Spherical silicon solar cells fabricated by high speed dropping method

Author

Minemoto, Takashi ; Akashi, Yoshihiro ; Okamoto, Chikao ; Omae, Satoshi ; Yamaguchi, Yukio ; Murozono, Mikio ; Takakura, Hideyuki ; Hamakawa, Yoshihiro

Author_Institution

Fac. of Sci. & Eng., Ritsumeikan Univ., Shiga, Japan

fYear

2005

Firstpage

963

Lastpage

966

Abstract

A spherical Si solar cell with semi-concentration system has been successfully fabricated based on a Si sphere fabricated by a high speed dropping method. The Si sphere is multicrystalline and typically shows the etch pit density of around 10⁵ cm² with spatial distribution. Our baseline process (not fully optimized yet) have produced the spherical Si solar cell with 10.4% efficiency. Quantum efficiency and laser beam induced current measurements revealed that an optimization in the optical design of the cell and the quality improvement of spherical Si crystals are needed for further high efficiency.

Keywords

OBIC; elemental semiconductors; mirrors; optical design techniques; silicon; solar cells; 10.4 percent; Si; etch pit density; high speed dropping method; laser beam induced current measurements; optical design; quantum efficiency; semi-concentration system; spherical silicon solar cells; Costs; Crystalline materials; Crystallization; Current measurement; Etching; Optical device fabrication; Photovoltaic cells; Poles and towers; Silicon; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488292

Filename

1488292