High Efficiency Silver-Free Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cell

Hernández, José Luis; Yoshikawa, Kunta; Feltrin, A.; Menou, N.; Valckx, Nick; Assche, Elisabeth Van; Schroos, Dries; Vandersmissen, K.; Philipsen, Harold; Poortmans, Jef; Adachi, Daisuke; Yoshimi, Masashi; Uto, Toshihiko; Uzu, Hisashi; Kuchiyama, Takashi; Allebé, Christophe; Nakanishi, Naoaki; Terashita, Toru; Fujimoto, Takahisa; Koizumi, G.; Yamamoto, Kenji

doi:10.1143/jjap.51.10na04

Cited by 30 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Recently, electroplated copper front-contact metallization was demonstrated for silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells [8]- [10]. SHJ devices use a crystalline silicon wafer as the optically active absorber, where both wafer surfaces are electronically passivated by intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H(i)).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Copper-Plated Grid Electrodes: Status and Comparison With Silver Thick-Film Techniques

Geissbühler

Wolf

Faes

et al. 2014

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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Copper electroplating is investigated and compared with common silver printing techniques for the front metallization of silicon heterojunction solar cells. We achieve smaller feature sizes by electroplating, significantly reducing optical shadowing losses and improving cell efficiency by 0.4% absolute. A detailed investigation of series resistance contributions reveals that, at maximum power point, a significant part of the lateral charge-carrier transport occurs inside the crystalline bulk, rather than exclusively in the front transparent conductive oxide. This impacts optimization for the front-grid design. Using advanced electron microscopy, we study the inner structure of copper-plated fingers and their interfaces. Finally, a cell efficiency of 22.4% is demonstrated with copper-plated front metallization.

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confidence: 99%

Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Copper-Plated Grid Electrodes: Status and Comparison With Silver Thick-Film Techniques

Geissbühler

Wolf

Faes

et al. 2014

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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“…Perhaps even more attractive is copper plating for metallization. Its potential for the front grid metallization of SHJ devices was recently demonstrated by Kaneka, Japan, with large-area devices featuring efficiencies as high as 22.1% [121]. Tables 1 and 2 show the best published SHJ devices fabricated on nand p-type substrates by various groups working on this topic, to date.…”

Section: Metallizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several companies are working on SHJ cells (e.g., Sanyo [27,35,36,38,39,84,172,180,197], Kaneka [121], and CIC [112] in Japan, and Hyundai Heavy Industries [128], and LG Electronics [134] in Korea) and some equipment providers offer production solutions as well, including Roth and Rau, Switzerland/Germany [66,92,116,117]. Challenges for production include sourcing highquality n-type Cz material, carefully controlling all process steps from cleaning to TCO deposition, and developing a module design that is compatible with TCOs and lowtemperature contacting schemes.…”

Section: Industrialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

Wolf

Descoeudres

Holman

et al. 2018

Energyo

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Silicon heterojunction solar cells consist of thin amorphous silicon layers deposited on crystalline silicon wafers. This design enables energy conversion efficiencies above 20% at the industrial production level. The key feature of this technology is that the metal contacts, which are highly recombination active in traditional, diffused-junction cells, are electronically separated from the absorber by insertion of a wider bandgap layer. This enables the record open-circuit voltages typically associated with heterojunction devices without the need for expensive patterning techniques. This article reviews the salient points of this technology. First, we briefly elucidate device characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of each processing step, device operation, and device stability and industrial upscaling, including the fabrication of solar cells with energyconversion efficiencies over 21%. Finally, future trends are pointed out.

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“…Researches concerning copper contact mainly have been carried out by the plating technique due to its various advantages, such as high aspect ratio and low contact resistance, which result in a high-efficiency solar cell over 21% [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Meanwhile, the application of screen-printable copper paste on solar cells has been studied as it can be easily applied to the established cell production line.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conductive Copper Paste for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Lee¹,

Lee²

2019

Recent Developments in Photovoltaic Materials and Devices

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In photovoltaic industries, the main technique of metallization is screen printing with silver pastes due to its simple and quick process. However, the expensive price of silver paste is one of the barriers to the production of low-cost solar cells. Therefore, the most focused target in photovoltaic research is the decreasing consumption of silver paste or substitute silver for other materials. As a proper candidate, copper has been researched by many institutes and companies since it has a similar conductivity with silver even though the price is inexpensive. To apply copper as a contact for solar cells, the plating technique has been actively researched. However, copper paste, which was mainly developed for integrated circuit applications, has been recently researched. Mostly, copper paste was developed for the low-temperature annealing process since copper tends to oxidize easily. On the other hand, firing type copper paste was also developed by coating copper particles with a barrier layer. This chapter discusses recent development of copper paste for the application of solar cells and its appropriate annealing conditions for better electrical properties. Also, the light I-V characteristics of copper paste on the solar cells in other research papers are summarized as well.

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High Efficiency Silver-Free Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cell

Cited by 30 publications

References 8 publications

Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Copper-Plated Grid Electrodes: Status and Comparison With Silver Thick-Film Techniques

Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Copper-Plated Grid Electrodes: Status and Comparison With Silver Thick-Film Techniques

High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

Conductive Copper Paste for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

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