Stability of SiNX/SiNX double stack antireflection coating for single crystalline silicon solar cells

Double stack antireflection coatings have significant advantages over single-layer antireflection coatings due to their broad-range coverage of the solar spectrum. A solar cell with 60-nm/20-nm SiNX:H double stack coatings has 17.8% efficiency, while that with a 80-nm SiNX:H single coating has 17.2% efficiency. The improvement of the efficiency is due to the effect of better passivation and better antireflection of the double stack antireflection coating. It is important that SiNX:H films have strong resistance against stress factors since they are used as antireflective coating for solar cells. However, the tolerance of SiNX:H films to external stresses has never been studied. In this paper, the stability of SiNX:H films prepared by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system is studied. The stability tests are conducted using various forms of stress, such as prolonged thermal cycle, humidity, and UV exposure. The heat and damp test was conducted for 100 h, maintaining humidity at 85% and applying thermal cycles of rapidly changing temperatures from -20°C to 85°C over 5 h. UV exposure was conducted for 50 h using a 180-W UV lamp. This confirmed that the double stack antireflection coating is stable against external stress

A novel method for crystalline silicon solar cells with low contact resistance and antireflection coating by an oxidized Mg layer

One of the key issues in the solar industry is lowering dopant concentration of emitter for high-efficiency crystalline solar cells. However, it is well known that a low surface concentration of dopants results in poor contact formation between the front Ag electrode and the n-layer of Si. In this paper, an evaporated Mg layer is used to reduce series resistance of c-Si solar cells. A layer of Mg metal is deposited on a lightly doped n-type Si emitter by evaporation. Ag electrode is screen printed to collect the generated electrons. Small work function difference between Mg and n-type silicon reduces the contact resistance. During a co-firing process, Mg is oxidized, and the oxidized layer serves as an antireflection layer. The measurement of an Ag/Mg/n-Si solar cell shows that Voc, Jsc, FF, and efficiency are 602 mV, 36.9 mA/cm2, 80.1%, and 17.75%, respectively. It can be applied to the manufacturing of low-cost, simple, and high-efficiency solar cells

Selective emitter using a screen printed etch barrier in crystalline silicon solar cell

The low level doping of a selective emitter by etch back is an easy and low cost process to obtain a better blue response from a solar cell. This work suggests that the contact resistance of the selective emitter can be controlled by wet etching with the commercial acid barrier paste that is commonly applied in screen printing. Wet etching conditions such as acid barrier curing time, etchant concentration, and etching time have been optimized for the process, which is controllable as well as fast. The acid barrier formed by screen printing was etched with HF and HNO(3) (1:200) solution for 15 s, resulting in high sheet contact resistance of 90 Ω/sq. Doping concentrations of the electrode contact portion were 2 × 10(21) cm(−3) in the low sheet resistance (Rs) region and 7 × 10(19) cm(−3) in the high Rs region. Solar cells of 12.5 × 12.5 cm(2) in dimensions with a wet etch back selective emitter J(sc) of 37 mAcm(−2), open circuit voltage (V(oc)) of 638.3 mV and efficiency of 18.13% were fabricated. The result showed an improvement of about 13 mV on V(oc) compared to those of the reference solar cell fabricated with the reactive-ion etching back selective emitter and with J(sc) of 36.90 mAcm(−2), V(oc) of 625.7 mV, and efficiency of 17.60%

In and Ga Codoped ZnO Film as a Front Electrode for Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Doped ZnO thin films have attracted much attention in the research community as front-contact transparent conducting electrodes in thin film silicon solar cells. The prerequisite in both low resistivity and high transmittance in visible and near-infrared region for hydrogenated microcrystalline or amorphous/microcrystalline tandem thin film silicon solar cells has promoted further improvements of this material. In this work, we propose the combination of major Ga and minor In impurities codoped in ZnO film (IGZO) to improve the film optoelectronic properties. A wide range of Ga and In contents in sputtering targets was explored to find optimum optical and electrical properties of deposited films. The results show that an appropriate combination of In and Ga atoms in ZnO material, followed by in-air thermal annealing process, can enhance the crystallization, conductivity, and transmittance of IGZO thin films, which can be well used as front-contact electrodes in thin film silicon solar cells

