Down-Shifting Phosphor Layer Enhancement in Optically Active and Inactive Thin-Film Solar Module Regions

The enhancement of photovoltaic efficiency by incorporation of down-shifting phosphor materials in optically active and inactive regions of solar modules is presented. Thin film photovoltaic modules suffer from various optical losses, including front glass reflectance, thermalization loss of absorbed high energy photons, window layer absorption, and the loss of photons to scribe regions. There have been various efforts to improve the performance of solar modules by application of down-shifting (DS), down-converting, and up-converting materials systems. Here we show results towards the development of a low-cost phosphor film system tuned to the solar spectrum and specifically designed for CdTe thin film modules.