Eliminating Light-Induced Degradation in Commercial p-Type Czochralski Silicon Solar Cells
by
Brett Hallam 1,*,†, Axel Herguth 2,†
, Phillip Hamer 1,3, Nitin Nampalli 1,4, Svenja Wilking 2, Malcolm Abbott 1, Stuart Wenham 1 and Giso Hahn 2
Brett Hallam 1,*,†, Axel Herguth 2,†, Phillip Hamer 1,3, Nitin Nampalli 1,4, Svenja Wilking 2, Malcolm Abbott 1, Stuart Wenham 1 and Giso Hahn 2
1
School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
2
Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstr. 10, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
3
Now with Department of Materials, University of Oxford, 16 Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
4
Now with Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, Tiototie 3, 02150 Espoo, Finland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8010010
Received: 23 November 2017 / Revised: 14 December 2017 / Accepted: 18 December 2017 / Published: 22 December 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Next Generation Photovoltaic Solar Cells)
This paper discusses developments in the mitigation of light-induced degradation caused by boron-oxygen defects in boron-doped Czochralski grown silicon. Particular attention is paid to the fabrication of industrial silicon solar cells with treatments for sensitive materials using illuminated annealing. It highlights the importance and desirability of using hydrogen-containing dielectric layers and a subsequent firing process to inject hydrogen throughout the bulk of the silicon solar cell and subsequent illuminated annealing processes for the formation of the boron-oxygen defects and simultaneously manipulate the charge states of hydrogen to enable defect passivation. For the photovoltaic industry with a current capacity of approximately 100 GW peak, the mitigation of boron-oxygen related light-induced degradation is a necessity to use cost-effective B-doped silicon while benefitting from the high-efficiency potential of new solar cell concepts.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
boron-oxygen; light-induced degradation; p-type Czochralski; silicon solar cell; regeneration; hydrogen passivation
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Hallam, B.; Herguth, A.; Hamer, P.; Nampalli, N.; Wilking, S.; Abbott, M.; Wenham, S.; Hahn, G. Eliminating Light-Induced Degradation in Commercial p-Type Czochralski Silicon Solar Cells. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 10.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
