Optimization of Antireflection Coating Design Using PC1D Simulation for c − Si Solar Cell Application

Maruthamuthu Subramanian,Saad Mekhilef,Gokul Sidarth Thirunavukkarasu,Sreedevi Gedi,Mohd Ubaidullah,Manawwer Alam,Lakshminarayanan Vaduganathan,Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian,Omar M Aldossary,Elmira Jamei,Alex Stojcevski

doi:10.3390/electronics10243132

Abstract

Minimizing the photon losses by depositing an anti-reflection layer can increase the conversion efficiency of the solar cells. In this paper, the impact of anti-reflection coating (ARC) for enhancing the efficiency of silicon solar cells is presented. Initially, the refractive indices and reflectance of various ARC materials were computed numerically using the OPAL2 calculator. After which, the reflectance of SiO2,TiO2,SiNx with different refractive indices (n) were used for analyzing the performance of a silicon solar cells coated with these materials using PC1D simulator. SiNx and TiO2 as single-layer anti-reflection coating (SLARC) yielded a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 38.4 mA/cm2 and 38.09mA/cm2 respectively. Highest efficiency of 20.7% was obtained for the SiNx ARC layer with n=2.15. With Double-layer anti-reflection coating (DLARC), the Jsc improved by ∼0.5 mA/cm2 for SiO2/SiNx layer and hence the efficiency by 0.3%. Blue loss reduces significantly for the DLARC compared with SLARC and hence increase in Jsc by 1 mA/cm2 is observed. The Jsc values obtained is in good agreement with the reflectance values of the ARC layers. The solar cell with DLARC obtained from the study showed that improved conversion efficiency of 21.1% is obtained. Finally, it is essential to understand that the key parameters identified in this simulation study concerning the DLARC fabrication will make experimental validation faster and cheaper.

Highlights

The refractive index as a function of wavelength defines the characteristics of an anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer [22]
Highest efficiency of 20.7% was obtained for the SiNx ARC layer with n = 1.99 and 2.15
The impact of different anti-reflective coating layers on improving the efficiency of silicon solar cells has been studied in this manuscript

Summary

Introduction

Highefficiency solar cells utilize double-layer ARCs ( DLARC ) which improves the carrier collection by reducing the reflectance in the visible and in the near-IR range [15,16,17,18]. Doshi et al optimized the ARC film thickness and their refractive indices and utilized the SiO2 /SiNx DLARC for their simulation [15]. This simulation-based approach highlighted in this manuscript plays a vital role in identifying the most optimal configuration of the ARC layers for achieving increased efficiency of silicon solar cells.

Results

Conclusion