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Interdigitated Back Contact Silicon Heterojunction (IBC-SHJ) Solar Cell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Meijun Lu ,
Stuart Bowden ,
Ujjwal Das ,
Michael Burrows  and
Robert Birkmire
Meijun Lu
Affiliation:
mjlu@udel.edu, University of Delaware, Institute of Energy Conversion, 451 Wyoming Road, Newark, DE, 19716, United States, 302-831-6261, 302-831-6226
Stuart Bowden
Affiliation:
stuart@udel.edu, University of Delaware, Institute of Energy Conversion, Newark, DE, 19716, United States
Ujjwal Das
Affiliation:
ukdas@udel.edu, University of Delaware, Institute of Energy Conversion, Newark, DE, 19716, United States
Michael Burrows
Affiliation:
mburrows@udel.edu, University of Delaware, Institute of Energy Conversion, Newark, DE, 19716, United States
Robert Birkmire
Affiliation:
rwb@udel.edu, University of Delaware, Institute of Energy Conversion, Newark, DE, 19716, United States
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Abstract

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 (c-Si) 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 effective 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 detail characterization of surface passivation. Initial cell structures have achieved independently confirmed cell efficiencies of 11.8% under AM1.5 illumination. Device simulation shows an efficiency of higher than 20% can be expected after optimizing the IBC-SHJ cells.

Keywords

photovoltaicSiplasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) (deposition)
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 989: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2007 , 2007 , 0989-A24-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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