Electrical and Structural Characteristics of Excimer Laser-Crystallized Polycrystalline Si_1−xGe_x Thin-Film Transistors

We investigated the characteristics of excimer laser-annealed polycrystalline silicon−germanium (poly-Si1−xGex) thin film and thin-film transistor (TFT). The Ge concentration was increased from 0% to 12.3% using a SiH4 and GeH4 gas mixture, and a Si1−xGex thin film was crystallized using different excimer laser densities. We found that the optimum energy density to obtain maximum grain size depends on the Ge content in the poly-Si1−xGex thin film; we also confirmed that the grain size of the poly-Si1−xGex thin film is more sensitive to energy density than the poly-Si thin film. The maximum grain size of the poly-Si1−xGex film was 387.3 nm for a Ge content of 5.1% at the energy density of 420 mJ/cm2. Poly-Si1−xGex TFT with different Ge concentrations was fabricated, and their structural characteristics were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The results showed that, as the Ge concentration increased, the electrical characteristics, such as on current and sub-threshold swing, were deteriorated. The electrical characteristics were simulated by varying the density of states in the poly-Si1−xGex. From this density of states (DOS), the defect state distribution connected with Ge concentration could be identified and used as the basic starting point for further analyses of the poly-Si1−xGex TFTs

Prediction of Power Output from a Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module with Repaired Cell-in-Hotspots

Recycling of problematic photovoltaic modules as raw materials requires considerable energy. The technology to restore cells in hotspot modules at a relatively low cost is more economical than replacing them with new modules. Moreover, a technology that restores power by replacing a cell-in-hotspot of a photovoltaic module with a new cell rather than replacing the whole module is useful for operating power plants. In particular, power plants that receive government subsidies have to use certified modules of specific models; the modules cannot be replaced with other modules. Before putting resources into module restoration, predicting the power of a module to be restored by replacing a cracked cell with a new cell is essential. Therefore, in this study, the module output amount after restoration was calculated using the previously proposed relative power loss analysis method and the recently proposed cell-to-module factor analysis method. In addition, the long-term degradation coefficient of the initial cell and the loss due to the electrical mismatch between the initial and new cell were considered. The output of the initial cell was estimated by inversely calculating the cell-to-module factor. The differences between the power prediction value and the actual experimental result were 1.12% and 3.20% for samples 190 A and 190 B, respectively. When the initial rating power and tolerance of the module were corrected, the differences decreased to 0.10% and 2.01%, respectively. The positive mismatch, which restores cells with a higher power, has no loss due to the reverse current; thus, the efficiency of the modules is proportional to the average efficiency of each cell. In this experiment, the electrical mismatches were only 0.37% and 0.34%. This study confirmed that even if a replacement cell has a higher power (<20%) than the existing cell, the power loss is not significantly affected, and heat generation of the existing normal cell is not observed. Hence, it was concluded that when some cells are damaged in a crystalline solar cell, the module could be restored by replacing only those cells instead of disposing of the entire module. However, for commercialization of the proposed method, a long-term reliability test of the module repaired using this method must be performed to confirm the results. Following this, recycling cells instead of recycling modules will be an economical and eco-friendly alternative

Battery Management System Algorithm for Energy Storage Systems Considering Battery Efficiency

Aging increases the internal resistance of a battery and reduces its capacity; therefore, energy storage systems (ESSs) require a battery management system (BMS) algorithm that can manage the state of the battery. This paper proposes a battery efficiency calculation formula to manage the battery state. The proposed battery efficiency calculation formula uses the charging time, charging current, and battery capacity. An algorithm that can accurately determine the battery state is proposed by applying the proposed state of charge (SoC) and state of health (SoH) calculations. To reduce the initial error of the Coulomb counting method (CCM), the SoC can be calculated accurately by applying the battery efficiency to the open circuit voltage (OCV). During the charging and discharging process, the internal resistance of a battery increase and the constant current (CC) charging time decrease. The SoH can be predicted from the CC charging time of the battery and the battery efficiency, as proposed in this paper. Furthermore, a safe system is implemented during charging and discharging by applying a fault diagnosis algorithm to reduce the battery efficiency. The validity of the proposed BMS algorithm is demonstrated by applying it in a 3-kW ESS