The two key variables of an Si solar cell, i.e., emitter (n-type window layer) and base (p-type substrate) doping levels or concentrations, are studied using Medici, a 2-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool. The substrate is ptype and 150 μm thick, the pn junction is 2 μm from the front surface, and the cell is lit on the front surface. The doping concentration ranges from 1 × 1010 cm−3 to 1 × 1020 cm−3 for both emitter and base, resulting in a matrix of 11 by 11 or a total of 121 data points. With respect to increasing donor concentration (Nd) in the emitter, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) is little affected throughout, and the short-circuit current (Isc) is affected only at a very high levels of Nd, exceeding 1 × 1019 cm−3, dropping abruptly by about 12%, i.e., from Isc = 6.05 × 10−9 A·μm−1, at Nd = 1 × 1019 cm−3 to Isc = 5.35 × 10−9 A·μm−1 at Nd = 1 × 1020 cm−3, likely due to minority-carrier, or hole, recombination at the very high doping level. With respect to increasing acceptor concentration (Na) in the base, Isc is little affected throughout, but Voc increases steadily, i.e, from Voc = 0.29 V at Na = 1 × 1012 cm−3 to 0.69 V at Na = 1 × 1018 cm−3. On average, with an order increase in Na, Voc increases by about 0.07 V, likely due to narrowing of the depletion layer and lowering of the carrier recombination at the pn junction. At the maximum output power (Pmax), a peak value of 3.25 × 10−2 W· cm−2 or 32.5 mW· cm−2 is observed at the doping combination of Nd = 1 × 1019 cm−3, a level at which Si is degenerate (being metal-like), and Na = 1 × 1017 cm−3, and minimum values of near zero are observed at very low levels of Nd ≤ 1 × 1013 cm−3. This wide variation in Pmax, even within a given kind of solar cell, indicates that selecting an optimal combination of donor and acceptor doping concentrations is likely most important in solar cell engineering.

We investigate the effect of light intensity and wavelength of a solar cell device using photoconductive atomic force microscopy(PC-AFM). A POCl3 diffusion doping process is used to produce a p-n junction solar cell device based on a poly- Si wafer, and the electrical properties of prepared solar cells are measured using a solar cell simulator system. The measured open circuit voltage(Voc) is 0.59 V and the short circuit current(Isc) is 48.5 mA. Moreover, the values of the fill factors and efficiencies of the devices are 0.7 and approximately 13.6%, respectively. In addition, PC-AFM, a recent notable method for nano-scale characterization of photovoltaic elements, is used for direct measurements of photoelectric characteristics in limited areas instead of large areas. The effects of changes in the intensity and wavelength of light shining on the element on the photoelectric characteristics are observed. Results obtained through PC-AFM are compared with the electric/optical characteristics data obtained through a solar simulator. The voltage(VPC-AFM) at which the current is 0 A in the I-V characteristic curves increases sharply up to 18 W/m2, peaking and slowly falling as light intensity increases. Here, VPC-AFM at 18 W/m2 is 0.29 V, which corresponds to 59 % of the average Voc value, as measured with the solar simulator. Furthermore, while the light wavelength increases from 300 nm to 1,100 nm, the external quantum efficiency(EQE) and results from PC-AFM show similar trends at the macro scale but reveal different results in several sections, indicating the need for detailed analysis and improvement in the future.

With the increase in installed solar energy capacity, comparison and analysis of the physical property values of solar cells are becoming increasingly important for production. Therefore, research on determining the physical characteristic values of solar cells is being actively pursued. In this study, a diode equation, which is commonly used to describe the I-V behavior and determine the electrical characteristic values of solar cells, was applied. Using this method, it is possible to determine the diode ideality factor (n) and series resistance (Rs) based on light I-V measurements. Thus, using a commercial screen-printed solar cell and an interdigitated back-contact solar cell, we determined the ideality factor (n) and series resistance (Rs) with a modified diode equation method for the light I-V curves. We also used the sun-shade method to determine the ideality factor (n) and series resistance (Rs) of the samples. The values determined using the two methods were similar. However, given the error in the sun-shade method, the diode equation is considered more useful than the sun-shade method for analyzing the electrical characteristics because it determines the ideality factor (n) and series resistance (Rs) based on the light I-V curves.

