TCAD design of silicon solar cells in comparison of antireflection coatings and back surface field

This paper presents the development of a physically based solar cell simulation using the Silvaco-TCAD simulator. Simulations were performed on a Si based solar cell with antireflection coating (ARC), without ARC and ARC with back surface field. Single layer SiO2 ARC was used and its effect on each solar cell was analysed. The effect of BSF and AR coatings on the performance of the solar cells were performed using AM 1.5 G. The Si solar cell with SiO2 AR coating and BSF cell demonstrated increased efficiencies of about 154%, and 77%, respectively, compared with the non-ARC BSF Si solar cell. The addition of the BSF initiated 43% improvement in the efficiency of Si solar cells, compared with 5.9% of the SiO2 (AR) coated non-BSF Si solar cell. The designed model indicate the potential of combining the SiO2 AR coating with BSF in the improved fabrication of high-efficiency, low-cost Si solar cells. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.