SBIR Phase I: Self Aligned Hydrogenated Selective Emitter for N-Type Solar Cells

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目为太阳能光伏提供了成本最低的选择性发射器(SE)，并将有助于降低成本，实现电网平价。到目前为止，太阳能电池的选择性发射极技术除了标准的太阳能电池工艺流程外，还包括至少两个或更多步骤的复杂工艺。目前的SE工艺还需要增加太阳能电池正面的栅格线数量，这会导致光被阻挡。所提出的自对准选择性发射极(HSE)工艺是为基于n型晶片的太阳能电池制造选择性发射极的最简单、一步法。这将是一个高吞吐量的过程，成本不到0.01美元/WP。与其他选择性发射器技术不同，效率提高绝对值超过1%是可以实现的，其他选择性发射器技术的效率绝对值增加限制在0.6%左右。该项目具有更广泛的影响/商业潜力，具有全球、国家和地方意义。由于技术改进、制造效率和创新的系统平衡方法，太阳能组件的价格在过去几年里大幅下降。这反过来又创造了指数化的市场需求。随着价格的持续下降，每一次增量成本节约都变得更具挑战性。拟议的技术为降低太阳能成本提供了一种优雅的解决方案，并且很容易在现有生产线上实施。HSE设备的生产将帮助国内太阳能光伏生产商在更多市场上达到电网平价。在当地社区，将创造一个额外的就业机会，一名本科生和四名研究生将接触到创业、联邦资助研究的商业化和尖端能源研究。此外，与大学教授的合作将加强与周围社区的联系，并有助于促进关于学术研究商业化的讨论。将利用出版物迅速传播这项工作的结果，并促进对选择性发射器及其在光伏中的作用的更深入的了解。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project provides the lowest cost selective emitter (SE) for solar photovoltaics and will help lower costs towards grid parity. Selective emitter technology for solar cells has so far involved complex processes with at least two or more steps in addition to a standard solar cell process flow. Current SE processes also require increasing the number of grid lines on the front of the solar cell which results in light being blocked. The proposed self-aligned selective emitter (HSE) process represents the simplest, one-step approach to creating a selective emitter for n-type wafer based solar cells. This will be a high throughput process with a cost of less than $0.01/Wp. Efficiency increases in excess of 1% absolute are achievable unlike other selective emitter technologies which are limited to about 0.6% absolute efficiency increases.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project has global, national, and local significance. The price of solar modules has decreased drastically over the past several years in response to technological improvements, manufacturing efficiencies and innovative balance-of-systems approaches. This in turn has created exponential market demand. As the price continues to drop, each incremental cost savings becomes more challenging. The proposed technology provides an elegant solution to reducing the cost of solar and is easy to implement for existing manufacturing lines. The production of HSE equipment would help domestic solar PV producers reach grid parity in additional markets. In the local community, an additional job will be created, and an undergraduate and four graduate students will be exposed to entrepreneurship, commercialization of federally funded research and cutting edge energy research. Additionally, collaboration with university professors will strengthen the ties to the surrounding community and help foster discussions about commercialization of academic research. Publications will be used to rapidly disseminate the results of this work and foster a deeper understanding of selective emitters and their role in photovoltaics.