Title :
The effect of gettering on areal inhomogeneities in large-area multicrystalline-silicon solar cells
Author :
Gee, James M. ; Sopori, Bhushan L.
Author_Institution :
Sandia Nat. Labs., Albuquerque, NM, USA
fDate :
29 Sep-3 Oct 1997
Abstract :
Multicrystalline-silicon (mc-Si) materials and cells feature large areal variations in material and junction quality. The regions with poor device quality have been predicted to have more recombination current at forward bias than a simple area-weighted average due to the parallel interconnection of the good and bad regions by the front junction. The authors have examined the effect of gettering on areal inhomogeneities in large-area mc-Si cells. Cells with large areal inhomogeneities were found to have increased nonideal recombination current, which is in line with theoretical predictions. Phosphorus-diffusion and aluminum-alloy gettering of mc-Si was found to reduce the areal inhomogeneities and improve large-area mc-Si device performance
Keywords :
electron-hole recombination; elemental semiconductors; getters; semiconductor device testing; silicon; solar cells; substrates; Si; areal inhomogeneities; device performance; device quality; forward bias; gettering; junction quality; large-area multicrystalline-silicon solar cells; material; recombination current; Crystalline materials; Crystallization; Diodes; Gettering; Grain size; Impurities; Integrated circuit interconnections; Laboratories; Photovoltaic cells; Renewable energy resources;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997., Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Anaheim, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3767-0
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1997.654052
