Advances in high efficiency crystalline silicon homo junction solar cell technology

In 2006, around 86% of all wafer-based silicon solar cells were produced using screen printing to form the silver front and aluminium rear contacts and chemical vapour deposition to grow silicon nitride as the antireflection coating onto the front surface. This paper reviews this dominant solar cell technology looking into state-of-the-art equipment and corresponding processes for each process step. The main efficiency losses of this type of solar cell are analyzed to demonstrate the future efficiency potential of this technology. In research and development, more various advanced solar cell concepts have demonstrated higher efficiencies. The question which arises is “why are new solar cell concepts not transferred into industrial production more frequently?”. We look into the requirements a new solar cell technology has to fulfill to have an advantage over the current approach. Finally, we give an overview of high-efficiency concepts which have already been transferred into industrial production.

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Simulation of Self Formation in Solar Cell Technology

Solid State Phenomena ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/ssp.97-98.103 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 97-98 ◽

pp. 103-108

Author(s):

Liudas Leonas ◽

Stepas Janušonis

Keyword(s):

Solar Cell ◽

Cross Section ◽

Integrated Circuit ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Dimensional Euclidean Space ◽

Two Dimensional ◽

Cell Production ◽

Cell Technology ◽

Self Formation ◽

Solar Cell Technology

Relatively high cost of energy produced by solar cells prevents them from being used widely. One of the ways to address this problem is to create new, cost efficient solar cell production technologies. This presentation analyzes how, by applying self-formation principles it is possible to decrease number of photolithography processes used in high efficiency solar cell production, thus significantly reducing the cost of solar cell itself. All known planar technologies can be described based on self-formation principles; new microchip and integrated circuit technologies were created using self-formation as well. It is therefore natural to extend self-formation to solar cell technology. This presentation provides specific aspects of self-formation simulation as related to solar-cell technology. The object of the simulation is a cross-section of solar cell in two-dimensional Euclidean space and it.s evolution over time. Such kind of solar cell approximation simplifies the model, yet keeps all essential characteristics of the solar cell. The cross-section contains geometrical figures which approximate objects in the solar cell. Each figure is assigned with an integer parameter, approximating physical material. According to self-formation principles, evolution of each figure depends only on geometrical configuration of the figure itself, the parameter and interaction rules. Interaction rules define change of neighbouring points and approximate technological processes (etching, oxidation, coating etc). Combination of such processes enables construction of required solar cell configuration, with only minimum use of photolithography processes. Self-formation is simulated by two-dimensional 8-neighbour cellular automata based mechanism.

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Development of amorphous silicon-germanium and nanocrystalline silicon based multi-junction solar cell technology for GW-scale manufacturing

2013 IEEE 39th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) ◽

10.1109/pvsc.2013.6744128 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Xixiang Xu ◽

Jinyan Zhang ◽

Chongyan Lian ◽

Anhong Hu ◽

Xiaoning Ru ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cell ◽

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Silicon Germanium ◽

Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽

Cell Technology ◽

Junction Solar Cell ◽

Silicon Based ◽

Amorphous Silicon Germanium ◽

Solar Cell Technology

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