Abstract
Sunlight is a natural resource that can be harnessed by the photovoltaic conversion of sunlight into electricity-utilizing solar cells. The production of most common solar cells consists of a homojunction of a p-type and n-type silicon. The p—n junction is realized by the diffusion of impurities through one surface of the wafer. Silicon wafers have a typical dimension of 156 × 156 mm2 and a thickness of 0.15–0.2 mm. Groups of 50–100 solar cells are electrically connected and encapsulated to form a module. The required area for interconnection does not contribute to power generation, and the performance of larger area devices usually suffers from higher resistive losses. In the present work, a theoretical model of the geometric arrangement of the top contact metallic electrodes branched network in a photovoltaic cell is developed. The network structure of the electrodes is obtained from applying the constructal design methodology by the minimization of the overall resistance. As a result, the optimal lengths and geometrical relationships of an electrode branching network with a branching angle are determined. A geometric distribution of the electrode network on the solar cell analyzed by the total resistance of every level of branching is defined. The top metallic contact network presents a tree-shaped geometric arrangement with the main objective of covering a generation area for an enhanced collection of the generated electrical current. The theoretical results obtained are expressed as the total voltage of the arrangement and the lengths of the branched electrode network.
Highlights
A classical crystalline silicon solar cell consists of a semiconductor p—n junction, finger-like top electrodes, all covered by a metal back electrode, and an anti-reflective coating layer
The values of the dimensionless parameters are defined with reported data of the metallic contact and typical solar cell characteristic materials [29,30,31]
0.06, which compared the arrangement of the bifurcatedfeatures contact of weaobtained silicon solar cell
Summary
A classical crystalline silicon solar cell consists of a semiconductor p—n junction, finger-like top electrodes, all covered by a metal back electrode, and an anti-reflective coating layer. The application of an electrode network with a shape inspired by natural structures in a window for harvesting solar energy to generate electrical current has been reported by Han et al [13] This network was designed under physical assumptions including a uniform current distribution and minimum overall electrical resistance, defined as the minimization of the voltage drop on a disc power plane. A high conductivity path for cooling a volume with a heat generation source was developed by Bejan [16], who showed that the path length is defined as a function of the physical properties and geometry of the constructal element and that the final shape of the high conductivity path is reticular This methodology has been applied in a reticular network of metallic contacts for a rectangular solar cell in which the design of finger-like metallic contacts obeys the constructal principle, as the solar cell contains an electrical volumetric source. The successive constructions are defined considering the previous construction, and the geometric characteristics of the first assembly are defined applying the constructal design method recursively
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