TCAD Based Optimization of SJ Infrared Solar Cell for an Efficient Thermo-Photovoltaic Application

A thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells directly convert infrared (IR) radiation to electricity, similar to when traditional solar cells are exposed to visible light. A reliable high efficient Single junction Infrared cell for thermo-photovoltaic application was modeled by using numerical simulation TCAD tool ATLAS. The most potential materials GaSb, InGaAs and InGaSb and their respective Infrared cell were compared and analyzed their various critical performance parameters. GaSb based TPV cells is found to be the best choice among them. The cell optimization is done for operation with terrestrial solar spectrum AM1.5. The optimized Single Junction Infrared TPV cell is allowed for further increasing the efficiency up to 27.31% at black body spectrum (TBB =1300K). Optimization of doping concentration and layer thickness of GaSb cell with respect to Power conversion efficiency (PCE) and External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) is performed by simple successive iteration algorithm. Further, efficiencies at varied temperature range (1100K to 2000K) is also investigated for future infrared application. It is found that up to 32% efficiency at AM1.5 and 35% efficiency can be attained at 1800K radiation in this proposed optimized cell.