Optical reflectance of alkali-textured silicon wafers with pyramidal facets: 2D analytical model

Fashina, Adebayo Adeboye; Kana, M. G. Zebaze; Soboyejo, Winston O.

doi:10.1557/jmr.2015.70

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…But for a while now, it has been a medium for study and research on solar energy courses taught at the department of Materials and Engineering. In addition, considering the fact that panel orientation is one of the fundamental factors that help determine the amount of light that can be harvested from the sun daily [46], [47], the orientations of the panels are set to the south at a tilt angle of 30° to enhance the panel's performance [46], [47]. The design of the entire system comprises of a rechargeable battery (for storage/backup) and light emitting diode (LED) lamp that is sufficient to operate for 10-11 hours daily [48], interconnecting cables (for battery and lamp), a solar photovoltaic module/panel, mounting structure, and charge controller.…”

Section: Description Of Site and Installationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A study on the reliability and performance of solar powered street lighting systems

et al. 2017

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This paper presents the results of a study on the reliability and performance of the solar-powered street lighting systems installed at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Nigeria, a hot and humid environment. The technical performance of the systems was studied using the following performance indicators: system energy yield, capture loss, as well as the system performance ratio while the reliability of the systems was examined using a model developed from the findings from the maintenance and fault diagnosis of the systems. The model was used to predict the total failure and survival probability of the systems using the Weibull distribution. The performance evaluation during the monitored period (February 2012 to January 2015) indicated that the performance ratios of the systems vary from 70% to 89% and the energy yields of the systems ranging from 2.87 h/day to 5.57 h/day. The results from the reliability analysis also showed that when the stress concentration factor around the notch between the cable terminals in the charge controller increases, the charge controller will become overheated, which in turn affected other components of the systems. The implications of this study are also discussed for the design and development of future solar-powered street lighting systems.

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Section: Description Of Site and Installationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, the probability of survival ( ) can be determined from the following expression [46], [47]:…”

Section: Reliability Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study on the reliability and performance of solar powered street lighting systems

et al. 2017

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“…In the case of monocrystalline silicon, a random upright pyramid texture, created by wet alkaline etching, is most commonly used. [15][16][17][18] This texture reduces reflectance and increases light trapping, and thus contributes to an increase in the current output of the solar cell 15,[19][20][21] and is also cheaper to realize than a perfectly planar substrate surface. In this paper, it is shown that such substrates coloured with single layer thin film coatings possess better angular colour stability than planar substrates coated with identical coatings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broadband angular color stability of dielectric thin film-coated pyramidal textured Si for photovoltaics

Roosloot

Neder

Haug

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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In this work we demonstrate the angular colour stability of textured c-Si substrates coloured by single layer thin film coatings of SiN x . These coatings show higher angular colour stability on substrates with a random upright pyramidal surface texture compared to identical coatings on planar silicon substrates. Angle dependent reflectance measurements, supported by a modeling framework, display that the reflectance peaks originating from thin film interference of coated textured substrates only shift about 15 nm with an increasing angle of incidence from 10 to 80 • , while the reflectance peaks of planar substrates with identical coatings shift about 120 nm at these angles. More specifically, reflectance peaks of planar substrates shift to shorter wavelengths, leading to a blue shift of the colour appearance. The stable peak position of the textured samples is explained by a 2D representation of their surface texture and the primarily double interference interaction on it. While it is well known that a wide range of colours can be realized exhibiting low optical losses with thin film coatings, angular colour stability was often not taken into account. However, for building integrated photovoltaics applications, a high angular colour stability is desired, underlining the importance of using these textures. In most installed c-Si photovoltaics, similar substrate surface textures and dielectric thin film layers are already used. Therefore, this work envisions a route to facilitate large scale production of coloured solar cells on textured c-Si substrates, coloured by thin film SiN x layers, with minimized optical losses and improved angular colour stability.

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“…Texturing of the crystalline silicon wafer is usually one way to reduce reflection and enhance the absorbed light into the silicon substrate [9] and invariably, into the device [10], [11]. It is often achieved by using anisotropy etching to modify the surfaces of (100) silicon substrates into square-based pyramidal structures [12]. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) are the most preferred alkaline solutions used for anisotropic etching of silicon substrates [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This allows researchers to effectively study the surface morphology of different surfaces such as in the case of textured silicon substrates that are used in solar cells applications [29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. In our previous studies [9], [12], scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used to evaluate the morphology of textured sample after etching [9]. However, SEM does not readily yield quantitative information such as the height distributions, 3D profile images, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic force microscopy analysis of alkali textured silicon substrates for solar cell applications

Fashina

Adama

Abdullah

et al. 2018

IJPR

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In this paper, the surface morphology of textured silicon substrates is explored. Prior to the surface morphology analysis, textured silicon substrates were obtained by KOH anisotropic texturing of polished silicon wafers. This was achieved by investigating of the dependence surface texturing on the process parameters; etchant concentration, etching time and temperature. The surface morphology of the textured silicon samples was obtained using atomic force microscopy that was operated in the tapping mode. The resulting atomic force microscopy (AFM) images were analyzed using the Nanoscope and Gwyddion software packages. The AFM analysis revealed more surface details such as the depth, roughness, section, and step height analysis. The analysis was limited to a length scale of a few micrometers, which carefully reveals the number of individualities of the initial stages of pyramid growth. The average roughness was found to be 593nm for an optimally textured silicon wafer. The implications of the study are then discussed for potential light trapping application in silicon solar cells.

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Optical reflectance of alkali-textured silicon wafers with pyramidal facets: 2D analytical model

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 6 publications

References 17 publications

A study on the reliability and performance of solar powered street lighting systems

A study on the reliability and performance of solar powered street lighting systems

Broadband angular color stability of dielectric thin film-coated pyramidal textured Si for photovoltaics

Atomic force microscopy analysis of alkali textured silicon substrates for solar cell applications

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