Band gap narrowing in p-type base regions of solar cells

This paper demonstrates that for an adequate simulation of solar cells it is very important to include band gap narrowing even for base resistivities as high as 0.5 omega cm. Numerical simulations were performed using the band gab narrowing model recently developed by A. Schenk (JAP 84, 3684 (1998)). The simulated open-circuit voltages are in excellent agreement with the V(ind OC) values measured on RP-PERC solar cells in the doping range between 2x10(exp 15) and 5.5x10(exp 17) cm-3. By comparing the measurements with a simulation performed without band gab narrowing it was possible to determine new apparent BGN data points which are in excellent agreement with the Schenk-model.