Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

Wroński, C. R.; Carlson, David

doi:10.1142/9781848161504_0005

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The typical a‐Si cell is alloyed with hydrogen during cell deposition, passivating any broken Si bonds with hydrogen atoms to reduce defects and enhance opto‐electronic properties 12. The hydrogenated amorphous silicon, a‐Si:H is grown by the plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique that normally uses radio frequency oscillations (RF‐13.56 MHz) to create a gas plasma from mixture of SiH 4 and H 2 gases.…”

Section: Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon‐ Based Multi‐junction Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there is a loss of as much as 30% for a single‐junction a‐Si cell after 1000 h of illumination when it is stabilized 24. Since a thick intrinsic layer deteriorates deeper than a thinner one, early approaches to abating this effect focused on thinning the intrinsic layer as much as possible with advanced optical reflectors to compensate for the lower absorption of sunlight consequent upon the reduced thickness 12, 23. Increased hydrogen dilution in the precursor gas mixture improves stability, but lowers the deposition rate 25.…”

Section: Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon‐ Based Multi‐junction Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thin‐film amorphous silicon (a‐Si) PVs are one of the most promising options, mainly due to their unique advantages over bulk crystalline silicon (c‐Si) PVs, including low material cost, aesthetic attractiveness, and easy integration into a building. Since the first thin‐film a‐Si cell with a conversion efficiency of 2.4% was fabricated in 1976, numerous studies entailed improvements in its optical‐ and electronic‐properties 11, 12. Reportedly, the highest confirmed stabilized efficiency for a triple‐junction R&D module is 10.4% under the standard test condition (measured under the global AM1.5 spectrum (1000 W/m 2 ) at a cell temperature of 25°C).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Comparative life‐cycle energy payback analysis of multi‐junction a‐SiGe and nanocrystalline/a‐Si modules

Kim

Fthenakis

2011

Progress in Photovoltaics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the publicity of nanotechnologies in high tech industries including the photovoltaic sector, their life-cycle energy use and related environmental impacts are understood only to a limited degree as their production is mostly immature. We investigated the life-cycle energy implications of amorphous silicon (a-Si) PV designs using a nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) bottom layer in the context of a comparative, prospective life-cycle analysis framework. Three R&D options using nc-Si bottom layer were evaluated and compared to the current triple-junction a-Si design, i.e., a-Si/a-SiGe/a-SiGe. The life-cycle energy demand to deposit nc-Si was estimated from parametric analyses of film thickness, deposition rate, precursor gas usage, and power for generating gas plasma. We found that extended deposition time and increased gas usages associated to the relatively high thickness of nc-Si lead to a larger primary energy demand for the nc-Si bottom layer designs, than the current triple-junction a-Si. Assuming an 8% conversion efficiency, the energy payback time of those R&D designs will be 0.7-0.9 years, close to that of currently commercial triple-junction a-Si design, 0.8 years. Future scenario analyses show that if nc-Si film is deposited at a higher rate (i.e., 2-3 nm/s), and at the same time the conversion efficiency reaches 10%, the energy-payback time could drop by 30%.

show abstract

Section: Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon‐ Based Multi‐junction Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon‐ Based Multi‐junction Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Comparative life‐cycle energy payback analysis of multi‐junction a‐SiGe and nanocrystalline/a‐Si modules

Kim

Fthenakis

2011

Progress in Photovoltaics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For a-Si:H thin film deposition, modified vapor phase deposition (CVD) techniques are commonly used. Among them are plasmaenhanced CVD (PECVD) [40,41] and hot-wire CVD (HWCVD) [42]. Both methods utilize silane (SiH 4 ) and hydrogen-containing gas mixtures.…”

Section: Amorphous Siliconmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amorphous and micromorph Si solar cells: current status and outlook

Avrutin¹,

Izyumskaya²,

Morkoç³

2014

Turk J Phys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An overview of the current status and prospects of thin-film Si photovoltaics, including both hydrogenated amorphous and microcrystalline Si as well their combination known as micromorph solar cells, with a major focus on the technological development is given. Although thin-film Si solar cells have been one of the first commercially successful photovoltaic devices, today they face a tremendous challenge from variety of bulk Si technologies (mono-and multicrystalline Si) and compound-semiconductor thin-film solar cells, both of which have managed to substantially reduce the production cost and improve power conversion efficiency. Thin-film Si photovoltaics benefiting from the mighty mainstream Si industry have demonstrated the ability to reduce the production cost and cost per peak power; however, the performance improvement of amorphous-Si panels has been only marginal and further progress is hard to expect. The power conversion efficiencies of micromorph solar cells have already exceeded those of amorphous-Si devices.However, to improve their market penetration and even to hold their current share, the micromorph Si solar modules need to improve their performance, which today is approaching 11%, along the path to potential 15%, while keeping the manufacturing cost low. Further progress will require the improvement of light-trapping technologies and contact performance.

show abstract

“…The light shutter is closed immediately after the measurement to prevent any induced cell degradation, i.e. the Staebler-Wronski Effects (SWE) [33,35,36] .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells with front-surface hexagonal plasmonic arrays from nanoscale lithography

Zhang

Gwamuri

Cvetanovic

et al. 2017

J. Opt.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study first uses numerical simulations of hexagonal triangle and sphere arrays to optimize the performance of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photovoltaic devices. The simulations indicated the potential for a sphere array to provide optical enhancement up to 7.4% compared to a standard cell using a nanosphere radius of 250nm and silver film thickness of 50nm. Next a detailed series of a-Si:H cells were fabricated and tested for quantum efficiency (QE) and characteristic and current-voltage (I-V) profiles using a solar simulator. Triangle and sphere array based cells, as well as the uncoated reference cells are analyzed and the results find that the simulation does not precisely predict the observed enhancement, but it forecasts a trend and can be used to guide fabrication. In general, the measured optical enhancement follows the simulated trend: 1) for triangular arrays no enhancement is observed and as the silver thickness increases the more degradation of the cell; 2) for annealed arrays both measured and simulated optical enhancement occur with the thinner silver thickness. Measured efficiency enhancement reached 20.2% and 10.9% for nanosphere diameter D = 500nm, silver thicknesses h = 50nm and 25nm, respectively. These values, which surpass simulation results, indicate that this method is worth additional investigation.

show abstract

Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

Cited by 13 publications

References 47 publications

Comparative life‐cycle energy payback analysis of multi‐junction a‐SiGe and nanocrystalline/a‐Si modules

Comparative life‐cycle energy payback analysis of multi‐junction a‐SiGe and nanocrystalline/a‐Si modules

Amorphous and micromorph Si solar cells: current status and outlook

Enhancement of hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells with front-surface hexagonal plasmonic arrays from nanoscale lithography

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About