Development of thin wraparound junction silicon solar cells. Final report, Sep. 1980 - Nov. 1981

Technical Report · Sun Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6507326

Ho, F; Iles, P A

The state of the art technologies was applied to fabricate 50 micro thick 2x4 cm, coplanar back contact (CBC) solar cells with AMO efficiency above 12%. A requirement was that the cells have low solar absorptance. A wraparound junction (WAJ) with wraparound metallization was chosen. This WAJ approach avoided the need for very complex fixturing, especially during rotation of the cells for providing adequate contacts over dielectric edge layers. The contact adhesion to silicon was considered better than to an insulator. It is indicated that shunt resistance caused by poor WAJ diode quality, and series resistance from the WAJ contact, give good cell performance. The cells developed reached 14 percent AMO efficiency (at 25 C), with solar absorptance values of 0.73. Space/cell environmental tests were performed on these cells and the thin CSC cells performed well. The optimized design configuration and process sequence were used to make 50 deliverable CBC cells. These cells were all above 12 percent efficiency and had an average efficiency of -13 percent. Results of environmental tests (humidity-temperature, thermal shock, and contact adherence) are also given.

• Research Organization: Applied Solar Energy Corp., City of Industry, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6507326
• Report Number(s): NASA-CR-165570
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
FILMS
JUNCTIONS
PACKAGING
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
POLYMERS
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SILICONES
SILOXANES
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
THERMODYNAMICS
THIN FILMS