Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate

Conventional wafer-based silicon (Si) technology still dominates around 90% of the photovoltaic (PV) market with 15 - 20% conversion efficiency due to its abundance (~25% of silica in the earth’s crust), non-toxicity besides having close to ideal band gap (1.12 eV) for photoconversion process. But,...

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Main Author:	Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	QC1 Physics (General)
Online Access:	http://eprints.usm.my/45591/1/MOHD%20ZAMIR%20BIN%20PAKHURUDDIN_HJ.pdf
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id	my-usm-ep.45591
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-usm-ep.455912019-10-08T02:42:56Z Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate 2012-02 Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir QC1 Physics (General) Conventional wafer-based silicon (Si) technology still dominates around 90% of the photovoltaic (PV) market with 15 - 20% conversion efficiency due to its abundance (~25% of silica in the earth’s crust), non-toxicity besides having close to ideal band gap (1.12 eV) for photoconversion process. But, this technology suffers from high cost/Wattp (USD 2 - 3/Wattp at present) that impedes its widespread to be an alternative power generation technique at present. This stems from high processing and purification costs of the Si material (single crystal costs about USD 400/kg) besides high material consumption (300 - 500 μm/wafer). This work explored the feasibility of fabricating thin film Si solar cells on low-cost polyimide (PI) substrates via thermal evaporation method in order to bring down the costs of the Si PV technology to below USD 1/Wattp. The solar cells were fabricated in substrate-configuration with p-n and p-i-n junction structures. Various light trapping strategies such as aluminium (Al) back contact reflector, PI surface texturing, zinc oxide (ZnO) anti-reflective coating (ARC) and white paint back surface reflector (BSR) have been evaluated to increase optical path length of the incident light and to reduce reflection losses. A 1.5 μm thick p-type Si absorber was used in the p-n junction cells while 800 nm intrinsic Si was adopted in the p-i-n junction cells. 2012-02 Thesis http://eprints.usm.my/45591/ http://eprints.usm.my/45591/1/MOHD%20ZAMIR%20BIN%20PAKHURUDDIN_HJ.pdf application/pdf en public masters Universiti Sains Malaysia Pusat Pengajian Sains Fizik
institution	Universiti Sains Malaysia
collection	USM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	QC1 Physics (General)
spellingShingle	QC1 Physics (General) Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate
description	Conventional wafer-based silicon (Si) technology still dominates around 90% of the photovoltaic (PV) market with 15 - 20% conversion efficiency due to its abundance (~25% of silica in the earth’s crust), non-toxicity besides having close to ideal band gap (1.12 eV) for photoconversion process. But, this technology suffers from high cost/Wattp (USD 2 - 3/Wattp at present) that impedes its widespread to be an alternative power generation technique at present. This stems from high processing and purification costs of the Si material (single crystal costs about USD 400/kg) besides high material consumption (300 - 500 μm/wafer). This work explored the feasibility of fabricating thin film Si solar cells on low-cost polyimide (PI) substrates via thermal evaporation method in order to bring down the costs of the Si PV technology to below USD 1/Wattp. The solar cells were fabricated in substrate-configuration with p-n and p-i-n junction structures. Various light trapping strategies such as aluminium (Al) back contact reflector, PI surface texturing, zinc oxide (ZnO) anti-reflective coating (ARC) and white paint back surface reflector (BSR) have been evaluated to increase optical path length of the incident light and to reduce reflection losses. A 1.5 μm thick p-type Si absorber was used in the p-n junction cells while 800 nm intrinsic Si was adopted in the p-i-n junction cells.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir
author_facet	Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir
author_sort	Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir
title	Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate
title_short	Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate
title_full	Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate
title_fullStr	Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate
title_full_unstemmed	Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate
title_sort	thin film silicon solar cell prepared by thermal evaporation on polyimide substrate
granting_institution	Universiti Sains Malaysia
granting_department	Pusat Pengajian Sains Fizik
publishDate	2012
url	http://eprints.usm.my/45591/1/MOHD%20ZAMIR%20BIN%20PAKHURUDDIN_HJ.pdf
_version_	1747821534307680256

Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Prepared By Thermal Evaporation On Polyimide Substrate

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