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Title: Design ad Fabrication of Nitride-based Solar Cells and Intergration for Tandem Cell
Committee:
Dr. Abdallah Ougazzaden, ECE, Chair , Advisor
Dr. Jean Paul Salvestrini, ECE
Dr. Paul Voss, ECE
Dr. Ali Adibi, ECE
Dr. Thomas Sanders, MSE
Abstract:
A practical III-nitride (III-N) photovoltaic (PV) application consists of transfer to a foreign substrate with enhanced functionality and/or integration with mature group IV or III-V based solar cell technologies. This requires a lift-off technique compatible with good quality III-N materials, with photovoltaic device fabrication and with subsequent bonding on a heterogeneous substrate. This thesis work demonstrates unprecedented InGaN-based solar cells on 2-inch h-BN/sapphire wafer and their transfer to glass with a backside reflector. III-N solar cells with various sizes and designs are processed and characterized on a full 2-inch wafer giving performances comparable to similar devices on sapphire. The subsequent crack-free transfer of the solar cells, enabled by Van der Waal bonded 2D layered h-BN, to a substrate with a backside reflector yields an increase in the short circuit current density of up to 20%. This demonstration of transferred InGaN-based solar cells on foreign substrates while increasing performance represents a major advance toward lightweight, low cost and high efficiency photovoltaic applications.
