Front-side Ag contacts enabling superior recombination and fine-line performance

Burrows, M.; Meisel, A.; Balakrishnan, D.; Tran, Anh Van Nhat; Kim, E.; Carroll, A.F.; Mikeska, Kurt R.

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2013.6744905

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…[31][32][33] Research on the conductive lines has typically focused on the conductor line microstructure throughout the firing process 34 and the interface between the screen-printed conductive lines and the emitter as a function of precursor constituents to optimize the initial electrical performance. 30,[34][35][36][37][38] The microscopic mechanisms that result in the formation of the low resistance contact between the silver conductive lines and the solar cell are still being uncovered, 28 but two prevailing models are generally accepted. One hypothesis suggests that the Ag becomes dissolved within the molten glass frit, and upon cooling down, the supersaturated solution allows large grain growth at the Si interface causing a Schottky-barrierlike boundary that acts more Ohmic as the emitter doping concentration is increased to n þþ levels.…”

Section: Mesoscale Description Of Solar Cell Interfaces and Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into metastability of photovoltaic materials at the mesoscale through massiveI–Vanalytics

Peshek

Fada

et al. 2016

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phen

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The authors demonstrate the feasibility of quantifying cell-level performance heterogeneity from module-level I–V curves by determining conditions of bypass diode turn-on. Analysis of these curves falls outside of typical diode-based models of photovoltaic (PV) performance. The authors show that this approach can leverage statistical and machine learning techniques for broad application to massive datasets, and combine those insights with simulations and laboratory-based experiments to provide useful information into the metastability of the interfaces of a PV cell. The authors find good agreement between the experimentally determined curves and the simulated curves, which guide the variable selection in the massive dataset collected from sites in Cleveland, OH, USA, the Negev Desert, Israel, Isla Gran Canaria, Spain, and Mount Zugspitze, Germany.

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Section: Mesoscale Description Of Solar Cell Interfaces and Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into metastability of photovoltaic materials at the mesoscale through massiveI–Vanalytics

Peshek

Fada

et al. 2016

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phen

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“…Cell efficiencies well above 19% have been reported for screen-printed industrial monocrystalline Si cells employing optimized POCl 3 emitters with the industry standard now pushing towards 19.5% [107,110]. Future Ag paste improvements will continue to target contacting to even lower surface concentrations while minimizing recombination losses at the metal contact.…”

Section: 212mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outlook for ion implantation Despite the superior doping uniformity achievable with ion implantation, convincing cell manufacturers to replace existing POCl 3 lines with expensive ion implantation systems may prove to be difficult given that the industry has moved to much more sophisticated POCl 3 emitters with efficiencies above 19% [107,110]. The limited gettering from a single sided ion implantation P process may also prove to be a challenge for the application to multicrystalline Si.…”

Section: 272mentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing metrology for c-Si module reliability and durability Part II: Cell manufacturing

Davis

Rodgers

Scardera³

et al. 2016

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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This article is the second article in a three-part series dedicated to reviewing each process step in crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing process: feedstock and wafering, cell fabrication, and module manufacturing. The goal of these papers is to identify relevant metrology techniques that can be utilized to improve the quality and durability of the final product. The focus of this article is on the cell fabrication process. In this review, the fabrication of c-Si PV cells is divided into four steps: (1) wet chemical processes; (2) emitter formation; (3) anti-reflection coating (ARC) and passivation deposition; and (4) metallization. Each of these processing steps can impact the final reliability and durability of PV modules deployed in the field, and here the failure modes and degradation mechanisms induced during cell manufacturing are explored. Additionally, a literature review of relevant measurement techniques aimed at reducing or eliminating the probability of such failures occurring is presented along with an assessment of potential gaps wherein the PV community could benefit from new research and demonstration efforts.

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“…Early generation screen‐printable pastes contained frits based on lead‐silicate (Pb–Si–O) chemistries . The early generation lead‐silicate based metallization pastes required p‐type silicon wafers with highly doped n‐type emitters (HDE), which have a surface concentration ( N D ) = ~8 × 10 20 cm ‐3 and sheet resistivities less than 80 ohm/sq, for the metallization to have sufficiently low contact resistivity . The introduction of tellurium‐based metallization pastes significantly lowered contact resistivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…13 The early generation lead-silicate based metallization pastes required p-type silicon wafers with highly doped n-type emitters (HDE), which have a surface concentration (N D ) =~8 × 10 20 cm -3 and sheet resistivities less than 80 ohm/sq, for the metallization to have sufficiently low contact resistivity. 14,15 The introduction of tellurium-based metallization pastes significantly lowered contact resistivity. This allowed the solar cell industry to utilize wafers with lightly doped emitters (LDE), which have N D =~1-2 × 10 20 cm -3 and sheet resistivities greater than 100 ohm/sq, and which have much lower recombination velocities and lower saturation currents, and subsequently higher solar cell efficiencies compared with HDE solar cells.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tellurium‐based screen‐printable conductor metallizations for crystalline silicon solar cells

Mikeska

Liao

2019

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Tellurium‐based screen‐printable conductor metallization pastes containing multiple inorganic solid‐state frits (ie, metallization pastes containing two or more individual discrete tellurium‐based frits) were evaluated on p‐type, mono‐crystalline silicon passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) wafers. Individual discrete frits with tellurium‐lead‐metal‐oxygen compositions of Tenormalx()Pby0.25emMz0.25emMnormalz''0.25emMnormalznormalii()1−normalxnormaln+On+2 were prepared with varying ratios of tellurium and lead cations. Screen‐printed solar cells fabricated from metallization pastes containing multiple discrete frits (two, three, and four discrete frits) had state‐of‐the‐art solar cell electrical properties (Eff = 21.1%). Mechanisms for the oxidation, dissolution, and removal of the SiNx:H antireflective coating (ARC) by tellurium‐based metallizations during solar cell firing are examined. In situ thermal analysis of a model frit‐silicon nitride system shows that frit glass transition temperatures coincide with the onset of silicon nitride oxidation during heating in accord with dissolution reactions. The advantage of multiple frit systems is an inherent ability to fine‐tune the final chemistry of the conductor metallization, beyond what is possible with single frit systems, to further improve solar cell performance, which is essential for advanced crystalline silicon solar cell devices and continued reductions in processing costs.

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Front-side Ag contacts enabling superior recombination and fine-line performance

Abstract: Index Terms

Cited by 9 publications

References 3 publications

Insights into metastability of photovoltaic materials at the mesoscale through massiveI–Vanalytics

Insights into metastability of photovoltaic materials at the mesoscale through massiveI–Vanalytics

Manufacturing metrology for c-Si module reliability and durability Part II: Cell manufacturing

Tellurium‐based screen‐printable conductor metallizations for crystalline silicon solar cells

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