Deployment of Impurity-to-Efficiency (I2E) simulation tool

Metal impurities can limit the performance of crystalline silicon solar cells. We have created an Impurity-to-Efficiency (I2E) simulation tool that predicts the impact of as-grown iron impurities on final solar cell performance as a function of device processing conditions and cell architecture. Iron has been selected for initial study because it is a dominant metal impurity in silicon solar cells [1]. The tool highlights the importance of tailoring device-processing conditions to specific distributions and concentrations of iron in as-grown wafers. The tool consists of three coupled components: a kinetic simulation, a minority carrier lifetime calculator, and the PC1D device simulator [2]. We have deployed the simulator in a free web-accessible applet for use by the industrial and academic communities. The tool can be used to increase the performance of iron-limited cells by completing rapid process optimization studies.