Numerical analysis of locally contacted rear surface passivated silicon solar cells

We present a numerical simulation study on the optimization of locally contacted rear surface passivated p-Si solar cells considering float-zone and Czochralski-grown bulk material, latter by taking different amounts of oxygen concentrations into account and, thus, varying the quality of the bulk material. The conversion efficiency potential is figured out by a broad variation of the nominal base resistivity, thickness and rear contact distance of the solar cell. To focus on the bulk and rear side recombination properties, the front side contact and emitter properties have been idealized to avoid recombination losses in this region. It turns out that high level injection effects playing a major role in the description of high resistivity bulk materials.