Modeling of silicon solar cells voltage increase on localized emitter area approach

A limited area p-n junction silicon solar cell is designed and the effect of limited area emitter on the output open circuit voltage (VOC) and efficiency is studied by a 3-D simulator Quokka. The recombination property of emitter, surface and bulk are all extracted from the test structures and this paper reports potential voltage that can be achieved on the limited area junction solar cells by the modelling. The result indicates that this approach will help improve VOC when the emitter area is reduced and the voltage will be more than 700mV. The result also shows that there is an optimum emitter width for the highest efficiency on the limited area junction solar cell.