Publications by Jean Cattin | EPFL Graph Search

Loss Analysis of a 24.4%-Efficient Front-Junction Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cell and Opportunity for Localized Contacts

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Julie Amandine Dreon, Deniz Türkay

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells have recently reached power conversion efficiencies above 25% with various device architectures and with industrial size (>200 cm(2)) wafers. Yet, for an accurate assessment of the efficiency potential and further d ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2023

Influence of the Dopant Gas Precursor in P-Type Nanocrystalline Silicon Layers on the Performance of Front Junction Heterojunction Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Mario Joe Lehmann, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Jan Haschke, Julie Amandine Dreon

Silicon heterojunction solar cells can employ p-type hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon nc-Si:H(p) on their front side, since these can provide better transparency and contact resistance compared to hydrogenated p-type amorphous silicon layers. We invest ...

2021

Influence of Light Soaking on Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Various Architectures

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Jean Cattin, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Jan Haschke

In this article, we investigate the effect of prolonged light exposure on silicon heterojunction solar cells. We show that, although light exposure systematically improves solar cell efficiency in the case of devices using intrinsic and p-type layers with ...

2021

Dopant-Free Bifacial Silicon Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Julie Amandine Dreon, Sihua Zhong, Wenjie Lin, Hui Shen

Herein, challenges in the fabrication of full dopant-free bifacial silicon solar cells are discussed and efficient devices utilizing a MoO3/ indium tin oxide (ITO)/Ag hole-selective contact and ZnO/LiFx/Al electron-selective contacts with up to 79% short-c ...

2021

Performance Limitations and Analysis of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Using Ultra-Thin MoOx Hole-Selective Contacts

Christophe Ballif, Gabriel Christmann, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Julie Amandine Dreon

We recently showed that silicon heterojunction solar cell with MoOx-based hole-selective contact could reach 23.5% in efficiency with MoOx layers of 4 nm. Such thin MoOx layer enables a considerable current-density gain of over 1 mA/cm(2) compared to the u ...

2021

Hole-Selective Front Contact Stack Enabling 24.1%-Efficient Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Sylvain Nicolay, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Jean Cattin, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Minh Truong, Jan Haschke, Julie Amandine Dreon, Wenjie Lin

The window-layer stack limits the efficiency of both-side-contacted silicon heterojunction solar cells. We discuss here the combination of several modifications to this stack to improve its optoelectronic performance. These include the introduction of a na ...

2020

Characterisation of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Beyond Standard Test Conditions

Jean Cattin

The global photovoltaic market is mostly dominated by solar cells based on crystalline silicon (c-Si), which are covering 95% of the market. This thesis concerns silicon heterojunction (SHJ), a high-efficiency technology with a 2% market share in 2018, but ...

EPFL2020

23.5%-efficient silicon heterojunction silicon solar cell using molybdenum oxide as hole-selective contact

Christophe Ballif, Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Jan Haschke, Julie Amandine Dreon

Elsevier2020

Comparative Field Performance Assessment of Bifacial Solar Modules

Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Olivier Denis Dupré

A full-scale pilot line for producing bifacial solar modules based on silicon heterojunction technology was set up as part of the European H2020 AMPERE project. In this study, the measurements from two outdoor test benches were used to evaluate the perform ...

IEEE2020

Influence of local surface defects on the minority-carrier lifetime of passivating-contact solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Jan Haschke

Unlocking the full potential of passivating contacts, increasingly popular in the silicon solar cell industry, requires determining the minority carrier lifetime. Minor passivation drops limit the functioning of solar cells; however, they are not detected ...

AIP American Institute of Physics2020

Development of N-Type Amorphous and Microcrystalline Hydrogenated Silicon-Oxides (SiOx:H) and Investigation of their Impact as Window Layers on Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Device

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Jan Haschke, Brahim Aissa

We report on the development of hydrogenated n-type amorphous and microcrystalline silicon oxides ((n)-SiOx:H and (n) mu c-SiOx:H, respectively) by PECVD, and their successful integration as n-window layers for silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells devi ...

IEEE2019

Paths for maximal light incoupling and excellent electrical performances in silicon heterojunction solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Jean Cattin, Raphaël Monnard, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Monica Morales Masis, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Oscar Esteban Rucavado Leandro, Jan Haschke, Olivier Denis Dupré, Julie Amandine Dreon, Sihua Zhong, Angela Nicole Fioretti

We discuss here optical losses in silicon heterojunction solar cells and strategies to minimize them. Optical losses originate from most non-crystalline-silicon layers involved in the solar cell. A breakdown for typical values is shown evidencing that supp ...

IEEE2019

Optimized Design of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells for Field Operating Conditions

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Jan Haschke, Brahim Aissa, Olivier Denis Dupré

Solar modules are currently characterised at standard test conditions (STC), defined at 1000 W/m2 and 25 °C. However, solar modules in actual outdoor operating conditions typically operate at lower illumination and higher temperature than STC, which signif ...

2019

Injection-dependent lateral resistance in front-junction solar cells with nc-Si:H and a-Si:H hole selective contact

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Jan Haschke

We investigate the role of lateral transport of minority carriers in the wafer for front-junction solar cells. The study is based on two silicon heterojunction solar cells with p-type amorphous (a-Si), and nanocrystalline (nc-Si) silicon as hole selective ...

IEEE2019

Impact of the Oxygen Content on the Optoelectronic Properties of the Indium-Tin-Oxide Based Transparent Electrodes for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Akshath Raghu Shetty, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Jan Haschke, Brahim Aissa

Amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells technology is attracting tremendous attention in recent years due to its potential to achieve high power conversion efficiencies at low fabrication temperatures and using few process steps. How ...

AMER INST PHYSICS2019

Impact of the Oxygen Flow during the Magnetron Sputtering Deposition on the Indium Tin Oxide thin films for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cell

Christophe Ballif, Akshath Raghu Shetty, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Jan Haschke, Brahim Aissa

We report on the optoelectronic properties of ITO layers deposited by DC sputtering, using different oxygen to total flow ratios [r(O-2) = O-2/Ar, ranging from 1% to 8%], for silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell application. The depth profiling of the v ...

IEEE2019

Nanocrystalline silicon oxide stacks for silicon heterojunction solar cells for hot climates

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jean Cattin, Raphaël Monnard, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Jan Haschke, Brahim Aissa

AIP Publishing2018

The impact of silicon solar cell architecture and cell interconnection on energy yield in hot & sunny climates

Christophe Ballif, Jacques Levrat, Stefaan De Wolf, Matthieu Despeisse, Jean Cattin, Yannick Samuel Riesen, Johannes Peter Seif, Andrea Tomasi, Jan Haschke, Brahim Aissa

Extensive knowledge of the dependence of solar cell and module performance on temperature and irradiance is essential for their optimal application in the field. Here we study such dependencies in the most common high-efficiency silicon solar cell architec ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2017