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Recent Development of Silicon Solar Cells
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Recent Development of Silicon Solar Cells

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (24 November 2023) | Viewed by 7317

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Anne Kaminski-Cachopo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, Grenoble INP*, IMEP-LAHC, Grenoble, France
Interests: photovoltaic energy; silicon solar cells; tandem solar cells; thin film solar cells

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to the latest developments in silicon solar cells. Based on the conversion of solar energy into electricity through solar cells, photovoltaic energy is widely used nowadays due to the abundance of solar energy and the potential to reduce CO2 emissions. Also, through technological innovations, significant progress has been made in recent years to increase power conversion efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs. Photovoltaic energy can be produced for electrical supply in stand-alone installations (satellites, isolated sites, boats, electric cars, energy recovery, etc.) as well as via installations connected to the electricity network (photovoltaic power plants, photovoltaics integrated into the building, etc.). Many structures are commercialized, but crystalline silicon solar cells represent over 90% of the market of industrial photovoltaic modules production. Many technologies achieve power conversion efficiencies of more than 20%, such as PERC structures (passivated emitter and rear contact), SHJ structures (silicon heterojunction), IBC structures (interdigitated back contacts), as well as the more recent TOPCon structures (tunnel oxide passivated contact) and tandem structures on silicon. For flexible structures, energy harvesting and indoor applications, thin film amorphous silicon solar cells are widely used, although their efficiency remains limited compared to crystalline silicon.

This Special Issue examines recent advances in silicon solar cells. Articles may be in the form of journals, theoretical studies, technological developments, case studies, etc., on the topic of silicon solar cells.

In this Special Issue, the following topics for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

 - Silicon solar cells;

 - PERX, IBS, SHJ structures;

 - Tandem structures on silicon;

 - Thin film silicon solar cells;

 - Technological innovations

Prof. Dr. Anne Kaminski-Cachopo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Silicon solar cells
  • Silicon heterojunction solar cells
  • Back contact solar cells
  • Poly-silicon passivated contacts
  • Tandem solar cells on silicon
  • Simulation and design of silicon solar cells
  • Thin film silicon solar cells
  • PERX
  • Silicon solar cells processes and technologies
  • Characterization techniques for silicon solar cells

