Tunneling Contact Passivation Simulations using Silvaco Atlas

Abstract

TCAD simulations of a p-Si/Al 2 O 3 /Al structured solar cell are done to improve the understanding of parameters important for tunneling contact passivation. High efficiencies are achieved for oxide thicknesses below 1.4 nm and for an oxide interface charge concentration of -1 10 13 cm -3 . The dependence of the work function of Al is shown. The effective mass of bulk Al 2 O 3 is found to be too large for tunneling to occur, so a smaller effective mass is likely for thin films. The simulations of charges, work function, band gap and dielectric constant can also be used as a basis for choosing new tunneling materials.

SiNx and AlOx Nanolayers in Hole Selective Passivating Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells

“…To a certain extent this has been shown experimentally [36], though it is very difficult to isolate the effect of fixed charge with all other effects. To address such difficulty, simulations have been conducted to understand the influence of a fixed charge [31], [69], [70]. In this section we have expanded on our previous work using finite difference simulations in Sentaurus TCAD [31].…”

Gadolinium Fluoride as a High-Thickness-Tolerant Electron-Selective Contact Material for Solar Cells

“…A solar cell with an efficiency of 23.1% has been achieved utilizing a partial rear contact architecture and the TiO 2 /LiF x /Al dopant-free electron–selective contact . However, much attention must be paid to the application of these films because the ρ c will increase intensively (thus the fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a solar cell will decrease) when the thickness deviates from the effective tunneling thickness (typically 1–2 nm , ).…”