Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells

Schnabel, Manuel; Rienacker, Michael; Warren, Emily L.; Geisz, John F.; Peibst, Robby; Stradins, Paul; Tamboli, Adele C.

doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175

Title: Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells

Abstract

Tandem or multijunction solar cells are a promising method to circumvent the efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells, but there is ongoing debate over how best to interconnect the subcells in a tandem cell. In addition to four-terminal and two-terminal tandem cell architectures, a new three-terminal tandem cell architecture has recently been demonstrated, which features a standard two-terminal (front-back) circuit as well as an interdigitated back contact (IBC) circuit connected to the bottom cell. It has no middle contacts, and thus, maintains some of the simplicity of a two-terminal tandem. In this study, we measure four-terminal GaInP//Si and GaInP/GaAs//Si tandem cells in four-terminal and three-terminal configurations by connecting wires to mimic a three-terminal architecture. We demonstrate that both modes allow the same efficiencies exceeding 30% to be attained. Furthermore, we show that the IBC circuit not only collects excess power from the bottom cell, but that it can inject power into the bottom cell if it is current limiting the front-back circuit, enabling four-terminal performance in monolithic structures, regardless of which cell delivers less current.

Authors:

Schnabel, Manuel ^[1]; Rienacker, Michael ^[2]; Warren, Emily L. ^[1]; Geisz, John F. ^[1]; Peibst, Robby ^[2]; Stradins, Paul ^[1]; Tamboli, Adele C. ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Inst. for Solar Energy Research Hamelin, Emmerthal (Germany)

Publication Date:: 2018-09-05

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1475118

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5900-71601
Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; absorption; photovoltaic cells; silicon; III-V semiconductor materials

Citation Formats


                    Schnabel, Manuel, Rienacker, Michael, Warren, Emily L., Geisz, John F., Peibst, Robby, Stradins, Paul, and Tamboli, Adele C.. Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175.

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                    Schnabel, Manuel, Rienacker, Michael, Warren, Emily L., Geisz, John F., Peibst, Robby, Stradins, Paul, & Tamboli, Adele C.. Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175

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                    Schnabel, Manuel, Rienacker, Michael, Warren, Emily L., Geisz, John F., Peibst, Robby, Stradins, Paul, and Tamboli, Adele C.. Wed .  
"Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1475118.

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@article{osti_1475118,

  title        = {Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells},

  author       = {Schnabel, Manuel and Rienacker, Michael and Warren, Emily L. and Geisz, John F. and Peibst, Robby and Stradins, Paul and Tamboli, Adele C.},

  abstractNote = {Tandem or multijunction solar cells are a promising method to circumvent the efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells, but there is ongoing debate over how best to interconnect the subcells in a tandem cell. In addition to four-terminal and two-terminal tandem cell architectures, a new three-terminal tandem cell architecture has recently been demonstrated, which features a standard two-terminal (front-back) circuit as well as an interdigitated back contact (IBC) circuit connected to the bottom cell. It has no middle contacts, and thus, maintains some of the simplicity of a two-terminal tandem. In this study, we measure four-terminal GaInP//Si and GaInP/GaAs//Si tandem cells in four-terminal and three-terminal configurations by connecting wires to mimic a three-terminal architecture. We demonstrate that both modes allow the same efficiencies exceeding 30% to be attained. Furthermore, we show that the IBC circuit not only collects excess power from the bottom cell, but that it can inject power into the bottom cell if it is current limiting the front-back circuit, enabling four-terminal performance in monolithic structures, regardless of which cell delivers less current.},

  doi          = {10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175},

  journal      = {IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics},

  number       = 6,

  volume       = 8,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2018},

  month        = {9}

}

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https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Back‐contacted bottom cells with three terminals: Maximizing power extraction from current‐mismatched tandem cells
journal, January 2019

Rienäcker, Michael; Warren, Emily L.; Schnabel, Manuel
Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 27, Issue 5
DOI: 10.1002/pip.3107

Analytical Modeling of Dual-Junction Tandem Solar Cells Based on an InGaP/GaAs Heterojunction Stacked on a Ge Substrate
journal, April 2019

Bouzid, F.; Pezzimenti, F.; Dehimi, L.
Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 48, Issue 6
DOI: 10.1007/s11664-019-07180-z

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Title: Equivalent Performance in Three-Terminal and Four-Terminal Tandem Solar Cells

Abstract

Citation Formats

Back‐contacted bottom cells with three terminals: Maximizing power extraction from current‐mismatched tandem cells journal, January 2019

Analytical Modeling of Dual-Junction Tandem Solar Cells Based on an InGaP/GaAs Heterojunction Stacked on a Ge Substrate journal, April 2019

Back‐contacted bottom cells with three terminals: Maximizing power extraction from current‐mismatched tandem cells
journal, January 2019

Analytical Modeling of Dual-Junction Tandem Solar Cells Based on an InGaP/GaAs Heterojunction Stacked on a Ge Substrate
journal, April 2019