Study of wafer thickness scaling in n-type rear-emitter solar cells with different bulk lifetimes

In case of the n-type rear-emitter solar cell (n-RESC), wafer thickness scaling down has been studied and simulated under different bulk lifetimes (τ_bulk). The effect of minority-carrier lifetime of bulk τ_bulk on photovoltaic properties has been studied by using a symmetrical front-and-rear electrode structure, followed by a discussion of the physical mechanism. Simulation results show that by decreasing the wafer thickness, high energy-conversion efficiency can be achieved, even though a low bulk lifetime substrate is used, suggesting a cost-effective way to manufacture the high efficiency n-RESC. In addition, emitter saturation current density (J_oe) of the n-RESC has also been extracted.