TY - GEN
T1 - Vertical junction high-efficiency concentrator photovoltaic cells
AU - Sarfaty, Rona
AU - Segev, Gideon
AU - Pozner, Roni
AU - Kribus, Abraham
AU - Rosenwaks, Yossi
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - High concentration PV systems usually prefer tandem III-V cells to Si cells, due to the much lower conversion efficiency of the latter. We re-examine the efficiency achievable with Si Vertical Multi-Junction (VMJ) cells consisting of series-connected vertical p-n junctions within a single cell. A comprehensive 2D numerical analysis of a Si vertical junction has been performed, over a wide range of design parameters and concentration levels. The results show outstanding performance potential under high concentration of 1,000 suns and higher, with efficiencies above 29% under realistic (non-ideal) assumptions. This compares to reported efficiencies of about 20% for both real cells and previous simulations using realistic assumptions. This difference may be attributed to two effects: a better representation of the active layer photoconductivity, which lowers drastically the cell's series resistance under high concentration; and optimization of the junction dimensions without restriction due to the accepted fabrication process.
AB - High concentration PV systems usually prefer tandem III-V cells to Si cells, due to the much lower conversion efficiency of the latter. We re-examine the efficiency achievable with Si Vertical Multi-Junction (VMJ) cells consisting of series-connected vertical p-n junctions within a single cell. A comprehensive 2D numerical analysis of a Si vertical junction has been performed, over a wide range of design parameters and concentration levels. The results show outstanding performance potential under high concentration of 1,000 suns and higher, with efficiencies above 29% under realistic (non-ideal) assumptions. This compares to reported efficiencies of about 20% for both real cells and previous simulations using realistic assumptions. This difference may be attributed to two effects: a better representation of the active layer photoconductivity, which lowers drastically the cell's series resistance under high concentration; and optimization of the junction dimensions without restriction due to the accepted fabrication process.
KW - Concentrator photovoltaic
KW - Edge-illuminated cell
KW - Silicon cell
KW - Vertical multi-junction cell
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78651246109&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/EEEI.2010.5662191
DO - 10.1109/EEEI.2010.5662191
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AN - SCOPUS:78651246109
SN - 9781424486809
T3 - 2010 IEEE 26th Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, IEEEI 2010
SP - 421
EP - 424
BT - 2010 IEEE 26th Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, IEEEI 2010
T2 - 2010 IEEE 26th Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, IEEEI 2010
Y2 - 17 November 2010 through 20 November 2010
ER -
