Spatially resolved characterization and simulation of interdigitated back contact silicon solar cells

In order to accelerate the development of photovoltaic energy conversion as a major source of renewable energy in the global energy mix, manufacturing of solar cells with increasing efficiency is a powerful means of cost reduction. Interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells currently have the highest efficiency of all silicon solar cells on the laboratory and industrial scale. Great research efforts have been made to reduce the production costs and enable more widespread commercial application of this cell architecture. Despite the great interest of companies and the research community in IBC cells and the recent success of spatially resolved characterization techniques, there was little knowledge about applying these characterization techniques on IBC cells. The complex device structure of IBC cells requires consideration of the three-dimensional current flow and carrier density distributions that these imaging techniques are based on. This dissertation aims to close that knowledge gap by analyzing IBC cells through experiments and simulations using luminescence imaging, lock-in thermography and spectrally resolved light beam induced current mapping at all important solar cell operating conditions.