Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology (반도체디스플레이기술학회지)

The Korean Society Of Semiconductor & Display Technology (한국반도체디스플레이기술학회)
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TCAD Simulation of Silicon Pillar Array Solar Cells

  • Lee, Hoong Joo (Department of Electronic Engineering, Sangmyung University)
  • Received : 2017.03.14
  • Accepted : 2017.03.24
  • Published : 2017.03.31
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Abstract

This paper presents a Technology-CAD (TCAD) simulation of the characteristics of crystalline Si pillar array solar cells. The junction depth and the surface concentration of the solar cells were optimized to obtain the targeted sheet resistance of the emitter region. The diffusion model was determined by calibrating the emitter doping profile of the microscale silicon pillars. The dimension parameters determining the pillar shape, such as width, height, and spacing were varied within a simulation window from ${\sim}2{\mu}m$ to $5{\mu}m$. The simulation showed that increasing pillar width (or diameter) and spacing resulted in the decrease of current density due to surface area loss, light trapping loss, and high reflectance. Although increasing pillar height might improve the chances of light trapping, the recombination loss due to the increase in the carrier's transfer length canceled out the positive effect to the photo-generation component of the current. The silicon pillars were experimentally formed by photoresist patterning and electroless etching. The laboratory results of a fabricated Si pillar solar cell showed the efficiency and the fill factor to be close to the simulation results.

Keywords

References

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