Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Optimization of laser-patterning process and module design for transparent T

amorphous silicon thin-film module using thin OMO back electrode
Jaeho Parka,b, Soo-Won Choia,d, Sangah Leec, Jaesung Leec, Myunhun Shinc, , Jung-Dae Kwona,b,
⁎ ⁎

a
Materials Center for Energy Convergence, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon, Gyeongnam 51508, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Advance Materials Engineering, University of Science and Technology (UST), 217 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34113, Republic of Korea
c
School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, Goyang, Gyeonggi 10540, Republic of Korea
d
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, Republic of Korea

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Transparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film solar modules are fabricated using oxide-metal-oxide
Transparent amorphous silicon photovoltaic (OMO) electrodes as the back electrode for building-integrated photovoltaic applications. The outer aluminum-
Oxide-metal-oxide electrode doped zinc oxide and inner silver layers constitute a thin OMO electrode (~110 nm thick), exhibiting a sheet
Laser patterning resistance of 6.8 Ω/□ and an average transmittance of ~88% in the visible range of 400–800 nm. The external
Cell geometry
quantum efficiency and average transmittance of the cell were investigated for the absorber-layer thickness
Building integrated photovoltaic
Equivalent circuit
using the finite-difference time-domain method, and it was found that the optical loss in the cell was mainly due
to the absorption of the front electrode in the ultra-violet region and free-carrier absorption of the OMO in the
infrared region. Fabrication issues are introduced for a 532 nm short-pulse high-power laser patterning process
for transparent modules with thin OMO electrodes. Optimization of the laser power for the P2 and P3 laser
processes is demonstrated by observing the profiles and measuring the shunt resistance of the laser-patterned
edges. Furthermore, the cell width is optimized based on an equivalent circuit model using PSpice simulation.
The highest module efficiency and average transparency achieved in the range of 500–800 nm were 5.6% and
15.2%, respectively. The short-circuit current density, fill factor, and open-circuit voltage per cell of the module
were found to be 10.8 mA/cm2, 62.7%, and 0.830 V, respectively.

1. Introduction
The use of fossil fuels is one of the most direct causes of greenhouse
gas emissions that contribute to global warming. In addition, volatile
organic compounds, i.e., the by-products of burning fossil fuels, such as
oxides of carbon, sulfides, and nitrides (COx, SOx, and NOx), generate
fine dust, which is a major cause of urban air pollution, and pose a
serious threat to the health of urban residents (Perera, 2017). Various
renewable energies are essential as a city’s alternative energy source.
Thus, wind, geothermal, bio-, wave, and solar energies have been at-
tracting significant attention (Bernardino et al., 2017; Ghosh, 2016;
Karthikeya et al., 2016; Nathan, 2016; Melikoglu, 2017). In cities and
urban areas, electricity is the most commonly used energy source and it
can be directly provided by solar cells. Therefore, solar cells are an
important technology for realizing net zero-energy buildings (Eshraghi
et al., 2014).
Many solar cells in practical use have focused on the characteristics
of high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and low production cost,
such as with multi- or mono-crystalline silicon (Si) solar cells. In inner-
city areas, solar cells can also be integrated into buildings without the
need for additional installation space. Building-integrated photovoltaic
(BIPV) devices can be constructed as roofs, facades, building-walls, and
even windows (Lee et al., 2019). Modern buildings have started using
glass exteriors as walls, in which power generation using solar cells
along with other architectural characteristics, such as a variety of
colors, flexibility for rounded areas, transparency, and durable stability
during the building’s life cycle, are important features. Solar windows
using dye-sensitized solar cells and organic photovoltaics feature flex-
ibility and transparency, but their long-term stability for commercial
usage has not been verified owing to electrolyte leakage, photo-thermal
degradation, and thermal instability (Asghar et al., 2010). In contrast,
thin film solar cells composed of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-