In photovoltaic power generation where minority carrier generation via light absorption is competing against minority carrier recombination, the substrate thickness and material quality are interdependent, and appropriate combination of the two variables is important in obtaining the maximum output power generation. Medici, a two-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool, is used to investigate the interdependency in relation to the maximum power output in front-lit Si solar cells. Qualitatively, the results indicate that a high quality substrate must be thick and that a low quality substrate must be thin in order to achieve the maximum power generation in the respective materials. The dividing point is 70 μm/5 × 10−6 sec. That is, for materials with a minority carrier recombination lifetime longer than 5 × 10−6 sec, the substrate must be thicker than 70 μm, while for materials with a lifetime shorter than 5 × 10−6 sec, the substrate must be thinner than 70 μm. In substrate fabrication, the thinner the wafer, the lower the cost of material, but the higher the cost of wafer fabrication. Thus, the optimum thickness/lifetime combinations are defined in this study along with the substrate cost considerations as part of the factors to be considered in material selection.

Silicon oxynitride that can be deposited two times faster than general SiNx:H layer was applied to fabricate the passivation protection layer of atomic layer deposition (ALD) Al2O3. The protection layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition to protect Al2O3 passivation layer from a high temperature metallization process for contact firing in screen-printed silicon solar cell. In this study, we studied passivation performance of ALD Al2O3 film as functions of process temperature and RF plasma effect in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. Al2O3/SiON stacks coated at 400 oC showed higher lifetime values in the as-stacked state. In contrast, a high quality Al2O3/SiON stack was obtained with a plasma power of 400 W and a capping-deposition temperature of 200 oC after the firing process. The best lifetime was achieved with stack films fired at 850 oC. These results demonstrated the potential of the Al2O3/SiON passivated layer for crystalline silicon solar cells.

In this study, the influence on the surface passivation properties of crystalline silicon according to silicon wafer thickness, and the correlation with a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cell performances were investigated. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers show poor passivation properties because of the doping elements, such as boron(B) and phosphorous(P), which result in a low minority carrier lifetime (MCLT). A decrease in open circuit voltage (Voc) was observed when the wafer thickness was thinned from 170μm to 50μm. On the other hand, wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer showed high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The implied Voc of the ITO/p a-Si:H/i a-Si:H/n c-Si wafer/i a-Si:H/n a-Si:H/ITO stacked layers was 0.715 V for 50μm c-Si substrate, and 0.704 V for 170μm c-Si. The Voc in the heterojunction solar cells increased with decreases in the substrate thickness. The high quality passivation property on the c-Si led to an increasing of Voc in the thinner wafer. Short circuit current decreased as the substrate became thinner because of the low optical absorption for long wavelength light. In this paper, we show that high quality passivation of c-Si plays a role in heterojunction solar cells and is important in the development of thinner wafer technology.

This paper investigates the dependence of a-Si:H/c-Si passivation and heterojunction solar cell performances on various cleaning processes of silicon wafers. It is observed that the passivation quality of a-Si:H thin-films on c-Si wafers depends highly on the initial H-termination properties of the wafer surface. The effective minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) of highly H-terminated wafer is beneficial for obtaining high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers have low MCLT regardless of the initial H-termination quality. On the other hand, the MCLT of wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer shows sensitive variation with initial cleaning and H-termination schemes. By applying the improved cleaning processes, we can obtain an MCLT of 100μsec after H-termination and above 600μsec after i a-Si:H thin film deposition. By adapting improved cleaning processes and by improving passivation and doped layers, we can fabricate a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells with an active area conversion efficiency of 18.42%, which cells have an open circuit voltage of 0.670V, short circuit current of 37.31 mA/cm2 and fill factor of 0.7374. These cells show more than 20% pseudo efficiency measured by Suns-Voc with an elimination of series resistance.