{"title":"Novel Monocrystalline Silicon Texturing for supporting nano- to polycrystalline layers","authors":"Thierry de Vrijer, A. Smets","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300643","url":null,"abstract":"Crystalline silicon tandems with perovskites, CIGS and nanocrystalline silicon, as well as the TOPcon design are incompatible with the conventional pyramidal surface texture of silicon. Three texturing approaches, using alkaline and/or acidic wet chemical etches, are investigated in this work, that can lead to the crack-free growth of a nano- to poly-crystalline silicon material on textured surfaces. Without acidic smoothening, the fraction of <111> pyramidal surface coverage has to remain relatively small to prevent crack formation during crystalline growth. Applying an acidic etch as a function of time continuously smoothens surface features. This shifts the reflection to wider scattering angles and results in higher total reflected intensity with respect to the conventional texture, making it an interesting option for a wide variety of tandem pv applications. Finally we demonstrate crater like features on a <100> monocrystalline silicon surface using an etching process inlcuding a sacrificial layer. These craters increases light scattering into wider angles, but to a lesser extent than the former approach.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"19 1","pages":"0976-0978"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85043136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ahmad Alheloo, J. John, Omar Albadwawi, Ali Almheiri, Hebatalla Alhamadani, Shaikha Hassan, A. Alnuaimi
{"title":"Indoor characterisation of thin-film PV modules installed for 4.6 years in desert conditions","authors":"Ahmad Alheloo, J. John, Omar Albadwawi, Ali Almheiri, Hebatalla Alhamadani, Shaikha Hassan, A. Alnuaimi","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300986","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300986","url":null,"abstract":"Degradation of commercially available CdTe and CIGS PV modules installed in the desert conditions, are not well understood, because they have been in operation for relatively short period compared to crystalline silicon PV technology. In this paper, we investigate the degradation rate of both these thin-film technologies using indoor characterization methods. The calculated annual degradation rate of CdTe technology (1.3-2.2 percent/year) is lower than CIGS (5.3-8.8 /year). The main cause of this degradation is the reduction in fill factor caused by formation of permanent shunts. These shunts were characterized using Electroluminescence and microscopic imaging.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"34 1","pages":"1489-1493"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85343526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carey Reich, A. Onno, Alexandra M. Bothwell, Anna Kindvall, Z. Holman, W. Sampath
{"title":"Determination of Series Resistance in CdSeTe/CdTe Solar Cells by the Jsc–Voc Method","authors":"Carey Reich, A. Onno, Alexandra M. Bothwell, Anna Kindvall, Z. Holman, W. Sampath","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300880","url":null,"abstract":"While commonly used in Si solar cell characterization, the Suns– Vocmethod of determining series resistance (Rs) is rarely used for CdTe and its alloys. However, it is advantageous relative to the slope method–commonly used in the CdTe community–because it measures series resistance at the maximum power point, at which a solar cell operates. Using the self-consistent predecessor to $mathrm{Suns}-mathrm{V}_{mathrm{oc}}, mathrm{J}_{mathrm{sc}}-mathrm{V}_{mathrm{oc}}$, we determine $mathrm{R}_{mathrm{s}}$ of two different $mathrm{CdSeTe}/mathrm{CdTe}$ solar cell structures to be 0.96 and 2.72 μcm2, with repeated measurements showing little deviation.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"15 1","pages":"1898-1899"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81667554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Numerical Simulations of Time-Resolved Photoluminescence in CdSexTe1-x/CdTe Solar Cells","authors":"J. Moseley, D. Krasikov, D. Kuciauskas","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300736","url":null,"abstract":"We present initial time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) simulations in graded CdSexTe1-e thin-film solar cells to quantify the front-interface recombination velocity, Sint,front. Our model includes several composition dependences: bandgap energy, absorption coefficient, electron affinity, and carrier lifetime. Cathodoluminescence spectrum imaging measurements on bevels provide an estimate of the bandgap and the CdSexTe1-x alloy composition through the absorber thickness. TRPL decays are simulated as a function of the laser power, Sint,front, front-interface band offset, and bulk Shockley-Read-Hall lifetime. We find the impact of Sintf,ront on the PL decay increases as the band offset shifts from a “spike” to a “cliff”. Recombination rate analysis shows that back-interface recombination could potentially dictate the later part of the TRPL decay “τ2” in high-lifetime CdSexTe1-x cells. We briefly discuss ongoing work to determine TRPL measurement conditions that maximize sensitivity to Sitnt,front.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"13 1","pages":"2062-2065"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81929390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Hollemann, F. Haase, J. Krügener, R. Brendel, R. Peibst
