Boron‐doped selective silicon epitaxy: high efficiency and process simplification in interdigitated back contact cells

The present research and development activities in crystalline silicon photovoltaics include the exploration of doping technologies alternative to the mainstream diffusion process. The goal is to identify those technologies with potential to increase the solar cell efficiency and reduce the cost per watt peak. In that respect, this work presents the selective epitaxial growth of silicon as a candidate for boron doping; showing the results of the evaluation of boron‐doped silicon epitaxial emitters on slurry and diamond‐coated wire‐sliced Czochralski material, their integration in interdigitated back contact solar cells, and the development of a novel process sequence to create the interdigitated rear junction of these devices using selective epitaxial growth. Boron‐doped silicon epitaxy is demonstrated to perform in the high efficiency range (>22%), and the use of selective epitaxial growth is proposed as a route for the simplification of the interdigitated back contact solar cell flow. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interdigitated back contact solar cell: A silicon solar cell for use in concentrated sunlight

The theoretical and experimental performance of an interdigitated back contact solar cell is described. This type of cell is shown to have significant advantages over a conventional solar cell design when used at high concentration levels, namely, reduced internal series resistance, nonsaturating open-circuit voltage, and an absence of shadowing by front surface contacting fingers. The results of a computer study are presented showing the effects of bulk lifetime, surface recombination velocity, device thickness, contact dimensions, and illumination intensity on the conversion efficiency and general device operation. Experimental results are presented for solar illumination intensities up to 28 W/cm².     

Influence of cracks on the local current–voltage parameters of silicon solar cells

The existence of cracks in silicon solar cells can drastically reduce the electrical performance of an individual cell and even of an entire photovoltaic module. An in‐depth understanding of the influence of cracks on solar cells enables therefore calculations of the crack impact and other following effects on module level. This paper shows a detailed analysis of the electrical influence of cracks with two different spatially resolved methods including global and local current–voltage characteristics. The main influence of cracks is an increased recombination current density in the depletion region, which is clearly shown by spatially resolved dark lock‐in thermography measurements with local current–voltage investigation. This increased recombination current density affects further cell parameters such as the efficiency, which is confirmed also by the global current–voltage characteristics. The additionally used ratio image technique based on electroluminescence measurements is in comparison with the local current–voltage method, the more reliable and faster method for the crack detection itself, and allows on cell‐level and module‐level a continuous inspection of cracks. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

23.2% laser processed back contact solar cell: fabrication,characterization and modeling

We describe the manufacturing process for interdigitated back contact back junction silicon solar cells based on laser processes, and present detailed results and analysis to our best cell efficiency of 23.24%. The manufacturing process features two laser doping steps, one for the boron doped emitter and one for the phosphorus doped back surface field. The saturation current densities of thermal oxide passivated laser doped regions are on par with furnace diffused silicon for high efficiency solar cells. Laser ablation locally defines the contact areas through the rear dielectric layer stack, and structures the rear aluminum metallization. The precision of the laser systems in conjunction with the optical setup yields line shaped doping traces with a width of 150 µm and a pitch below 500 µm. The measured optical and electrical properties of our solar cell agree well with 3D simulation results. The measured reflection, transmission, quantum efficiency and current voltage curves in dark and illuminated condition simultaneously agree well with simulation, based on the same data set, giving confidence in the result of a detailed free energy loss analysis. The bulk resistive and recombination losses are identified as the main loss contributors. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimizing the diffused regions of interdigitated backside buried contact solar cells

