Simulation and experimental study of a novel bifacial structure of silicon heterojunction solar cell for high efficiency and low cost

A novel structure of Ag grid/SiN_x/n~+-c-Si/n-c-Si/i-a-Si:H/p~+-a-Si:H/TCO/Ag grid was designed to increase the efficiency of bifacial amorphous/crystalline silicon-based solar cells and reduce the rear material consumption and production cost. The simulation results show that the new structure obtains higher efficiency compared with the typical bifacial amorphous/crystalline silicon-based solar cell because of an increase in the short-circuit current(J_(sc)), while retaining the advantages of a high open-circuit voltage, low temperature coefficient, and good weak-light performance. Moreover,real cells composed of the novel structure with dimensions of 75 mm × 75 mm were fabricated by a special fabrication recipe based on industrial processes. Without parameter optimization, the cell efficiency reached 21.1% with the J_(sc) of 41.7 mA/cm~2. In addition, the novel structure attained 28.55% potential conversion efficiency under an illumination of AM 1.5 G, 100 mW/cm~2. We conclude that the configuration of the Ag grid/SiN_x/n~+-c-Si/n-c-Si/i-a-Si:H/p~+-a-Si:H/TCO/Ag grid is a promising structure for high efficiency and low cost.