Physically Based Analytical Model of Heavily Doped Silicon Wafers Based Proposed Solar Cell Microstructure

Abstract

In this paper, an analytical model of a proposed low-cost high efficiency NPN silicon-based solar cell structure is presented. The structure is based on using low cost heavily doped commercially available silicon wafers and proposed to be fabricated by the same steps as the conventional solar cells except an extra deep trench etch step. Moreover, the cell has been engineered to react to the UV spectrum, resulting in a greater conversion performance. The presented analytical model takes the electrical and optical characteristics into account. Thus, the influence of both physical and technological parameters on the structure performance could be easily examined. Consequently, the optimization of the structure performance becomes visible. To inspect the validity of the analytical model, a comparison of the main performance parameters resulting from the model results with TCAD simulations is carried out, showing good agreement.