scholarly journals Etch Characteristics and Morphology of Al2O3/TiO2 Stacks for Silicon Surface Passivation

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 3857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongchul Suh
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Surface Passivation ◽  
Surface Texturing ◽  
Surface Recombination ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Tio2 Films ◽  
Etch Pits ◽  
The Impact

Chemical processes are very important for the development of high-efficiency crystalline solar cells, mainly for surface texturing to improve light absorption and cleaning processes to reduce surface recombination. Recently, research has been focusing on the impact of chemical polishing on the performance of a passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC), with particular emphasis on the dielectric passivation layers on the front side. This study examined the influence of etching on the passivation of Al2O3/TiO2 stacks, where the films may each be deposited using a range of deposition and post-annealing parameters. Most TiO2 films deposited at 300 °C were resistant to chemical etching, and higher temperature deposition and annealing produced more chemical-resistant films. TiO2 films deposited at 100 °C were etched slightly by SC1 and SC2 solutions at room temperature, whereas they were etched at a relatively high rate in an HF solution, even when capped with a thick TiO2 layer (up to 50 nm in thickness); blistering occurred in 20-nm-thick Al2O3 films. In contrast to the as-deposited films, the annealed films showed a lower level of passivation as 1% HF etching proceeded. The implied open circuit voltage of the samples annealed at 300 °C after HF etching decreased more than those annealed at 400 °C. The dark area in the photoluminescence images was not resistant to the HF solution and showed more etch pits. The etching strategies developed in this study are expected to help setup integration processes and increase the applicability of this stack to solar cells.

scholarly journals Numerical Simulation Analysis of Ag Crystallite Effects on Interface of Front Metal and Silicon in the PERC Solar Cell

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 592
Author(s):  
Myeong Sang Jeong ◽  
Yonghwan Lee ◽  
Ka-Hyun Kim ◽  
Sungjin Choi ◽  
Min Gu Kang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Open Circuit Voltage ◽  
Surface Recombination ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Surface Recombination Velocity ◽  
Metal Interface ◽  
Ag Crystallites ◽  
Recombination Velocity

In the fabrication of crystalline silicon solar cells, the contact properties between the front metal electrode and silicon are one of the most important parameters for achieving high-efficiency, as it is an integral element in the formation of solar cell electrodes. This entails an increase in the surface recombination velocity and a drop in the open-circuit voltage of the solar cell; hence, controlling the recombination velocity at the metal-silicon interface becomes a critical factor in the process. In this study, the distribution of Ag crystallites formed on the silicon-metal interface, the surface recombination velocity in the silicon-metal interface and the resulting changes in the performance of the Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) solar cells were analyzed by controlling the firing temperature. The Ag crystallite distribution gradually increased corresponding to a firing temperature increase from 850 ∘C to 950 ∘C. The surface recombination velocity at the silicon-metal interface increased from 353 to 599 cm/s and the open-circuit voltage of the PERC solar cell decreased from 659.7 to 647 mV. Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) simulation was used for detailed analysis on the effect of the surface recombination velocity at the silicon-metal interface on the PERC solar cell performance. Simulations showed that the increase in the distribution of Ag crystallites and surface recombination velocity at the silicon-metal interface played an important role in the decrease of open-circuit voltage of the PERC solar cell at temperatures of 850–900 ∘C, whereas the damage caused by the emitter over fire was determined as the main cause of the voltage drop at 950 ∘C. These results are expected to serve as a steppingstone for further research on improvement in the silicon-metal interface properties of silicon-based solar cells and investigation on high-efficiency solar cells.

Fabrication of silicon nanowire based solar cells using TiO2/Al2O3 stack thin films

MRS Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (25) ◽  
pp. 1419-1426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuyoshi Kurokawa ◽  
Ryota Nezasa ◽  
Shinya Kato ◽  
Hisashi Miyazaki ◽  
Isao Takahashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Surface Passivation ◽  
Silicon Nanowire ◽  
Surface Recombination ◽  
Single Layer ◽  
Minority Carrier Lifetime ◽  
Atomic Layer ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Surface Reflectance ◽  
Surface Recombination Rate

ABSTRACTTo improve conversion efficiency of silicon nanowire (SiNW) solar cells, it is very important to reduce the surface recombination rate on the surface of SiNWs, since SiNWs have a large surface area. We tried to cover SiNWs with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and titanium oxide (TiO2) by atomic layer deposition (ALD), since Al2O3 grown by ALD provides an excellent level of surface passivation on silicon wafers and TiO2 has a higher refractive index than Al2O3, leading to the reduction of surface reflectance. The effective minority carrier lifetime in SiNW arrays embedded in a TiO2/Al2O3 stack layer of 94 μsec was obtained, which was comparable to an Al2O3 single layer. The surface reflectance of SiNW solar cells was drastically decreased below around 5% in all of the wavelength range using the Al2O3/TiO2/Al2O3 stack layer. Heterojunction SiNW solar cells with the structure of ITO/p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/n-type SiNWs embedded in Al2O3 and TiO2 stack layer for passivation/n-type a-Si:H/back electrode was fabricated, and a typical rectifying property and open-circuit voltage of 356 mV were successfully obtained.

