P-19
Extensive Study on Effecct of Pinhole Induced Electric Fielld in Si CS-
TOPCon Solar Cell
Manish Verma1 Student Member, IEEE, S. Routray2 Member, IEEE, G. P. Mishra1 Me
1
National Instituute of Technology Raipur, Chhattisgarh- 492010, India
2
SRM Institute of Sciience and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu-603203, India
Abstract²Si solar cell based on carrier selectiive contact and
tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) show w great promise
toward reaching the Shockly-Quiesser (SQ) lim mit. The carrier
selective transport provides lower recombinattion and hence
increases the external Voc. In this work a thin n oxide layer is
introduced which will act as a carrier selecctive layer and
carriers will tunnel through it. The tunnel oxide provides
tunneling and transport through the pinholes. TThe electric field
effect in the oxide due to pinholes increasses the carrier
transport. The passivation reduces the recombination at the
contact which results in the reduced resistivity.. The optimized
design of CS-TOPCon solar cell results in achieving
a up to
29.03% due to high electric field.
Keywords—CS-TOPCon solar cell, electric ffield, efficiency,
ATLAS, pinholes
I. INTRODUCTION
Growing demand of renewable energy, esppecially energy
through photovoltaic (PV) cell, is having th he capability to
meet the world’s energy supply-demand chaiin. High power
conversion efficiency and improved module design are the
scope which reduce cost of per watt peak ($/W Wp) ratio. Low
cost material like silicon (Si) with loower material
consumption is able to reach efficiency of oover 22%. The
solar cell technologies like metal wrap throough Si hetero
junction has achieved 18.8% using selectiv ve emitter and
23.1% using copper plating [1, 2]. Hybrid Si solar cell with
rear hetero junction strip contact has achieved
a ideal
efficiency of 25.8% and 22.9% experimentally [3]. N-type
multi crystalline solar cell was fabricated wwith 19.6% and
21.9% efficiency [4, 5]. P-type mono crysttalline module
was able to reach record efficiency of 20.6% [6]. The detail
balance limit for single junction solar cell has efficiency
limit of 30% according to the Schockly-Quiiesser(SQ) and
29.8% according to Tom Tiedje et al. considdering radiative
and non radiative recombination mechanism m respectively
[7,8]. Sun power IBC and Panasonic manufaccturing process
has shown practical efficiency of 25% and 255.6% efficiency
[9]. However, achievable commercial efficiency till date is
around 15% and still laboratory efficiency y with lots of
structural improvement and light trapping prrocess couldn’t
reach SQ Limit.
TOPCon with carrier selective contact tecchnology (CS-
TOPCon ) is an upcoming advancement annd have ability
towards reaching the efficiency limit of 30 0%. Here, the
additional ultrathin oxide layer provides barrier
b for the
minority carrier, which makes the rear juunction carrier
selective and enhance the collection efficienccy of the solar
cell.Additionally, electric field is also extended with the
presence of oxide region and contributes more towards
collecting carriers from quasi neutral regionss. Furthermore,
highly doped passivated layer increases th he passivation
quality and decreases the recombination proceess. Ideally the
crystalline silicon can achieve 27.4% efficienncy with carrier
selective contact [10]. Analytical model sho ows efficiency
exceeding 26% with low surface recom mbination [11].
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Member, IEEE
Previously, many researchers haave exploited higher
efficiency ranging 21.12% to 24.9% using TOPCon and/or
CS-Contact technology [12-18].
Fig. 1 Schematic of (a) simple Si (b) CS-TOPCon solar cell
In this paper, a scope has been tak ken to investigate the
distribution of electric field in CS-TOPCon
C Si single
junction (SJ) solar cell (SC) in thee tunnel oxide region.
Additionally, the thickness of oxide material is also varied
from 0 nm to 1.4nm and the effecct of thickness in the
electric field is studied intensiveely. The model was
simulated using ATLAS TCAD Sim mulation Tool [19] and
standard global AM1.5G spectrum is used to investigate the
performance of the solar cell.
