HIGH EFFICIENCY ( greater than 18%, ACTIVE AREA, AM1) SILICON minMIS SOLAR CELLS.

Abstract

MinMIS (minoroty carrier Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor) solar cells are electronically equivalent to ideal p-n junction cells. However, grating minMIS cells with the semiconductor surface between the grating lines inverted have a performance advantage over actual p-n junction cells. Such grating cells on polished silicon substrates have displayed active area efficiencies up to 18. 3% (AM1, 28 degree C). The outstanding feature of these devices is the high open circuit voltages which can be obtained. Since the voltage limiting mechanism of conventional p-n junction devices is eliminated, values as high as 660 mV have been measured (AMO, 25 degree C).