Simulation and optimization of metal-insulator-semiconductor inversion-layer silicon solar cells

Metal-insulator-semiconductor inversion-layer (MIS-IL) silicon solar cells are promising devices for photovoltaic energy conversion due to the ease of junction fabrication. In order to improve the fundamental understanding of these devices, this paper presents a detailed three-dimensional analysis of existing MIS-IL cells by means of two-dimensional (2-D) numerical modeling and circuit simulation. We implement a physical model suggested in the literature for the tunneling current through the MIS tunnel contact into a device simulator and solve the complete set of drift-diffusion equations for electrons and holes within the silicon in two dimensions. Based on experimentally determined device parameters, a good agreement between simulated and experimental current-voltage (I-V) characteristics is obtained, enabling the spatially resolved determination of resistive and recombinative losses. Furthermore, an optimization study is performed to reveal the efficiency limit of MIS-IL silicon solar cells.