SunPower's Maxeon Gen III solar cell: High efficiency and energy yield

Smith, David D.; Cousins, P.J.; Masad, A.; Westerberg, Staffan; Defensor, Michael; Ilaw, Reynold; Dennis, Tim; Daquin, Rhea; Bergstrom, Neil; Leygo, Arjelene; Zhu, Xi; Meyers, Bennet E.; Bourne, Ben; Shields, Mark A.; Rose, Doug

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2013.6744291

Cited by 44 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Many institutes such as Fraunhofer ISE, ECN, and ISC-Konstanz are now working on IBC solar cells and their commercialization [3,4]. Some manufacturers such as SunPower and Trina have achieved over 24% efficiency on large area solar cells [5,6]. However, there are still many challenges for IBC solar cells, like a complex process flow and accurate alignment requirement compared with standard Al back surface field (Al-BSF) silicon solar cells, which increase the fabrication cost and become the bottleneck in mass production of IBC solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Low-Cost IBC Solar Cells with a Front Floating Emitter: Structure Optimization and Passivation Layer Study

et al. 2018

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Abstract:In this paper, we investigate interdigitated back contact solar cells with the front floating emitter structure systematically by using simulated and experimental methods. By comparing the front floating emitter structure with the front surface field structure, it is found that the efficiency of solar cells with the front surface field structure quickly reduces with the increasing of back surface field width; while solar cells with the front floating emitter structure can have a wider front surface field width range with minimum impact on the cell efficiency. More importantly, solar cells with the front floating emitter structure have a larger fabrication process tolerance, especially for the back surface field width, emitter width, and the bulk resistivity, which means that the fabrication process flow can be simplified and the production cost can be reduced. Based on the above results, large area (156.75 mm × 156.75 mm) interdigitated back contact solar cells with the front floating emitter structure are fabricated by using the simplified process with only one masking step. SiO x :B is used as the passivation layer, which can lead to a higher open circuit voltage and lower surface saturation current density. Finally, an efficiency of 20.39% is achieved for the large area solar cells.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Low-Cost IBC Solar Cells with a Front Floating Emitter: Structure Optimization and Passivation Layer Study

et al. 2018

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“…25,26 Many state-of-art photovoltaic (PV) devices employ the same principle to enhance the blue-light response of the cells. 26,27 In addition, a shallow doped pn + -junction formed at electrode-electrolyte interface provides band bending in the silicon independent of the electrolyte. On the other hand -moving the pn junction to the shadow-side of the device requires excellent surface passivation of the light incident side, as we shall see.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back-illuminated Si photocathode: a combined experimental and theoretical study for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Bae

Pedersen

Seger

et al. 2015

Energy Environ. Sci.

113

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Si is an excellent absorber material for use in 2-photon photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. So far nearly all studies of silicon photoelectrodes have employed frontal illumination despite the fact that in most water-splitting 2-photon device concepts the silicon is the "bottom" cell in the tandem stack and therefore illuminated from the back with respect to the electrolyte. In the present work, we investigate back- to be focused on reduction of surface recombination. The present study is the first experimental demonstration of a Si wafer based photocathode under back-illumination. Moreover, the comparative experimental and theoretical treatment also highlights which photoabsorber properties merit the most attention in the further development towards full tandem water splitting devices.

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“…Furthermore, IBC cells exhibit injection-dependent series resistance losses and are thus well suitable for understanding the experimental signature of various types of local faults. The achievements by SunPower corporation (>24% mean efficiency in-line production [2]) and recently by Panasonic (25.6% efficiency world record [3]) demonstrate the high relevance of this solar cell concept. After a detailed investigation, we present a flow chart and a table describing how to quickly identify the type of local fault and series resistance problem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Contact fault characterisation of complex silicon solar cells: a guideline based on current voltage characteristics and luminescence imaging

Padilla

Reichel

Hagedorn

et al. 2015

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Highest efficiency solar cells in industrial and R&D environments are increasingly sensitive to local performance limiting processing faults, which are best characterised by spatially resolved characterisation techniques. This work contains a discussion on the processing faults related to contact resistance and finger interruptions in interdigitated back contact silicon solar cells, which are prime example for a complex cell structure. Using experimental and simulated current-voltage measurements and luminescence images, we explore the strongly non-linear effect of poor local contact resistances on the global series resistance, fill factor, short circuit current density and efficiency. A good agreement between global and spatially resolved characterisation of faults is found, and potential artefacts are discussed. In conclusion, we present seven cases of contacting faults in interdigitated back contact cells with distinct characteristics that can be identified using a flow chart of experiments. The resulting guideline should assist silicon solar cell manufacturers in localising and quantifying local contacting faults that reduce the cells efficiency in manufacturing of complex solar cells.

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SunPower's Maxeon Gen III solar cell: High efficiency and energy yield

Cited by 44 publications

References 2 publications

Efficient Low-Cost IBC Solar Cells with a Front Floating Emitter: Structure Optimization and Passivation Layer Study

Efficient Low-Cost IBC Solar Cells with a Front Floating Emitter: Structure Optimization and Passivation Layer Study

Back-illuminated Si photocathode: a combined experimental and theoretical study for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Contact fault characterisation of complex silicon solar cells: a guideline based on current voltage characteristics and luminescence imaging

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