Wafer bonding approaches for III-V on Si multi-junction solar cells

In this study, fabrication of monolithic triple junction (3J) GaInP/AlGaAs/Si solar cells is reported by different wafer bonding approaches: (i) the most straightforward, direct GaAs/Si wafer bonding; (ii) an innovative 2-step approach combining epitaxy of GaAs bonding layer on Si cell followed by GaAs/GaAs direct wafer bonding; and (iii) Surface-Activated GaAs/Si wafer Bonding (SAB). Bonding interfaces properties are comparatively studied, and the performance of resulting III-V on Si triple junction devices is examined. Open-circuit voltages close to 2.9V are obtained in all cases, but large differences in fill factors between the bonding methods are observed, probably due to the presence of an oxide layer.