Desarrollo de nuevas arquitecturas de células solares verticales para ultra-altos niveles de concentración

Résumé

The goal of this thesis is the development of new vertical solar cell architectures for ultra - high concentration levels (UHCPV). To achieve this goal, a review of the state of the art of semiconductor materials and solar cell architectures was realised, studying the advantages and limitations. From this review, the Vertical - Tunnel - Junction (VTJ) solar cell is introduced. An advanced modelling and an evaluation of this solar cell at different operation conditions are carried out using TCAD tools. From this study, efficiencies >30% for UHCPV were obtained, which breaks the current records, mainly due to the low series resistance (RS) of this structure. On the other hand, due to the potential of this structure, it was decided to investigate its potential as a power converter for ultra - high input power (UHPin), achieving efficiencies >70% and reducing the RS between two and three orders of magnitude.