Simulation of the effect of p-layer properties on the electrical behaviour of a-Si:H thin film solar cells

Author

Rodríguez, J.A. ; Otero, P. ; Vetter, M. ; Andreu, J. ; Comesana, E. ; Garcia-Loureiro, A.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. Technol., Dev. & Innovation, T-Solar Global S.A., San Cibrao das Viñas, Spain

fYear

2011

fDate

8-11 Feb. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Simulation data of the performance of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells using the software package Sentaurus TCAD (Synopsis Inc.) are presented. The Sentaurus software is configured with standard theoretical models describing e.g. the density of states in the mobility gap of a-Si:H, generation/recombination statistics, optical data of a-Si:H thin films etc. to calculate illuminated current voltage curves and the respective spectral response for the initial and degraded state of the solar cell. For the selected physical properties of the solar cell the simulation data predicts a maximum of the efficiency for an intrinsic a-Si:H layer thickness between 200-250 nm. Furthermore, a guideline for the optimization of the p-doped layer thickness and the doping concentration is given.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; technology CAD (electronics); thin film devices; Sentaurus TCAD; Si:H; amorphous silicon; doping concentration; electrical behaviour; p-doped layer thickness; p-layer properties; software package; thin film solar cells; Amorphous silicon; Charge carrier processes; Doping; Mathematical model; PIN photodiodes; Photovoltaic cells; Semiconductor process modeling; Solar cell; amorphous silicon; current voltage curve; simulation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices (CDE), 2011 Spanish Conference on

Conference_Location

Palma de Mallorca

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7863-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SCED.2011.5744228

Filename

5744228