TY - GEN
T1 - Interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction (IBC-SHJ) solar cell
AU - Lu, Meijun
AU - Bowden, Stuart
AU - Das, Ujjwal
AU - Burrows, Michael
AU - Birkmire, Robert
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction (IBC-SHJ) solar cells have been developed. This structure has interdigitated p/n amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on the backside of crystalline silicon (cSi) wafers, with light irradiating the front surface. IBC-SHJ cells possess advantages over front junction a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction cells due to minimized current losses in the illuminating side, and over traditional diffused back-junction cells due to low temperature processing combined with the potential of high voltages for the heterojunction. Current-voltage curves, spectral response and laser beam induced current maps have been used to characterize the IBC-SHJ cells. It was found that the IBC-SHJ cell has non-linear illumination level dependence that correlates with measured minority-carrier lifetime. As the performance of these cells is very sensitive to the quality of passivation on front surface, they are ideally suited as a diagnostic tool for detailed characterization of surface passivation. Initial cell structures have achieved independently confirmed cell efficiencies of 11.8% under AMI .5 illumination. Device simulation shows that an efficiency of higher than 20% can be expected after optimizing the IBC-SHJ cells.
AB - Interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction (IBC-SHJ) solar cells have been developed. This structure has interdigitated p/n amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on the backside of crystalline silicon (cSi) wafers, with light irradiating the front surface. IBC-SHJ cells possess advantages over front junction a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction cells due to minimized current losses in the illuminating side, and over traditional diffused back-junction cells due to low temperature processing combined with the potential of high voltages for the heterojunction. Current-voltage curves, spectral response and laser beam induced current maps have been used to characterize the IBC-SHJ cells. It was found that the IBC-SHJ cell has non-linear illumination level dependence that correlates with measured minority-carrier lifetime. As the performance of these cells is very sensitive to the quality of passivation on front surface, they are ideally suited as a diagnostic tool for detailed characterization of surface passivation. Initial cell structures have achieved independently confirmed cell efficiencies of 11.8% under AMI .5 illumination. Device simulation shows that an efficiency of higher than 20% can be expected after optimizing the IBC-SHJ cells.
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U2 - 10.1557/proc-0989-a24-05
DO - 10.1557/proc-0989-a24-05
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:41549134103
SN - 9781558999497
T3 - Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings
SP - 575
EP - 580
BT - Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2007
PB - Materials Research Society
T2 - 2007 MRS Spring Meeting
Y2 - 9 April 2007 through 13 April 2007
ER -