Abbreviations: AZO, aluminum-doped zinc oxide; BIPV, building-integrated photovoltaic; DPSS, diode pumped solid state; OMO, oxide-metal-oxide; PCE, power
conversion efficiency
⁎
Corresponding authors at: School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, Goyang, Gyeonggi 10540, Republic of Korea (M. Shin),
and Materials Center for Energy Convergence, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon, Gyeongnam 51508, Republic of Korea (J.-D. Kwon).
E-mail addresses: mhshin@kau.ac.kr (M. Shin), jdkwon@kims.re.kr (J.-D. Kwon).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2020.02.092
Received 10 January 2020; Received in revised form 24 February 2020; Accepted 26 February 2020
Available online 03 March 2020
0038-092X/ © 2020 International Solar Energy Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Park, et al.
ZnO:Al (50 nm)
Ag (8 nm)
ZnO:Al (50 nm)
n-uc-SiOx:H (30 nm)
i-a-Si:H (200, 300, 400 nm)
p-SiOx:H (15 nm)
SnO2:F (600 nm)
Glass
Fig. 1. Schematic cross-section of transparent a-Si:H solar cell employing tex-
tured FTO as a front electrode and OMO as a back electrode. The thickness of i-
layer was varied (200, 300, and 400 nm).
Si:H) have already proven their stability by being installed and oper-
ated in the field for more than 20 years (King et al., 2000). In addition,
the a-Si:H thin film solar cells use Si, which is abundant on earth; hence,
their material cost is low. It has also been demonstrated in the display
industry that the manufacturing processes using large-area glass sub-
strates are feasible, which is essential for the large windows of modern
buildings.
Recently, we implemented an oxide-metal-oxide (OMO) structure as
the back electrode of a transparent a-Si:H thin film solar cell for a BIPV
window (Choi et al., 2019; Jo et al., 2018, 2019; Yang et al., 2018). In
general, OMOs have the advantage of simultaneously increasing the
electrical conductivity and optical transmittance by including a very
thin metal layer with high electrical conductivity between the highly
transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films. When silver (Ag) is used as
the interstitial metal layer between TCO films at the percolation
thickness, the OMO film exhibits optimized performance considering
the optical transmittance and PCE of the transparent a-Si:H solar cell.
Monolithic fabrication of a thin film module on a glass substrate
commonly uses a three-step patterning process with a short-pulse high
power laser (Jung et al., 2014). The first pattern (P1) removes the front
TCO along a line isolating the front electrodes. The second pattern (P2)
ablates the absorber semiconductor layer, thereby creating contact lines
that connect the front TCO electrodes in series with the back electrodes.
The third pattern (P3) removes both the absorber and back electrode,
Deposit a-Si:H
by PECVD
P1
Fig. 2. Schematic of the laser scribing process for fabricating amorphous silicon solar cell module.
Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83
thereby separating each individual cell.
When using very thin OMO electrodes for a transparent solar
module, the laser power of the P2 and P3 processes must be carefully
optimized. The laser power of the P2 and P3 processes needs to be
sufficient to remove the a-Si:H absorber layers, but not excessive, to
mitigate the damage of the front TCO underneath and to reduce thermal
defects in the a-Si:H layers close to the laser scribed patterns. In addi-
tion, the deposition of the OMO layers is affected by the P2 process and
the transmittance or reflectance of the back electrodes affects the P3
process.
In this work, we fabricated a transparent a-Si:H thin film module
using OMO electrodes as the back electrode to present the optical and
electrical optimization of the module design and optimize the laser
patterning process for transparent modules. Using the finite-difference
time-domain (FDTD) method, we analyzed the optical loss in the
transparent a-Si:H solar cells and optimized the cell width based on an
equivalent circuit model using the PSpice simulator. We also introduced
fabrication problems in the nano-second laser (532 nm) patterning
processes of transparent solar modules when using very thin OMO
electrodes. The P2 and P3 laser processes were examined and optimized
using focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), op-
tical microscopy (OM), and measuring the current density and voltage
(J-V) characteristics of the fabricated modules.
2. Module fabrication, simulation, and characterization
2.1. Fabrication of cell and module
2.1.1. Fabrication of transparent a-Si:H solar cell
Fig. 1 depicts the structure of the transparent a-Si:H solar cell. To
fabricate the solar cells, we used a commercial glass substrate with a
deposited textured fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO, 600 nm) layer
(Pilkington Ltd., 8 Ω/□, 50 mm × 50 mm). After the substrate was
cleaned with a neutral detergent, p-, i- and n-type (p-/i-/n-) layers were
sequentially deposited on the substrate by radio frequency (RF) plasma-
enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at 250 °C. The i-layer of
a-Si:H was obtained from a silane (SiH4) source gas diluted by hydrogen
(H2) at high-frequency RF conditions of 40 MHz and 30 W. The i-layer
with thicknesses of 200, 300, and 400 nm was used to observe the
dependence of the characteristics of cells on i-layer thickness. The p-
type hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (p-a-SiOx:H) and n-type
hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon oxide (n-μc-SiOx:H) layers were
prepared using mixed gases of diborane (B2H6, 1% diluted in H2),
phosphine (PH3, 1% diluted in H2), and carbon dioxide (CO2) of oxygen
dopant under the RF conditions of 13 MHz and 50 W. An OMO structure
