Photoconductive decay lifetime and Suns-Voc diagnostics of efficient heterojunction solar cells
Minority carrier lifetime and Suns-Voc measurements are well-accepted methods for characterization of solar cell devices. We use these methods, with an instrument from Sinton Consulting, as we fabricate and optimize state-of-the-art all hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) silicon heterojunction (SHJ) devices. For double-sided SHJ devices, lifetime measurements were performed immediately after hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) deposition of the front emitter and back base contacts on a Silicon wafer, and also after indium tin oxide (ITO) deposition of transparent conducting oxide contacts. We report results of minority carrier lifetime measurements for double-sided p-type Si heterojunction devices and compare Suns-Voc results to Light I–V measurements on 1-cm2 solar cell devices measured on an AM1.5 calibrated XT-10 solar simulator.
Detailed Micro Raman Spectroscopy Analysis of Doped Silicon Thin Film Layers and Its Feasibility for Heterojunction Silicon Wafer Solar Cells
Hydrogenated doped silicon thin films deposited using RF (13.56 MHz) PECVD were studied in detail using micro Raman spectroscopy to investigate the impact of doping gas flow, film thickness, and substrate type on the film characteristics. In particular, by deconvoluting the micro Raman spectra into amorphous and crystalline components, qualitative and quantitative information such as bond angle disorder, bond length, film stress, and film crystallinity can be determined. By selecting the optimum doped silicon thin film deposition conditions, and combining our p-doped and n-doped silicon thin films in different heterojunction structures, we demonstrate both (i) an efficient field effect passivation and (ii) further improvement to c-Si/a-Si:H(i) interface defect density with observed improvement in implied open-circuit voltage VOC and minority carrier lifetimes across all injections levels of interest. In particular, the heterojunction structure (a-Si:H(p)/a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(n)/a-Si:H(i)/a-Si:H(p)) demonstrates a minority carrier lifetime of 2.4 ms at an injection level of 1015 cm-3, and a high implied open-circuit voltage of 725 mV. Simulation studies reveal a strong dependence of the interface defect density Dit on the heterojunction silicon wafer solar cell performance, affected by the deposition conditions of the overlying doped silicon thin film layers. Using our films, and a fitted Dit of 5 × 1010 cm-2·eV-1, we demonstrate that a solar cell efficiency of ~22.5% can be potentially achievable.
20.1%‐efficient crystalline silicon solar cell with amorphous silicon rear‐surface passivation
We have developed a crystalline silicon solar cell with amorphous silicon (a‐Si:H) rear‐surface passivation based on a simple process. The a‐Si:H layer is deposited at 225°C by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition. An aluminum grid is evaporated onto the a‐Si:H‐passivated rear. The base contacts are formed by COSIMA (contact formation to a‐Si:H passivated wafers by means of annealing) when subsequently depositing the front silicon nitride layer at 325°C. The a‐Si:H underneath the aluminum fingers dissolves completely within the aluminum and an ohmic contact to the base is formed. This contacting scheme results in a very low contact resistance of 3.5 ±0.2 mΩ cm2 on low‐resistivity (0.5 Ω cm) p‐type silicon, which is below that obtained for conventional Al/Si contacts. We achieve an independently confirmed energy conversion efficiency of 20.1% under one‐sun standard testing conditions for a 4 cm2 large cell. Measurements of the internal quantum efficiency show an improved rear surface passivation compared with reference cells with a silicon nitride rear passivation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.