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High‐efficiency Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells using Standard High‐temperature, Float‐zoned Cell Processing
Author(s) -
Zhao Jianhua,
Wang Aihua,
Green Martin A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(199705/06)5:3<169::aid-pip170>3.0.co;2-r
Subject(s) - wafer , materials science , silicon , solar cell , common emitter , optoelectronics , energy conversion efficiency , open circuit voltage , perl , renewable energy , voltage , electrical engineering , computer science , engineering , world wide web
This paper reports recent results of fabricating multicrystalline silicon solar cells with the standard PERL (passivated emitter, rear locally‐diffused) cell high‐temperature processing sequence originally developed for float‐zoned wafers. One of these multicrystalline silicon cells with a planar front surface demonstrated a 645‐mV open‐circuit voltage and 18.2% energy conversion efficiency tested at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories under the 100 mW cm −2 AM1.5 global spectrum at 25°C. This is the highest confirmed voltage and one of the highest confirmed conversion efficiencies ever reported to date for a multicrystalline silicon cell. Further optimization of the standard PERL processing and texturing of the cell surfaces is expected to improve the cell efficiency to over 19% in the near future. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.