A germanium back-contact type cell for thermophotovoltaic applications

Author

Nagashima, Tomonori ; Okumura, Kenichi ; Murata, Kentaro ; Yamaguchi, Masafumi

Author_Institution

Future Project Div., Toyota Motor Corp., Shizuoka, Japan

Volume

1

fYear

2003

fDate

18-18 May 2003

Firstpage

200

Abstract

Reducing resistance loss for high current densities caused by high incident light energy is important in thermophotovoltaic cells. In hope of resolving this problem, we propose a Ge back-contact type cell. This cell has no front grid contact preventing light absorption, and has large area contacts at the back. Consequently, this structure is able to reduce resistance loss, and is suitable for thermophotovoltaic applications. Calculated efficiency is about 34% for infrared light with a wavelength range of 1500 - 1600 nm and light energy of 10 W/cm/sup 2/. In experimental results, an efficiency of 6.0% for solar light of AM 1.5G was obtained by using SiN/sub x/ passivation layers. We estimated that efficiency is about 22% for the infrared light.

Keywords

current density; elemental semiconductors; germanium; passivation; semiconductor device models; silicon compounds; thermophotovoltaic cells; 1500 to 1600 nm; 22 percent; 34 percent; 6.0 percent; Ge-SiN/sub x/; SiN/sub x/ passivation layers; current density; germanium back-contact type cell; incident light energy; infrared light; light absorption; resistance loss; solar light; thermophotovoltaic cell;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of 3rd World Conference on

Conference_Location

Osaka, Japan

Print_ISBN

4-9901816-0-3

Type

conf

Filename

1305256