Improved dislocation model of silicon solar cells with the effect of front and back surface recombination velocity

We have extended a previous model for calculating the effects of dislocations on the characteristics of a Si solar cell to include the effects of front and back surface recombination. This improved dislocation model uses Green's function approach to solve the three-dimensional continuity equation of the minority carriers with suitable boundary conditions corresponding to surface recombination at the n and p sides. The dislocations are considered to be localized lines, extending perpendicular to the front and back surfaces of the cell and having a recombination velocity. We discuss effect of several parameters such as bulk dislocation density, minority carrier diffusion length in p and n regions on the J-V characteristics, and spectral response of the cell. It is shown that these results agree well with previously published, experimental data.