination and resistive loss analyses are performed on the fabricated test samples. A dark saturation current density at the contact (J0c) of 3.05 fA cm−2 for test samples before annealing is reported. The analysis of the experimental and simulated photoluminescence (PL) images shows negligible added recombination. The contact resistivity (ρc) value is 49.3 mΩ cm2 after annealing which can be optimized by specialized ECA pastes.

show abstract

A Comprehensive Methodology to Evaluate Losses and Process Variations in Silicon Solar Cell Manufacturing

Cited by 19 publications

References 33 publications

Photon Management for Silicon Solar Cells featuring Hole-Selective Molybdenum Oxide Rear Contacts: An Optical Simulation Study

Photon Management for Silicon Solar Cells featuring Hole-Selective Molybdenum Oxide Rear Contacts: An Optical Simulation Study

Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition of Molybdenum Oxide for Industrial Solar Cells

Recombination and Resistive Losses of Transferred Foil Contacts for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About