Properties of high efficiency silicon heterojunction cells

The goal to achieve grid parity for photovoltaics in the near future is stimulating the development of high efficiency solar cell technologies which has spark off strong activities in silicon heterojunction solar cell development in the recent past leading to a number of high efficiency devices at or beyond 20% efficiency in different laboratories. Heterojunction silicon solar cells show interesting properties which are distinct from those of standard crystalline silicon solar cells due to the combination of thin film and crystalline cell technologies. This paper focuses on device properties of the heterojunction technology (HJT) cell developed at Roth & Rau such as temperature and irradiation dependent performance and cell stability under accelerated stress tests. The results demonstrate an improved energy yield of the Roth & Rau HJT cells that is to be expected under realistic operation conditions.