Abstract
Black silicon (BSi) fabrication via surface texturization of Si-wafer in recent times has become an attractive concept regarding photon trapping and improved light absorption properties for photovoltaic applications. In this study, surface texturization has been conducted on mono-crystalline Si(100) wafer using a wet chemical anisotropic etching process with IPA:KOH solution to form micro-pyramidal surface structures. Moreover, the optimized properties of the fabricated BSi wafers are used for numerical simulation using PC1D software to analyze the performance of the solar cell and establish the correlation among relevant parameters. Effects such as doping concentration, texturization, passivation, and anti-reflection coating of BSi on the solar cell performance have numerically been investigated. Results show that textured surface obtained from the wet chemical anisotropic etching process has successfully reduced the reflectance of the BSi wafer and surpassed the solar cell efficiency by 2%, which is mainly attributed to the optical confinement of the textured pyramids on the surface with a height of 1–2 μm and angles of 70 degrees. Furthermore, the doping concentration of the p-type wafer and n-type emitter were optimized to be 1 × 1016 cm−3 and 1 × 1018 cm−3, respectively. In the case of device optimization, the SiO2 passivation layer with a refractive index of 1.48 and the Si3N4 ARC layer with a refractive index of 2.015 has been identified as the best combination for the solar cell performance. These optimized parameters eventually result in 23.14% conversion efficiency from numerical simulation for solar cells that use black silicon wafers as fabricated in this study.
Highlights
Increasing solar cell efficiency using a black-silicon (BSi) wafer is an ongoing heavily invested research topic in the field of solar cell technology [1]
We developed a novel, simple and low-cost technique for texturing a monocrystalline Si(100) wafer to form the micro-pyramidal structured layer, using a wet chemical anisotropic etching technique using the solution of isopropyl alcohol and potassium hydroxide (IPA: KOH)
Surface properties of chemically etched Si wafers were first experimentally investigated to figure out parametric optimization in PC1D numerical simulation targeting high efficiency
Summary
Increasing solar cell efficiency using a black-silicon (BSi) wafer is an ongoing heavily invested research topic in the field of solar cell technology [1]. Even BSi solar cells are considered as one of the foremost technological pillars behind the massive development of high-efficiency c-Si solar cells. The efficiency of the BSi solar cells is increased by reducing the optical losses in the solar cells via reducing the surface reflection as well as increasing the surface area. To reduce the light reflectance, the concept of BSi solar cell fabrication with nano-textured surface layers was introduced [3]. The nano-textured surface of the BSi solar cell helps to trap the incident light, which can effectively reduce the reflection by increasing the absorption of a broadband of light [1]. The etching and texturization process of the c-Si wafer is a crucial factor and needs to be optimized to achieve high-efficiency
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
