Trapezoidal Grid Fingers to Reduce Shadowing Loss and Improve Short Circuit Current

Alessandro Cavalli; Jeronimo Buencuerpo; Mark Steger; Emmett Perl; Myles Steiner; John Geisz

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111294

Trapezoidal Grid Fingers to Reduce Shadowing Loss and Improve Short Circuit Current

Alessandro Cavalli, Jeronimo Buencuerpo, Mark Steger, Emmett Perl, Myles Steiner, John Geisz

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Traditional metallic contacts on solar cells can cover a substantial portion of the device area, resulting in shadowing of light that diminishes the amount of current collected. In this paper, we developed trapezoidal electron-beam evaporated Ti/Al front grid fingers on GaAs single-junction solar cells to decrease the optical shadowing and increase the photogenerated current. We observe a high fill factor of 87% at 1-Sun light intensity and we observe no degradation on the open-circuit voltage. The short-circuit current density is found to increase by 0.4 mA/cm² when compared to previously demonstrated electroplated Ni/Au front grid fingers, resulting in an efficiency improvement of ~0.8% absolute.

Original language	American English
Article number	Article No. 111294
Number of pages	6
Journal	Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume	231
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111294 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111294
State	Published - Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-5900-80576

Keywords

Front grid fingers
III-V Materials
Metallization
Solar cells

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title = "Trapezoidal Grid Fingers to Reduce Shadowing Loss and Improve Short Circuit Current",

abstract = "Traditional metallic contacts on solar cells can cover a substantial portion of the device area, resulting in shadowing of light that diminishes the amount of current collected. In this paper, we developed trapezoidal electron-beam evaporated Ti/Al front grid fingers on GaAs single-junction solar cells to decrease the optical shadowing and increase the photogenerated current. We observe a high fill factor of 87% at 1-Sun light intensity and we observe no degradation on the open-circuit voltage. The short-circuit current density is found to increase by 0.4 mA/cm2 when compared to previously demonstrated electroplated Ni/Au front grid fingers, resulting in an efficiency improvement of ~0.8% absolute.",

keywords = "Front grid fingers, III-V Materials, Metallization, Solar cells",

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language = "American English",

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T1 - Trapezoidal Grid Fingers to Reduce Shadowing Loss and Improve Short Circuit Current

AU - Cavalli, Alessandro

AU - Buencuerpo, Jeronimo

AU - Steger, Mark

AU - Perl, Emmett

AU - Steiner, Myles

AU - Geisz, John

PY - 2021/10

Y1 - 2021/10

N2 - Traditional metallic contacts on solar cells can cover a substantial portion of the device area, resulting in shadowing of light that diminishes the amount of current collected. In this paper, we developed trapezoidal electron-beam evaporated Ti/Al front grid fingers on GaAs single-junction solar cells to decrease the optical shadowing and increase the photogenerated current. We observe a high fill factor of 87% at 1-Sun light intensity and we observe no degradation on the open-circuit voltage. The short-circuit current density is found to increase by 0.4 mA/cm2 when compared to previously demonstrated electroplated Ni/Au front grid fingers, resulting in an efficiency improvement of ~0.8% absolute.

AB - Traditional metallic contacts on solar cells can cover a substantial portion of the device area, resulting in shadowing of light that diminishes the amount of current collected. In this paper, we developed trapezoidal electron-beam evaporated Ti/Al front grid fingers on GaAs single-junction solar cells to decrease the optical shadowing and increase the photogenerated current. We observe a high fill factor of 87% at 1-Sun light intensity and we observe no degradation on the open-circuit voltage. The short-circuit current density is found to increase by 0.4 mA/cm2 when compared to previously demonstrated electroplated Ni/Au front grid fingers, resulting in an efficiency improvement of ~0.8% absolute.

KW - Front grid fingers

KW - III-V Materials

KW - Metallization

KW - Solar cells

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DO - 10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111294

M3 - Article

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SN - 0927-0248

VL - 231

JO - Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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M1 - Article No. 111294

ER -

Trapezoidal Grid Fingers to Reduce Shadowing Loss and Improve Short Circuit Current

Abstract

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Keywords

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