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Project title

Increasing the efficiency of silicon photovoltaic cells using an industrially-viable atmospheric dry etch nanotexturing process

Primary Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

Technological University Dublin (TUD)

Lead Applicant

n/a

Project Abstract

Surface texturing is used to improve the energy conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells by reducing the reflection the front of the solar cell. Industrial manufacturers currently use wet chemical etching to produce microtextured surfaces before applying an additional anti-reflection coating such as silicon nitride. Better cell performance can be obtained by producing nanotextured surfaces using processes such as metal-catalysed chemical etching and reactive-ion etching. However, these processes are either costly to implement, have high water consumption or involve waste products that are problematic to dispose of. This project will examine a novel atmospheric dry etch process, developed by an Irish company, Nines PV, that displays several distinct advantages over current state-of-the-art processes used to produce surface nanotextures on silicon solar cells with enhanced light-trapping properties. The project will focus on optimising the process parameters used with the ADE-100 tool by correlating wafer reflectance values with microscopically measured surface roughness parameters. An automated reflectance mapping tool will be designed and assembled for this task. The effects of the surface texturization on subsequent solar cell fabrication steps, such as emitter layer formation, surface passivation and metal contact deposition, will also be investigated by preparing simple solar cells. A laser beam induced current (LBIC) test instrument will be assembled to evaluate the photocurrent generation efficiency of the resulting solar PV cells. The knowledge generated by the project will help Nines PV to optimise their commercially available ADE production equipment.

Grant Approved

�55,000

Research Hub

Climate related research

Research Theme

Achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

Start Date

01/09/2021

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/09/2023