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

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目为太阳能光伏发电提供了最低成本的选择性发射器（SE），并将有助于降低电网平价的成本。迄今为止，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，还涉及至少两个或更多步骤的复杂过程。目前的SE工艺还需要增加太阳能电池前面的网格线的数量，这会导致光线被阻挡。提出的自对准选择性发射极（HSE）工艺代表了为n型晶圆基太阳能电池创建选择性发射极的最简单的一步方法。这将是一个高通量的过程，成本低于0.01美元/Wp。效率绝对提高超过1%是可以实现的，而其他选择性排放技术的绝对效率提高限制在0.6%左右。该项目的广泛影响/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中急剧下降。这反过来又创造了指数级的市场需求。随着价格的持续下降，每一笔增量成本节约都变得更具挑战性。所提出的技术为降低太阳能成本提供了一个优雅的解决方案，并且易于在现有的生产线上实施。HSE设备的生产将帮助国内太阳能光伏生产商在其他市场达到电网平价。在当地社区，将创造一个额外的工作岗位，一名本科生和四名研究生将接触到企业家精神，联邦资助研究的商业化和前沿能源研究。此外，与大学教授的合作将加强与周边社区的联系，并有助于促进有关学术研究商业化的讨论。出版物将用于迅速传播这项工作的结果，并促进对选择性发射体及其在光伏发电中的作用的更深入了解。

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.