Keywords: Crystalline Silicon, Flexible Solar Cells, Low-Temperature Fabrication, Surface Texturing, Bending Radius, Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition, Atomic Layer Deposition.
Recent advancements in photovoltaic (PV) fabrication technology have paved the way for the development of c-silicon (c-Si) based ultra-thin, flexible heterojunction solar cells. Traditional c-Si wafer-based solar cells have a few issues while applying in the field, requiring considerable investments to build the infrastructure to support and maintain the commercial solar panels. Thin, flexible solar cells have a wide range of applicability, from free-standing portable devices to curved surfaces of vehicles or buildings, with negligible additional infrastructure cost. Although other thin-film PV technologies are being explored, they suffer from low power output density and energy payback ratio. c-Si wafer-based solar cells have high energy density and energy payback ratio.
For the development of c-Si-based ultra-thin flexible solar cells, a thorough investigation is needed, aiming to mitigate the challenges associated with the residual stress during the fabrication process, solar spectrum absorption loss, and the dominance of surface effects due to thin silicon wafers. The proposed approach utilizes low-temperature process techniques, specifically Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), to enable the realization of flexible solar cells while maintaining structural integrity. Surface texturing is employed to enhance the light-trapping properties of the solar cells. Systematic optimization of the texturing process is needed to balance surface morphology with flexible solar cells' bending properties. The low-temperature deposition processes are tailored to achieve high-quality thin films, ensuring compatibility with the flexible substrate and facilitating improved surface passivation and carrier selectivity by proper band alignment using transition metal oxides (TMO) as carrier selective layers. The fabricated flexible solar cells undergo comprehensive characterization, including structural, optical, and mechanical analyses. The evaluation includes an assessment of the compromise between surface texture and bending radius flexibility, stress distribution, and the overall impact on the conversion efficiency of the solar cells. The research aims to establish a correlation between the deposition parameters, film properties, and the resulting mechanical and electrical performance of the thin, flexible solar cells.





The energy payback ratio is the ratio of total energy output by a solar cell module throughout its entire lifespan and the total energy invested for solar cell module fabrication, installation, and maintenance combined.
The energy payback time is the minimum required time to produce the energy equivalent to the energy invested in producing the solar cell module.