Back surface field approach and ITO/top electrode-based structural optimization of high efficient silicon solar cell

Abstract

Crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules are clearly dominated by material costs, especially by the costs of the silicon wafer. Currently, the efficiency of the cells and modules is the main advantage to bring down the costs even more. Here, optimised c-Si PV module is proposed after introducing a back surface field (BSF) layer and transparent conductive electrode by simulating the performance of different c-Si solar-cell modules. First, simulation has been carried out on a simple p–n junction solar cell for optimised layer thickness and different doping density of acceptor and donor atoms. To further reduce the thickness of base region, a highly doped p + layer was introduced at the back surface of base region as the BSF. The solar cell was optimised with BSF layer to get power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.35%. Furthermore, an anti-reflective layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) with optimised thickness was introduced as a front surface electrode. This device model showed an increased short-circuit current (J sc ) and open-circuit voltage (V oc ) with an improved efficiency. This work is a fundamental study to achieve reasonable good efficiencies at low cost through optimisation of the BSF layer and transparent conductive electrodes. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.