Root-cause analysis and characterization of oxygen-related defects in silicon PV material : an approach from macro to nanoscale

With energy demand forecasted to grow significantly, efforts towards mitigating global warming effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions are becoming stricter as more power generation plants are deployed to meet the global demand. Deployment of renewable energy technologies as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuel is an attractive solution. Photovoltaics (PV) present several advantages over other energy sources because PV is modular, and has proven to be a scalable and reliable technology. A capital expenditure reduction of 70% has been found to be necessary to meet the climate targets of 7-10 TW of PV by 2030. This can be achieved through different channels: improving conversion efficiency and device performance of silicon modules, increasing solar cell manufacturing yield, reducing silicon feedstock material use, etc. This research focuses on n-type monocrystalline silicon and aims to increase conversion efficiency up to 20% relative and increase manufacturing yield up to 50%, as levers to reduce the capital expenditure. The increase in conversion efficiency and manufacturing yield is achieved by defect engineering and mitigation of a lifetime-limiting bulk defect in n-type monocrystalline silicon, characterized by low-lifetime concentric rings. Temperature- and injection-dependent photoluminescence imaging is applied to investigate the defect's root-cause by studying its evolution under several high temperature process conditions and is found to be caused by oxide-related precipitates. Synchrotron-based mic ...

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Youssef, Amanda.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tonio Buonassisi.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122510

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122510