Recombination and a number of other important factors must be considered in the optimization of the diffused regions of high‐efficiency silicon solar cells. In this paper, we examine issues related to the four types of diffusions used in rear‐junction, interdigitated backside buried contact solar cells made on n‐type silicon wafers: the phosphorus‐diffused front‐surface field (FSF), the boron‐diffused emitter, and the boron and the phosphorus diffused contact regions. Dark saturation current density, effective lifetime, implied open‐circuit voltage and sheet resistance are characterized for the optimization of the above‐mentioned diffused regions. Diffusion uniformity and the avoidance of the diffusion‐induced dislocations are also discussed for the heavily diffused, metal coated contact diffusions. It is found that the optimal sheet resistances of the FSF for planar and textured surfaces are 120 Ω/□ and 105 Ω/□ respectively, whereas the optimal post‐processing sheet resistance for the boron emitter is approximately 100 Ω/□. Moreover, sheet resistance as heavy as 10–20 Ω/□ for the boron groove diffusion and 5–10 Ω/□ for the phosphorus groove diffusion have been achieved without introducing the diffusion‐induced misfit dislocations. Careful consideration of the issues discussed here led to an absolute efficiency improvement on the planar n‐type IBBC solar cell of more than 0·6%. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

晶体硅太阳电池烧结工艺优化

金属电极与硅的接触电阻是影响太阳电池填充因子和短路电流进而影响光电转换效率的重要因素之一。首先对晶体硅太阳电池的烧结工艺进行了优化,利用平台式烧结温度曲线代替陡坡式烧结温度曲线。然后,采用Core Scan方法测试工艺优化前后晶体硅太阳电池丝网印刷烧结银电极与硅之间的接触电阻Rc,并测试了工艺优化前后电池片的IV特性。数据显示烧结工艺优化后可减小银电极与硅的接触电阻,从而提高了太阳电池的光电转化效率。平台式烧结温度曲线更适用浅结高方阻的电池结构。     

Enhanced lateral current transport via the front N+ diffused layer of n‐type high‐efficiency back‐junction back‐contact silicon solar cells

N‐type back‐contact back‐junction solar cells were processed with the use of industrially relevant structuring technologies such as screen‐printing and laser processing. Application of the low‐cost structuring technologies in the processing of the high‐efficiency back‐contact back‐junction silicon solar cells results in a drastic increase of the pitch on the rear cell side. The pitch in the range of millimetres leads to a significant increase of the lateral base resistance. The application of a phosphorus doped front surface field (FSF) significantly reduces the lateral base resistance losses. This additional function of the phosphorus doped FSF in reducing the lateral resistance losses was investigated experimentally and by two‐dimensional device simulations. Enhanced lateral majority carrier's current transport in the front n⁺ diffused layer is a function of the pitch and the base resistivity. Experimental data show that the application of a FSF reduces the total series resistance of the measured cells with 3.5 mm pitch by 0.1 Ω cm² for the 1 Ω cm base resistivity and 1.3 Ω cm² for the 8 Ω cm base resistivity. Two‐dimensional simulations of the electron current transport show that the electron current density in the front n⁺ diffused layer is around two orders of magnitude higher than in the base of the solar cell. The best efficiency of 21.3% was obtained for the solar cell with a 1 Ω cm specific base resistivity and a front surface field with sheet resistance of 148 Ω/sq. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interdigitated back‐contact heterojunction solar cell concept for liquid phase crystallized thin‐film silicon on glass

We present an interdigitated back‐contact silicon heterojunction system designed for liquid‐phase crystallized thin‐film (~10 µm) silicon on glass. The preparation of the interdigitated emitter (a‐Si:H(p)) and absorber (a‐Si:H(n)) contact layers relies on the etch selectivity of doped amorphous silicon layers in alkaline solutions. The etch rates of a‐Si:H(n) and a‐Si:H(p) in 0.6% NaOH were determined and interdigitated back‐contact silicon heterojunction solar cells with two different metallizations, namely Al and ITO/Ag electrodes, were evaluated regarding electrical and optical properties. An additional random pyramid texture on the back side provides short‐circuit current density (j_SC) of up to 30.3 mA/cm² using the ITO/Ag metallization. The maximum efficiency of 10.5% is mainly limited by a low of fill factor of 57%. However, the high j_SC, as well as V_OC values of 633 mV and pseudo‐fill factors of 77%, underline the high potential of this approach. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reciprocity between electroluminescence and quantum efficiency used for the characterization of silicon solar cells

