2-D numerical analysis of the impact of the highly-doped profile on selective emitter solar cell performance

Two-dimensional (2-D) numerical simulations have been performed to investigate the impact of the doping profile in the metal-contacted highly-doped regions for c-Si selective emitter (SE) solar cells. Numerical results show that the doping profile under the metallization significantly influences the recombination effects on the front-side of the SE cell and consequently its performance. A strong impact on the short-circuit current density of the solar cell has been seen. This is mainly due to the inclusion of large alignment tolerances used in the SE diffusion for the subsequent metallization process, leading to broad highly-doped areas. In this regard, a quantitative analysis of this effect has been carried out. The results reveal that an improved alignment, allowing a reduction of the alignment tolerances, leads to a wider process window of doping profiles and hence better SE cell performance. © 2011 IEEE.