HIGH EFFICIENCY SILICON SOLAR CELLS REPORT NUMBER VI.
Abstract
Analysis of the performance of the pilot line cells fabricated during the fourth quarter indicate that the basic cell design remains highly efficient at intensities up to 2000 mW/sq cm, showing a significant improvement in the state of the art. Attempts to significantly reduce cell costs by replacing the rather lengthy junction clean-up etch by a simple edge sanding operation have shown that while some modified techniques may have value in this area, the specific technique use in the experiment resulted in too great a power loss to be of value in reducing the cost per watt ratio. Some alternate techniques are proposed. Results are presented of an experiments to determine the effect of virgin and scrap polycrystalline material on the efficiency of polycrystalline cells. The results were somewhat masked by the fact that five of the eight ingots purchased as polycrystalline material were actually partially single crystalline in nature. An appendix is included describing a radiation experiment on N+/P polycrystalline cells and the results are compared to those obtained on single crystalline cells in various light sources. The results indicate that the N/P polycrystalline and single crystalline cells degrade to the same power value at a flux of about 10 to the 14th power electrons/sq cm in a sunlight source, with the per cent degradation being considerably smaller for the former cell type. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 15, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0437942
Entities
People
- Paul A. Berman