High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

By S. de Wolf, A. Descoeudres, Z. Holman, Christophe Ballif. 2012

825 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Silicon heterojunction solar cells consist of thin amorphous silicon layers deposited on crystalline silicon wafers. This design enables energy conversion efficiencies above 20% at the industrial production level. The key feature of this technology is that the metal contacts, which are highly recombination active in traditional, diffused-junction cells, are electronically separated from the absorber by insertion of a wider bandgap layer. This enables the record open-circuit voltages typically associated with heterojunction devices without the need for expensive patterning techniques. This article reviews the salient points of this technology. First, we briefly elucidate device characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of each processing step, device operation, and device stability and industrial upscaling, including the fabrication of solar cells with energy-conversion efficiencies over 21%. Finally, future trends are pointed out.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/93e90e71dccee02677cebeb3489baec662aedf5f

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In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. S. De Wolf
2. Christophe Ballif
3. Z. Holman
4. A. Descoeudres
5. L. Barraud
6. R. Schropp
7. W. van Sark

In Materials Chemistry

1. S. De Wolf
2. Christophe Ballif
3. Z. Holman
4. A. Descoeudres
5. L. Barraud
6. W. van Sark

Citations in the corpus

• >21% Efficient Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells on n- and p-Type Wafers Compared (2013, background): “This behavior cannot be attributed to bulk defects: High-quality FZ wafers were used here, and longer low-injection lifetimes are observed when similar wafers are passivated with the negative fixed-charge dielectric aluminum oxide (Al2O3) [16].”
• A cost roadmap for silicon heterojunction solar cells (2016, background): “The large interest is mainly due to the fact that [19,20]: (1) SHJ fabrication is a simple process with high efficiency cells as a result; (2) the deposition of the thin film layers for SHJ cells can benefit from ample experience with these processes in the flat-display industry; (3) SHJ modules hav”
• Hydrogen-doped indium oxide/indium tin oxide bilayers for high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells (2013, neutral): “Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells have garnered much interest because of their high energy conversion efficiencies and simple fabrication [1,2].”