NOVEL APPROACH OF SOLAR ENERGY HARVESTING USING UV COMPATIBLE COATING ON Si DETECTOR (2DV.3.54) Bablu K. Ghosh, Ismail S., Khairul A. M., Kenneth Teo T. K., Saiful Sapri M. Z School of Enginerring and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, Geometric mean (GM) of refractive index (RI) between cSi (3.47) and air (1.00) about 1.86 preferred to match with suitable coating RI for better absorption of solar irradiance on Si cell. For particular material, band gap is fixed so only by promoting responsivity can promote efficiency. Passivation effect is vital for better harness of solar energy or to improve responsivity of cell [1-2]. In connection with the refractive index`s GM and passivation effect, proper selection of coating materials is crucial. To achieve better responsivity or conversion efficiency, it is essential to absorb photon and to generate photo carriers in the active region effectively. Doping can also make variation of active region depth [3]. These impacts are claimed for Si cell in the study. Enhancement of solar irradiation absorption in c-Si cell using UV compatible novel coating approach on it that nearly match with the geometric mean of refractive index between air and cSi. Pure crystalline c-Si wafer based P + N /N + P/ N + iP and P + N photo detectors are fabricated using TCAD software. Applying different combinational thickness of SiO 2 / SiO 2 +Si 3 N 4 coating (window) layers are designed for simulation and analysis of whole solar spectrum response. Besides that without coating layer or with single layer of different materials coating effect is also investigated for comparison. Different concentration body doping and active layer doping variation is also done in the simulation process. For the UV-A and UV-B band as well as the whole visible band photons to photocurrent effective conversion for better responsivity or conversion efficiency; suitable thickness of SiO 2 +Si 3 N 4 coating is implemented in the process to achieve GM √(2.06*1.57)=1.8. Designed window area is 1 mm 2, irradiation is 1W/cm 2 and responsivity unit is A/W is considered for the experiments. [1] Tatsuo Saga, NPG Asia Materials (2010) 2, 96–102; [2] Sinje K-C et. al., 26th EU PVSEC - European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference & Exhibition, Sept., 2011 [3] Bablu K Ghosh et. al., Computer Applications and Industrial Electronics (ISCAIE-12), 2012 IEEE explore ; ISSN: , P [4] A. Rogalski and M. Razeghi, Opto-Electronics review 4,N1/2, 1996, P-18 [5] OSI Optoelectronics, application notes P-74www.osioptoelectronics.com Kota Kinabalu, Sabah This work is supported by UMS FRGS grant under MOHE, Malaysia, ref. # FRG0307-TK—1/2012 It appears that applying suitable coating to absorb solar irradiance effectively in the desired active region could possible to enhance the photocurrent or conversion efficiency for Si solar cell. Harmonized coating layers thickness (SiO 2 +Si 3 N 4 of ≤60 nm) with desired geometric mean of RI (~1.8) enhances cell /detector conversion efficiency. As compared to the different materials single layer coating, SiO 2 and Si 3 N 4 harmonized coating is found promising with cSi(100). N-faced cell responsivity found higher it may due to better passivation and less contact resistance effect. BACKGROUND IMPACT OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS REFERENCES OBJECTIVE METHODOLOGY The effectiveness, linearity and boosting of photo response in UV as well as visible band has improved the overall responsivity that to be useful for further improving the efficiency of cSi based solar cell. CONCLUSION Ref.-5, OSI data