A thin-film silicon solar cell and module

We have developed a new light-trapping scheme for a thin-film Si stacked module (Si HYBRID PULS module), where a (a-Si:H/transparent interlayer/microcrystalline Si) thin-film was integrated into a large-area solar cell module.An initial aperture efficiency of 13Á1% has been achieved for a 910 Â 455 mm Si HYBRID PLUS module, which was independently confirmed by AIST.This is the first report of the independently confirmed efficiency of a large-area thin-film Si module with an interlayer.The 19% increase of short-circuit current of this module was obtained by the introduction of a transparent interlayer that caused internal light-trapping.A minimodule was shown to exhibit a stabilized efficiency of 12%.Outdoor performance of a Si HYBRID (a-Si:H / micro-crystalline Si stacked) solar cell module has been investigated for over 4 years with two different kinds of module (top and bottom cell limited, respectively).The HYBRID modules limited by the top cell have exhibited a more efficient performance than the modules limited by the bottom cell, in natural sunlight at noon.