Solar cell technology process

How are solar cells made?

The production process from raw quartz to solar cells involves a range of steps, starting with the recovery and purification of silicon, followed by its slicing into utilizable disks – the silicon wafers – that are further processed into ready-to-assemble solar cells.

What is a solar cell fabrication process?

A solar cell fabrication process uses several high-temperature steps including a phosphorus diffusion process and a metal contact firing. The silicon wafer is p-type doped to 1 · 10 15 cm −3. The required surface doping and depth for the diffused part of the pn junction are 1 · 10 19 cm −3 and 200 nm, respectively.

Why do solar cells use gettering process?

Hence, the gettering process further purifies the silicon wafer. This gives room for using lower quality (and lower cost) silicon material to fabricate the wafers, knowing that they will be further purified during the solar cell fabrication.

How do solar cells work?

2. Theoretical background Solar cells harness energy from sunlight, which comprises photons distributed across various wavelengths influenced by factors such as location, time, and month (Green, 2012a). The AM1.5 G spectrum, which adheres to the ASTM standard G173 (Fig. 3h), encompasses both direct and diffuse light components (Green, 2012b).

Why do solar cells have a diffusion process?

This gives room for using lower quality (and lower cost) silicon material to fabricate the wafers, knowing that they will be further purified during the solar cell fabrication. The diffusion process happens on all the wafer surfaces, creating unwanted doping at the rear and edges of the wafer.

How is a solar cell modelled?

The solar cell is modelled by the parallel combination of a constant current source (photogenerated carriers) with diodes; D1 and D2 (D1—ideal diode (diffusion) and D2—junction recombination).