Studies on the influence of effective carrier lifetime in the performance of industrial silicon solar cells

Abstract

Minority carrier lifetime plays a significant role in the performance of silicon (Si) solar cells, due to its importance in qualifying the bare silicon wafers. In order to fabricate the high efficiency industrial Si solar cells, high life time based silicon wafers are a prerequisite which strongly depends on the defects and trap concentrations of the wafer. In the present work, a systematic study of the variation in the minority effective carrier lifetime on Si solar cells has been studied. The solar grade mono silicon wafers used for this study had bulk carrier life time < 10 μ secs with bulk resistivity of 0.5–3 ω cm. The silicon solar cells were fabricated in the production line by employing the conventional silicon solar cell process. As expected it has been observed that a change of effective life time in bare wafers improved the cell performance. This paper narrates the electrical performance of the mono crystalline silicon solar cells with respect to the different effective carrier life time of the bare wafers. The results are compared and correlated with the passivation process and have been explained with respect to the different effective carrier life time.