Spectrally and spatially resolved electroluminescence emission of crystalline silicon solar cells is interpreted in terms of two electro‐optical reciprocity relations. The first relation links the photovoltaic quantum efficiency to the electroluminescence spectrum. Both methods contain information on recombination and the optical pathlength of the incident light, simultaneously. From the electroluminescence spectrum, we derive the pathlength enhancement factor of textured and untextured crystalline silicon solar cells. Further, we use local quantum efficiency measurements to quantitatively explain light induced current as well as panchromatic electroluminescence images. A second reciprocity relation connects open circuit voltage of a solar cell with the light emitting diode quantum efficiency of the same device. For a given quality of light trapping and a given open circuit voltage, we predict the attainable LED quantum efficiency and verify our results experimentally. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

n型单晶硅片的电阻率和扩散方阻对IBC太阳电池电性能的影响

叉指背接触式(IBC)太阳电池因正面没有金属栅线遮挡,具有较高的短路电流,且组件外观更加美观。但由于IBC太阳电池正负电极在背面交叉式分布,在制备过程中需要采用光刻掩模技术进行隔离,难以实现大规模生产。采用Quokka软件仿真模拟了电阻率和扩散方阻对n型IBC太阳电池效率的影响,并对不同电阻率和扩散方阻的电池片进行了实验验证,从n型单晶硅片电阻率的选择和扩散工艺优化方面为IBC太阳电池的规模化生产提供了理论基础。实验结果表明,电阻率为3~5Ω·cm、扩散方阻为70Ω/时,小批量生产的IBC太阳电池平均光电转换效率可达23.73%,开路电压为693 mV,短路电流密度为42.44 mA/cm²,填充因子为80.69%。     

Analytical model for the diode saturation current of point‐contacted solar cells

Point‐contacted solar cells exhibit three‐dimensional transport effects due to a spatially inhomogeneous surface recombination. Complex multi‐dimensional finite element simulations are commonly applied to model such devices. This paper presents an empirical analytic equation for the diode saturation current of a point‐contacted base of a solar cell that accounts for three‐dimensional transport. The input parameters of the model that characterize the back surface are: recombination velocity at the contacts; recombination velocity between the contacts; fraction of surface area covered by the contacts; and the contact spacing. We test this model experimentally by conducting spatially resolved minority‐carrier lifetime measurements on silicon wafers with point contacts of various sizes and spacings. The diode saturation currents derived from the lifetime measurements agree with the values predicted by the analytic model. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

多晶硅太阳电池背表面刻蚀提升其性能的产线工艺研究

对比研究了产线上多晶硅太阳电池背表面刻蚀对 其光电转换性能的影响。示范性实验结果表明:多晶硅太阳电池背表面刻蚀能够改善其短路 电流, 从而相应的光电转换效 率提升了约 0．1％。依据多晶硅太阳电池背表面刻蚀前后的扫描 电镜(SEM)形貌、背表面漫 反射光谱及完整电池片外量子效率的测试结果,改进的光电转换的原因可能源于背表面刻蚀 “镜面”化有利于太阳光子在背表面内反射和改进印刷Al浆与背表面覆盖接触。背表面刻蚀 与当前晶硅电池产线工艺兼容,能够提升电池片的光电转换效率,是一种可供选择的产线升 级工艺。     

一种新的测量硅太阳电池前电极穿透p-n结所引起的漏电电阻率的方法

漏电电阻可以大幅度地降低太阳电池的转换效率,目前对它的测量一般是电池中所有的漏电所造成的总效果。为了测得太阳电池前电极穿透发射区所引起的漏电电阻值,本文制备了一种具有梁桥电极的新型结构太阳电池。结果表明,电池前电极穿透发射区所引起的漏电电阻率值比其他发射区域的漏电要严重的多。这些样品制备有与生产工艺兼容的特点,同时使用它能够为电池结构、材料组成和工艺参数提供许多有用的信息。     

