Title :
Optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for crystalline-silicon solar cells
Author :
Gee, James M. ; Gordon, Roy ; Liang, Haifan
Author_Institution :
Div. of Photovoltaic Syst. Components, Sandia Nat. Labs., Albuquerque, NM, USA
Abstract :
We report on the optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for reflectance control in crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic modules. Textured-dielectric coatings reduce encapsulated-cell reflectance by promoting optical confinement in the module encapsulation; i.e., the textured-dielectric coating randomizes the direction of rays reflected from the dielectric and from the c-Si cell so that many of these reflected rays experience total internal reflection at the glass-air interface. Some important results of this work include the following: we demonstrated textured-dielectric coatings (ZnO) deposited by a high-throughput low-cost deposition process; we identified factors important for achieving necessary texture dimensions; we achieved solar-weighted extrinsic reflectances as low as 6% for encapsulated c-Si wafers with optimized textured-ZnO coatings; and we demonstrated improvements in encapsulated cell performance of up to 0.5% absolute compared to encapsulated planar cells with single-layer antireflection coatings
Keywords :
dielectric materials; elemental semiconductors; encapsulation; light reflection; optical films; reflectivity; semiconductor device packaging; silicon; solar cells; titanium compounds; zinc compounds; Si; TiO2; ZnO; crystalline-silicon solar cells; encapsulated planar cells; encapsulated-cell reflectance reduction; glass-air interface; low-cost deposition process; optical confinement; reflectance control; single-layer antireflection coatings; solar-weighted extrinsic reflectances; textured-dielectric coatings; total internal reflection; Coatings; Crystallization; Encapsulation; Etching; Optical films; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Reflectivity; Solar power generation; Surface texture;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996., Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3166-4
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1996.564234