Advances and Progress of HIT Solar cells

- Efficiency 18.1% to 23% a journey by AERC at SANYO Electric Co. Ltd., Japan

Development and performance status

of HIT Solar cells

KAMLESH PATEL

Amorphous and Micro-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Physics of Energy Harvesting
NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY
 Outlines
1. Solar cell
2. PV Technologies
3. Junctions in Solar cells
4. HIT Structure
5. Advantages of HIT Solar cells
6. Improvements in HIT Solar cells
7. Performance comparison of HIT Solar cells
8. Future R&D for HIT Solar cells
9. Scope and status for NPL

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 Basics of Solar cell

a p-n junction Solar Cell Simplified Equivalent Circuit Model for a Solar Cell

Photon excitation Electron-hole pair creation Current generation

Photon energy Ep > Eg Bandgap energy 

I-V Curve of a Solar Cell 

Band diagram of a silicon solar cell
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http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/7229-
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 Basics of Solar cell
Basic cell parameters:
Open Circuit Voltage (VOC)

Short Circuit Current (ISC)

Maximum Power (PMAX), Current  (IMP), Voltage (V MP)

Fill Factor (FF)
Shunt Resistance (RSH) a measure of quality of the solar cell

Series Resistance (RS) For high efficient solar cell, FF ≈ 70 % - 90%

()
Maximum Efficiency (ηMAX)
Pin : the product of the irradiance of the incident light, measured in W/m 2 or
in suns (1000 W/m2) E, with the surface area of the solar cell A (m2)

For an ideal cell, RSH  infinite , while RS  zero

high temp, lower 

Effect of temperature Effect of Diverging Rs & RSH From Ideality

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 Efficiency Losses in Solar cell
(1) Photons with Energy less than Eg are
transmitted, not absorbed.
(2) Relaxation, heat lost to phonons and
environment
(1 and 2) - due to mismatch of Eg and
photon energy

(3) Junction voltage loss

(4) contact voltage loss
(5) recombination recombination

Focus of R & D in Solar cells:

•new type of solar cells with potentially lower production costs
•reduction of Silicon material and cell processing costs
•solar cell with higher efficiencies

Material selection for Solar cell optimization :

a.Bandgap selection to cover appropriate spectrum
b.Lattice matching to produce optical transparency and maximum current
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c.Thickness of semiconductor material as per their absorptivity
• Material selection for Solar cell optimization :
a. Bandgap selection to cover appropriate spectrum
b. Lattice matching to produce optical transparency and maximum current
c. Thickness of semiconductor material as per their absorptivity

losses not taken into account in this paper

• surface reflection
• contact shadowing
• series resistance
• incomplete collection of photogenerated carriers
• absorption in the inactive window layers
• nonradiative recombination
• above ambient cell temperatures

Practical limitations
General limitations in solar cells
• Surface reflection
• Series resistance at contacts
• Recombination losses  voltage losses
Limitations specific to tandem solar cells
• Series-connection  Current matching constrains!
• Variation of solar spectrum throughout the day
• Resistance in intermediate recombination layer
• Transmittance of top cells
• A challenge: Light management with textured substrates

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 Silicon Solar cells

Earth’s solar spectra

Bandgaps of some common semiconductors and photon e

a-Si:H solar cell 7

 Multi-Junction Thin film Solar cells

Single junction Makoto Konagai,

a-Si:H solar cell Jpn J. of Appl Physics
50 (2011) 030001-1-12

A double junction
thin film solar cell

A. Brown, Physica E Quintuple-junction thin film structure with theoretical

14, 96 (2002) conversion efficiency of 35% or higher.
First cell, a-Si1xOx, a-Si1xCx, a-Si1xNx, Ag(InGa)Se2, etc.;
S. Bremner, Prog. second cell, a-Si, SiGe clathrate, etc.;
Photovol. 16, 225 third cell, a-SiGe, Si quantum dot, CdTe, Cu(InGa)Se2, etc.;
(2008) fourth cell, c-Si, Cu(InGa)Se2, etc.; fifth cell, c-SiGe, Ge, CuInTe2,

