Investigation on significant efficiency enhancement of thin crystalline silicon solar cells

Compared with industrial thick crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells, thin c-Si cells have unique advantages of greater cost effectiveness and cell flexibility, representing a future technology trend. However, its present efficiency is far behind that of conventional thick c-Si solar cells. To improve the efficiency, it is necessary to consider and implement advanced designs. We report a strategy of optimizing cell designs to significantly improve the efficiency of a 20 μm-thick thin c-Si solar cell. Compared with the reference, the short-circuit current density is increased from 34.3 to 38.2 mA / cm2, the open circuit voltage is boosted from 632 to 684 mV, and the fill factor presents an improvement from 76.2% to 80.8%, resulting in an absolute efficiency gain of 4.6% from 16.5% to 21.1%. The experimental results are further explained by the device simulations.

Guanglin Xie and Zhen Zhang and Xinshuo Han and Shengjie Ma and Yue Zang and Lu Wang and Wensheng Yan

https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.13.035501

Aluminum,Crystals,Device simulation,Light absorption,Passivation,Resistance,Semiconducting wafers,Silicon,Silicon solar cells,Solar cells

2023

9

10.1117/1.JPE.13.035501

1947-7988

3

035501

SPIE

13