Recent Advances in and New Perspectives on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Carrier-Selective Passivation Contacts

Abstract

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) is the dominating photovoltaic technology today, with a global market share of about 90%. Therefore, it is crucial for further improving the performance of c-Si solar cells and reducing their cost. Since 2014, continuous breakthroughs have been achieved in the conversion efficiencies of c-Si solar cells, with a current record of 26.6%. The great efficiency boosts originate not only from the materials, including Si wafers, emitters, passivation layers, and other functional thin films, but also from novel device structures and an understanding of the physics of solar cells. Among these achievements, the carrier-selective passivation contacts are undoubtedly crucial. Current carrier-selective passivation contacts can be realized either by silicon-based thin films or by elemental and/or compound thin films with extreme work functions. The current research and development status, as well as the future trends of these passivation contact materials, structures, and corresponding high-efficiency c-Si solar cells will be summarized.

Finding 10% hidden electricity in crystalline Si solar cells using PDMS coating and three‐dimensional cell arrays

“…Over the past few decades, the crystalline silicon (Si) solar cell industry has matured and photovoltaics is now considered a key aspect of renewable energy production. 1,2 This development has led to the continuous improvement of crystalline Si solar cells from back surface field structures (BSF) to passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC), [3][4][5] tunneling oxide passivated contact (TOPCon), [6][7][8][9] interdigitated back contact (IBC), [10][11][12][13] and heterojunction intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells [14][15][16] as well as enhanced light trapping structures such as surface texturing 1,2,17,18 and cello structured grids. 19 With this development, the efficiency of crystalline Si solar cells has been increased to 26.7% at the lab-scale by HIT-IBC cells.…”

Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

“…A 5 nm thick MoO x layer is added between the µc-Si:H and the Mg layer to improve the electrical contact between the p-doped µc-Si:H and Mg rear contact. MoO x is transparent due to its high bandgap and is used as a hole-selective contact [38]. The switching of the cell is initiated by exposure to 5% hydrogen in nitrogen gas at atmospheric pressure and room temperature for 15 min.…”

Omni-direction PERC solar cells harnessing periodic locally focused light incident through patterned PDMS encapsulation

“…1 Many researchers have aimed to improve the efficiency of crystalline Si-based solar cells; some of the most important device structure improvements include the back surface eld (BSF), heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT), passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC), tunneling oxide-passivated contact (TOPCon), and interdigitated back contact (IBC) structures. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Developments in crystalline Si-based solar cell technology aim primarily to reduce the premature recombination of photogenerated charge carriers as they are transported to the metal contacts that are connected to the external circuit, [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][13][14][15] and maximize the light incident on the solar cells by placing the emitter and collector contacts on the back side. [9][10][11][12] Oxide surface passivation can be used to eliminate Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination sites in PERC and TOPCon structures, which produce internal elds that prevent generated charge carriers from reaching SRH sites.…”