Dielectric surface passivation for silicon solar cells: A review

Abstract

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Silicon wafer solar cells continue to be the leading photovoltaic technology, and in many places are now providing a substantial portion of electricity generation. Further adoption of this technology will require processing that minimises losses in device performance. A fundamental mechanism for efficiency loss is the recombination of photo-generated charge carriers at the unavoidable cell surfaces. Dielectric coatings have been shown to largely prevent these losses through a combination of different passivation mechanisms. This review aims to provide an overview of the dielectric passivation coatings developed in the past two decades using a standardised methodology to characterise the metrics of surface recombination across all techniques and materials. The efficacy of a large set of materials and methods has been evaluated using such metrics and a discussion on the current state and prospects for further surface passivation improvements is provided.

Temporary Surface Passivation for Characterisation of Bulk Defects in Silicon: A Review

“…HF passivation also gives excellent passivation in n‐type silicon, however lower S have been reported using thin films (see Section 4.4). Compared to the best dielectric passivation films to date, HF passivation has demonstrated equivalent passivation levels, which is astonishing considering the basic principles of the technique.…”

“…HF passivation also gives excellent passivation in n-type silicon, however lower S have been reported using thin films (see Section 4.4). Compared to the best dielectric passivation films to date, [9,13] HF passivation has demonstrated equivalent passivation levels, which is astonishing considering the basic principles of the technique. Figure 3 also demonstrates a doping dependence in the measured S for HF passivation (less pronounced/obvious for ntype), however this could simply be an artefact resulting from the formation of a space charge region (which occurs when silicon is immersed in HF as will be discussed below), as elucidated by McIntosh and Black.…”

Recent Progresses on Defect Passivation toward Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

“…These states are related to tension, usually described by dangling bonds. [34] Drawing on the passivation strategy in traditional solar cells, 2D perovskites, insulating polymers and other materials with wide bandgaps are often used to passivate such defects in PSCs.…”

Shielded hydrogen passivation − A potential in‐line passivation process

“…After corona charging, the lifetime rose to 6.3 ms, very close to the Richter intrinsic lifetime limit. Using the methodology developed by Bonilla this is equivalent to an SRV ≤ 0.17 cm s −1 , a J 0e of 0.47 fA cm −2 and an i V oc of 740.1 mV. This is, as far as the authors are aware, the best surface passivation achieved with a single oxide layer.…”