Indium Zinc Oxide Mediated Wafer Bonding for III-V/Si Tandem Solar Cells

Conference · Sun Jun 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356233· OSTI ID:1251354

Tamboli, Adele C.; Essig, Stephanie; Horowitz, Kelsey A. W.; Woodhouse, Michael; Norman, Andrew G.; Steiner, Myles A.; Stradins, Paul

Silicon-based tandem solar cells are desirable as a high efficiency, economically viable approach to one sun or low concentration photovoltaics. We present an approach to wafer bonded III-V/Si solar cells using amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) as an interlayer. We investigate the impact of a heavily doped III-V contact layer on the electrical and optical properties of bonded test samples, including the predicted impact on tandem cell performance. We present economic modeling which indicates that the path to commercial viability for bonded cells includes developing low-cost III-V growth and reducing constraints on material smoothness. If these challenges can be surmounted, bonded tandems on Si can be cost-competitive with incumbent PV technologies, especially in low concentration, single axis tracking systems.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1251354
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5J00-63601
• Resource Relation: Conference: Presented at the 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 14-19 June 2015, New Orleans, Louisiana; Related Information: Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 14-19 June 2015, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
III-V semiconductor materials
silicon
photovoltaic cells
wafer bonding