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    Towards Cost-Effective Crystalline Silicon Based Flexible Solar Cells: Integration Strategy by Rational Design of Materials, Process, and Devices

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    Name:
    Rabab Bahabry - Dissertation - Final Draft.pdf
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    4.608Mb
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    Type
    Dissertation
    Authors
    Bahabry, Rabab R. cc
    Advisors
    Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa cc
    Committee members
    Schwingenschlögl, Udo cc
    Bakr, Osman cc
    Kurinec, Santosh
    Program
    Material Science and Engineering
    KAUST Department
    Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
    Date
    2017-11-30
    Embargo End Date
    2018-12-11
    Permanent link to this record
    http://hdl.handle.net/10754/626350
    
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    Access Restrictions
    At the time of archiving, the student author of this dissertation opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this dissertation became available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2018-12-11.
    Abstract
    The solar cells market has an annual growth of more than 30 percent over the past 15 years. At the same time, the cost of the solar modules diminished to meet both of the rapid global demand and the technological improvements. In particular for the crystalline silicon solar cells, the workhorse of this technology. The objective of this doctoral thesis is enhancing the efficiency of c-Si solar cells while exploring the cost reduction via innovative techniques. Contact metallization and ultra-flexible wafer based c-Si solar cells are the main areas under investigation. First, Silicon-based solar cells typically utilize screen printed Silver (Ag) metal contacts which affect the optimal electrical performance. To date, metal silicide-based ohmic contacts are occasionally used for the front contact grid lines. In this work, investigation of the microstructure and the electrical characteristics of nickel monosilicide (NiSi) ohmic contacts on the rear side of c-Si solar cells has been carried out. Significant enhancement in the fill factor leading to increasing the total power conversion efficiency is observed. Second, advanced classes of modern application require a new generation of versatile solar cells showcasing extreme mechanical resilience. However, silicon is a brittle material with a fracture strains <1%. Highly flexible Si-based solar cells are available in the form thin films which seem to be disadvantageous over thick Si solar cells due to the reduction of the optical absorption with less active Si material. Here, a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology based integration strategy is designed where corrugation architecture to enable an ultra-flexible solar cell module from bulk mono-crystalline silicon solar wafer with 17% efficiency. This periodic corrugated array benefits from an interchangeable solar cell segmentation scheme which preserves the active silicon thickness and achieves flexibility via interdigitated back contacts. These cells can reversibly withstand high mechanical stress as the screen-printed metals have fracture strain >15%. Furthermore, the integration of the cells is demonstrated on curved surfaces for a fully functional system. Finally, the developed flexing approach is used to fabricate three-dimensional dome-shaped cells to reduce the optical coupling losses without the use of the expensive solar tracking/tilting systems.
    DOI
    10.25781/KAUST-W05IX
    ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
    10.25781/KAUST-W05IX
    Scopus Count
    Collections
    Dissertations; Dissertations; Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division; Material Science and Engineering Program

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