Point-contact silicon solar cells

Technical Report · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:6030625

Swansom, R M

A new type of silicon photovoltaic cell is described and numerically analyzed. The cell is called the point-contact cell and shows potential for achieving energy conversion efficiencies in the neighborhood of 26 to 28 percent at the design operating of 500X geometric concentration and 60 C cell temperature. In the point-contact cell contact metal touches the silicon in an array of points. The cell is made of lightly doped silicon with dopant diffusions only at the contact points. The region between contacts, on both top and bottom, is covered by high quality SiO/sub 2/ for surface passivation. The surfaces are slightly textured and the backside is made reflective to promote light trapping. Opposite type contacts can be on the front and back of the cell, whereupon it is called a backsurface cell. Using a variational approach a three dimensional approximate solution of the semiconductor device equations has been developed to analyze the potential of point-contact cells. This solution, when coded in Pascal, has proved fast enough for mental results on similar cell structures designed for thermophotovoltaic applications indicate very good agreement.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA). Stanford Electronics Labs.
• OSTI ID: 6030625
• Report Number(s): EPRI-AP-2859; ON: DE83902348
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
ANTIREFLECTION COATINGS
CARRIER LIFETIME
CHALCOGENIDES
COATINGS
CONCENTRATOR SOLAR CELLS
DESIGN
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
LIFETIME
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OPTIMIZATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
RECOMBINATION
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT