High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells Using Minority Carrier MIS Structures

Minority carrier Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (minMIS) devices are electronically equivalent to ideal p-n junction diodes. Solar cells fabricated using minMIS structures have advantages over actual p-n junction cells. Grating minMIS cells with the semiconductor surface between the grating lines inverted produce the most efficient devices. Record Voc's for Si cells of 655 mV have been obtained on FZ Si substrates, with efficiencies over 17.5% being achieved for both polished and textured surface cells. Using large grain polycrystalline Si substrates, efficiencies of 13.3% have been obtained which are the best for this material.