Multijunction Solar Cell Designs Using Silicon Bottom Subcell and Porous Silicon Compliant Membrane

Author

Wilkins, Matthew M. ; Boucherif, A. ; Beal, R. ; Haysom, Joan E. ; Wheeldon, Jeffrey F. ; Aimez, Vincent ; Ares, Richard ; Hall, Trevor J. ; Hinzer, Karin

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Univ. of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Volume

3

Issue

3

fYear

2013

fDate

Jul-13

Firstpage

1125

Lastpage

1131

Abstract

A novel approach to the design of multijunction solar cells on silicon substrates for 1-sun applications is described. Models for device simulation, including porous silicon layers, are presented. A silicon bottom subcell is formed by diffusion of dopants into a silicon wafer. The top of the wafer is porosified to create a compliant layer, and a III-V buffer layer is then grown epitaxially, followed by middle and top subcells. Because of the resistivity of the porous material, these designs are best suited to high-efficiency 1-sun applications. Numerical simulations of a multijunction solar cell that incorporates a porous silicon-compliant membrane indicate an efficiency of 30.7% under AM1.5G, 1-sun for low-threading dislocation density, decreasing to 23.7% for a TDD of 10⁷ cm^-2.

Keywords

diffusion; dislocation density; electrical resistivity; elemental semiconductors; membranes; numerical analysis; semiconductor device models; silicon; solar cells; Si; buffer layer; diffusion; dopants; low-threading dislocation density; multijunction solar cell; numerical simulations; porous silicon compliant membrane; resistivity; silicon bottom subcell; silicon substrates; silicon wafer; Compliant membrane; multijunction; porous; silicon; solar cell;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2261931

Filename

6518207