Advanced Passivation Technology and Loss Factor Minimization for High Efficiency Solar Cells

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 7699-7705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheolmin Park ◽  
Nagarajan Balaji ◽  
Sungwook Jung ◽  
Jaewoo Choi ◽  
Minkyu Ju ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Stability ◽  
Refractive Index ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Surface Passivation ◽  
Surface Recombination ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Crystal Defects ◽  
Passivation Layer ◽  
Surface Recombination Velocity

High-efficiency Si solar cells have attracted great attention from researchers, scientists, photovoltaic (PV) industry engineers for the past few decades. With thin wafers, surface passivation becomes necessary to increase the solar cells efficiency by overcoming several induced effects due to associated crystal defects and impurities of c-Si. This paper discusses suitable passivation schemes and optimization techniques to achieve high efficiency at low cost. SiNx film was optimized with higher transmittance and reduced recombination for using as an effective antireflection and passivation layer to attain higher solar cell efficiencies. The higher band gap increased the transmittance with reduced defect states that persisted at 1.68 and 1.80 eV in SiNx films. The thermal stability of SiN (Si-rich)/SiN (N-rich) stacks was also studied. Si-rich SiN with a refractive index of 2.7 was used as a passivation layer and N-rich SiN with a refractive index of 2.1 was used for thermal stability. An implied VOC of 720 mV with a stable lifetime of 1.5 ms was obtained for the stack layer after firing. Si–N and Si–H bonding concentration was analyzed by FTIR for the correlation of thermally stable passivation mechanism. The passivation property of spin coated Al2O3 films was also investigated. An effective surface recombination velocity of 55 cm/s with a high density of negative fixed charges (Qf) on the order of 9×1011 cm−2 was detected in Al2O3 films.

Resistive Losses at c-Si/a-Si:H/ZnO Contacts for Heterojunction Solar Cells

2007 ◽  
Vol 989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Einsele ◽  
Phillip Johannes Rostan ◽  
Uwe Rau
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Fill Factor ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Surface Recombination ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Surface Recombination Velocity ◽  
High Hydrogen ◽  
Solar Cell Performance ◽  
Heterojunction Solar Cells

AbstractWe study resistive losses at (p)c-Si/(p)Si:H/(n)ZnO heterojunction back contacts for high efficiency silicon solar cells. We find that a low tunnelling resistance for the (p)a-Si:H/(n)ZnO part of the junction requires deposition of Si:H with a high hydrogen dilution RH > 40 resulting in a highly doped μc-Si:H layer. Such a μc-Si:H layer if deposited directly on a Si wafer yields a surface recombination velocity of S  180 cm/s. Using the same layer as part of a (p)c-Si/(p)Si:H/(n)ZnO back contact in a solar cell results in an open circuit voltage Voc = 640 mV and a fill factor FF = 80 %. Insertion of an (i)a-Si-layer between the μc-Si:H and the wafer leads to a further decrease of S and, for the solar cells to an increase of VOC. However, if the thickness of this intrinsic layer exceeds a threshold of 3 nm, resistive losses lead to a degradation of the fill factor of the solar cells. These resistive losses result from a valence band offset δEV between a-Si:H and c-Si of about 600 meV. The fill factor losses overcompensate the VOC gain such that there is no benefit of the (i)a-Si:H interlayer for the overall solar cell performance when using an (i)a-Si:H/(p)uc-Si:H double layer.

scholarly journals Simulated Study and Surface Passivation of Lithium Fluoride-Based Electron Contact for High-Efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Quddammah Khokhar ◽  
Shahzad Qamar Hussain ◽  
Sanchari Chowdhury ◽  
Muhammad Aleem Zahid ◽  
Pham Duy Phong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Lithium Fluoride ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Surface Passivation ◽  
Minority Carrier Lifetime ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Passivation Layer ◽  
Heterojunction Solar Cells ◽  
Electron Extraction ◽  
Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Abstract Numerical simulation and experimental techniques were used to investigate lithium fluoride (LiFx) films as an electron extraction layer for the application of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, with a focus on the paths toward excellent surface passivation and superior efficiency. The presence of a 7 nm thick hydrogenated intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H(i)) passivation layer along with thermally evaporated 4 nm thick LiFx resulted in outstanding passivation properties and suppresses the recombination of carriers. As a result, minority carrier lifetime (τeff) as well as implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc) reached up 933 μs and iVoc of 734 mV, accordingly at 120°C annealing temperature. A detailed simulated study was performed for the complete LiFx based SHJ solar cells to achieve superior efficiency. Optimized performance of SHJ solar cells using a LiFx layer thickness of 4 nm with energy bandgap (Eg) of 10.9 eV and the work function of 3.9 eV was shown as: Voc=745.7 mV, Jsc=38.21 mA/cm2, FF=82.17%, and =23.41%. Generally, our work offers an improved understanding of the passivation layer, electron extraction layer, and their combined effects on SHJ solar cells via simulation.

