Highly Texturized Silver Electrode Deposition Using Roll-to-Roll Low-Temperature Sputtering Process

Takano, Akihiro; Uno, Masayoshi; Tanda, M.; Iwasaki, S.; Tanaka, Hiroko; Yasuda, J.; Kamoshita, Tomoyoshi

doi:10.1143/jjap.43.l277

Cited by 28 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These self‐organized textures have feature sizes in the range of sub‐micron to several microns depending on the process conditions. In the substrate configuration, various light scattering textures have been developed such as rough metallic surfaces . Light absorption enhancement using periodic textures has been also intensively investigated .…”

Section: Device Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key Points in the Latest Developments of High‐Efficiency Thin‐Film Silicon Solar Cells

Sai

Matsui

Matsubara

2017

Physica Status Solidi (a)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Thin‐film silicon has been intensively used in photovoltaic applications. In recent years, most of the record efficiencies in thin‐film silicon solar cells have been updated frequently, particularly in microcrystalline silicon solar cells. In this article, key points in the latest developments of high‐efficiency thin‐film silicon solar cells are reviewed with a short overview of thin‐film silicon technology. The main driver for the efficiency improvement of microcrystalline silicon cells was the development of sophisticated light scattering substrates. The well‐designed honeycomb‐textured substrates enabled a systematic and detailed optimization to realize the growth of high‐quality films and significant light absorption enhancement simultaneously. The knowledge obtained about microcrystalline silicon solar cells and the insights regarding light‐induced degradation of a‐Si:H solar cells were successfully transferred to triple junction cells, which was demonstrated by the achievement of the record stabilized efficiency of 14%.

show abstract

Section: Device Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key Points in the Latest Developments of High‐Efficiency Thin‐Film Silicon Solar Cells

Sai

Matsui

Matsubara

2017

Physica Status Solidi (a)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recently, it has been found that a tandem-type TFSSC with a top a-Si:H cell and a bottom c-Si: H cell requires more efficient light trapping owing to the limited light absorption of c-Si: H in the infrared ͑IR͒ region. 1,2 For this purpose, textured substrates have been implemented in TFSSC, including SnO 2 , 3,4 ZnO, 5,6 Ag, 7,8 and Al. 9 In general, light trapping is enhanced by increasing either the feature size or the aspect ratio of the surface textures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flattened light-scattering substrate in thin film silicon solar cells for improved infrared response

Sai

Kanamori

Kondo

2011

Applied Physics Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Surface texturing is a technique commonly used to enhance light absorption in thin film silicon solar cells; it should be noted that highly textured substrates often induce structural defects in the active layer, which deteriorates the photovoltaic performance. In this paper, we propose a flattened light-scattering substrate (FLiSS) with a large refractive index contrast in plane as an approach to overcome this trade-off. A FLiSS composed of a two-dimensional ZnO grating and a Ag reflector is applied to μc-Si:H cells, in order to improve the spectral response in the infrared region while maintaining a high VOC and FF.

show abstract

“…Inclusion of Al in sputtered Ag for substrate type of cells allows to bring down the processing temperature of textured Ag to below 300°C [5] from the usual~350-400°C used for pure Ag [3]. Using Al doped Ag reflectors Fuji Electric has been able to make thin film silicon solar cells on high temperature resistant plastics (polyimide) in a roll to roll process [6], however, the processing temperature is still too high for cheap plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) or polycarbonate (PC). Texture etching with diluted HCl of sputter deposited ZnO:Al on plastics has allowed such substrates in combination with conformal coating of thin Ag layer to be used as back reflector in n-i-p solar cells [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using Al doped Ag reflectors Fuji Electric has been able to make thin film silicon solar cells on high temperature resistant plastics (polyimide) in a roll to roll process [6], however, the processing temperature is still too high for cheap plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) or polycarbonate (PC). Texture etching with diluted HCl of sputter deposited ZnO:Al on plastics has allowed such substrates in combination with conformal coating of thin Ag layer to be used as back reflector in n-i-p solar cells [6]. One of the issues is that the substrate suffers from heavy stress due to the ZnO:Al sputter deposition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel structured plastic substrate for light confinement in thin film silicon solar cells by a geometric optical effect

Jong

Rath

Schropp

et al. 2012

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oWe present a novel method to achieve light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells. Unlike the commonly used surface textures, such as Asahi U-type TCO, that rely on light scattering phenomena, we employ embossed periodically arranged micro-pyramidal structures with feature sizes much larger than the wavelength of visible light. Angular resolved transmission of light through these substrates indeed showed diffraction patterns, unlike in the case of Asahi U-type substrates, which show angular resolved scattering. Single junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells made at 125°C on the embossed structured polycarbonate (PC) substrates showed an increase in current density by 24% compared to a similar solar cell on a flat substrate. The band gap and thickness of the i-layer made by VHF PECVD are 1.9 eV and 270 nm respectively. A double p-layer (nc-Si:H/a-Si:H) was used to make proper contact with ZnO:Al TCO. Numerical modeling, called DokterDEP was performed to fit the dark and light current-voltage parameters and understand the characteristics of the cell. The output parameters from the modeling suggest that the cells have excellent built-in potential (V bi ). However, a rather high recombination voltage, V μ , affects the FF and short circuit current density (J sc ) for the cells on Asahi as well as for the cells on PC. A rather high parallel resistance ≫ 1 MΩ cm 2 (obtained from the modeling) infers that there is no significant shunt leakage, which is often observed for solar cells made at low temperatures on rough substrates. An efficiency of more than 6% for a cell on PC shows enormous potential of this type of light trapping structures.

show abstract

Highly Texturized Silver Electrode Deposition Using Roll-to-Roll Low-Temperature Sputtering Process

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Key Points in the Latest Developments of High‐Efficiency Thin‐Film Silicon Solar Cells

Key Points in the Latest Developments of High‐Efficiency Thin‐Film Silicon Solar Cells

Flattened light-scattering substrate in thin film silicon solar cells for improved infrared response

A novel structured plastic substrate for light confinement in thin film silicon solar cells by a geometric optical effect

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About