Record High 18.6% Efficient Solar Cell on HEM Multicrystalline Material

A. Rohatgi, S. Narasimha, S. Kamra, P. Doshi, C. P. Khattak, K. Emery, H. Field

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

32 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Solar cells with efficiencies as high as 18.6% (1 cm2 area) have been achieved by a process which involves impurity gettering and effective back surface passivation on 0.65 Ω-cm multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) grown by the heat exchanger method (HEM). This represents the highest reported solar cell efficiency on mc-Si to date. PCD analysis revealed that the bulk lifetime (τb) in HEM samples after phosphorus gettering can be as high as 135 μs. This increases the impact of the back surface recombination velocity (Sb) on the solar cell performance. By incorporating a deeper aluminum BSF, the Sb for solar cells in this study was lowered from 10,000 cm/s to 2,000 cm/s on HEM mc-Si. This combination of high τb and moderately low Sb resulted in the record high efficiency mc-Si solar cell. Model calculations indicate that lowering Sb further can raise the efficiency of untextured HEM mc-Si solar cells above 19.0%, thus closing the efficiency gap between good quality, untextured single crystal and mc-Si solar cells.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages741-744
Number of pages4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 1996 25th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - Washington, DC, USA
Duration: 13 May 199617 May 1996

Conference

ConferenceProceedings of the 1996 25th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
CityWashington, DC, USA
Period13/05/9617/05/96

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-22394

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