Efficiency improvement of solar cells by importing microdome-shaped anti-reflective structures as a surface protection layer

A novel dome-shaped and anti-reflective microdome array (MDA) was developed for a solar cell surface protection layer with the aim to improve the cell efficiency. Uniform microdomes in the array were obtained by isotropic wet-etching of quartz. The microdome patterns on the quartz plate were transfe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microelectronic engineering 2011-08, Vol.88 (8), p.2314-2318
Main Authors: Nam, Minwoo, Lee, Jaejin, Lee, Kee-Keun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anti-reflective coating
Applied sciences
Arrays
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Conversion
Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science
rheology
Electronics
Energy
Exact sciences and technology
Gallium arsenide
Isotropic etching
Materials science
Microdome array (MDA)
Natural energy
Optical constants: refractive index, complex dielectric constant, absorption, reflection and transmission coefficients, emissivity
Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation
Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films
Optoelectronic devices
Other materials
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaic conversion
Physics
Polymer replica molding
Quartz
Reflectivity
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Solar cell
Solar cells
Solar cells. Photoelectrochemical cells
Solar energy
Solar power generation
Specific materials
Surface protection layer
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Summary:A novel dome-shaped and anti-reflective microdome array (MDA) was developed for a solar cell surface protection layer with the aim to improve the cell efficiency. Uniform microdomes in the array were obtained by isotropic wet-etching of quartz. The microdome patterns on the quartz plate were transferred to a polymer via 2 replica molding processes in order to fabricate a flexible MDA. When light passes through the developed microstructure array, the anti-reflective MDAs exhibited a higher transmittance and a lower reflectance when compared to their counterparts, bare planar layers. During the electrical testing of the GaAs solar cells under an illumination of air mass (A.M) 1.5, the cells covered by these MDAs showed a greatly increased current density (Jsc) of up to 5.2%. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) was also remarkably increased up to 3.5%, when the MDA structure was utilized as the solar cell surface protection layer.
ISSN:0167-9317
1873-5568
DOI:10.1016/j.mee.2010.12.118