Current Photovoltaic Research

Korea Photovoltaic Society (한국태양광발전학회)
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Influence of Metallic Contamination on Photovoltaic Characteristics of n-type Silicon Solar-cells

중금속 오염이 n형 실리콘 태양전지의 전기적 특성에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구

  • Kim, Il-Hwan (Department of Electrics and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Park, Jun-Seong (Department of Electrics and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Park, Jea-Gun (Department of Electrics and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University)
  • 김일환 (전자컴퓨터통신공학과, 한양대학교) ;
  • 박준성 (전자컴퓨터통신공학과, 한양대학교) ;
  • 박재근 (전자컴퓨터통신공학과, 한양대학교)
  • Received : 2017.12.11
  • Accepted : 2018.01.16
  • Published : 2018.03.31
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Abstract

The dependency of the photovoltaic performance of p-/n-type silicon solar-cells on the metallic contaminant type (Fe, Cu, and Ni) and concentration was investigated. The minority-carrier recombination lifetime was degraded with increasing metallic contaminant concentration, however, the degradation sensitivity of recombination lifetime was lower at n-type than p-type silicon wafer, which means n-type silicon wafer have an immunity to the effect of metallic contamination. This is because heavy metal ions with positive charge have a much larger capture cross section of electron than hole, so that reaction with electrons occurs much more easily. The power conversion efficiency of n-type solar-cells was degraded by 9.73% when metallic impurities were introduced in the silicon bulk, which is lower degradation compared to p-type solar-cells (15.61% of efficiency degradation). Therefore, n-type silicon solar-cells have a potential to achieve high efficiency of the solar-cell in the future with a merit of immunity against metal contamination.

Keywords

References

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