Potential and Current Distributions in the Emitter of Solar Cells with a Grid Contact

Abstract

The design of the grid contact in silicon solar cells is one of the most important steps for the optimization and fabrication of these energy conversion devices. The voltage drop due to the lateral flow of current towards the grid fingers can be a limiting factor causing the reduction of conversion efficiency. For low current levels this voltage drop can be made small, for typical values of sheet resistance in the emitter, but for solar cells made to operate at high sun concentrations this efficiency loss can be important, unless there is a clear vision of the current and voltage distribution so that the emitter and grid design can be improved. Hence, it is important to establish and solve the current and voltage distribution equations for solar cells with a grid contact on top. In this work, first these equations are developed and then they are solved in order to show the effects that the lateral current flow in the emitter cause on the voltage distribution and resistive losses, particularly at high illumination levels.