Nanotextured Solar Cells Provide Efficiency Boost

Bandgap Engineering Inc.’s nanotextured silicon solar cell has demonstrated a 0.3 percent efficiency boost over standard solar cells and is expected to be 1 percent more efficient when fully optimized, the company said last week.

“This efficiency boost is particularly impressive given that we have just begun to tune the cell process for our nanotextured silicon solar cells,” said chief technology officer Marcie Black.

Made in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology, Bandgap’s nanotextured solar cells are a drop-in upgrade for crystalline-silicone manufacturers using standard processing technologies. Conventional processes, including a standard emitter, silicon-nitride, and screen-printed metallization with an aluminum back surface field, were used in developing the cells.

The single-sided texture enables processes that require planer back surfaces for improved reflection or passivation. Less than 1 µm of silicon is consumed in the texturing process, making the solar cells ideal for thin-silicon technologies, the company said. Bandgap has also developed approaches to pattern its silicon nanowires that can enable plated-front metal contacts without laser patterning or lithography.

As the technology gives low reflection for all grain orientations, the solar cells are an ideal upgrade for multicrystalline wafers with higher reflection, Bandgap said.

For more information, visit: www.bandgap.com