Experimental and simulated analysis of front versus all‐back‐contact silicon heterojunction solar cells: effect of interface and doped a‐Si:H layer defects

Front silicon heterojunction and interdigitated all‐back‐contact silicon heterojunction (IBC‐SHJ) solar cells have the potential for high efficiency and low cost because of their good surface passivation, heterojunction contacts, and low temperature fabrication processes. The performance of both heterojunction device structures depends on the interface between the crystalline silicon (c‐Si) and intrinsic amorphous silicon [(i)a‐Si:H] layer, and the defects in doped a‐Si:H emitter or base contact layers. In this paper, effective minority carrier lifetimes of c‐Si using symmetric passivation structures were measured and analyzed using an extended Shockley–Read–Hall formalism to determine the input interface parameters needed for a successful 2D simulation of fabricated baseline solar cells. Subsequently, the performance of front silicon heterojunction and IBC‐SHJ devices was simulated to determine the influence of defects at the (i)a‐Si:H/c‐Si interface and in the doped a‐Si:H layers. For the baseline device parameters, the difference between the two device configurations is caused by the emitter/base contact gap recombination and the back surface geometry of IBC‐SHJ solar cell. This work provides a guide to the optimization of both types of SHJ device performance, predicting an IBC‐SHJ solar cell efficiency of 25% for realistic material parameters. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of diffusion-induced dislocations on high efficiency silicon solar cells

Heavy boron and phosphorus diffusions are used in many high efficiency, monocrystalline silicon solar cell designs to form localized contact diffusions and back surface fields. It is important to cell performance that these diffusion processes do not increase bulk recombination by the introduction of lattice defects. This paper investigates the effect of boron and phosphorus misfit dislocation networks on the bulk recombination parameters, and performance of high efficiency silicon solar cells. It demonstrates that the formation of either a boron or phosphorus misfit dislocation network generates bulk asymmetric Shockley-Read-Hall recombination centers, and that these adversely affect the current-voltage curve, local ideality factor, and ultimately the performance of p-type silicon solar cells.     

Nano‐cones on micro‐pyramids: modulated surface textures for maximal spectral response and high‐efficiency solar cells

The front‐side reflection represents a significant optical loss in solar cells. One way to minimize this optical loss is to nano‐texture the front surface. Although nano‐textured surfaces have shown a broad‐band anti‐reflective effect, their light scattering and surface passivation properties are found to be generally worse than those of standard micro‐textured surfaces. To overcome these setbacks in crystalline silicon solar cells, advanced texturing and passivation approaches are here presented. In the first approach, we propose a modulated surface texture by superimposing nano‐cones on micro‐pyramidal surface texture. This advanced texture applied at the front side of crystalline silicon wafers completely suppresses the reflection in a broad wavelength range from 300 nm up to 1000 nm and efficiently scatters light up to 1200 nm. In the second approach, we show a method to minimize recombination at nano‐textured surfaces by using defect‐removal etching followed by dry thermal oxidation. These two approaches are applied here in an interdigitated back‐contacted crystalline silicon solar cell and result in decoupling of the interplay between the mechanisms behind short‐circuit current density and open‐circuit voltage. The device exhibits a conversion efficiency equal to 19.8%, record external quantum efficiency (78%) at short wavelengths (300 nm), and electrical performance equal to the performance of the reference interdigitated back‐contacted device based on front‐side micro‐pyramids. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ni/Cu electroplating,a worthwhile alternative to use instead of Ag screen-printed front side metallization of conventional solar cells

