Microstructure analysis of spherical silicon solar cells coated with anti-reflection films

Evaluation of photovoltaic power generation system using spherical silicon solar cells and SiC-FET inverter

“…Spherical Si solar cells are a new type solar cell, and are composed of Si spheres with a diameter of ~1 mm with a pn junction [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], which can reduce the consumption of Si compared with crystalline Si solar cells. In our previous work, spherical Si solar cell systems combined with a direct current-alternating current (DC-AC) inverter using SiC field-effect transistor (FET) were constructed [15].…”

Microstructures and Optical Properties of Silicon Spheres for Solar Cells

“…The conversion ef ciencies of spherical Si solar cells can be increased by producing high-quality Si spheres, 3,4,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] forming textured Si surface structures, 16) deactivating defects by passivation, 17) optimizing the concentrator module and re ector cup 18,19) and preparing anti-re ection (AR) lms on the spherical Si solar cells. 12,[20][21][22] Si spheres have typically been grown by a dropping method. The crystallinity of the Si spheres depends on the growth process, cooling rate, gas pressure and crystal shape.…”

“…The crystallinity of the Si spheres depends on the growth process, cooling rate, gas pressure and crystal shape. 3,4,9,[13][14][15][16]20) A powder melting method for preparing Si spheres was recently proposed by our group. 12,[23][24][25] Compared with the dropping method, the powder melting method is a straight-forward process.…”

Microstructure analysis of spherical silicon solar cells with SnOx:Fy layers

“…To overcome the important issue, flexible and light weight spherical silicon (Si) solar cells are good candidate because Si spheres in the spherical Si solar cells are of a diameter of approximately 1 mm with a pn junction, and can be easily manufactured without cutting and polishing processes [2][3][4][5]. So far, although electrical, optical and photovoltaic properties of the spherical Si solar cells were widely investigated, high quality of Si spheres, optical confinement effect, inactivation of defects by passivation, formation of a texture structure on Si surface, optimization of structures of reflectors and high transmission of anti-reflection (AR) films are mandatory to improve conversion efficiency of the spherical Si solar cells [6][7][8].…”

“…Generally, SnO2 is one of the oxide-based transparent conductors with good electrical conductivity and visible spectrum transparency [9][10], and is good candidate for AR films on solar cells [6] and counter electrode in dye sensitized solar cells and perovskite-based solar cells [11][12][13][14]. Microstructure analysis SnOx:Fy was carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS).…”