Substrates, contacts and monolithic integration

Hegedus, Steven; Albright, S.P.; Jeffrey, F. R.; McMahon, T. J.; Wiedeman, S.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(199709/10)5:5<365::aid-pip184>3.0.co;2-r

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Generally, the behavior resembles the V oc behavior but is shifted to higher illumination due to the impact of R sh . Furthermore, for very high illuminations a decrease of the FF is seen which is explained by the collapse of electric field, i.e., biasdependent photo carrier collection [15]. A broad regime C range for thick solar cells deposited on HCl ZnO and SnO 2 is observed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…7, information on the V oc loss origin can be gained. A dependency between R sc and J sc as seen for thick solar cells deposited on HCl ZnO or SnO 2 over the entire applied illumination indicate bias-dependent photo carrier collection [15] and also high quality solar cells. On the other hand, if R sc behaves independently on J sc , as seen for wide illumination ranges for thin solar cells or solar cells deposited on LPCVD ZnO and HF ZnO, it means that the JV-characteristics of a solar cell are dominated by low shunt resistances.…”

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confidence: 89%

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Impact of transparent conductive oxide front side texture on the open‐circuit voltage of a‐Si:H solar cells

Zhang

Merdzhanova

Meier

et al. 2016

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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High efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells require texturing of the front contacts for advanced light management. However, optically favorable textures may be challenging in terms of the electrical performance. Solar cells deposited on very rough front contacts show a reduced open-circuit voltage, V oc , as compared to flat TCOs. This contribution focuses on the impact of rough surfaces on the V oc in a-Si:H solar cells deposited on six different textured front TCOs. With various ilayer thicknesses from 100 to 400 nm the origin of the V oc loss is investigated. Based on our results we propose that the reduction of V oc in a-Si:H solar cells are mainly due to defective regions in the bulk material induced by very rough textures. It is also seen that enlarging the i-layer thickness can improve the V oc of solar cells when grown on very rough textures. By using variable illumination intensity measurements the existence of shunts could be evidenced.

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confidence: 87%

mentioning

confidence: 89%

Impact of transparent conductive oxide front side texture on the open‐circuit voltage of a‐Si:H solar cells

Zhang

Merdzhanova

Meier

et al. 2016

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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“…These lead to 10-30% reduction in thin film module efficiency compared to an identical individual non-integrated solar cell. [50][51][52] It is likely that all three TFSC technologies will reach a plateau in efficiency improvements achievable by incremental gains within the next few years, if they have not already. Breakthroughs in champion cell efficiency are unlikely without significant increases in government funding.…”

Section: Increasing Efficiency Of Tfsc Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thin film solar modules: the low cost, high throughput and versatile alternative to Si wafers

Hegedus

2006

Progress in Photovoltaics

167

106

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Thin film solar cells (TFSC) have passed adolescence and are ready to make a substantial contribution to the world's electricity generation. They can have advantages over c-Si solar modules in ease of large area, lower cost manufacturing and in several types of applications. Factors which limit TFSC module performance relative to champion cell performance are discussed along with the importance of increased throughput and yield. The consensus of several studies is that all TFSC can achieve costs below 1 $/W if manufactured at sufficiently large scale >100 MW using parallel lines of cloned equipment with high material utilization and spray-on encapsulants. There is significant new commercial interest in TFSC from small investors and large corporations, validating the thin film approach. Unique characteristics are discussed which give TFSC an advantage over c-Si in two specific markets: small rural solar home systems and building integrated photovoltaic installations. TFSC have outperformed c-Si in annual energy production (kWhrs/kW), have demonstrated outdoor durability comparable to c-Si and are being used in MW scale installations worldwide. The merits of the thin film approach cannot be judged on the basis of efficiency alone but must also account for module performance and potential for low cost. TFSC advocates should promote their unique virtues compared to c-Si: lower cost, higher kWhr/kW output, higher battery charging current, attractive visual appearance, flexible substrates, long-term stability comparable to c-Si, and multiple pathways for deposition with room for innovation and evolutionary improvement. There is a huge market for TFSC even at today's efficiency if costs can be reduced. A brief window of opportunity exists for TFSC over the next few years due the Si shortage. The demonstrated capabilities and advantages of TFSC must be proclaimed more persistently to funding decision-makers and customers without minimizing the remaining challenges.

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“…An increased conductivity comes at the penalty of reduced optical transmittance. This translates to one of the major bottlenecks limiting the solar panel efficiency (Hegedus et al, 1997). Because the back contact of thin film solar cells has no transmittance requirements, it has not such a trade-off in transparency (Kessler et al, 2005;Galagan et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effect of series resistance within a cell over a larger area was reported by calculating a string of parallel solar cells (Miyadera et al, 2012). This string-based approach was also used for modeling the effect of monolithic integration (Hegedus et al, 1997;Burgelman and Niemegeers, 1998). In one case, more detail on the quality of the interconnection was included (Brecl et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%