F. Dimroth, IEEE (2005). S. P. Bremner

et. al., Prog. Photovolt.16, 225 (2008)
GaInP/GaAs/Ge Solar spectrum 8
triple-junction solar cell splitting per junction
R. King, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 183516 (2007)
Conversion efficiency, annual production volume,
and future prospects for application to power
generation of various solar cells

Makoto Konagai, Jpn J. of Appl Physics 50 (2011) 030001-1-12

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Crystalline (Wafer-Based) and Thin-Film Photovoltaic Cells

NPL, INDIA 10
 Heterojunction Solar cells

Band –offset Eg2 > Eg1

 a-Si:H passivates the surface very well with surface recombination
velocities as low as 3 cm/s
 Surface passivation by reducing surface dangling bond density and by
field effect passivation of doped a-Si:H
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 Low-temperature approach (< 230 °C)
 Heterojunction Solar cells
Highest deposition temperature ≈ 210 C

n-on-p silicon heterojunction solar cell

Y. Hamakawa, Appl. Surf. Science 142, 215–226 (1999). L. Korte et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 93 (2009) 905–910

Key features of silicon-heterojunction technology:

• very simple fabrication process
• important cost-reduction capability
• relatively high efficiencies, with a high potential for significant improvements

Limitations specific to Heterojunction solar cells:

• Series-connection Current matching constrains
• Variation of solar spectrum throughout the day
• Resistance in intermediate recombination layer
• Transmittance of top cells
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• A challenge: Light management with textured substrates
 HIT = Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer
•HIT solar cells: first used by Sanyo in 1992 and now used for high-efficiency
solar cells (250 MWp in 2007)
•Heterojunction emitter: two different semiconductor materials (a-Si:H and c-Si)
create the pn-junction
diffused homojunction emitter
•Intrinsic layer : between the p and n type material there is an undoped
(“intrinsic”) amorphous Si layers
•Thin layer: total a-Si:H layer is typically less than 20 nm
 Heterojunction to HIT

With thickness, Isc decreases

Optical absorption increases in p-a- Thin intrinsic a-Si layer introduced, better
Si:H - film should be thin (<100 A) passivation of silicon wafers
Maximum efficiency : 12.3% Maximum : 14.8%
Low Voc and FF compared to c-Si Voc increased by 30 mV and FF > 0.8
homojunction
Isc decreases with i-layer thickness
large interface state density
M. Tanaka, et al, “Development of New a-Si/c-Si Heterojunction Solar Cells: ACJ-HIT (Artificially Constructed 14
Junction-Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-Layer)”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 31 (1992) 3518-3522
 Effect of Passivation
Reduction of dangling bonds
Reduction of surface recombination (velocities)
Increase of minority carriers lifetime
Passivation by doped a-Si:H layer Passivation by i-a-Si:H layer

Wider bandgap material stops carriers Provides extremely good surface

to move and reducing recombination
a-Si:H has direct bandgap
high absorption coefficient
Minimise thickness to reduce the
absorption in the a-Si:H
(lost for collection)
passivation (3 orders of
magnitude less defects than doped a-Si:H)
Reducing the recombination of carriers
near the interface
Reducing surface defects
Allows carriers to pass through passivating
layer without any significant loss

Dark I-V characteristics of HIT structure and p-n

heterojunction
This suppression of backward current density
suggests the better surface passivation at the a-Si/c-Si
heterointerface with the HIT structure.

M. Tanaka, et al, “Development of New a-Si/c-Si Heterojunction Solar 15

Cells: ACJ-HIT (Artificially Constructed Junction-Heterojunction with
Intrinsic Thin-Layer)”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 31 (1992) 3518-3522
 Higher efficiency in HIT solar cell
Two technologies with optimization in a-Si:H deposition
a. Textured substrate- optical confinement effects
Light trapping effects, which can offset the relatively weak
absorption near-bandgap energy photons by increasing
the optical path length of light within the solar cell structure
the generation of minority carriers would be relatively close
to the
p-n junction formed near the top surface of the solar cell,
thus providing a high collection efficiency.
Texturing one or both surfaces, and maximising the
reflection at the back surface obtains optical path lengths
greater than the thickness of the device.
Texturing results in oblique paths for internally confined
light and
maximises total internal reflection at the illuminated device
surface.
Isc Increases