was applied as the back electrode. Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO)
with a thickness of 50 nm was used in the upper and lower oxide layers
and Ag with a thickness of 8 nm was used in the middle metal layer.
Under these conditions, the OMO electrodes exhibited a sheet resistance
of 6.8 Ω/□ and average transmittance of 88% in the visible range of
400–800 nm. The oxide and metal layers were deposited using a
magnetron sputtering system at DC powers of 500 and 50 W,
Deposit OMO
by DC sputtering
P2 P3
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J. Park, et al.
ROMO ROMO
OMO
ROMO_a-Si
a-Si
Rsh-P3
Iph Dfwd Rsh Iph
RFTO_a-Si
FTO RFTO RFTO
Glass
Active area
Iph : Photo-generated current RY : Series resistance in Y (OMO, FTO, P2, OMO-P1, and FTO-P2-P3)
Dfwd :Forward diode ROMO_a-Si :Contact resistance in OMO_a-Si surface
Rsh-X :Shunt resistance in (P1, and P3) RFTO_a-Si : Contack resistance in FTO_a-Si surface
Fig. 3. 2D equivalent circuit model of transparent a-Si:H solar cell.
respectively. The sputtering process was performed at room tempera-
ture in a high vacuum (2 × 10−6 Torr) and a shadow mask was used to
define a cell active area of 0.25 cm2 during the OMO deposition.
2.1.2. Fabrication of transparent a-Si:H solar module
To fabricate the module, a diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) laser
delivering a short-pulse high-power output was used for the patterning
process. The DPSS laser employed a neodymium-doped yttrium ortho-
vanadate (Nd:YVO4) gain medium, operated at a wavelength of 532 nm
to emit optical pulses with a variable pulse duration of up to 41 ns. The
overlap ratio of the scribed patterns was controlled by the frequency
and scan speed of the laser. In addition, the laser beam was focused to
be as flat as the laser equipment. Thus, in our experiments, the laser
output power was adjusted by changing the pump diode current of the
laser and fine-tuned with an external attenuator. The laser beam was
delivered to samples by a scanner head, which processed the high-speed
patterning. The three-step scribing process (P1, P2, and P3) was used
for the monolithic interconnection of solar cells in a module, as shown
in Fig. 2, where P1, P2, and P3 were performed with the laser incident
on the glass substrate side. The P1 process patterned the isolation lines
in the FTO; then, the p-/i-/n-layers of the a-Si:H cells were deposited on
the patterned FTO glass by PECVD. The P2 process was performed to
selectively remove the p-/i-/n-layers from the front FTO electrode
layer. After OMO electrode deposition, P3 ablated the p-/i-/n-layers,
thereby removing the OMO back electrode. It is generally known that
the absorber layers are instantaneously ablated by absorbing the laser
power in the P2 and P3 processes, and the back electrodes are me-
chanically removed by P3 when the absorber layers are ablated by a
short-pulse laser. After P3, the cells were separated and connected in
series. In this study, modules with various cell widths ranging from 2 to
8 mm were fabricated to compare the performance parameters of
modules as a function of cell width.
2.2. Simulation and characterization
2.2.1. Simulation of transparent a-Si:H solar module
The optical transmittance and absorbance were evaluated using the
FDTD method. For the FDTD simulation, we used the ellipsometrically
Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83
Cell width
ROMO ROMO ROMO-P1
ROMO_a-Si
Dfwd Rsh
RP2
RFTO_a-Si
RFTO RFTO RFTO-P2-P3
Rsh-P1
Dead area
measured optical parameters of the individual layers of the OMO
electrode (AZO and Ag) and the p-/i-/n-layers of a-Si:H cells to de-
termine the structural parameters. Layer thicknesses (as shown in
Fig. 1) were also used in the simulations. The transmittance and ab-
sorbance of the cell were estimated by FDTD simulation for varying
values of the absorber layer thickness. To design the module based on
the performance parameters of a single transparent a-Si:H cell and the
sheet resistances of the front TCO and back OMO, we constructed a
distributed equivalent circuit model of the module, as shown in Fig. 3.
The equivalent circuit model can incorporate the dead area loss (the
observed area loss between P1–P3) and resistance losses in the front
TCO and back OMO to estimate the performance of the module (Kim
et al., 2017). In addition to the area loss in P1–P3, the resistance loss in
the thin OMO back electrodes is a major cause of transparent module
degradation. Each of these effects depends on the unit cell size of the
module. Thus, the width of the cell is carefully designed based on the
simulation results.
2.2.2. Characterization
OM and FIB-SEM (Nova 200, FEI) were used to observe the surface
and cross-section of the cells after the layer patterning process, re-
spectively. A spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE MG-1000, Nano-View Co.)
was used to determine the refractive indices, extinction coefficients,
and thickness of the absorber layer on the glass substrates. The trans-
mittance and reflectance of the cells were obtained via ultra-
violet–visible (UV–VIS) spectrophotometry (Cary 5000, Varian). The J-
V characteristics of the solar cells and modules were measured using a
solar simulator (Oriel 300, Newport Co.) under standard 1-sun illumi-
nation (100 mW/cm2 of AM1.5G). When measuring the performance of
a cell or module, solar irradiance masks were used and aligned to the
apertures of the devices to avoid potential overestimation of the pho-
tocurrents of the devices. The external quantum efficiency (EQE)
(QuantX 300, ORIEL) of the solar cells was measured to observe the
spectral response.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 4 shows a comparison between the simulated EQE and
77
J. Park, et al. Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83

