Device Physics for Engineering Design of Heavily Doped Regions in Pn-junction Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract:

This dissertation presents a quantitative study of the physical mechanisms underlying the anomolously large recombination current experimentally observed in heavily doped regions of silicon pn-junction solar cells and bipolar transistors. The study includes a comparison of theoretical predictions with a variety of experimental observations in heavily doped silicon and silicon devices.

A major conclusion is that the simplest physical model that adequately describes the heavily doped regions must include Fermi- Dirac statistics, a phenomenological excess intrinsic carrier density (or deficit impurity concentration), Auger recombination in the bulk, and recombination at the surface. These mechanisms are incorporated in a first-order model useful in the design of silicon pn-junction solar cells. The accuracy of the first-order model is supported by comparing its results with the results of more detailed models and of a numerical analysis of the problem. Experimental data are presented that are consistent with the predictions of the first-order model and of the numerical solution.

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