Structured surfaces to effect light trapping in silicon solar cells

Campbell, P. and Keevers, M., 2000. Light Trapping and Reflection Control for Silicon Thin Films Deposited on
Glass Substrates Textured by Embossing. Proc. 28th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conf., Anchorage,
pp. 355-358.
Tom Markvart and Luis Castaner , Solar cells: Materials, Manufacture and Operation, Elsevier 16
Texturing of c-Si needs to be smooth
The texturing of the c-Si needs
to be rounded so that
continuous a-Si film is
deposited

N. Takuo, et al.

b. Back surface field: depositing n type a-Si:H on the rear

surface
of c-Si substrate.
The sharing of the applied voltage among the two junctions (the p-i-n
and the n-n junction) decreases the dark current
The reflection of minority carriers by the built-in electron field of the n-
c-Si/n-a-Si junction increases Isc
Holes are repelled by c-Si (n)/a-Si:H(n)
junction field
Voc increases
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 14.8% to 18.1% HIT Solar cell

Effect of textured substrate and

back surface field (BSF)

M. Tanaka, et al, “Development of New a-Si/c-Si Heterojunction Solar 18

Cells: ACJ-HIT (Artificially Constructed Junction-Heterojunction with
Intrinsic Thin-Layer)”, Appl. Phys., 31 (1992) 3518-3522
 20.7% HIT CELL in 100.5 cm2 area

the measurement results according to JQA

(Japan Quality Assurance organization)

HitoshiSakata,TakuoNakai,ToshiakiBaba,MikioTaguchi,SadajiTsuge, Kenji Uchihashi, SeiichiKiyama,

20.7%HIGHESTEFFICIENCYLARGEAREA (100.5cm2) HITTM CELL, in:Proceedingsofthe28thIEEEPhotovoltaic Specialists
Conference,2000,pp.7–12.
 The better surface passivation , High Voc and thus high  of solar cell
Study of Passivation effect with the carrier lifetime of c-Si wafers
Carrier lifetime is measured by the µ-PCD Method.

the standard PCD theory for a

homogeneously doped, defect-free wafer with a
spatially
uniform bulk carrier lifetime, the relationship
between T~~
and 2, is given by:

Increasing the carrier lifetimes

of the HIT structure
Higher the VOC of the HIT cell where 2, is the effective lifetime
(the measured lifetime),
Optimizations of deposition processes to get the 2, is the bulk lifetime and 2 , is
the surface recombination
higher lifetime carriers lifetime component
Future study of surface passivation exists at interface, as where both hydrogen passivation
and carrier separation caused by the strong electrical field can exist,
HitoshiSakata,TakuoNakai,ToshiakiBaba,MikioTaguchi,SadajiTsuge, Kenji Uchihashi, SeiichiKiyama,
20.7%HIGHESTEFFICIENCYLARGEAREA (100.5cm2) HITTM CELL, in:Proceedingsofthe28thIEEEPhotovoltaic Specialists
Conference,2000,pp.7–12. 20
In HIT cell,
Voc and FF both increases significantly, representing improvements in
interface properties
Isc increases nominally due to very less improvement in optical absorption

S. Taira, Y. Yoshimine, T. Baba, M. Taguchi, H. Kanno, T.

Kinoshita, H. Sakata, E. Maruyama, and M.
Tanaka, "Our approaches for achieving hit solar cells with
more than 23% efficiency," presented at Proceedings of
the 22nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference
Milan, Italy, 2007

M. Tanaka, et al, “Development of New a-Si/c-Si Heterojunction Solar Cells: ACJ-HIT (Artificially
Constructed Junction-Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-Layer)”, Appl. Phys., 31 (1992) 3518-3522 21
 Structure of a HIT solar cell.
History of the HIT cell’s conversion efficiency (R&D).
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Takahiro Mishima n, MikioTaguchi,HitoshiSakata,EijiMaruyama, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 18–
21

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 Inside HIT structure
• Energy band gap
• Electron and holes
• Spectral response
• Effect of i-layer, H2 layer
• Effect on Voc, Isc, effeciency

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THANKS

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