Thin silicon solar cells using epitaxial lateral overgrowth structure

Thin Si solar cell with epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) structure described in this paper should demonstrate higher voltage. PC-1D program has been used to study the open circuit voltage and efficiency as a function of the thin Si thickness and light trapping. According to the simulation results, high voltage can be obtained even without light trapping on the backside of the thin Si layer. Thin n type silicon layer has been grown on p+ Si substrate using the method of epitaxial lateral overgrowth by CVD. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to show the dimension of the pn junction region and light generation region after the n type Si growth.