Impact of HfO₂ as a Passivation Layer in the Solar Cell Efficiency Enhancement in Passivated Emitter Rear Cell Type

Abstract

We report the simulation of high-efficiency c-silicon Passivated Emitter Rear Contact (PERC) type solar cell structure with rear side passivated with HfO2 as a passivating material. Variation in the half length of pyramid has been carried out to investigate its effect on the solar cell electrical characteristics such as fill factor (FF), open circuit voltage (Voc) and efficiency. Aluminum back Surface Field (Al-BSF) and PERC type solar cell with Al2O3 passivation layer structures were also modeled for comparison. Effect of variation in passivation layer (HfO2) thickness (10 and 15 nm) and permittivity (k = 14 and 25) on the solar cell electrical characteristics has been investigated. Result shows the efficiency improvement in the PERC solar cell with HfO2 passivation layer by 0.5941% and 0.983% as compared to the Al-BSF and PERC with Al2O3 passivation layer at 8 μm pyramid half length. Increased series resistance and reduced FF has been observed with the incorporation of passivation layer at the solar cell structure. Negligible effect of passivation layer thickness has been observed on the solar cell electrical parameters whereas the permittivity value does have significant effect.

Crystallinity Effect on Electrical Properties of PEALD–HfO2 Thin Films Prepared by Different Substrate Temperatures

“…HfO 2 film also showed great applicability in short-wave infrared photosensors [ 10 ]. Furthermore, HfO 2 film is utilized as an insulating material in perovskite solar cells [ 11 ], Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cells [ 12 ], c-silicon Passivated Emitter Rear Cell [ 13 ] and Polymer solar cells [ 14 ]. Due to its multiple applications, great efforts have been devoted to prepare and characterize the HfO 2 films.…”