Passivating thin bifacial silicon solar cells for industrial production

A scheme for passivating thin multi‐crystalline silicon solar cells compatible to mass production is presented. Wafers with a thickness of 180 µm were processed into solar cells. The otherwise severe bowing has been avoided by reduced aluminium coverage on the rear surface. The process scheme includes a silicon nitride firing through step for conventional screen printed contacts, where a silicon nitride layer on the rear surface acts as surface passivation layer and enables a gain in efficiency of 0.6% abs.]. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.