II. DEVICE STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL MODELS
The schematic of traditional solar ceell as well as proposed
CS-TOPCon Si solar cell is given in Fig. F 1. (a) and (b). The
forward current is calculated by connsidering band to band
non local tunneling and non-local derivative. The photo
carrier and recombination current are measured using
Shockley read hall (SRH), fermi-ddirac statistics, optical
recombination (OPTR) and Auger mo odels are considered to
reflect different recombination prrocess of solar cell.
Minority carrier life time for elecctrons and holes are
considered to be 1ns throughout the investigation. The band
gap narrowing is calculated considerring the Schenk model
[19]. To ensure the proper tunneling g, a refined meshing is
considered by incorporating the quanttum meshing in TCAD
Tool [19]. The low field mobility iss calculated using field
dependent concentration mobility (CO ONMOB) model which
is valid for Si at 300ႏ7KHWXQQHOLQJ JWKURXJKWKHR[LGHDQG
electric field in the oxide region is caalculated using Fowler-
nordhiem (FNORD) model [19].
III. SIMULATION RESULTS AND
A DISCUSSIONS
The standard air mass (AM) 1.5G illu umination is considered
to study the performance of solar cell and the spectral
intensity is given in Fig. 2 (a).Traditiional Si solar cell with
200μm thick n-type layer as base witth 0.30μm thick p-type
Window and 0.025μm thick n-type passiavtion
p layer [1, 9]
passivation layer is considered for coomparative analysis as
shown in Fig. 1(a). Selection of n-typ pe base material is due
to its higher mobility as compared to the p-type. Almost 2%
of losses occur in the contact region ddue to the
 B. Transport through Tunneling and pinholes
p : Electric
field study
On the application of the tunnel oxidee, two type of transport
phenomenon of the carrier occurrs through the oxide
boundary. One is tunneling through tthe oxide material and
other is carrier transport through the ppinholes [1, 3, 5]. Some
articles have suggested the linear beh havior of the pinholes,
which are also considered to be micro o resistor [1]. The oxide
boundary is described by therm mionic field emission
Fig. 2 (a) AM1.5G Spectrum and (b) I-V curve off traditional SC
boundary. Oxide blocks one type of carrier
c and allows other
type of carrier providing carrier sellectivity. The impurity
recombination. As shown in fig. 1(b), highly doped
diffusion, high anealing temprature aand fabrication defects
passivation layer incorporated to reduce the recombination
in the ultrathin oxide layer causes the formation of the
at the contact which results in high implie d open circuit
pinholes or “weak insulating areas””. As the thickness of
voltage. Reducing the doping concentration of rear surface
SiO2 decreases from 1nm, these pinhholes density increases.
passivation layer increases the recombination n at the contact.
As the pinhole density increase wiith reduction in oxide
This causes reduction in the Jsc and slight degrradation in the
thickness, the number of transport ch hannels increases. This
performance parameter which can be seen in table 1. The
increases the carrier transport and increament in the
Silver contact is used to further enhance the abbsorption. The
characteristic parameters like efficieency ( ߟ ), Fill Factor
simulation results of simple Si Solarr cell shows
(FF), Conduction current density (J ( sc) and open circuit
Jsc=39.14mA/cm2 and Voc=512mV giving eefficiency ( ߟ )
voltage (Voc).
=15.17% as shown in I-V characteristic in fig.. 2(b).