{"title":"Firing stability of n-type poly-Si on oxide junctions formed by quartz tube annealing","authors":"C. Hollemann, F. Haase, J. Krügener, R. Brendel, R. Peibst","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300849","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300849","url":null,"abstract":"Passivating contacts formed by poly-Si on oxide (POLO) junctions yield high passivation qualities after an appropriate annealing process at temperatures between 800°C and 1050°C. In today's typical cell process, firing is applied in the end of cell production mainly to form screen printed contacts. Thus, a high stability of the passivation quality against this firing process is required - and also expected since a previous high-temperature process for POLO junction formation implies a much higher thermal budget. However, in this work we found a significant decrease in effective lifetimes of up to 75% for n-type POLO samples with ~ 1.5 nm interfacial oxide at firing temperatures of 620°C to 900°C. This holds without a supply of hydrogen (no capping layers). Experiments with hydrogen-rich dielectric capping layers show, however, that a coating with AlOx:H as opposed to SiNy:H (n = 2.05), can significantly increase the stability of the passivation upon firing. Capacitance-voltage measurements show that the saturation current density correlates to the density of defect states at the SiOx/c-Si interface when varying the firing temperature. Although firing with hydrogen supplying layers such as AlOx:H seems to be viable, our results may indicate that the chemical configuration of the SiOx/Si interface changes from Si-O to Si-H bonds upon firing. If this hypothesis holds true, possible implications on the long-term stability of the passivation quality should be evaluated.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"43 1","pages":"1274-1278"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79409134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Li Feng, F. Hamelmann, Jingwei Zhang, Kun Ding, Matthias Diehl, Thomas Pfeil, Steffen Brandt, Werner Friedrich, N. Amin
{"title":"A Novel Method to Evaluate Irradiance in PV Field without Irradiance Sensors","authors":"Li Feng, F. Hamelmann, Jingwei Zhang, Kun Ding, Matthias Diehl, Thomas Pfeil, Steffen Brandt, Werner Friedrich, N. Amin","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300796","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300796","url":null,"abstract":"In order to develop scientific research on the performance analysis and faults detection for monitoring status in photovoltaic (PV) array, an accurate and reliable irradiance evaluation are required. The mathematical expressions for irradiance evaluation at module level and array level are presented by the measured current and voltage of the PV module and PV array. The proposed method is verified with three typical weathers and a big dataset of one year. The results of module level show that the proposed method has performed good R2 errors of 0.9957 on a sunny day, 0.9978 on a cloudy day and 0.9898 on a day with low irradiance. The average percentage errors are 4.9%., 7.4% and 8.3% respectively. At the array level, the average error for one year is achieved by 6.51%., and 50% of average irradiance ranges are from 200 W/m2 to 600 W/m2 during the whole year. It is proved to be rarely affected by uncertainties from weather changes. The proposed method is suitable to calculate irradiance and obtain input energy of PV array in engineering application.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"48 1","pages":"2496-2501"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79759107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jacob Clenney, Erick M Loran, G. von Gastrow, D. Fenning, R. Meier, M. Bertoni
