TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancement for potential-induced degradation resistance of crystalline silicon solar cells via anti-reflection coating by industrial PECVD methods
AU - Chen, Tsung Cheng
AU - Kuo, Ting Wei
AU - Lin, Yu Ling
AU - Ku, Chen Hao
AU - Yang, Zu-Po
AU - Yu, Ing Song
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - The issue of potential-induced degradation (PID) has gained more concerns due to causing the catastrophic failures in photovoltaic (PV) modules. One of the approaches to diminish PID is to modify the anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer upon the front surface of crystalline silicon solar cells. Here, we focus on the modification of ARC films to realize PID-free step-by-step through three delicate experiments. Firstly, the ARC films deposited by direct plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and by indirect PECVD were investigated. The results showed that the efficiency degradation of solar cells by indirect PECVD method is up to -33.82%, which is out of the IEC 62804 standard and is significantly more severe than by the direct PECVD method (-0.82%). Next, the performance of PID-resist for the solar cell via indirect PECVD was improved significantly (PID reduced from -31.82% to -2.79%) by a pre-oxidation step, which not only meets the standard but also has higher throughput than direct PECVD. Lastly, we applied a novel PECVD technology, called the pulsed-plasma (PP) PECVD method, to deal with the PID issue. The results of the HF-etching rate test and FTIR measurement indicated the films deposited by PP PECVD have higher potential against PID in consideration of less oxygen content in this film. That demonstrated the film properties were changed by applied a new control of freedom, i.e., PP method. In addition, the 96 h PID result of the integrated PP method was only -2.07%, which was comparable to that of the integrated traditional CP method. In summary, we proposed three effective or potential approaches to eliminate the PID issue, and all approaches satisfied the IEC 62804 standard of less than 5% power loss in PV modules.
AB - The issue of potential-induced degradation (PID) has gained more concerns due to causing the catastrophic failures in photovoltaic (PV) modules. One of the approaches to diminish PID is to modify the anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer upon the front surface of crystalline silicon solar cells. Here, we focus on the modification of ARC films to realize PID-free step-by-step through three delicate experiments. Firstly, the ARC films deposited by direct plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and by indirect PECVD were investigated. The results showed that the efficiency degradation of solar cells by indirect PECVD method is up to -33.82%, which is out of the IEC 62804 standard and is significantly more severe than by the direct PECVD method (-0.82%). Next, the performance of PID-resist for the solar cell via indirect PECVD was improved significantly (PID reduced from -31.82% to -2.79%) by a pre-oxidation step, which not only meets the standard but also has higher throughput than direct PECVD. Lastly, we applied a novel PECVD technology, called the pulsed-plasma (PP) PECVD method, to deal with the PID issue. The results of the HF-etching rate test and FTIR measurement indicated the films deposited by PP PECVD have higher potential against PID in consideration of less oxygen content in this film. That demonstrated the film properties were changed by applied a new control of freedom, i.e., PP method. In addition, the 96 h PID result of the integrated PP method was only -2.07%, which was comparable to that of the integrated traditional CP method. In summary, we proposed three effective or potential approaches to eliminate the PID issue, and all approaches satisfied the IEC 62804 standard of less than 5% power loss in PV modules.
KW - Anti-reflection coating
KW - Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition
KW - Potential-induced degradation
KW - Solar cell
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057842366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/coatings8120418
DO - 10.3390/coatings8120418
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057842366
VL - 8
JO - Coatings
JF - Coatings
SN - 2079-6412
IS - 12
M1 - 418
ER -