Table 1: Effect of reducing doping concentrationn of passivation Table 2: Parameters with different SiO
O2 thickness.
layer Sio2 Jsc Voc FF % Efficiency
Doping Jsc Voc FF % Efficiency Thickness(nm) (mA/cm2) (V) (ࣁ) %
concentration (mA/cm2) (V) (ࣁ) % 0.0 39.14 0.512 79.8% 15.17%
(/cm3) 0.2 39.46 0.985 82.5% 29.03%
3ൈ1021 /cm3 39.14 0.512 79.800% 15.17% 0.3 39.39 0.905 70.72% 26.91%
3ൈ1019 /cm3 39.12 0.508 79.700% 15.07% 0.5 39.25 0.710 58.96% 19.90%
0.7 39.09 0.615 45.35% 13.55%
0.9 38.90 0.482 26.69% 6.94%
A. Si solar cell with TOPCon technology 1.1 36.98 0.318 9.65% 1.87%
In order to provide the carrier selectivity at thhe rear surface,
the Sio2 tunnel oxide is introduced of 0.00nm to 1.4nm These transpoprt through pinholes causesc increaes in the
thickness as shown in schematic fig. 1(b). The T oxide stops electric field through tunnel oxide, wh hich can be seen in fig.
one type of carrier at the oxide boundary annd allows other 3(a) . The electric field was found to be in decreasing order
type of carrier to pass through due to dielecttric property of from top of the cell to bottom i.e. fro
om window layer to the
the oxide. High doping provides good passsivation on the base layer. This electric field decreasees from the order of 10-
2
rear surface. This carrier selectivity ultimatelyy increases the V/cm to 10-7m /cm due to decrease in the photo generated
external Voc due to reduced recombination aas seen in fig. carrier and absorption through thee device length from
3(b) of I-V characteristic of CS-TOPCon ssolar cell. The window to base layer also seen in fiig. 4. The oxide layer
silver contact on the rear surface further enhances the due to pinholes causes the electric field.
f The electric field
absorption.The Simulation results of CS-TO OPCon Si SC statrts increasing and increases to thhe order of 106 V/cm.
with Jsc = 39.46mA/cm2 and Maximum Voc=985mV is The highest electric field is observed at the lowest thickness
obtained which gives maximum Efficiency ߟ = 29.03%. of oxide at 0.2nm.When the thicknesss is lowest,

Fig. 3: (a) Electric field

f and (b) I-V curve with variation in SiO2 thickness

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Fig. 4: Photogeneration and recombination profilee of the SC and
inset shows zoomed version along 0-50 microns
because at this point the pinhole density is maaximum which
causes the maximum electric field. This high h electric field
ultimatly increases Voc.With the increaase in oxide
thickness, carrier transport though pinholes decreses
d due to
reduction in pinhole desity transport.This varriation is linear
as pinholes are considered to be micro reessistor, which
allows us to consider the linear behavior. This linear
behaviour can be observed in the I-V chaaracteristic and
Electric field also. With the increase in the oxxide thickness,
Voc also reduces linearly. The effect of elctriic field is seen
up to 5nm in the passivation layer as shown in fig. 3(a). So
it transport more carriers and increases Voc. The better
photogenration and carrier transport accellarate external
quantum efficiency well over 95% is obtained and
maximum around 900nm in the wavelength uutilizated in the
range of 600nm to 1200nm as seen in fig. 5((a). From fig.4
and 5(b) it can be concluded that depending oon the availible
solar radiation and absorption cofffiecient, the
photogeneration rate varies through out the structure. This
photogenration rate decays exponentiallly with the
absorption coefficient. It is also obserrved that the
recombination rate is lower than the photon aabsorption rate
and effect of recombination is seen throu ugh the device
structure as the photon absorption.
Fig. 5: (a) EQE and (b) Photogeneration rate of the solar
cell.
IV. CONCLUSION
The CS-TOPCon Si Single junction Solar ccell is modeled
and successfully simulated using SILVACO A
ATLAS TCAD
Tool using standerd AM1.5G spectrum. T The maximum
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efficiency of 29.03% is achieved at the oxide thickness of
0.2nm. the spectral reponce, I-V characteristic,
c EQE is
obtained. The high electric field accross the tunnel oxide
region is observed and plotted with thhe variation in the oxide
thickness. The linear behavior of tthe pinholes as micro
ressistor is observed. The linear behavvior is also observed in
The I-V chacteristic and electric field..
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