High Efficiency Silver-Free Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cell

Hernández, José Luis; Yoshikawa, Kunta; Feltrin, A.; Menou, N.; Valckx, Nick; Assche, Elisabeth Van; Schroos, Dries; Vandersmissen, K.; Philipsen, Harold; Poortmans, Jef; Adachi, Daisuke; Yoshimi, Masashi; Uto, Toshihiko; Uzu, Hisashi; Kuchiyama, Takashi; Allebé, Christophe; Nakanishi, Naoaki; Terashita, Toru; Fujimoto, Takahisa; Koizumi, G.; Yamamoto, Kenji

doi:10.7567/jjap.51.10na04

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Perhaps even more attractive is copper plating for metallization. Its potential for the front grid metallization of SHJ devices was recently demonstrated by Kaneka, Japan, with large-area devices featuring efficiencies as high as 22.1% [121]. Tables 1 and 2 show the best published SHJ devices fabricated on n-and p-type substrates by various groups working on this topic, to date.…”

Section: Metallizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several companies are working on SHJ cells (e.g., Sanyo [27,35,36,38,39,84,172,180,197], Kaneka [121], and CIC [112] in Japan, and Hyundai Heavy Industries [128], and LG Electronics [134] in Korea) and some equipment providers offer production solutions as well, including Roth and Rau, Switzerland/Germany [66,92,116,117]. Challenges for production include sourcing highquality n-type Cz material, carefully controlling all process steps from cleaning to TCO deposition, and developing a module design that is compatible with TCOs and lowtemperature contacting schemes.…”

Section: Industrialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

Wolf¹,

Descoeudres²,

Holman³

et al. 2012

Green

105

113

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Abstract. Silicon heterojunction solar cells consist of thin amorphous silicon layers deposited on crystalline silicon wafers. This design enables energy conversion efficiencies above 20% at the industrial production level. The key feature of this technology is that the metal contacts, which are highly recombination active in traditional, diffused-junction cells, are electronically separated from the absorber by insertion of a wider bandgap layer. This enables the record open-circuit voltages typically associated with heterojunction devices without the need for expensive patterning techniques. This article reviews the salient points of this technology. First, we briefly elucidate device characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of each processing step, device operation, and device stability and industrial upscaling, including the fabrication of solar cells with energyconversion efficiencies over 21%. Finally, future trends are pointed out.

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Section: Metallizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Industrialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

Wolf¹,

Descoeudres²,

Holman³

et al. 2012

Green

105

113

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“…1 For silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (i a-Si:H) buffer layers have been proven to offer outstanding passivation. [2][3][4][5] In this cell design, shown schematically in Fig. 1, doped (n or p) a-Si:H overlayers are used to form junctions as electron and hole collectors, 6,7 allowing the fabrication of nearly recombination-free contacts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1, doped (n or p) a-Si:H overlayers are used to form junctions as electron and hole collectors, 6,7 allowing the fabrication of nearly recombination-free contacts. [2][3][4][5][6][8][9][10][11] However, the high absorption coefficient and relatively narrow quasi-direct bandgap of a-Si:H ($1.7 eV), combined with its high defect density, give rise to significant parasitic losses in the ultraviolet and visible range of the solar light spectrum, as most of the photogenerated carriers in these films recombine before they can be collected. [11][12][13][14] For typical SHJ cells, we found earlier that all light absorbed in the p-layer is lost, whereas one-third of the light absorbed in the intrinsic passivation layer contributes to the generation of current.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amorphous silicon oxide window layers for high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

Seif

Descoeudres

Filipič

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

117

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In amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells, optical losses can be mitigated by replacing the amorphous silicon films by wider bandgap amorphous silicon oxide layers. In this article, we use stacks of intrinsic amorphous silicon and amorphous silicon oxide as front intrinsic buffer layers and show that this increases the short-circuit current density by up to 0.43 mA/cm2 due to less reflection and a higher transparency at short wavelengths. Additionally, high open-circuit voltages can be maintained, thanks to good interface passivation. However, we find that the gain in current is more than offset by losses in fill factor. Aided by device simulations, we link these losses to impeded carrier collection fundamentally caused by the increased valence band offset at the amorphous/crystalline interface. Despite this, carrier extraction can be improved by raising the temperature; we find that cells with amorphous silicon oxide window layers show an even lower temperature coefficient than reference heterojunction solar cells (−0.1%/°C relative drop in efficiency, compared to −0.3%/°C). Hence, even though cells with oxide layers do not outperform cells with the standard design at room temperature, at higher temperatures—which are closer to the real working conditions encountered in the field—they show superior performance in both experiment and simulation.

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“…Panasonic has announced the achievement of a new record efficiency of 24.7% for the heterojunction (HIT) solar cell using a 98-μm thick wafer [1]. In 2012, electroplated copper was successfully applied to SHJ solar cells to replace silver as contact metal realizing an efficiency of 23.5% on an area of 220 cm 2 , which will make this kind of solar cell more competitive [2]. However, compared with the conventional crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell with a diffused emitter, parasitic absorption losses in the indium tin oxide (ITO) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers of the SHJ solar cell limit its maximum photogenerated current.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Enhancement of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Carbide Emitter

Zhang

Deligiannis

Παπακωνσταντίνου

et al. 2014

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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In this paper, the electrical and optical properties of ptype hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) are compared with p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) widely used as emitter material of silicon heterojunction solar cells. The difference in solar-cell performance of the two emitters shows that p-type a-SiC:H emitter is able to enhance the short-circuit current density (J sc ) by reducing the parasitic absorption loss and reflection loss without degrading the electrical performance of devices. The application of the p-type a-SiC:H emitter can lead to a J sc increase of about 1 mA/cm 2 , compared with the p-type a-Si:H emitter. Our silicon heterojunction solar cell with p-type a-SiC:H emitter shows an active-area efficiency of 20.8% and the shortcircuit current density of 40.3 mA/cm 2 .

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High Efficiency Silver-Free Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cell

Cited by 19 publications

References 6 publications

High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

Amorphous silicon oxide window layers for high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

Optical Enhancement of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Carbide Emitter

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