(a) 100
i layer thickness (b)
100
i layer thickness
*Simulation 90
*Simulation
I-200 I-200
80 I-300 80 I-300
I-400 I-400

Transmittance(%)
70
60 60
EQE (%)

50
40 40
30
20 20
10
0 0
300 400 500 600 700 800 300 400 500 600 700 800
Wave length (nm) Wave length (nm)
(c) 100
(d) 100
i layer thickness *Measurement i-layer thickness
*Measurement 90
I-200 I-200
80 I-300 80 I-300
I-400 I-400
70

Transmittance (%)
60 60
EQE (%)

50
40 40
30
20 20
10
0 0
300 400 500 600 700 800 300 400 500 600 700 800
Wave length (nm) Wave length (nm)
(e)
100 (f) 100
i layer thickness Front SnO2:F
*Simulation
i-200 p-SiOx:H
80 Measurement i-300 80 n-uc-SiOx:H
i-400
i-200 rear OMO
Absorbance (%)
Reflectance (%)

Simulation i-300
60 60
i-400

40 40

20 20

0 0
300 400 500 600 700 800 300 400 500 600 700 800
Wave length (nm) Wave length (nm)

Fig. 4. Characteristics of a-Si:H solar cells (the area of ~0.25 cm2) for different i-layer thicknesses (200, 300, 400 nm). (a) Simulated external quantum efficiency
(EQE), (b) simulated total transmittance, (c) measured EQE, (d) measured total transmittance, (e) measured and simulated reflectance of cells, and (f) simulated
absorbance of each layer for an i-layer thickness of 300 nm.

transmittance spectra and the measured ones that depend on the
thickness of the i-layer. Overall, the EQE increased with the increasing
thickness of the i-layer whereas the total transmittance decreased. In
the simulation shown in Fig. 4a and b, the short wavelength light was
expected to be absorbed in the front TCO (under ~ 350 nm) and the p-
layer (350–400 nm); however, the spectral EQE response in the visible
light in the range of 450–700 nm was expected to increase with the
thickness of i-layer. The simulation results were significantly consistent
with the measured EQE response and transmittance shown in Fig. 4c
and d. The transmittance was first observed at wavelengths over
500 nm; it increased with the wavelength. In contrast, the overall
transmittance decreased with the thickness of the i-layer. In Fig. 4e,
neither the simulated nor measured reflectance changed significantly
with the thickness of the i-layer. In thin film solar cells, it is difficult to
directly measure the optical losses occurring in each layer. Thus, we
simulated the optical losses (absorbance) in each layer, as shown in

