𝔖 Bobbio Scriptorium
✦   LIBER   ✦

The use of porous silicon layers in thin-film silicon solar cells

✍ Scribed by Van Hoeymissen, Jan ;Depauw, Valerie ;Kuzma-Filipek, Izabela ;Van Nieuwenhuysen, Kris ;Payo, Maria Recaman ;Qiu, Yu ;Gordon, Ivan ;Poortmans, Jef

Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
2010
Tongue
English
Weight
483 KB
Volume
208
Category
Article
ISSN
0031-8965

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In the quest for lowering the manufacturing cost of silicon solar cells, imec has been working successfully on two crystalline Si ‘thin‐film’ cell concepts. In a first concept, a 20 µm‐thin Si solar cell is epitaxially grown on top of a porous Si‐based Bragg‐type reflector which is electrochemically etched in a low‐cost UMG Si substrate. Large area solar cells with efficiencies of 15.2% have been made, using (semi‐)industrial processing tools. This clearly demonstrates that this cell concept has almost reached the stage of industrial application. In a second, longer‐term approach, a 1–5 µm‐thin, stand‐alone mono‐crystalline film is created based on the controlled annealing of an ordered macroporous silicon layer (the ‘Epi‐free’ process). With this very thin Si layer, a simple proof‐of‐concept solar cell has been made exhibiting an efficiency of 4%. By optimizing the cell process in terms of light trapping and passivation, efficiencies over 15% can be expected from this technology.

📜 SIMILAR VOLUMES

Depletion region recombination in silico
Depletion region recombination in silicon thin-film multilayer solar cells
✍ Martin A. Green 📂 Article 📅 1998 🏛 John Wiley and Sons 🌐 English ⚖ 379 KB 👁 2 views

A parallel multijunction approach appears promising as a way of producing high-performance polycrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells by deposition onto inexpensive glass superstrates. Recent independent analyses have confirmed some of the claimed advantages for this approach. However, both the s

Porous silicon antireflection layer for
Porous silicon antireflection layer for solar cells using metal-assisted chemical etching
✍ Chaoui, Rachid ;Mahmoudi, Bedra ;Si Ahmed, Yasmina 📂 Article 📅 2008 🏛 John Wiley and Sons 🌐 English ⚖ 341 KB

## Abstract Porous silicon antireflection coatings were generated on fully processed screen‐printed monocrystalline silicon solar cells using metal‐assisted chemical etching in HF:H~2~O~2~:ethanol. In this method, interaction of the HF acid with the cell front grid contact results in the dissolutio

Porous silicon as an internal reflector
Porous silicon as an internal reflector in thin epitaxial solar cells
✍ Kuzma-Filipek, I. ;Duerinckx, F. ;Van Nieuwenhuysen, K. ;Beaucarne, G. ;Poortman 📂 Article 📅 2007 🏛 John Wiley and Sons 🌐 English ⚖ 324 KB

## Abstract Thin film epitaxial silicon solar cells are considered a near future alternative to bulk silicon solar cells. However due to the limited thickness of the active layer they require efficient light trapping. Therefore we propose the development and implementation of such light confinement

A simple analytical model of thin films
A simple analytical model of thin films crystalline silicon solar cell with quasi-monocrystalline porous silicon at the backside
✍ Monem Krichen; Abdelaziz Zouari; Adel Ben Arab 📂 Article 📅 2009 🏛 Elsevier Science 🌐 English ⚖ 322 KB

An analytical model that simulates the performance of an elementary thin silicon solar cell with a thin film quasi-monocrystalline porous silicon (QMPS) at the backside reflector is developed. A complete set of equations for the photocurrent generated under the effect of the reflected light is solve