Abstract
Nanowire Solar cells (NW SCs) have shown hopeful advance for light absorption and charge carrier transport because in a vertical structure absorption and carrier transport are orthogonal to each other. In this work high-efficiency back-contact back-junction (BC-BJ) structures like emitter wrap through and metallization wrap through Silicon (Si) SCs for one-sun applications were studied. The top portion of the device gets fully illuminated and there is no loss incorporated due to the absence of front metallization. Key parameters were extracted of proposed structure and a vertical NW SC structure with a front contact using 3D-TCAD simulation tool. First of all a comparison in the performance is observed between a planar solar cell (PSC) and a NW SC, then two different types of all back contact (ABC) structures are studied. The entire work is simulated using AM1.5G solar spectrum at room temperature. The key solar parameters like open circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current (ISC), fill factor (FF), short circuit current density (JSC) and conversion efficiency are calculated. The efficiency of the proposed structure is more comparable to a regular NW structure which is considered with similar device characteristics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
M.I. Hoffert, K. Caldeira, A.K. Jain, E.F. Haites, L.D.D. Harvey, S.D. Potter, M.E. Schlesinger, S.H. Schneider, R.G. Watts, T.M.L. Wigley, D.J. Wuebbles, Nature 395, 881–884 (1998)
M. Fawer-Wasswer, Solar energy-sunny days ahead? current status and outlook for photovoltaics and solar thermal power. Sarasin Sustainable InVestment Report, Nov 2004
M.A. Green, Sol. Energy 76, 3–8 (2004)
Silicon, USGS Mineral Commodities SurVey, January 2008
M.G. Mauk, J.A. Rand, R. Jonceyk, R.B. Hall, A.M. Bamett, Solar-grade silicon: the next decade. In Proceedings of the Third World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, vol. 1, Osaka, Japan, IEEE Publications, Los Alamitos, CA, 11–18 May 2003, pp. 939–942
R. He, P. Yang, Nat. Nanotechnol. 1, 42–46 (2006)
A.I. Hochbaum, R.K. Chen, R.D. Delgado, W.J. Liang, E.C. Garnett, M. Najarian, A. Majumdar, P.D. Yang, Nature 451, 163–167 (2008)
X.L. Feng, R.R. He, P.D. Yang, M.L. Roukes, Nano Lett. 7, 1953–1959 (2007)
C.K. Chan, H.L. Peng, G. Liu, K. McIlwrath, X.F. Zhang, R.A. Huggins, Y. Cui, Nat. Nanotechnol. 3, 31–35 (2008)
B.M. Kayes, H.A. Atwater, N.S. Lewis, J. Appl. Phys. 97, 114302 (2005)
M.D. Kelzenberg, D.B. Turner-Evans, B.M. Kayes, M.A. Filler, M.C. Putnam, N.S. Lewis, H.A. Atwater, Single-Nanowire Si Solar Cells, (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
M. Späth, P.C. de Jong, and J. Bakker, A novel module assembly line using back contact solar cells, in Technical Digest of the 17th International Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, Fukuoka, Japan, 436 (2007)
J.M. Gee, W. Kent Schubert, P.A. Basore, Emitter Wrap-Through Solar Cell (Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, NM 87185)
F. Granek, M. Hermle, C. Reichel, O. Schultz-Wittmann, High-efficiency back-contact back-junction silicon solar cell. In: 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, September 2008 (Valencia, Spain), pp. 1–5
Synopsys, Sentauraus TCAD user manual (2010)
P. Würfel, Physics of Solar Cells (Wiley, Weinheim, 2005)
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Dr. Chayanika Bose, Associate Professor, Jadavpur University, for providing the Synopsys TCAD software for simulation of above mention devices. This software was funded by UGC.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer India
About this paper
Cite this paper
Patnaik, R.K., Pattnaik, D.P., Choudhuri, R. (2016). Efficiency Comparison of MWT and EWT all Backcontact Nanowire Silicon Solar Cells. In: Satapathy, S., Rao, N., Kumar, S., Raj, C., Rao, V., Sarma, G. (eds) Microelectronics, Electromagnetics and Telecommunications. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 372. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2728-1_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2728-1_37
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2726-7
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2728-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)