{"title":"Insights into Na+ Diffusion in Silicon Modules under Operating Conditions: Measuring Low Concentrations by D-SIMS","authors":"Jacob Clenney, Erick M Loran, G. von Gastrow, D. Fenning, R. Meier, M. Bertoni","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300773","url":null,"abstract":"Sodium induced shunting under an electric field is a challenging reliability issue in crystalline Si solar modules. THe source of this Potential-Induced Degradation of the Shunting type (PID-s) is well understood [1] and its influence on power loss has been intensively studied based on phenomenological models on cell or module level relating the experimental power-loss to stressing parameters (time, temperature, voltage) [1]. However, little is known about the Na ion migration kinetics, responsible for PID on a microscopic level, and its quantitative relation to the efficiency degradation. In this paper we present our investigations of sodium ion migration in Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) and silicon through Dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (D-SIMS). Each sample was annealed at field relevant temperatures from 60–90 °C to address typical migration mechanisms of common PV installations. Analysis of the SIMS migration profiles revealed a diffusivity constant D0,EVA = 0.09 ± 0.14 cm2/s and an activation energy EA,EVA = 0.85 ± .04 eV for Na in EVA and diffusivities higher than extrapolated literature values in silicon (D0,Si = (3.03 ± 2.42)x10−5 cm2/s, and EA,Si = 0.98 ± 0.02 eV). The new insight will be included in a drift-diffusion based degradation model accounting for the partition coefficient across all relevant interfaces. This model can assist in predicting PID-failure in the field based on the given mudle stack and the diffusion of Na+ through each material. This tool can be used for process optimization as well as material selection significantly reducing the cost and time to validate a technology.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"3 1","pages":"0863-0867"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84550830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Proton induced degradation of liquid phase crystallized poly-Si thin-film solar cells","authors":"Tim Frijnts, C. Pellegrino, S. Gall, H. Neitzert","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300392","url":null,"abstract":"Liquid phase crystallized poly-Si thin-film solar cells on glass with a-Si heterojunction emitters were irradiated with 68 MeV protons with different fluences up to 1013 protons/cm2. The degradation of devices with n-type and p-type absorber has been compared. A significantly stronger decrease of the solar cell performance parameters for devices with n-type absorber has been observed as compared to the p-type absorber case. This result corresponds to the different decrease of the minority carrier diffusion lengths with regard to the different poly-Si absorber materials.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"27 1","pages":"2683-2687"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84652075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
G.H. Wang, C. Shi, L. Zhao, L. Mo, H. Diao, W. Wang
{"title":"Transparent conductive polycrystalline Ti and H co-doped In2O3 films by RF sputtering technique","authors":"G.H. Wang, C. Shi, L. Zhao, L. Mo, H. Diao, W. Wang","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300616","url":null,"abstract":"Ti and H co-doped In2O3 transparent conductive polycrystalline films (ITHO) were grown at a low substrate temperature of 150 °C by radio frequency magnetron sputtering for the applications of silicon-based heterojunction or other thin film solar cell. The effect of H2 flow rate on the structure, electrical and optical properties of the films was investigated. We will further improve film properties and employ it as electrode of heterojunction solar cell in the future.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"108 1","pages":"0712-0714"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81723902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Shimpi, Carey Reich, A. Danielson, A. Munshi, Anna Kindvall, Ramesh Pandey, K. Barth, W. Sampath
{"title":"Influence of Process Parameters and Absorber Thickness on Efficiency of Polycrystalline CdSeTe/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells","authors":"T. Shimpi, Carey Reich, A. Danielson, A. Munshi, Anna Kindvall, Ramesh Pandey, K. Barth, W. Sampath","doi":"10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300840","url":null,"abstract":"Graded absorbers devices with with CdSe0.4Te0.6 (molar basis) and CdTe were fabricated. CdCl2 treatment time, post-deposition CdCl2 anneal time and thicknesses of CdSeTe and CdTe layers were varied. Photoluminescence and electrical measurements were performed on the fabricated devices. Results revealed that the individual thicknesses of CdSeTe and CdTe is critical to overall efficiency of the devices. Device fabricated on substrate with 0.5 µm CdSeTe, 3 µm CdTe with rest of process parameters kept unchanged, produced an efficiency of 20.14%. We report highest device efficiency among academia and research institutions.","PeriodicalId":6773,"journal":{"name":"2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"7 1","pages":"1933-1935"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81833848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}