Publications de Luca Massimiliano Antognini

Optimizing photon capture: advancements in amorphous silicon-based microchannel plates

Christophe Ballif, Claudio Bruschini, Edoardo Charbon, Nicolas Würsch, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Samira Alexandra Frey, Emanuele Ripiccini

Microchannel plates are electron multipliers widely used in applications such as particle detection, imaging, or mass spectrometry and are often paired with a photocathode to enable photon detection. Conventional microchannel plates, made of glass fibers, ...

2025

HASPIDE: a project for the development of hydrogenated amorphous silicon radiation sensors on a flexible substrate

Giovanni De Cesare, Mikaël Martino, Sylvain Dunand, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Matthew James Large

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is a material with a very good radiation hardness and with the possibility of deposition on flexible substrates like Polyimide (PI). Exploiting these properties, the HASPIDE (Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon PIxels DEt ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2024

A Front-End Circuit in 28 nm CMOS for Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Detectors in Clinical Dosimetry

Sylvain Dunand, Nicolas Würsch, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini

This paper presents the design and the characterization of a front-end circuit, designed in 28 nm CMOS, for real-time dosimetry in radiation diagnostics and radiation therapy. The front-end circuit is optimized for sensors made of hydrogenated amorphous si ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2024

Amorphous silicon detectors for proton beam monitoring in FLASH radiotherapy

Christophe Ballif, Sylvain Dunand, Nicolas Würsch, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini

Ultra-high dose rate radiation therapy (FLASH) based on proton irradiation is of major interest for cancer treatments but creates new challenges for dose monitoring. Amorphous hydrogenated silicon is known to be one of the most radiation-hard semiconductor ...

Elsevier BV2024

Characterization of a flexible a-Si:H detector for in vivo dosimetry in therapeutic x-ray beams

Sylvain Dunand, Nicolas Würsch, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Matthew James Large

BackgroundThe increasing use of complex and high dose-rate treatments in radiation therapy necessitates advanced detectors to provide accurate dosimetry. Rather than relying on pre-treatment quality assurance (QA) measurements alone, many countries are now ...

Wiley2024

TCAD modelling of a-Si:H devices for particle detection applications

Sylvain Dunand, Nicolas Würsch, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Giulia Rossi, Matthew James Large

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) has been proposed as a suitable material for particle detection applications thanks to its property to be deposited over a large area and above a variety of different substrates, including flexible materials. Moreove ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2023

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

Understanding and mitigating resistive losses in fired passivating contacts: role of the interfaces and optimization of the thermal budget

Christophe Ballif, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Franz-Josef Haug, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Julien Hurni, Ezgi Genç, Sofia Libraro, Audrey Marie Isabelle Morisset

This work presents a study of p-type passivating contacts based on SiCx formed via a rapid thermal processing (RTP) step, using conditions compatible with the firing used to sinter screen-printed metallization pastes in industry. The contributions of the t ...

Elsevier2023

Pre-annealing for improved LPCVD deposited boron-doped poly-Si hole-selective contacts

Xinyu Zhang, Franz-Josef Haug, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Zhao Wang, Jie Yang, Josua Andreas Stückelberger

We demonstrate the beneficial effect of a pre-annealing step prior to the boron diffusion on passivation and contact resistivity of industrially LPCVD deposited poly-Si/SiOX hole-selective contacts. We investigate the influence of the pre-annealing tempera ...

ELSEVIER2023

X-ray qualification of hydrogenated amorphous silicon sensors on flexible substrate

Mikaël Martino, Sylvain Dunand, Nicolas Würsch, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Matthew James Large

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is a well known material for its radiation resistance and for the possibility of deposition on flexible substrates like Polyimide (PI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). Due to the p ...

IEEE2023

New Developments in Amorphous Silicon Based Microchannel Plates

Christophe Ballif, Nicolas Würsch, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Mohammad Beygi, Samira Alexandra Frey

Microchannel plates fabricated from hydrogenated amorphous silicon (AMCPs) are a promising alternative to conventional glass microchannel plates. Their main advantages lie in their flexible fabrication processes, allowing for adaptable channel shapes and t ...

2023

A hydrogenated amorphous silicon detector for Space Weather applications

Sylvain Dunand, Nicolas Würsch, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Matthew James Large

The characteristics of a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) detector are presented here for monitoring in space solar flares and the evolution of strong to extreme energetic proton events. The importance and the feasibility to extend the proton measur ...

SPRINGER2023

Integration of thin n-type nc-Si:H layers in the window-multilayer stack of heterojunction solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Julie Amandine Dreon, Corentin Yann Sthioul

N-type nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H(n)) layers are good candidates to improve current and transport properties in heterojunction solar cells. In this work, we perform thickness series alongside PH3 doping series to unravel the desirable characteristics ...

ELSEVIER2022

Contact Design for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Luca Massimiliano Antognini

Today more than ever the world needs clean energy sources and thus a fast deployment and scaling up of the photovoltaic industry. In this context improving solar cell efficiency plays a major role. In order to achieve the maximum single junction efficiency ...

EPFL2022

Contact Resistivity Measurements and their Applicability for Accurate Series Resistance Breakdown in Heterojunction Solar Cell

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Lison Sylou Marthey, Julie Amandine Dreon, Deniz Türkay

In this work, we use several approaches to perform accurate Series Resistance (R-S) breakdown of a state of the art 2 cm x 2 cm screen-printed solar cell reaching 82.5% FF. On the one hand, Haschke et al.'s model for the lateral transport through the cell, ...

AMER INST PHYSICS2022

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches for Identifying and Mitigating Electrical Losses in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Luca Massimiliano Antognini

Electrical losses in silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells are difficult to identify and to control as multiple material layers and several entangled physical phenomena are involved. In this context, this contribution aims to accurately investigate and ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2022

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

ZnSnxGe1-xN2 as electron-selective contact for silicon heterojunction solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Julie Amandine Dreon, Julien Hurni, Davi Marcelo Fébba

This work reports the electrical characterization of ZnSnxGe1-xN2 (ZTGN) layers deposited on glass by sputtering and further assesses for the first time the performance of SHJ solar cells featuring them as electron-selective contacts. Bandgap, conductivity ...

IEEE2021

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

Effects of work function and electron affinity on the performance of carrier-selective contacts in silicon solar cells using $ZnSn_{x}Ge_{1-x}N_{2}$ as a case study

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Jonathan Emanuel Thomet, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Vincent Philippe Paratte, Julie Amandine Dreon, Julien Hurni, Davi Marcelo Fébba

2021