TOPIC 1: Silicon Materials and Cells
TOPIC 1 COLLECTS ALL ABSTRACTS DEALING WITH CRYSTALLINE SILICON UP TO CELL LEVEL. AMORPHOUS AND MICROCRYSTALLINE SILICON ARE COVERED IN SUBTOPIC 1.2 AND 1.3. THE WHOLE SPECTRUM OF SI TECHNOLOGY IS DIVIDED INTO 5 SUBTOPICS THAT ADDRESS TYPICAL ISSUES AND FIELDS OF TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, INCLUDING DIRECTLY RELATED ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABILITY, MANY OF THEM AT THE CORPORATE R&D LEVEL. USE OF AI TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO SILICON MATERIALS AND CELLS.
AN EXCEPTION IS TANDEM STRUCTURES THAT COMBINE OTHER MATERIALS WITH SILICON, WHICH ARE GROUPED IN SUBTOPICS 2.1 (PEROVSKITE-BASED TANDEMS) AND 2.3 (ALL OTHER TANDEM MATERIALS). CONTRIBUTIONS WHICH FOCUS ON THE ENCAPSULATION AND RELIABILITY OF SI MODULES OR ELECTRICAL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGIES ARE BETTER PLACED IN TOPIC 3. ALSO, CONCENTRATOR AND SPACE APPLICATIONS OF SILICON PV ARE PLACED IN SUBTOPIC 4.6.
1.1 Silicon Material Science and Technology
Novel and advanced production technologies for silicon, solar-grade silicon properties and specifications, ingots and wafers, kerf free wafer technologies including crystalline silicon foils (epitaxy, direct wafer manufacturing), testing, performance, sustainability, and costs. Influence of crystallisation and/or growth parameters, impact of residual or development of defects and impurities, and their mitigation.
This subtopic focuses on all the steps required to produce high-quality silicon up to wafer stage ready for subsequent cell fabrication as well as research in silicon foils and thin silicon material growth and characterization such as direct wafer growth/kerfless technologies.
1.2 Single Junction Silicon Cells
Subtopic 1.2 is where research work on crystalline Si cell architectures is presented, and which employ either high temperature or low temperature processing routes. This includes solar cell architectures such as, e.g., PERC, TOPCon, back-contact, and silicon heterojunction technologies, as well as their derivatives and hybrids. Cells based on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon, thin crystalline silicon, and silicon foils are also contained within this subtopic. Approaches to enhance sustainability and circularity at cell level are also covered here. These include alternative metallization approaches, such as the reduction of silver consumption.
N.B. Works in Si bottom cells for Tandem Photovoltaics should be addressed to subtopic 1.3.
1.3 Silicon Bottom Cells for Tandem Photovoltaics
Subtopic 1.3 has been created as a home for research into the transformation of single-junction silicon cells into designs appropriate for use as silicon bottom cells in tandem and multijunction devices, such as perovskite-silicon tandems. Examples of such work are front surface topology, interface layers, front TCO, front tunnel junction, light trapping, adapted metallization, thermal budgets compatible with top cell (e.g. perovskite) integration, etc.
N.B. This subtopic is strictly aimed at developments where the scientific novelty of the work is in the necessary Si cell modifications and presentations of full tandem devices should be directed to the tandem subtopics 2.1 or 2.3 as appropriate.
1.4 Characterisation & Modelling of Silicon Cells
Measurement and modelling of innovative Si cell concepts. Advanced modelling and analysis tools using AI techniques.
Characterisation and modelling of cells are of crucial importance in the development of innovative concepts and architectures. All such work should be submitted to this subtopic.
1.5 Manufacturing of Silicon Cells
Novel or improved manufacturing solutions and strategies, automated production processes and systems, quality assurance in production. AI techniques used to improve these processes. Various contacts for Si solar cells - pastes, screen printing, plating, etc. Sustainability aspects of the manufacturing processes, e.g materials consumption at cell level.
Improvements in manufacturing solutions for mass production are crucial in order to continue the drive towards lower costs, while maintaining high quality and sustainability standards. New developments in production technologies should be submitted to this subtopic, including for example, transferability of laboratory results to industrial formats (M10/M12, 210mm, thin wafers); yield loss mechanisms and process variability at pilot and GW scale lines; failure modes linked to ultra-thin wafers (<100 µm).