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3724 KiB  
Article
Passivating Silicon Tunnel Diode for Perovskite on Silicon Nip Tandem Solar Cells
by Baptiste Marteau, Thibaut Desrues, Quentin Rafhay, Anne Kaminski and Sébastien Dubois
Energies 2023, 16(11), 4346; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16114346 - 26 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1261
Abstract
Silicon solar cells featuring tunnel oxide passivated contacts (TOPCon) benefit from high efficiencies and low production costs and are on the verge of emerging as the new photovoltaic market mainstream technology. Their association with Perovskite cells in 2-terminal tandem devices enables efficiency breakthroughs [...] Read more.
Silicon solar cells featuring tunnel oxide passivated contacts (TOPCon) benefit from high efficiencies and low production costs and are on the verge of emerging as the new photovoltaic market mainstream technology. Their association with Perovskite cells in 2-terminal tandem devices enables efficiency breakthroughs while maintaining low fabrication costs. However, it requires the design of a highly specific interface to ensure both optical and electrical continuities between subcells. Here, we evaluated the potential of tunnel diodes as an alternative to ITO thin films, the reference for such applications. The PECV deposition of an nc-Si (n+) layer on top of a boron-doped poly-Si/SiOx passivated contact forms a diode with high doping levels (>2 × 1020 carrier·cm−3) and a sharp junction (<4 nm), thus reaching both ESAKI-like tunnel diode requirements. SIMS measurements of the nc-Si (n+) (deposited at 230 °C) reveal an H-rich layer. Interestingly, subsequent annealing at 400 °C led to a passivation improvement associated with the hydrogenation of the buried poly-Si/SiOx stack. Dark I–V measurements reveal similar characteristics for resistivity samples with or without the nc-Si (n+) layer, and modeling results confirm that highly conductive junctions are obtained. Finally, we produced 9 cm2 nip perovskite on silicon tandem devices, integrating a tunnel diode as the recombination junction between both subcells. Working devices with 18.8% average efficiency were obtained, with only 1.1%abs PCE losses compared with those of references. Thus, tunnel diodes appear to be an efficient, industrially suitable, and indium-free alternative to ITO thin films. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Silicon Solar Cells)
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16 pages, 1777 KiB  
Article
Comparison of LID and Electrical Injection Regeneration of PERC and Al-BSF Solar Cells from a Cz-Si Ingot
by Siqi Ding, Chen Yang, Cheng Qin, Bin Ai, Xiaopu Sun, Jianghai Yang, Quan Liu and Xueqin Liang
Energies 2022, 15(20), 7764; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15207764 - 20 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1073
Abstract
In order to study the effect of device structures and silicon wafer positions on light-induced degradation (LID) and regeneration, five groups of industrial PERC and Al-BSF solar cells were fabricated by using silicon wafers from different positions of a B-doped Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) [...] Read more.
In order to study the effect of device structures and silicon wafer positions on light-induced degradation (LID) and regeneration, five groups of industrial PERC and Al-BSF solar cells were fabricated by using silicon wafers from different positions of a B-doped Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) ingot. Then, the cells were subjected to a dark annealing (200 °C, 30 min), the first LID (45 °C, 1 sun, 12 h), an electrical injection regeneration (175 °C, 18 A, 30 min) and the second LID (45 °C, 1 sun, 12 h) in order, and the variations of performance of the cells with processing time were measured. It was found that after the electrical injection regeneration, the efficiency losses of PERC cells decreased from 1.28–1.76%absolute in the first LID to 0.09–0.16%absolute in the second LID, while those of Al-BSF cells decreased from 0.3–0.66%absolute in the first LID to 0 in the second LID. The efficiency losses of PERC cells during the first LID were caused by the co-action of B-O-defect-induced LID (BO-LID) and dissociation of Fe-B pairs, and the latter contributed 5.81–9.56% of the efficiency loss, while those of Al-BSF cells during the first LID were almost contributed by BO-LID solely. For both kinds of cells, the cells made from the silicon wafers from middle of the ingot had the best performance throughout the experiment. In addition, the LID and regeneration treatments only affected the spectral response of the cells in the wavelength larger than 700 nm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Silicon Solar Cells)
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13 pages, 6313 KiB  
Article
In-Situ LID and Regeneration of Al-BSF Solar Cells from Different Positions of a B-Doped Cz-Si Ingot
by Siqi Ding, Chen Yang, Shuai Yuan, Bin Ai, Cheng Qin, Zhengke Li, Yecheng Zhou, Xiaopu Sun, Jianghai Yang, Quan Liu and Xueqin Liang
Energies 2022, 15(15), 5591; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155591 - 01 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1240
Abstract
In this paper, five groups of industrial aluminium back-surface-field (Al-BSF) solar cells were made from silicon wafers from different locations of a B-doped Czochralski silicon ingot. Then, we performed the first LID (45 °C, 1 sun, 12 h), regeneration (100 °C, 1 sun, [...] Read more.
In this paper, five groups of industrial aluminium back-surface-field (Al-BSF) solar cells were made from silicon wafers from different locations of a B-doped Czochralski silicon ingot. Then, we performed the first LID (45 °C, 1 sun, 12 h), regeneration (100 °C, 1 sun, 24 h), and second LID (45 °C, 1 sun, 12 h) treatments on the cells, and measured the in-situ changes of their I-V characteristic parameters by using an I-V tester during the experiment. The cells were also characterized by Suns-Voc measurement, full-area light beam induced current scanning, and external quantum efficiency measurement at the four breakpoints of treatments (before and after the first LID, after regeneration and the second LID). It was found that the LID and regeneration of the Al-BSF solar cells can be explained by the LID and regeneration reaction of B-O defects and the LID caused by dissociation of Fe-B pairs. After regeneration, the relative decay rate of efficiency decreased from 2.75–3.8% during the first LID to 0.42–1.23% during the second LID, indicating that regeneration treatment (100 °C, 1 sun, 24 h) can improve the anti-LID ability of Al-BSF solar cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Silicon Solar Cells)
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9 pages, 3400 KiB  
Article
Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Deposition for Poly-Si/SiO2 Contact Cells to Minimize Parasitic Absorption in the Near-Infrared Region
by Changhyun Lee, Jiyeon Hyun, Jiyeon Nam, Seok-Hyun Jeong, Hoyoung Song, Soohyun Bae, Hyunju Lee, Jaeseung Seol, Donghwan Kim, Yoonmook Kang and Hae-Seok Lee
Energies 2021, 14(24), 8199; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14248199 - 07 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2889
Abstract
Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells are key emerging devices in the commercial silicon-solar-cell sector. It is essential to have a suitable bottom cell in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells for commercial use, given that good candidates boost efficiency through increased voltage. This [...] Read more.
Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells are key emerging devices in the commercial silicon-solar-cell sector. It is essential to have a suitable bottom cell in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells for commercial use, given that good candidates boost efficiency through increased voltage. This is due to low recombination loss through the use of polysilicon and tunneling oxides. Here, a thin amorphous silicon layer is proposed to reduce parasitic absorption in the near-infrared region (NIR) in TOPCon solar cells, when used as the bottom cell of a tandem solar-cell system. Lifetime measurements and optical microscopy (OM) revealed that modifying both the timing and temperature of the annealing step to crystalize amorphous silicon to polysilicon can improve solar cell performance. For tandem cell applications, absorption in the NIR was compared using a semitransparent perovskite cell as a filter. Taken together, we confirmed the positive results of thin poly-Si, and expect that this will improve the application of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Silicon Solar Cells)
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