scholarly journals High-Efficiency 6′′ Multicrystalline Black Solar Cells Based on Metal-Nanoparticle-Assisted Chemical Etching

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Chuck Hsu ◽  
Yen-Sheng Lu ◽  
Jung-Yi Chyan ◽  
J. Andrew Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
High Power ◽  
Power Efficiency ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Surface Passivation ◽  
Surface Texturing ◽  
Minority Carrier Lifetime ◽  
Metal Nanoparticle ◽  
High Power Efficiency

Multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) photovoltaic (PV) solar cells with nanoscale surface texturing by metal-nanoparticle-assisted etching are proposed to achieve high power efficiency. The investigation of average nanorod lengths from 100 nm to 1 μm reveals that the Si wafer decorated with 100 nm thick nanorods has optical reflection of 9.5% inferior than the one with 1 μm thick nanorods (2%). However, the short nanorods improve the doping uniformity and effectively decrease metal contact resistance. After surface passivation using the hydrogenated SiO2/SiNx(5 nm/50 nm) stack, the minority carrier lifetime substantially increases from 1.8 to 7.2 μs for the 100 nm-thick nanorod solar cell to achieve the high power efficiency of 16.38%, compared with 1 μm thick nanorod solar cell with 11.87%.

HF Last Passivation for High Efficiency a-Si/c-Si Heterojunction Solar Cells

2012 ◽  
Vol 187 ◽  
pp. 345-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Danel ◽  
Florent Souche ◽  
Thomas Nolan ◽  
Yannick Le Tiec ◽  
P.J. Ribeyron
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Surface Passivation ◽  
Crystalline Silicon ◽  
Cell Performance ◽  
Native Oxide ◽  
Surface Recombination Velocity ◽  
Back Side ◽  
Heterojunction Solar Cells ◽  
The Impact

Amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells are commonly made by low temperature deposition of front and back side thin films on bare H-passivated Si wafers, obtained by HF last processes. This work discusses the impact of HF last step parameters on cell performance, considering textured and cleaned Si (100) wafers. A complete native oxide removal is mandatory and achieved in a short time (< 5 min) by HF concentration higher than 1% (by weight). Above 1%, surface passivation and cells performance slightly increases with the concentration. The best process time is found to be the minimum time to deoxidize textured wafers, as seen by a good dewetting. For [H > 2% this is less than 1 min. Longer process times slightly degrade surface passivation. Post rinse and drying, provided they do not reoxydize the surface, were seen to have no impact. The delay between the HF last and deposition steps is critical and depends on the efficiency of the cleaning before the HF last. With a high performance cleaning, leading to a very good surface passivation (< 10 cm/s surface recombination velocity), 30 min delay has no impact and 90 min leads to about 5% relative degradation of cell performance. Regarding the HF cleanliness, HCl spiking is an efficient way to enhance robustness of surface passivation keeping < 10 cm/s values when the metallic contamination, including Cu, is in the sub 50 ppb range.

Analysis of the combined effect of long-term heat light soaking and KF/NaF post-deposition treatment on the open-circuit voltage loss in CIGS solar cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamidou TANGARA ◽  
Yulu He ◽  
Muhammad Monirul Islam ◽  
Shogo ISHIZUKA ◽  
Takeaki Sakurai
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Potassium Fluoride ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Nonradiative Recombination ◽  
Doping Density ◽  
Cigs Solar Cells ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Post Deposition

Abstract Heat light soaking (HLS) has been known to impact the photovoltaic parameters of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells for a long time. Recently, the focus shifted to the effect of the procedure on alkali fluoride-treated CIGS. Here, we investigate the impact of long-term HLS on the open-circuit (VOC) loss in high-efficiency CIGS with potassium fluoride (KF) and sodium fluoride (NaF) post-deposition treatment (PDT). HLS is shown to increase the net doping density, however, the subsequent improvement of the VOC is lower than expected. Using an analysis based on the SQ theory, we show that HLS reduces the nonradiative recombination rate in the bulk but increases the one at the interface. We present a model to explain the increase of interface recombination. We further demonstrate that a combination of HLS and KF/NaF-PDT is necessary to enhance the positive impacts of HLS and mitigate the detrimental ones leading to high-efficiency CIGS devices (22%).

scholarly journals Simulation and characterization of planar high-efficiency back contact silicon solar cells

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-327
Author(s):  
A.V. Sachenko ◽  
◽  
V.P. Kostylyov ◽  
R.M. Korkishko ◽  
V.M. Vlasiuk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Surface Recombination ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Back Contact ◽  
Planar Surfaces ◽  
High Efficiency Solar Cells

Short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, and photoconversion efficiency of silicon high-efficiency solar cells with all back contact (BCSC) with planar surfaces have been calculated theoretically. In addition to the recombination channels usually considered in this kind of modeling, namely, radiative, Auger, Shockley–Read–Hall, and surface recombination, the model also takes into account the nonradiative trap-assisted exciton Auger recombination and recombination in the space charge region. It is ascertained that these two recombination mechanisms are essential in BCSCs in the maximum power operation regime. The model results are in good agreement with the experimental results from the literature.

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