For commercial purposes, it is necessary to manufacture high-efficiency and low-cost solar cells using simple processes. The front contact formation is one of the most critical steps in solar cell processing. Although silver paste screen-printed solar cells are the most widespread on the photovoltaic market, their efficiency is strongly limited as a result of shading and resistive losses, or more precisely the high contact resistance. Cu metallization for crystalline Si solar cells has attracted much attention as an alternative to the screen-printing technology. The low-cost Ni/Cu metal contact is regarded as the next generation of metallization processes to still improve the efficiency with a low specific contact resistance; it is formed using low-cost electroless plating and electroplating. A diffusion barrier should be placed between Cu and Si, to prevent Cu diffusion. Ni is shown to be an adequate barrier to Cu diffusion. For these reasons, geometry optimization of metal contacts of the front face, deposited by commercial processes, is investigated in this paper, in order to improve the spectral response of conventional multicrystalline mc-Si silicon solar cells. Their efficiency variation is analyzed as a function of changes in cell parameters (finger separation distance, height and width of finger, sheet resistance emitter...) using simulation programs in MATLAB, using contours to represent the efficiency evolution in terms of two variables. Efficiency gain of more than 0.7% has been achieved in this study. The simulation results were then compared with experimental data in order to be validated.     

Progress with epitaxy wrap‐through crystalline silicon thin‐film solar cells

Wafer‐Equivalents are thin‐film solar cells that use a low‐cost silicon substrate to epitaxially grow a high‐quality crystalline silicon active layer. The epitaxy wrap‐through (EpiWT) cell is a back‐contact version of the Wafer‐Equivalent that aims to increase currents and gain other benefits of back contacts. The EpiWT cell can be made in a symmetrically interdigitated configuration with 50% back emitter coverage, or using an isolation layer to lower the back emitter coverage to ∼10%, which will theoretically increase voltages. The epitaxial deposition through via holes in the substrate depends on many factors, including the sealing of the deposition chamber, and produces various thicknesses and geometrical forms of the layers in the holes. An extended process has been developed to incorporate a passivated selective emitter and the first batch has been fabricated. The best result was an efficiency of 13.2% with ∼22 µm base layer thickness. The results are limited most by the fill factors at this stage, e.g. 75% for this cell, which is due to a processing difficulty encountered with screen‐printing in via holes. A new isolation layer was tested and successfully implemented for the low back‐emitter configuration. Comparable voltages and currents were achieved but the fill factors were lower than for the 50% back emitter cells, resulting in a best efficiency of 11.2%. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gapless point back surface field for the counter doping of large‐area interdigitated back contact solar cells using a blanket shadow mask implantation process

Gapless interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells were fabricated with phosphorous back surface field on a boron emitter, using an ion implantation process. Boron emitter (boron ion implantation) is counter doped by the phosphorus back surface field (BSF) (phosphorus ion implantation) without gap. The gapless process step between the emitter and BSF was compared to existing IBC solar cell with gaps between emitters and BSFs obtained using diffusion processes. We optimized the doping process in the phosphorous BSF and boron emitter region, and the implied V_oc and contact resistance relationship of the phosphorous and boron implantation dose in the counter doped region was analyzed. We confirmed the shunt resistance of the gapless IBC solar cells and the possibility of shunt behavior in gapless IBC solar cells. The highly doped counter doped BSF led to a controlled junction breakdown at high reverse bias voltages of around 7.5 V. After the doping region was optimized with the counter doped BSF and emitter, a large‐area (5 inch pseudo square) gapless IBC solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 22.9% was made.     

背接触太阳电池的背面设计优化

利用quokka3仿真软件建立三维模型,对n型叉指背接触(IBC)单晶硅太阳电池的单元电池结构设计和栅线参数进行了仿真优化,并通过激光和丝网印刷进行了实验验证。实验结果表明,在不同IBC单元电池结构设计下,当p+发射区与n+背表面场区的宽度比值为4时,IBC太阳电池效率比宽度比值为2.3时的高0.11%。可通过减小单元电池宽度,增大p+发射区与n+背表面场区的宽度比值来获得更高的IBC太阳电池效率。在相同单元电池结构设计下,当细栅线宽度从40μm增加到60μm时,IBC太阳电池效率能够提高0.18%。且相比4主栅,6主栅IBC太阳电池效率可提高0.09%。因此,增加副栅线宽度和主栅线数量有利于IBC太阳电池效率的提升。