Semi-Empirical Calculation of Depletion Region Width in n+-p Silicon Solar Cells

An extension of the width calculation for impurity distributions of complementary error function and the Gaussian function, in addition to the exponential function is used in combination with experimental width values deduced from capacitance measurements at zero bias to numerically determine the width occurring in both the n+ and p junctions. The total possible error o the semi-empirical calculation is less than plus or minus 3%. Results show considerable variation in the depletion widths occurring in the n+ and p regions for different impurity profiles.