78
J. Park, et al.
Fig. 5. Dependency of J-V characteristics of a-Si:H solar cells on thickness of the
absorption layer (the cell area is ~0.25 cm2).
Table 1
Trade-off between the efficiency and transmittance of a-Si:H solar cell depends
on the thickness of the absorption layer.
i-layer thickness (nm) Efficiency (%) T500–800 (%)
200 5.42 18.2
300 5.90 15.2
400 6.22 12.8
T500–800: average transmittance over 500–800 nm.
Fig. 4f. In this figure, the absorbance in the front TCO contributes to
lowering the EQEs of the i-layers and accounts for the nonlinear in-
flections observed in the EQE curves of the i-layers in the 350–400 nm
range in Fig. 4a and c. Fig. 4f reveals the absorbance still present in the
thin back OMO in the 650–800 nm range, and the small absorbance due
to thin p-type and n-type layers can also contribute to reduce the cell
efficiency. Thus, the results shown in Fig. 4f suggest that the high
bandgap materials in the front TCO and p-type layer can be modified to
improve the EQE response of the cell by reducing the optical loss in a
short wavelength range. In addition, considering the free carrier ab-
sorptions in metals in the long wavelength range, appropriately se-
lecting the middle metal and amount of dopant in the rear TCO can
reduce the optical loss in the cell and improve the transmittance in the
visible range of 500–800 nm. It should be noted that both the simulated
and measured reflectance and the optical losses in each layer did not
significantly change with the change in the thickness of the i-layer.
Fig. 5 presents the measured J-V characteristics of the fabricated
cells for each thickness of the i-layer. When the i-layer thickness in-
creases, no significant change is observed in the open circuit voltage
(VOC) and fill factor (FF) of the cells; however, the short circuit current
density (JSC) of the cell increases, which results in an increase in the cell
efficiency. These results are consistent with the observed behaviors in
Fig. 4 and are summarized in Table 1. Therefore, to optimize the a-Si:H
solar cell for BIPV applications, it is necessary to select the appropriate
i-layer thickness because there is a trade-off between the conversion
efficiency.
As introduced, the P2 and P3 processes can affect the fabrication
process and final performance of transparent solar cell modules em-
ploying the thin OMO electrodes (thickness = 108 nm). Fig. 6a
79
Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83
demonstrates the schematic cross-sectional structure of the laser pat-
terning of the module, where the cells are connected monolithically in
series. Fig. 6b shows an OM image taken from the film side of the
module. In Fig. 6b, the line widths of P1–P3 are 34, 27, and 30 µm,
respectively, and the spaces between P1–P2 and P2–P3 are 100 µm
each. Fig. 6a indicates the active and dead areas; the width of the unit
cell is the sum of these areas. The area between P1 and P3 (~200 µm) is
called the dead area because it cannot generate power effectively (Brecl
et al., 2005). Fig. 6c shows the cross-sectional FIB-SEM images at the
edges of the laser patterns of P1–P3. In Fig. 6c, it can be observed that
the FTO layer forms a gentle slope at the pattern edge of P1 but the a-
Si:H layers are sharply cut at the pattern edges of P2 and P3. The edge
of P2 should have a smooth profile to reliably connect the step coverage
of the thin OMO layers.
Besides the edge profile, there are more difficulties in the P2 process
associated with the OMO layers. The P2 process does not damage the
underlying layer of the front electrode (FTO) but also needs to selec-
tively remove the absorber layers (a-Si:H). When P2 was performed at
an average laser power lower than 1.2 W, the absorber was not com-
pletely removed and the remaining absorber formed edge ridges, as
shown in Fig. 6d. Incomplete removal of the absorber layer and un-
evenly formed contact between the front and back electrode led to an
increase in the series resistance of the module (Ku et al., 2011). When
P2 was performed at an average power higher than 2.0 W, damages
were observed on the front TCO; even for powers below 2.0 W, it was
often observed that the deposited OMO formed island-like growths, as
evident in Fig. 6e. We observed significant loss in the series resistance
of the module with the P2 edge of Fig. 6e. We believe that some a-Si:H
residue, which was scattered by the excess laser power, acted as nu-
cleation centers for the growth of nanoscale islands of OMO during the
deposition due to the surface interaction described in the work of
Henley et al. (2005).
Opaque solar cells generally use a reflective back metal as the back
electrodes. When P3 is performed with a reflective back metal electrode
in an opaque solar cell module, the metal electrodes reflect the laser
