TY - GEN
T1 - Emitter quantum efficiency from contactless photoconductance measurements
AU - Cuevas, Andres
AU - Kerr, M.
AU - MacDonald, D.
AU - Sinton, R. A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2000 IEEE.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - As the silicon photovoltaic manufacturing industry continues to mature and expand, there is a demand for new process control and monitoring techniques for production. The spectral response of a solar cell, the short-circuit current per unit incident illumination power as a function of wavelength, is a powerful device characterization tool in research and development. A similar technique, the spectral response of the steady-state photoconductance, is described here. The main advantages of the method are that it is fast, contactless, and can be used immediately after junction formation before metalization. The focus of this paper is on its application to evaluate the carrier collection efficiency of the emitter region. This is demonstrated with modelling results and measurements of silicon solar cell precursors having different emitters with widely varying levels of surface and bulk recombination losses. The results show that it is possible to discern the short-wavelength carrier collection efficiency of the emitter region by comparing the photoconductance response to violet (λ.=410 nm) and longer wavelength illumination.
AB - As the silicon photovoltaic manufacturing industry continues to mature and expand, there is a demand for new process control and monitoring techniques for production. The spectral response of a solar cell, the short-circuit current per unit incident illumination power as a function of wavelength, is a powerful device characterization tool in research and development. A similar technique, the spectral response of the steady-state photoconductance, is described here. The main advantages of the method are that it is fast, contactless, and can be used immediately after junction formation before metalization. The focus of this paper is on its application to evaluate the carrier collection efficiency of the emitter region. This is demonstrated with modelling results and measurements of silicon solar cell precursors having different emitters with widely varying levels of surface and bulk recombination losses. The results show that it is possible to discern the short-wavelength carrier collection efficiency of the emitter region by comparing the photoconductance response to violet (λ.=410 nm) and longer wavelength illumination.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949544549&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2000.915766
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2000.915766
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
SP - 108
EP - 111
BT - Conference Record of the 28th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2000
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 28th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2000
Y2 - 15 September 2000 through 22 September 2000
ER -