Two dimensional device simulation and performance optimization of n-type silicon solar cell structure using PC2D

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the impact of various parameters on the performances of the n-type monocrystalline silicon solar cell experimented by Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Germany. We studied, especially the influence of the base parameters (lifetime, resistivity and thickness), the emitter sheet resistance and the back surface field (BSF) sheet resistance, on the solar cell performances.To optimize this cell we have used PC2D which is a solar cell device simulator that models two-dimensional effects entirely within a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. With an Al2O3/SiNx front side boron emitter passivation, the metallization parameters were optimized by the authors getting efficiency of 19.60%. If all the parameters have ideal values our optimization provided an efficiency of 20.05% for homogeneous emitter with sheet resistance of 75Ω/□. Furthermore, the study of the emitter led to a new structure developed recently: the selective emitter of n-type solar cell achieving efficiency of 20.20% with sheet resistance of 50Ω/□ under the contacts and 100Ω/□, between contacts.