Development and Implementation of In-line Characterization Methods for Roll-to-Roll Production of Thin-Film Solar Modules

This report emphasizes the importance of implementing quality control methods in the production machines at HyET Solar for assessing the quality of deposited materials. The focus is on two key steps: the deposition of the front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer and the deposition of silicon layers. Models were developed to characterize...

Optical modeling and characterization of transparent conductive oxides: Implementation of thin film solar cells

To make silicon thin film solar cells attractive to the market, their efficiencies should reach the efficiencies of the dominant crystalline silicon solar cell. Therefore the search for ways to improve the efficiency of silicon thin film solar cells continues. TCO front contact layers and back reflector layers play a significant role in the...

High-Mobility TCO-Based Contacting Schemes for c-Si Solar Cells

In the efficiency-driven photovoltaic (PV) industry, the market dominating crystalline silicon (c-Si) technology has been developing towards PV devices with carrier-selective passivating contacts (CSPCs). Especially, the silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell, based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) contact stacks, and the poly-Si...

Towards bifacial silicon heterojunction solar cells with reduced TCO use

Reducing indium consumption, which is related to the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) use, is a key challenge for scaling up silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell technology to terawatt level. In this work, we developed bifacial SHJ solar cells with reduced TCO thickness. We present three types of In₂O₃-based TCOs,...

Application of metal, metal-oxide, and silicon-oxide based intermediate reflective layers for current matching in autonomous high-voltage multijunction photovoltaic devices

A logical next step for achieving a cost price reduction per Watt peak of photovoltaics (PV) is multijunction PV devices. In two-terminal multijunction PV devices, the photo-current generated in each subcell should be matched. Intermediate reflective layers (IRLs) are widely employed in multijunction devices to increase reflection at the...

Realizing the Potential of RF-Sputtered Hydrogenated Fluorine-Doped Indium Oxide as an Electrode Material for Ultrathin SiO _x/Poly-Si Passivating Contacts

In high-efficiency silicon solar cells featuring carrier-selective passivating contacts based on ultrathin SiOx/poly-Si, the appropriate implementation of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers is of vital importance. Considerable deterioration in passivation quality occurs for thin poly-Si-based devices owing to the sputtering damage...

Hydrogenated Indium Oxide (IO:H) by Plasma Enhanced Spatial Atomic layer deposition for thin film PV application

Hydrogenated Indium Oxide (IOH) has been recognized as a high performance transparent conductive oxide (TCO) due to its excellent mobility (>100 cm2/Vs) and high transparency (>90%) in the visible and near infrared region of the spectrum. Plasma enhanced spatial atomic layer deposition (PESALD), a new type of deposition process developed...

High-Mobility Hydrogenated Fluorine-Doped Indium Oxide Film for Passivating Contacts c-Si Solar Cells

Broadband transparent conductive oxide layers with high electron mobility (μ_e) are essential to further enhance crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell performances. Although metallic cation-doped In₂O₃ thin films with high μ_e (>60 cm² V^-1 s^-1) have been extensively...

Development of High Efficiency SHJ/Poly-Si Passivating Contact Hybrid Solar Cells

To improve the conversion efficiency of c-Si solar cells, it is crucial to quench the recombination losses at c-Si/metal interface. Such recombination losses are able to be reduced by using carrier-selective passivating contacts by means of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si)/tunneling silicon oxide ...

Combination of Advanced Optical Modelling with Electrical Simulation for Performance Evaluation of Practical 4-terminal Perovskite/c-Si Tandem Modules

The perovskite solar cell is considered a promising candidate as the top cell for high-efficiency tandem devices with crystalline silicon (c-Si) bottom cells, contributing to the cost reduction of photovoltaic energy. In this contribution, a simulation method, involving optical and electrical modelling, is established to calculate the...

On the Scalar Scattering Theory for Thin-Film Solar Cells

Nano-textured interfaces between two media of different refractive indices scatter light. The angular distribution and the intensity of the scattered light are deter- mined by the geometry of the nano-textures and the difference of the refractive indices of the two media. Thin-film silicon solar cells (TFSSC), which convert sunlight directly...

Optimization of ITO TCO for thin-film silicon and HIT solar cells

Within thin-film silicon solar cells, the so-called Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) plays an important role. The optimization of TCOs is a very meticulous process since these thin layers not only need to be both highly transparent and conductive, but are also used for light management; that is manipulating the path of the light through the...