beam back into the absorber layer, which enables P3 at reduced laser
power, thereby mitigating thermal damage to the cells. However, for
transparent cells, the OMO electrodes are designed to be transparent in
the visible range. The OMO is very transparent to the P3 laser output at
532 nm. Moreover, the effective refractive index of the OMO is between
those of the absorber and air, and the reflection at the interface of the
OMO and absorber layers is lower than without the OMO layer during
the P3 process. Thus, more power is required for the P3 process than the
P2 process. Nevertheless, we used a short-pulse laser with a pulse
duration of less than 41 ns. The heat generated during P3 can be
transferred to the adjacent active region of the a-Si:H layers or the OMO
electrodes near the edge of the patterns. Such rapid heating causes
unwanted phase transitions and deformations in the materials. In ad-
dition, the thin OMO electrodes can form burs or give rise to debris
under unoptimized laser process conditions.
Fig. 7a shows that parasitic shunt resistance due to P3 and the PCE
of the module are closely related and both are very sensitive to the
average laser power of P3. If the average power is insufficient to
completely remove the OMO layer, the OMO layer partially remains.
The partially remaining OMO layer electrically connects the adjacent
cells serving as shunt paths; thus, the shunt resistance increases with
the average power of P3 in Fig. 7a. Interestingly, the shunt resistance
becomes worse, thereby deteriorating the cell performance at average
powers of P3 exceeding a certain value (1.35 W), as shown in Fig. 7a.
We expect that there are several reasons for the shunt resistance be-
havior demonstrated in Fig. 7a. First, the OMO edge undergoes plastic
J. Park, et al.
Fig. 6. (a) Cross-sectional structure of the a-Si:H module for monolithic serial inter-connection; (b) optical microscopy image of P1, P2, and P3 scribes; and (c) FIB-
SEM images of P1, P2, and P3. Result of performing P2 with an average power of (d) 0.59 W and (e) 2.0 W.
deformation (partial melting) during the P3 process due to the excessive
energy forming a structure shown in Fig. 7b. The thin OMO layer used
in this work (total thickness is less than 110 nm) can be deformed very
easily. Second, a conductive sidewall is formed by the evaporation and
re-deposition of the front FTO as a result of the excess power of P3, as
depicted in Fig. 7c. (Ku et al., 2013; García-Ballesteros et al., 2011). At
the higher average powers of P3, damages to the front FTO were con-
firmed in the OM image. The OM image (average power = 2.0 W) in
Fig. 7a exhibits bright areas of damaged FTO. Finally, thermal defects
or recrystallization of a-Si:H layers by the excess laser power can reduce
the shunt resistance near the P3 edges. As shown in Fig. 7a, P3 must be
carefully optimized and stabilized while processing the transparent
modules with thin OMO electrodes.
Using the measured J-V characteristics of a small transparent a-Si:H
cell (0.25 cm2) and the sheet resistances of the front TCO and back
OMOs, we configured the distributed equivalent circuits of the modules
for various widths of the unit cells. In the modules, the unit cells were
80
Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83
4 cm long, and 2, 4, 6, and 8 mm wide; the number of cells was fixed to
5 to exclude problems induced by the number of laser scribes. Fig. 8a
shows the simulated and measured J-V characteristics of the modules
where the current density of a module is considered to be a module
current divided by the area of a unit cell and the voltage per cell is the
module voltage divided by the number of unit cells in a module. All
performance parameters of the module are compared in Fig. 8b for
varying widths of the unit cells (JSC and VOC are the current density of
the module at short circuit condition and voltage per cell at open circuit
condition, respectively). As the unit cell width increases from 2 to
8 mm, the JSC increases from 10.5 to 11.2 mA/cm2, and FF deteriorates
from 63.7 to 56%, but VOC exhibits minimal changes from 0.825 V.
Fig. 8b implies that the major loss in the module for increasing the unit
cell width is the resistive loss. When the unit cell width increases, the
relative area loss (dead area for the unit cell) decreases such that JSC
increases. However, the resistance in the front TCO or the back OMO
increases with the unit cell width; thus, the FF decreases without
J. Park, et al.
serious degradation of the VOC of the module. Therefore, as shown in
Fig. 8a, the optimized transparent module with a unit cell width of
approximately 4 mm exhibits the highest module efficiency (η) of 5.6%
with JSC, FF, and VOC of 10.9 mA/cm2, 62.7%, and 0.830 V, respec-
tively. In this work, we used the 300-nm thick i-layer to fabricate the
