Simulation of hetero-junction silicon solar cells with AMPS-1D

Abstract

Mono- and poly-crystalline silicon solar cell modules currently represent between 80% and 90% of the PV world market. The reasons are the stability, robustness and reliability of this kind of solar cells as compared to those of emerging technologies. Then, in the mid-term, silicon solar cells will continue playing an important role for their massive terrestrial application. One important approach is the development of silicon solar cells processed at low temperatures (less than 300 °C) by depositing amorphous silicon layers with the purpose of passivating the silicon surface, and avoiding the degradation suffered by silicon when processed at temperatures above 800 °C. This kind of solar cells is known as HIT cells (hetero-junction with an intrinsic thin amorphous layer) and are already produced commercially (Sanyo Ltd.), reaching efficiencies above 20%. In this work, HIT solar cells are simulated by means of AMPS-1D, which is a program developed at Pennsylvania State University. We shall discuss the modifications required by AMPS-1D for simulating this kind of structures since this program explicitly does not take into account interfaces with high interfacial density of states as occurs at amorphous-crystalline silicon hetero-junctions.