Optical Optimization Potential of Transparent‐Passivated Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells. Issue 6 (9th February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Eberst, Alexander; Zamchiy, Alexandr; Qiu, Kaifu; Winkel, Peter; Gebrewold, Habtamu T.; Lambertz, Andreas; Duan, Weiyuan; Li, Shenghao; Bittkau, Karsten; Kirchartz, Thomas; Rau, Uwe; Ding, Kaining
• Is Part Of: Solar RRL. Volume 6:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-02-09
• Subjects: antireflective coatings -- magnesium fluoride -- passivating contacts -- silicon carbides -- silicon solar cells; Solar energy -- Periodicals; Photovoltaic power generation -- Periodicals; Solar energy -- Research -- Periodicals; Photovoltaic power generation -- Research -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 333.7923
• DOI: 10.1002/solr.202101050
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2367-198X

Abstract

Abstract : Herein, an optical loss analysis of the recently introduced silicon carbide–based transparent passivating contact (TPC) for silicon heterojunction solar cells is presented, the most dominant losses are identified, and the potential for reducing these losses is discussed. Magnesium fluoride is applied as an antireflective coating to reduce the reflective losses by up to 0.8 mA cm − 2 . When applying the magnesium fluoride, the passivation quality of the layer stack degrades, but is restored after annealing on a hot plate in ambient air. Afterwards, a road map for TPC solar cells toward an efficiency of 25% is presented and discussed. The largest part in efficiency gain is achieved by reducing the finger width and by increasing the passivation quality. Furthermore, it is shown that TPC solar cells have the potential to achieve short‐circuit current densities above 42 mA cm − 2 if the finger width is reduced and the front‐side indium tin oxide (ITO) layer can be replaced by an ITO silicon nitride double layer. Abstract : Mainstream silicon solar cell concepts are strongly limited in the short‐circuit current they can generate by parasitic absorption. Silicon carbide–based transparent passivating contacts can be used to reduce the parasitic absorption. On these cells, the generated short‐circuit current can be increased by selecting an appropriate antireflective coating like magnesium fluoride, enabling very high short‐circuit current densities.