Mathematical modeling of contact resistance in silicon photovoltaic cells

Journal article

In screen-printed silicon-crystalline solar cells, the contact resistance of a thin interfacial glass layer between the silicon and the silver electrode plays a limiting role for electron transport. We analyze a simple model for electron transport across this layer, based on the driftdiffusion equations. We utilize the size of the current/Debye length to conduct asymptotic techniques to simplify the model; we solve the model numerically to find that the effective contact resistance may be a monotonic increasing, monotonic decreasing, or nonmonotonic function of the electron flux, depending on the values of the physical parameters.

Authors: Black, J; Breward, C; Howell, P; Young, R

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• Journal: SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics
• Volume: 73
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1906-1925
• Publication date: 2013-10-22
• DOI: 10.1137/130911974
• EISSN: 1095-712X
• ISSN: 0036-1399
• Keywords: electrochemical systems; contact resistance; asymptotic analysis; drift diffusion