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‘Wild Ideas’: Radiation‐resistant silicon solar cells
Author(s) -
Wenham S. R.
Publication year - 1994
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/pip.4670020214
Subject(s) - silicon , radiation hardening , materials science , radiation , solar cell , crystalline silicon , optoelectronics , carrier lifetime , doping , degradation (telecommunications) , radiation tolerance , irradiation , diffusion , radiation damage , engineering physics , computer science , optics , physics , telecommunications , medicine , nuclear physics , radiation therapy , thermodynamics
Abstract Innovative cell structures for thin‐film crystalline silicon solar cells should facilitate the achievement of relatively high performance from poor material quality. In particular, a design strategy based on heavily doped, multiple interleaved n‐ and p‐type layers, in conjunction with the buried‐contact solar cell approach, is presented. an example design is modelled to demonstrate the corresponding effective ‘radiation hardness’ and the ability to achieve high performance, even with poor minority carrier diffusion lengths expected at end‐of‐life (EOL) for a space cell. Results of modelling indicate that degradation in performance, sustained through typical space radiation damage, can be limited to approximately 5%. Using the same approach for terrestrial thin‐film crystalline silicon cells fabricated from low‐quality, low‐cost material, eficiencies well above 16% should be feasible.