modules and optimize the module with the unit cell width, because at
the thickness of 300 nm, the EQE was better than that of 200-nm thick i-
layer and the transmittance was better than that of 400-nm thick i-
layer, respectively. However, it is noteworthy that the device structure
can be further optimized by considering both optical and electrical
characteristics of the overall module performance, such as the best
figure of merit (the product of the transparency and PCE in a module)
(Jo et al., 2019). The thickness of the i-layer, front TCO and each layer
of the OMO electrode affects not only the generated current (closely
related to the EQE response) but also the transmittance in the visible
range, so normally a trade-off between the PCE and transmittance must
be made. The thickness and electrical conductivity of each of these
layers is related to the unit cell width, which determines the optimum
efficiency of the module. Therefore, each layer thickness should be
optimized in consideration of the change in the transmittance (as
shown in Fig. 4) and efficiency of the module (as shown in Fig. 8)
through in-depth iterations of experiments and simulations, which can
be explored in further works.
4. Conclusions
We fabricated transparent Si (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells and
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Solar Energy 201 (2020) 75–83
Fig. 7. (a) Influence of the average power of P3 on
fabricated modules. The modules consist of 10 cells
(4-mm width and 4-cm length) so that the total area
is ~16 cm2. Left y-axis shows normalized shunt
resistance (RSH), right y-axis shows normalized
power conversion efficiency (PCE). Schematics re-
ducing shunt resistance (b) plastic deformation of
OMO or (c) conductive sidewall of FTO.
modules for BIPV applications where OMO electrodes consisting of an
AZO sandwiched Ag layer were used as the back electrode of the de-
vices. The ~110 nm-thick OMO electrode exhibited a sheet resistance
of as low as 6.8 Ω/□ and the average transmittance was as high as 88%
in the visible range of 400–800 nm. We investigated the external
quantum efficiency and average transmittance of the cell for varying
thicknesses of the i-layer by measurements and FDTD simulation. An
efficiency of 5.42–6.22% and T500-800 of 12.8–18.2% were obtained for
i-layer thicknesses of 200–400 nm with a trade-off between the effi-
ciency and T500-800. The FDTD simulation showed that the band-to-
band absorption of the front TCO in the ultra-violet region and free-
carrier absorption of the back OMO in the infrared region are the main
causes of the optical loss in the transparent cell. To fabricate the
transparent modules, we used the monolithic patterning method with a
532 nm short-pulse high-power laser. We demonstrated that an un-
optimized laser power for P2 could not only damage the front TCO or
cause incomplete removal of a-Si:H layers, but also create unwanted
OMO nucleation even after the P2 process. We also showed that the
module PCE is sensitive to the average power of P3 because parasitic
shunt paths at the edge of the P3 patterns were easily formed when
using thin OMO electrodes in the transparent module. We demonstrated
that the P2 and P3 processes can be optimized by observing the edge
profiles of the patterns and measuring the shunt resistance of the
modules. We also optimized the module cell width using an equivalent
circuit model in the PSpice simulator; the highest module efficiency and
average transparency in the range of 500–800 nm were found to be
5.6% and 15.2%, respectively. Additionally, the short-circuit current
J. Park, et al.
Fig. 8. Characteristics of a-Si:H modules according to the width of the unit cells. Each unit cell has the same length of 4 cm, but differs in width, having widths of 2, 4,
6, and 8 mm. Each module consists of five same unit cells with a 300-nm thick absorber layer, so the module sizes are 4, 8, 12, and 16 cm2 for the width of the
different unit cells. Simulated and measured (a) J-V curves and (b) solar cell parameters. Solid lines denote the measured values and dashed lines denote the
simulated values.
density, fill factor, and open circuit voltage per cell of the module were
10.9 mA/cm2, 62.7%, and 0.830 V, respectively. The optimization of
the laser patterning process and the evaluation and design methods
used for the transparent modules can help in the development of ad-
vanced transparent a-Si:H thin film solar modules using thin and highly
transparent OMO electrodes.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgments
Funding: This work was supported by the Energy Technology
Development Program of the Korean Institute of Energy Technology
Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) [grant numbers 20172010104940
and 20192010107400].
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