Modelling of the electronic transport in multijunction solar cells

Author

Rau, Uwe ; Goldbach, Matthias

Author_Institution

Lehrstuhl fur Exp. II, Bayreuth Univ., Germany

Volume

2

fYear

1994

fDate

5-9 Dec 1994

Firstpage

1421

Abstract

Simulations of the electrical transport in multijunction thin-film solar cells made from polycrystalline silicon are presented. The authors investigate the effect of the grain size on the efficiency of the multijunction solar cell. Here, they concentrate on microcrystalline material with a high recombination velocity at the grain boundaries of 10⁴ cm/s. Typical results of their calculations demonstrate that based on the multijunction design structure consisting of 8 or more layers efficiencies of 14% may be obtained from 12-20 μm thick solar cells

Keywords

electrical conductivity; electron-hole recombination; elemental semiconductors; grain boundaries; grain size; minority carriers; p-n heterojunctions; semiconductor device models; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; 12 to 20 mum; 14 percent; electronic transport; grain boundaries; grain size; microcrystalline material; modelling; multijunction design structure; multijunction solar cells; polycrystalline semiconductor; recombination velocity; simulation; Crystalline materials; Current density; Equations; Grain boundaries; Grain size; Photovoltaic cells; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Thin film devices; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1460-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520215

Filename

520215