Simplified buried contact solar cell process

Wenham, Stuart; Honsberg, Christiana B.; Edmiston, S.; Koschier, L.; Fung, Angus; Green, M.A.; Ferrazza, Francesca

doi:10.1109/pvsc.1996.564025

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…UNSW had earlier pioneered the use of lasers in solar cell processing [21,22] with this resulting in the buried contact solar cell of Fig. 10 [23], developed as a commercial version of the PESC cell.…”

Section: Large Area Cells and Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC): From conception to mass production

Green

2015

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

365

178

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Section: Large Area Cells and Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC): From conception to mass production

Green

2015

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

365

178

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“…This technology improves the performance of PV cells by up to 25% when compared with the conventional front-to-back contacts [121], [129], [131]. The efficiency advantages of buried contact technology provide significant cost and performance benefits.…”

Section: Buried Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The trenches which are about 30 µm wide and 80 µm deep are filled up using electroplating process. The deposited metal, usually copper, using the plating process is the contact [121], [127], [129]- [131].…”

Section: Buried Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These lower shading losses allow low reflection and therefore higher short circuit currents. Furthermore, a buried contact structure includes a self-aligned, selective emitter, which thereby reduces the contact recombination and also contributes to high open circuit voltages and short circuit currents.This technology improves the performance of PV cells by up to 25% when compared with the conventional front-to-back contacts [121], [129], [131]. The efficiency advantages of buried contact technology provide significant cost and performance benefits.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A review of photovoltaic module technologies for increased performance in tropical climate

Ogbomo

Amalu

Ekere

et al. 2017

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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The global adoption and use of photovoltaic modules (PVMs) as the main source of energy is the key to realising the UN Millennium Development Goals on Green Energy. The technology -projected to contribute about 20% of world energy supply by 2050, over 60% by 2100 and leading to 50% reduction in global CO 2 emissions -is threatened by its poor performance in tropical climate. Such performance discourages its regional acceptance. The magnitude of crucial module performance influencing factors (cell temperature, wind speed and relative humidity) reach critical values of 90°C, 0.2 m/s and 85%, respectively in tropical climates which negatively impact module performance indices which include power output (PO), power conversion efficiency (PCE) and energy payback time (EPBT). This investigation reviews PVM technologies which include cell, contact and interconnection technologies. It identifies critical technology route(s) with potential to increase operational reliability of PVMs in the tropics when adopted. The cell performance is measured by PO, PCE and EPBT while contacts and interconnections performance is measured by the degree of recombination, shading losses and also the rate of thermo-mechanical degradation. It is found that the mono-crystalline cell has the best PCE of 25% while the Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) cell has the lowest EPBT of 8-months. Results show that the poly-crystalline cell has the largest market share amounting to 54%. The CdTe cell exhibits 0% drop in PCE at high-temperatures and low irradiance operations -demonstrating least affected PO by the conditions. Further results establish that back contacts and back-to-back interconnection technologies produce the least recombination losses and demonstrate absence of shading in addition to possessing longest interconnection fatigue life. Based on these findings, the authors propose a PVM comprising CdTe cell, back contacts and backto-back interconnection technologies as the technology with latent capacity to produce improved performance in tropical climates. Keywordsphotovoltaic modules; solar cell technology; contact technology; interconnection technology; energy payback time; power conversion efficiency; fatigue life. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 2 *Manuscript Click here to view linked References IntroductionThe annual electrical power consumption of the entire planet can be generated by the sun in just one hour [1]. Thus, solar energy is abundant in addition to being clean, sustainable and renewable [2], [3]. Surprisingly, some parts of the world are still struggling to meet their energy needs. It may suffice to say that the regions experiencing energy issues may be having energy conversion problems rather than energy supply problems [2], [4]. It is projected that if 100% exploitation of the energy potentials of the sun ca...

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“…The value of S C was varied for three cases. The dopant density in the bulk regions and the layer widths were determined by a 1D analytical optimisation program reported elsewhere [10]. The surface recombination velocities for the front and rear surfaces were set to 2x10 4 cm/s.…”

Section: Full Numerical Simulation Vertical Grain Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative structures for thin film crystalline silicon solar cells to give high efficiencies from low quality silicon

Sproul

Edmiston

Wenham

et al.

Proceedings of 1994 IEEE 1st World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion - WCPEC (A Joint Conference of PVSC, PVSEC and

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The multilayer cell has been specifically designed with the aim to obtain high solar cell efficiency using low quality, thin film, polycrystalline silicon material. The structure consists of multiple p-and n-type silicon layers. This paper examines the tolerance of the cell design to a range of metallic impurities and grain boundaries using computer simulations. The modelled results indicate that the device can tolerate impurity concentrations up to 250 times greater than a conventional, thick solar cell. Further, the results indicate that the structure has excellent tolerance to grain boundaries present in bulk regions of the device. The simulations indicate that grain boundaries present in depletion regions will limit efficiencies considerably if the effective recombination velocity of the grain boundary approaches 10 % cm/s. This extreme case should be largely avoided utilizing grain boundary passivation techniques during device fabrication.

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Simplified buried contact solar cell process

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

The Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC): From conception to mass production

The Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC): From conception to mass production

A review of photovoltaic module technologies for increased performance in tropical climate

Innovative structures for thin film crystalline silicon solar cells to give high efficiencies from low quality silicon

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