An Introduction To The Technology Of Thin Film Silicon Photovoltaics

Several aspects of the science and technology of thin film silicon for photovoltaic applications will be presented. The potential advantages of this technology over crystalline wafer technology will be discussed. A basic understanding of the material properties of thin film silicon layers enables to assess their potential and limitations when used in photovoltaic devices. A brief review of the production technology for thin films will be given with particular emphasis on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon. As for other photovoltaic technologies, the push for higher efficiency of thin film silicon devices is strong. An appealing feature of these materials is that they can be easily integrated in multi-junction tandem devices. For instance, stacking amorphous and microcrystalline silicon thin films in one tandem cell, the micromorph cell, increases the efficiency well above the characteristic values of single junction cells. The Institute of Microengineering (IMT) has been a pioneer in the research and development of thin film silicon photovoltaics over the last 20 years and several latest developments on are reviewed.

Single and multi-junction thin film silicon solar cells for flexible photovoltaics

Thomas Söderström

This thesis investigates amorphous (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline (μc-Si:H) solar cells deposited by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF-PECVD) in the n-i-p or substrate configuration. It focuses on processes that allow the use of non transparent and flexible substrates such as plastic foil with Tg < 180°C like poly-ethylene-naphtalate (PEN). In the first part of the work, we concentrate on the light trapping properties of a variety of device configurations. One original test structure consists of n-i-p solar cells deposited directly on glass covered with low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LP-CVD) ZnO. For this device, silver is deposited below the LP-CVD ZnO or white paint is applied at the back of the substrate as back reflector. This avoids the parasitic plasmonic absorptions in the back reflectors, which are observed for conventional rough metallic back contacts. Furthermore, the size and morphology of the LP-CVD ZnO is varied and the relation between the substrate morphology and the short circuit current density (Jsc) is experimentally explored. As a result, the Jsc can be increased by 23% for a-Si:H and 28% for μc-Si:H solar cells compared to the case of flat substrate and the role of the size and shape can be clearly separated. We also explore the optical behavior of single and multi-junction devices prepared with different back and front contacts. The back contact consists either of a 2D periodic grid with moderate slope, or of LP-CVD ZnO with random pyramids of various sizes. The front contacts are either a 70 nm thick, nominally flat ITO or a rough 2 microns thick LP-CVD ZnO. We observe that, for a-Si:H, the cell performance is critically dependent on the combination of thin flat or thick rough front TCOs and the back contact. Indeed, for a-Si:H, a thick LP-CVD ZnO front contact provides more light trapping on the 2D periodic substrate. The Jsc relatively increases by 7 % with LP-CVD ZnO compared to ITO. Then, we study the influence of the thick and thin TCOs in conjunction with thick absorbers like triple junction or mc-Si:H solar cells. Because of the different nature of the optical systems, thick (> 1 micron) against thin (

University of Neuchâtel2009

Low-conductivity doped layers for improved performance of thin film silicon solar cells on highly textured substrate

Christophe Ballif, Corsin Battaglia, Adrian Billet, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Grégory Bugnon, Mathieu Charrière, Peter Cuony, Matthieu Despeisse, Simon Hänni, Nils Linus Löfgren, Gaetano Parascandolo, Fanny Sculati-Meillaud, Thomas Söderström, Michael Elias Stückelberger

The performances of thin film silicon solar cells are reported for the use of increasingly rough zinc-oxide (ZnO) front electrodes. Experimental results show that textured substrates favor increased light trapping but also the local creation of undesired current drains, degrading the electrical performance of the cells. While an appropriate plasma treatment of the ZnO surface and a high silicon material quality are required to decrease the density of such current drains, doped nano-crystalline silicon oxide layers are proposed to limit the impact of these local non-uniformities onto the performance of both hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) junctions. The possible physical roles of such low-conductivity doped layers are discussed. Conversion efficiency relative increase of 7 % for a-Si:H single junction and of 4 % to 20 % for respectively low (0.3 nm/s) and high deposition rate (1 nm/s) i-layer in μc-Si:H junctions deposited on highly textured substrates are shown. Micromorph solar cells integrating such doped silicon oxide layers could be developed on rough ZnO front electrodes with a high light trapping potential with up to 13.7 % and 11.5 % initial and stabilized efficiency, respectively.

2010

Efficiency of silicon thin-film photovoltaic modules with a front coloured glass

Christophe Ballif, Valentin Chapuis, Virginie Hody-Le Caër, Martin Joly, Stefan Mertin, Laure-Emmanuelle Perret Aebi, Andreas Schueler

Photovoltaic electricity has already proven its ability to compete with other well established technologies for energy production. The abundant and non-toxic raw materials, the yearly increasing efficiency as well as the production cost of silicon thin-film solar cells getting lower and lower make this technology always more interesting for a wide spread use. Beside the functional features, the size, colour and glass texture of a PV module determine its appearance and aesthetics. In order to be more compliant with the built environment, photovoltaic installations have to be improved in terms of visual rendering, matching of colour of the existing roof-tops and parasitic reflections. The crystalline technology already offers various types of systems with a large choice of shapes, textures and colours as well as “semi-transparent” modules more easily integrated in the roof-tops or facade. By changing the anti-reflective coating (ARC) of a crystalline solar cell, it is possible to modify their colour [1]. However, for thin-film silicon technology the challenge is completely different, and up to now, the only way to modify the module colour is to reduce the thickness of the active layer and consequently its efficiency. Therefore new ways to enhance the visual rendering of the thin-film modules have to be explored. A study led in the frame of the ArchinSolar project [2] has shown that architects are ready to integrate PV modules with enhanced aesthetic aspect, even though there was a 10 % loss in efficiency. The present study shows how new coloured filters can be used to enhance PV modules’ appearance while minimizing power loss, to achieve a better integration in the traditional urban or rural environment.

EPFL2011

Single and multi-junction thin film silicon solar cells for flexible photovoltaics

Thomas Söderström

University of Neuchâtel2009