Inkjet printed metallizations for Cu(In1−x Ga x )Se2 photovoltaic cells

This study reports the inkjet printing of Ag front contacts on Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide (AZO)/intrinsic Zinc Oxide (i‐ZnO)/CdS/Cu(In_1−xGa_x)Se₂ (CIGS)/Mo thin film photovoltaic cells. The printed Ag contacts are being developed to replace the currently employed evaporated Ni/Al bi‐layer contacts. Inkjet deposition conditions were optimized to reduce line resistivity and reduce contact resistance to the Al:ZnO layer. Ag lines printed at a substrate temperature of 200°C showed a line resistivity of 2.06 µΩ · cm and a contact resistance to Al:ZnO of 8.2 ± 0.2 mΩ · cm² compared to 6.93 ± 0.3 mΩ · cm² for thermally evaporated contacts. These deposition conditions were used to deposit front contacts onto high quality CIGS thin film photovoltaic cells. The heating required to print the Ag contacts caused the performance to degrade compared to similar devices with evaporated Ni/Al contacts that were not heated. Devices with inkjet printed contacts showed 11.4% conversion efficiency compared to 14.8% with evaporated contacts. Strategies to minimize heating, which is detrimental for efficiency, during inkjet printing are proposed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.